Liquid Death founder Mike Cessario shares his playbook for breaking through

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. When Mike Cessario worked at creative agencies such as Vayner Media and Crispin Porter + Bogusky (now Crispin), he observed how many corporate clients came to those firms to solve problems with their brands. “It was always like, ‘We have a perception problem’ or ‘Something’s not working,’” he recalls. So, when Cessario started Liquid Death, a beverage company, he was attuned to how marketing would drive every phase of the business, from its upstart days when it had to get attention for free, to its evolution as a lifestyle brand that reached a $1.4 billion valuation on $263 million in retail scanned sales as of March 2024. The company has not released updated sales data. In the beginning, he says, Liquid Death had to find a way, on a shoestring, to get consumers to talk about its first product, water. That led to its provocative name and distinctive packaging—tall metal cans emblazoned with a skull logo—aimed at inspiring customers to photograph it and share pictures on social media. Indeed, the company launched with a commercial on Facebook in 2017 but didn’t start selling its first cans of water until 2019. Says Cessario: “Everything had a marketer’s vision and creativity from the onset.” As the company has expanded into big retailers such as Target, Kroger, and Walmart, Cessario remains focused on cheeky messaging rather than discounting to grab shoppers’ attention. The company, which now produces sparkling and flavored waters, iced tea, and energy drinks, deploys clips on social media and 30-second spots on connected TVs, where Liquid Death’s humor stands out amid a sea of pharmaceutic