Latest / The Marketing Funnel Podcast with Fexingo: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action Stages / How Liquid Death Built a Funnel on Anti-Marketing
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this water company that sells tallboys of sparkling water that look exactly like beer cans — black, skulls, death metal fonts — and their entire marketing strategy is basically: 'Don't trust marketing.' Luna: Right, Liquid Death. I've seen their cans at concerts. The tagline is 'Murder Your Thirst.' It's so aggressively anti-everything. Lucas: Exactly. And the wild part is, by June 2026, they've sold over 500 million cans. No TV ads. No billboards. They built the whole thing through what I'd call an anti-marketing funnel — but it's still a funnel. It just looks different. Luna: I love that framing. So if we map it to the classic AIDA model — Awareness, Interest, Decision, Action — where does the anti-marketing twist come in? Lucas: Let's start with Awareness. Most brands spend millions to get in front of you. Liquid Death does the opposite — they make content that's so absurd it gets shared organically. One of their early videos was a fake commercial where a guy chugs a can, then his head explodes into a geyser of blood. It's ridiculous. It went viral on YouTube before they'd even sold a single can. Luna: So the awareness isn't about reach — it's about memorability. You remember the exploding head more than you'd remember a billboard. Lucas: Exactly. And they leaned into that. Their whole brand voice is satirical death metal. The founder, Mike Cessario, came from the ad world — he worked at agencies on big accounts — and he knew that traditional advertising was getting tuned out. So he built a brand that essentially mocks advertising itself. Luna: That's clever. But you can't just be funny — you need to convert that awareness into interest. How do they do that? Lucas: Interest, for Liquid Death, is all about content that feels like entertainment, not a sales pitch. They have a whole media arm — they produce music videos, they host live metal shows, they do absurdist sketches on Instagram and TikTok. One of their most successful campaigns was 'The Death Merchant' — a recurring character who sells Liquid Death in a dark alley like it's contraband. Luna: And they don't push the product benefits, do they? They don't talk about electrolytes or pH balance. Lucas: Never. The product is almost secondary. The content is the product. They've built an audience that loves the brand because it makes them laugh or feel like they're in on the joke. That's the interest stage — you get intrigued not by the water, but by the culture around it. Luna: It's almost like a media company that happens to sell water. Which brings us to Decision — how do they get you to actually buy? Lucas: This is where the scarcity play comes in. They release limited-edition cans — artist collabs, seasonal flavors, 'dead' versions of the can with different artwork. You can't just walk into any store and find them. You have to hunt. Or better yet, subscribe. Luna: Right — the subscription model. That's the Action stage. Once you're in, they make it easy to stay in. And the subscriptions come with exclusive merch, early access to new flavors — it's a loyalty loop. Lucas: Exactly. And the subscription isn't just about recurring revenue — it's a commitment device. When you subscribe to Liquid Death, you're basically saying 'I'm part of this tribe.' And that tribe is what fuels their word of mouth growth. They don't need to spend on ads because their customers are the advertising. Luna: So the anti-marketing funnel — it's still AIDA, but each stage is inverted in a way. Awareness comes from shock value, not reach. Interest comes from entertainment, not education. Decision comes from scarcity, not persuasion. And Action comes from community, not convenience. Lucas: You summed it up perfectly. And I think the key takeaway for marketers is that the funnel framework itself is agnostic — it doesn't care whether your brand is serious or silly. What matters is that you have a clear strategy for each stage, even if that strategy looks like 'make heads explode.' Luna: Quick honest thing — a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many of these. Lucas: Yeah, it's what keeps the show going without ads. If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used, that's the way to support it. Luna: All right, back to Liquid Death. So they've nailed the top and bottom of the funnel. But what about the middle — the consideration phase? Is there a risk that people just laugh at the brand and never buy? Lucas: That's a real risk. And Liquid Death addresses it by making the product itself a talking point. The cans are designed to be seen. When you pull one out at a party, people ask 'Is that beer?' And you get to explain it's water. That moment of revelation is a mini-conversion — it turns a viewer into an advocate in one interaction. Luna: That's brilliant — it's a physical social object. The can does the marketing for you. Lucas: Exactly. And they've optimized every touchpoint. Their website is hilarious — the copy is all death metal jokes. The packaging is a conversation starter. Even their customer service emails are in character. The whole funnel is consistent. Luna: What about metrics? How does a brand like this measure success beyond sales? I imagine engagement rates on their content must be through the roof. Lucas: They've shared that their organic social engagement is about 10 times the industry average. And their email open rates are in the 60-70 percent range, which is unheard of for a consumer brand. People actually want to hear from them because it's entertaining. Luna: So they're essentially earning attention rather than buying it. That's the holy grail for any marketer. Lucas: It is. And the lesson isn't 'be a death metal water company.' It's 'find a voice that's so distinctive that people want to share it.' Liquid Death's funnel works because every element — from the can to the content to the subscription — reinforces the same identity. Luna: I think a lot of brands try to be funny but fail because they're not consistent. Liquid Death never breaks character. That's hard to do. Lucas: It's also risky. If you're going to be anti-marketing, you can't then run a traditional ad campaign. You have to commit. And they have. For example, they once ran a campaign where they 'killed' their own cans — they released a limited edition where the can looked like it had been crushed. It was absurd, but it drove massive engagement. Luna: That's a great example of content as product. You're not just buying water — you're buying a piece of the joke. Lucas: Right. And that's what makes the Decision stage so powerful. When you buy a limited-edition can, you're not just satisfying thirst — you're collecting. And collecting is a much stronger motivator than hydration. Luna: So the funnel doesn't end at purchase. The Action stage leads back into Awareness — because those collectors post their cans on social media, and the cycle repeats. Lucas: That's the flywheel effect. Liquid Death's funnel is actually a loop. And I think that's where a lot of brands get stuck — they treat the funnel as linear. But if you can make your customers your marketers, you create a self-perpetuating system. Luna: Let's talk about one more thing: their use of celebrities. They've partnered with people like Tony Hawk and Iggy Pop. How does that fit into the anti-marketing ethos? Lucas: It fits because they don't use celebrities in the typical way — they feature them in absurdist cameos. Tony Hawk doesn't do a testimonial. He appears in a sketch where he's a 'death merchant' selling Liquid Death out of a trench coat. It's entertainment, not endorsement. That keeps the brand voice intact. Luna: So even celebrity partnerships are content-first. Smart. Lucas: Yeah. And that content then feeds the Interest stage. You don't see the ad and go 'I should buy water.' You see the ad and go 'that was hilarious, I need to show my friend.' And then your friend discovers the brand. Luna: So the funnel is essentially inverted at every level. Awareness is earned through virality. Interest is sustained through entertainment. Decision is driven by scarcity. And Action is reinforced by community. Lucas: And the result is a brand that has grown from zero to 500 million cans without a single traditional ad buy. By mid-2026, they're in major retailers like Whole Foods and Target, but they still feel like an underground movement. That's the magic. Luna: I think the big takeaway for our listeners is: the marketing funnel isn't dead. It's just that the tactics for each stage have changed. Liquid Death proves that you can follow AIDA faithfully while breaking every conventional rule. Lucas: Exactly. And the next time you see a brand trying too hard to be funny, ask yourself: are they committed? Because half-measures don't build a funnel — they build noise.