Episode 113 - Liquid Death Ad Reviewed By Microsoft and TPA Digital
How important is hydration in American football? According to water brand Liquid Death, it’s crucial. And players need professional-level hydration assistants to get them to play at their best.
In this week’s Advertisers Watching Ads, we review an unusual ad chosen by Contagious, the Liquid Death Hydration Assistant Scouting Combine. Does this initiative to support “unsung heroes” of football work with all audiences, or is it extremely niche targeted? How do sports fans feel about it? And what does it say about brand identity?
Our guests Andrea Katsivelis (Director Global GTM Lead - Nuance Business Unit at Microsoft), Wayne Blodwell (Founder and CEO of TPA Digital) and Robert Beckman (Head of Growth at Automated Creative) had very different opinions this week and rated it a 3.3 out of 5.
Watch the full episode to see the ad and hear their views!
Episode 113 - Liquid Death Ad Reviewed By Microsoft and TPA Digital
Transcript - It’s not perfect, but you get the idea!
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello, and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, and this is a weekly show where brands discuss other brands' ads.
We are brought to you this week, as ever by our beautiful partners, Contagious, who have helped choose the ad this week. But before we get to that ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Andrea Katsivelis 0:28
First of all, I'm an AI fan girl. And conveniently, I am a Director of Global Partner Marketing at Microsoft. And I lead a joint go-to market with Microsoft's biggest acquisition to date, Nuance Communication, which scales conversation AI globally, so it's a lot of fun.
Wayne Blodwell 0:43
Hi, I'm Wayne. I'm the founder and CEO of TPA Digital, and we are a digital ad consultancy which empowers advertisers through impartial advice.
Robert Beckman 0:53
Hi, my name is Bertie. I am Head of Growth at Automated Creative.
Tom Ollerton 0:57
What a panel! Fantastic. This week's ad is for a brand called Liquid Death, which is a water brand, funny enough. And what they're doing is celebrating one of American football's least celebrated figures. Let's check it out.
On a count of three, hold up your fingers to represent the scores. So one, two, three... A four, a three, and a three. So Andrea, what are we actually watching here?
Andrea Katsivelis 3:36
So there's Liquid Death, right? This outlier brand that wants to shock people. And their whole focus was taking these what they called "warriors" from biggest colleges and pro franchise. So basically, really they're just trying to get market attention. But it's this whole Combine competition, which very cleverly, very satirically, you know, used the Liquid Death product as their fitness equipment, which was pretty awesome. But if you didn't understand it, you really wouldn't grasp the why.
Robert Beckman 4:09
I, as Tom is aware, am a massive NFL fan, and the NFL do what's called, the NFL Combine, which is basically getting some of the best college players who want to get to the NFL to do various workouts, mental tests, physical tests. And this is... They're taking the proverbial out of that to an extent and saying, "We're going to get the hydration guys to go through the same process, but obviously using their Liquid Death water." So I think if you were a sports fan, as the Americans like to say, I think you would probably get a lot more context than those who aren't.
Tom Ollerton 4:44
As a sports fan, Bertie, does that make it good? Do you like it?
Robert Beckman 4:46
My initial response to it, genuinely was, "God, this is absolutely awful." But then, I took a little bit of a step back and I thought, "Well, what are they trying to do and what are they as a brand?" And I think that, you know, this is a brand that's got confidence and swagger, and know who they are and what their consumers want.
Wayne Blodwell 5:02
They're clearly targeting this at, like younger demographics and people who play sport, not just like a casual bottled water drinkers. If marketing is like the extension of the brand, I think they do a really good job at doing that. Is the 10-minute ad too long? Probably. But, but in general, I really like the way they're trying to do something different and disrupt the category. And the ad kind of reflect that one as well.
Tom Ollerton 5:25
And why is it called Liquid Death?
Wayne Blodwell 5:27
The founders were in a punk band, or one of the founders used to be a rocker. And on stage at the time, as of the mid noughties, they had lots of energy drinks for sponsoring rock bands. And they asked the rockers on stage, they're like, "Well, what do you really drink on stage?" And they're like, "Oh, we just pour water into the can. Because there's massive endorsement deals, we don't even like the products." So they were like, "Well, let's create a product that the rockers and bands would want to drink." And then they kind of just basically went from there to branding. I did read, they once, ran their first ever ad, cost them 1.5K to make and they put 3K behind it on Facebook ads, and it got like 3 million views. And it generated more likes than Aquafina, which is the leader in the category. So they're kind of making good waves in what they're doing.
Andrea Katsivelis 6:14
I'd love to add to that, because obviously looking to, you know, grab attention and grab the outlier crowds, but they do it in a sort of a one and done methodology, right? Like, they're not, they're not carrying on a story or a theme. It was really hard to understand, you know, what was their intent? Was their intent just to provide some entertainment with this segment? Because it really didn't carry it through, right? They, like... Like, if they had taken this 10 minutes and made it a bunch of different snippets that they could have, you know, released over time, I would have, like, probably followed up if they had carried it through in their social media so I want to follow the story. But I really couldn't tell, were they just trying to get likes from their existing base? Were they, you know, trying to grab the attention of the teams? Of the concession companies at the stadiums? You know, more grocery stores...
Robert Beckman 7:05
I think that they hate corporate marketing. That's kind of where they stand. The 10-minute thing, it went on a bit long. And frankly, I thought it was a bit dull, even though I thought it was a good idea. But I thought what they were trying to do was great. And what they're trying to do, they probably wanted to get people talking and I imagine it did that.
Tom Ollerton 7:19
I feel a little bit lost about who was actually this being aimed at?
Wayne Blodwell 7:23
I felt that they had 10 of these trainers involved. And I think, "Why are they going with 10? And not, say three and double down on their personalities, their backgrounds." And I think they're maybe trying to cover too many bases. So trying to cover as many people who might align with one of the trainers as possible. And so that's why they have 10. Anyone could watch that and go, "I'm gonna root for this person because they seem more like me than Travis, whatever it might be."
Tom Ollerton 7:49
So Bertie, what will make this better for you?
Robert Beckman 7:51
That could have been shorter, more succinct, less people. But actually, overall, the more I think about it, the more I talk about it, the more I convince myself, this is actually really good.
Tom Ollerton 8:00
I want you to vote with your thumb either yes or no. Would you have signed this idea off? One, two, three... Is that Bertie, you an up or a down? I can't see. All right, we have an up, a down, and a, and a maybe, right? So Andrea, Wayne, Bertie, thank you so much for your time.
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