How Liquid Death Is Rewriting the CPG Growth Playbook Beyond the Shock Factor

Liquid Death may be famous for its unhinged humour, metal-band aesthetic, and viral ads — but the brand’s real engine of growth lies far deeper than its comedic flair. As the canned-water disruptor gears up for its second Super Bowl 60 appearance, its marketing madness grabs attention, but it is its media strategy that truly drives sales.

 Connecting Media Spend to Actual Sales

Like many Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) firms, Liquid Death faces the ongoing challenge of linking marketing spend to real retail performance. Conventional marketing mix models take months to generate insights, while metrics like Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) often mislead brands by ignoring incremental sales—the true measure of campaign impact.

 Liquid Death’s Chief Media Officer, Benoit Vatere, bluntly states: “ROAS looks good, but you waste your budget.”
The brand doesn’t sell directly to customers, making access to purchase data even more difficult. Spread across retailers from Walmart to Dollar General, the company must piece together insights to understand what actually drives sales.

 Data Partnerships: The Foundation of Smarter Expenditure

To address this, Liquid Death utilises Ibotta, a digital promotions platform aggregating retailer sales data. This removes the need for complex one-to-one retailer integrations and provides the brand with a clearer understanding of who is buying, what triggers purchases, and what leads to significant sales lifts.

Ibotta also assists in pinpointing incremental sales, helping prevent overspending on shoppers who would have bought anyway. “It’s a heavy investment for no return,” Vatere highlights, emphasising the importance of avoiding unnecessary discounts. 

Where Growth Truly Occurs: Light Buyers & Purchase Frequency

Liquid Death’s smartest strategy isn’t just attracting new households — it’s increasing purchase frequency among current customers. Growing efficiently involves nudging “light buyers, those who occasionally choose the brand while exploring alternatives within the sparkling water category. 

In a world with limited shopper loyalty, this micro-targeted approach yields stronger, more efficient results than broad, scattershot mass marketing. 

Ruthless Media Optimisation

While Liquid Death’s content continues to dominate screens and timelines, its measurable success stems from aggressively shifting media budgets wherever sales data indicates. Vatere continually reallocates budgets across platforms to maximise impact in real time.

Ultimately, while the wild ads may win hearts, it is Liquid Death’s relentless, data-driven media strategy that captures wallets — and fuels one of the fastest-growing disruptors in the beverage industry.