The water brand Liquid Death is one of the purest marketing stories of the moment: a billion-dollar company that sells the ultimate commodity through edgy comedy. CEO Mike Cessario told Liz and me on last week’s Mixed Signals that his company’s in-house agency, Death Machine, has also taken on a “few select brands” as external clients. But they’ll need to understand LD’s hardcore sense of humor.
“We don’t need” the money, Cessario said, noting the brand will do some $5 million in merch sales alone this year. “It’s like, hey, if you want the Liquid Death magic, we can do that … [but] if you want us to just go make something that’s not good and it’s going to take a lot of our time, it’s like, hey, that’s probably not interesting to us.”