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Liquid Death, the irreverent canned water and iced tea company, is now worth a staggering $1.4 billion. But its meteoric rise isn’t due to a unique product or deep-pocketed advertising. Instead, it’s built on one central, unwavering question:
Will people share this?
According to Dan Murphy, Liquid Death’s SVP of Marketing, social media shares (not just likes or comments) are the true currency of modern brand awareness. “Because if it’s not compelling enough for people to share, then it’s probably not good tip-of-the-spear, top-of-the-funnel marketing,” he says.
Their success proves the point: With 14 million followers across Instagram and TikTok, Liquid Death has made itself impossible to ignore, even though it’s “just” selling water. Here’s how your brand can apply their viral content strategy in six actionable steps.
READ: How Small Businesses Can Drive Traffic and Build Authority with Content Marketing
1. Build an Entertainment-First Brand
In the age of scrolling and skipping, attention is harder to earn than ever. That’s why Murphy insists: brands today must operate like entertainment companies.
“You must be entertainment-first,” he says.
Red Bull did it by owning extreme sports content. Liquid Death took a different route: comedy. From parody campaigns to wild product stunts, everything they publish is designed to entertain first, market second.
The lesson? Whatever your brand voice is funny, informative, edgy, or heartfelt, it has to be genuinely engaging. Think of your content as programming people choose to watch, not ads they tolerate.
2. Go All In on Top-of-Funnel Attention
Startups often focus too much on operational efficiency or conversions, but Murphy cautions that this approach misses the bigger picture.
“If nobody knows about the product, and if nobody’s stopping on the shelf or searching for it on Amazon, then your other efforts were for naught,” he explains.
Instead, Liquid Death prioritizes brand awareness through shareable content. That means doubling down on social media platforms where the reach potential is high and the cost is low.
Put simply: if your target audience doesn’t know you exist, nothing else matters.
3. Hire Creators, Not Just Marketers
Once you commit to content-first marketing, the next step is building a team that lives and breathes creativity. At Liquid Death, this means hiring comedy writers, not just traditional marketers.
These writers are kept “hermetically sealed” from other business functions, allowing them to stay focused on bold, wild ideas that aren’t diluted by sales objectives.
This approach has led to viral hits like:
- Kegs for Pregs: kegs of water for pregnant women
- Toilet-water taste tests
- Pit Diapers: adult diapers made for mosh pits (in partnership with Depend)
- A real jet giveaway
“We’ve been dropping at least one banger a month since our origin,” Murphy says.
Repetition matters. Frequency keeps your brand in culture and top of mind. Don’t aim for a one-hit wonder, build a rhythm of fresh, entertaining content that makes people expect something new from you regularly.
4. Be Fast, Fearless, and Budget-Savvy
One of Liquid Death’s secret advantages is its startup mentality. Big brands take months to approve and launch campaigns. Small brands, however, can test and pivot quickly.
Murphy calls this power of constraint “budget haiku.” Having fewer resources pushes your team to be more inventive.
And the ideas don’t have to be complex. In fact, the simpler, the better. Ask yourself: Can this idea be explained in a single sentence? If not, it’s probably too complicated to go viral.
“What if we made adult diaper for the mosh pit?” That’s the kind of clarity and humor that earns shares.
5. Solve Problems, But Make It Entertaining
Being entertaining doesn’t mean ignoring strategy. Liquid Death pays close attention to consumer feedback and market confusion, and responds with campaigns that double as both marketing and messaging correction.
For example, many consumers mistakenly thought Liquid Death was an alcoholic beverage or energy drink. So the brand launched a Super Bowl ad featuring pilots, police officers, and doctors drinking it on the job.
The jingle? “Drink on the job. Everybody’s drinkin’ on the job.”
“You couldn’t watch that and go, ‘It was a beer,’ right?” Murphy explains. The ad was funny, but it also strategically clarified the brand’s identity.
Lesson: Don’t just respond to problems. Entertain your way through them.
6. Let Fans Power the Next Wave
Once your content strategy takes off, your fans will begin creating content of their own, and that’s when your brand gains a life of its own.
“A lot of what we’re doing right now is combing social media, looking for people’s posts about Liquid Death,” says Murphy. “We go to them and say, ‘Hey, love that content. We’ll put media behind your post and do some sophisticated targeting at different people. Then you will get exposure. And you will get followers.’”
Sometimes they pay creators $100 or so. But most fans are simply excited to be part of something they love.
The takeaway? Treat your community like collaborators, not customers.
The Marketing That Doesn’t Feel Like Marketing
At its core, Liquid Death’s playbook isn’t about products, it’s about culture. It’s about building a brand that feels like entertainment, not advertising. When content is made to be enjoyed and shared, it becomes organic, sticky, and far more powerful than traditional marketing tactics.
So what can your business learn from this?
Start by asking the same question Liquid Death asks before launching anything:
“Will this get shared?”
If the answer is no, go back to the drawing board.
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