At Groceryshop in Las Vegas, the chief media officer explains how the canned water company is swapping paid social for controllable CTV, co-building with retailers and launching Liquid Death Energy without chasing trends.
Liquid Death has never been shy about attention. The brand’s “official iced tea of Arizona” gag landed because it understood the audience and the joke. Chief media officer Benoit Vatere says that mix of product instinct and media craft is the point. “I’m a product guy and a media guy at the same time,” he says. “Media is very strong when you have the right tech in place. I come to retailers as a builder, not just a marketer, and we build together.”
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Follow the audience through the whole path, then prove it
Vatere’s top focus in commerce media this year is the ability to trace and move audiences across the entire journey. “I want to understand the path to purchase properly,” he says. “What are the touchpoints that lead to a conversion, from an awareness play on CTV to someone swiping a credit card in store. First, I need data that shows me the path. Second, I need to move that audience from one platform to another.” That portability is where he is “leaning heavily” as Liquid Death scales.
The brand is also recalibrating its channel mix. Organic reach on social is strong, so paid social doesn’t have to carry the load. “On social, I cannot control frequency,” Vatere says. “Upper and mid funnel work well at high frequency and those platforms were built for one-and-done DTC thinking. I want to control the messaging and the frequency. If I cannot control the outcome, why spend there?”
CTV, by contrast, gives him levers. “I can layer retailer data. I can control frequency. And it is the big screen. Between a Farmers Insurance spot and a Domino’s spot, we show up and people ask, ‘What just happened?’ We stand out even more on TV than on social.” Just as important, that TV exposure becomes a data spine for lower-funnel moves: “People who saw us on the big screen can be retargeted at retail. From social, it is very difficult to bring an audience into retail.”
TikTok still matters, with caveats. “We are big on TikTok organically, but we do not spend a ton,” he says. “TikTok Shop is not relevant for beverages. Shipping cans is unprofitable. To be fair, TikTok is very incremental to retail in our tests. It is just a difficult platform to manage media.”
Retail media works when partners listen
Vatere knows what separates good retail media partners from the pack. “Amazon is leading. Walmart has shifted gears in a very impressive way. Kroger is excellent because it listens,” he says. “I talk about what I wish I had. They build and bring us into alpha tests. A lot of brands treat retailers like they decide everything. If you are direct, they listen. If they will not let us do what we know the brand needs, we pass.”
Inside stores, he sees a frontier that is not quite ready. “End caps, display, point-of-sale signage are still fundamentals,” he says. “The last piece is knowing when that audience is in the aisle and guiding them in the moment. Digital screens could close that loop. I do not know if that is six months or six years, but the big retailers are working on it. There is hardware, privacy and partner selection to solve, but it is coming.”
Out-of-home is on his test list, especially in venues. “We do a lot with Live Nation. OOH could raise frequency. See us on the big screen, then on Instagram, then on a venue screen or at the airport. I am intrigued and want to try it.”
Trends are for other brands. AI is for plumbing, not punchlines
Liquid Death does not chase cultural trends for content. “By the time it is a trend, it is already over,” he says. “You become irrelevant and boring. We have our own lane to entertain the audience.”
On influencers, the brand benefits from gravity. “We get thousands of UGC videos every week without asking,” he says. “We rarely run influencer programs unless it is a bigger, specific moment like a podcast with a high-profile talent.”
AI sits in the operations column, not the creative one. “We do not use AI for creative. We use what platforms provide to set up and manage campaigns faster. I am looking at AI to make versions and sizes and I am paying attention to agentic search so we show up where search is going. If AI makes execution better in the future, we will use it. Right now, it does not feel like Liquid Death.”
The next headline is already on the calendar. “We are about to launch Liquid Death Energy. Amazon goes live on December 1 with multipacks. January 1 it is nationwide in all retailers with singles. The US only, to start. It is a big category with a lot of competition. It can get very big, very fast. That is the kind of moment I love.”
As for the Super Bowl: “Last year was very impactful. I am a big fan of the big screen and that event. People are actually watching the ads.”
Vatere likes to move quickly, but not blindly. “I tell retailers I do not need perfect. Let’s test and figure it out together,” he says.
The builder’s mindset shows up everywhere: choose channels where you can control outcomes, push partners to innovate with you and keep the brand’s voice unmistakable, whether it is on a phone or a 65-inch screen.
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