Gen-Z, Millennial Opps: Liquid Death launches another celebrity-inspired product amid sharp spend increase (Score 28)

Sales Lead: Liquid Death (LD) recently debuted its latest intentionally outrageous celebrity-partnered merchandise.

• The company teamed up with Tom Segura on The Tom Segura Recycling Glory Hole.
• This initiative is part of an effort to bolster its sustainability message and merchandise business, which have included cause marketing efforts like this one.
  • A portion of the proceeds from this product's sales to go non-profits under LD's ongoing #DeathToPlastic initiative.
• LD is notorious for things like Steve-O voodoo dolls, Travis Barker enema kits, and Martha Stewart severed-hand candle.
• The company will likely:
  • Pursue additional celebrity influencers
  • Launch similarly ridiculous products
  • Ramp up experiential initiatives under Ryan Heuser, who became LD's experiential marketing SVP earlier this year
  • Continue increasing digital spend
  • Seek new agency partners as it continues pursuing growth
• Target demographic: 
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Gen-Z and millennials 
    • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The company relies heavily on social media initiatives; it's the most-followed US beverage brand on TikTok, its content having earned over 21b media impressions within the past year.  
    • LD particularly appeals to better-for-you (BFY) and sustainability-oriented consumers.

Additional spending insights:

• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: Since the beginning of 2023, LD has spent roughly $2.6m on digital ads, 53% more than the roughly $1.7m spent by this point last year.
  • YTD data: The company has earned approximately 386.9m digital impressions YTD via Instagram (68%), Facebook (27%), desktop display (3%), YouTube (1%), and mobile display (1%) ads.
  • Last year: LD's estimated full-year 2022 spend decreased by 38% to $2.1m from that of $3.4m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes Google Ads along with email, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok (albeit barely), and online video (via Youtube.com, Youtube IOS, and Youtube Android) ads.
  • As I briefly mentioned, it also invests in experiential activations.
  • LD sponsors podcasts such as Monday Morning Podcast, The Greatness Machine, Bertcast, The Toast, and The Schaub Show.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Get on LD's radar soon to remain top-of-mind as it continues pursuing growth.
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​You'll probably have the best luck offering PR, media, experiential, multicultural, influencer, programmatic, and/or digital analytics services since LD has creative covered.
• Current agency roster:
  • Party Land​​​​​​​: Creative AOR

Insight Sources: Email marketing insights by Bombora; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser.