“We have a rule at Liquid Death that if you expect us to do it, we should not do it,” said the brand's chief media officer Benoit Vatere at EMARKETER’s Future of Digital Summit yesterday.

Vatere outlined the brand’s paid social challenges, why it’s doubling down on connected TV (CTV), and how it plans to build standout creative as it expands into the crowded energy drink space. Here are a few takeaways from the session.

Mastering organic reach

In June, Meta announced it plans to fully automate ad campaigns with AI, per the Wall Street Journal. While Liquid Death benefits from organic social reach, paid social on platforms like Meta can be frustrating without the ability to personally manage reach and frequency, said Vatere.

“[Meta] thinks that with one ad, they will get you from understanding the story of the brand to buying the product, and that's not true,” said Vatere. “That’s not happening with a single impression and AI just deciding what ad to show.”

To achieve reach without ad dollars, Vatere says Liquid Death has focused on bold creative.

• For example, Liquid Death has woven negative online commentary into its campaigns. The brand has a “Greatest Hates” series on Spotify that has repurposed comments like “You need to rethink the name of your product” and “Please go out of business” as song lyrics.

Vatere says the brand leverages a "99 to 1 rule,” where 90% of users passively consume content, 9% engage lightly, and only 1% actively comment.

“We believe everything has to [serve the 90%],” he said. “This is why frequency in media is so important. I’m not seeking engagement per se in terms of comments…I’m seeking view through.”

Tapping CTV for better targeting

Liquid Death is betting big on CTV, citing superior targeting and retail data integration. Vatere says this format can answer questions about which consumers are shopping in Liquid Death’s categories and where.

“I can get quality content on a big screen and layer on retail data to understand who is watching from a retailer perspective,” he said, stressing the value of knowing who is a Walmart or an Amazon buyer. “The ability to move an exposed audience from off-site to onsite is amazing, and the [CTV] inventory is growing.”

Last year, Liquid Death invested in audience reach with its first Super Bowl commercial, which was the right move for the brand, said Vatere.

“The Super Bowl is definitely worth the dollars,” he said. “Massive audience, massive recall, and the best top-of-funnel you can think of.”

While Liquid Death has been slow to embrace AI, Vatere said the brand is focused on its impact on search.

“I’m really thinking about how I can get into the ecosystem of AI search across platforms,” he said. “It’s kind of like the new SEO…and I’m trying to figure out how I can play in that space.”

Watch the full session.

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