Who owns Liquid Death? Beverage company goes viral through unconventional partnerships and out-of-the-box marketing strategies

Canned bottled water company Liquid Death had become immensely successful with a valuation of $1.4 billion in 2024. According to an article published by ainvest.com, one of the biggest reasons behind the success of the bottled water company was its unique style of marketing, which was different than the usual corporate-themed ones undertaken by most brands.

The marketing reportedly was done in such a way that the products became attractive and unique to Gen-Z primarily. Liquid Death is owned by Mike Cessario, who is also the founder and CEO of the brand. The latest article had primarily focused on the partnership aspect of the brand. While the canned water was trademarked in 2017, it was officially launched two years after that.

No. You’re not dreaming. We made a low-calorie sparkling water that tastes exactly like a bowl of Fruity Pebbles™ and milk. Once this limited edition flavor is sold out, it’s gone forever. Get it on Amazon now: https://t.co/6G6YaYL0t1 pic.twitter.com/O7EVzT6Pp2

— Liquid Death (@LiquidDeath) July 18, 2025

In the year 2021, Liquid Death landed a deal with Live Nation, which meant this brand was the only one whose bottles were available at several music concerts. Then, two years later, in 2023, the canned water brand partnered with the UK's Download Festival. The outlet reported that during this festival, the amount of water consumed was significantly higher than last year.

The latest article by ainvest.com suggested that while the marketing expenses of other similar brands were about 20-30%, those of Liquid Death were about 12% only.

Exploring more about the bottled water brand Liquid Death

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Liquid Death began selling its products on the official website in January 2019. The brand has over ten different flavors of its products. Dan Murphy, SVP of marketing for Liquid Death, told Marketing Brew,

"They see us a bit like a Saturday Night Live stage... We’re going to go into the Liquid Death world and we’re going to get exposed to this new audience."

According to Murphy, several brands had been trying to get into a partnership with Liquid Death. As previously mentioned, Liquid Death has a very prominent social media presence. According to reports by Fortune dated August 18, 2025, the brand has more than 7 million followers on Instagram and over 7 million ones on TikTok. Calling the brand and "influencer", Murphy said,

"We ended [2024 with] over 30 billion [earned media impressions], and that was on a spend of—I’m talking every production dollar, every talent fee, because we work with celebrities too—that was under $2 million."

According to sacra.com, some of the brand's popular celebrity investors include names like Josh Brolin, DeAndre Hopkins, Tony Hawk, and Wiz Khalifa. 

Ozzy Osbourne is 1 of 1. But we’re selling his actual DNA so you can recycle him forever. Yes, we really got him to drink from cans of our low-calorie Iced Tea. In the process, he left behind DNA from his saliva that you can now own. Only 10 available to buy:… pic.twitter.com/aOqqrwbMwV

— Liquid Death (@LiquidDeath) June 17, 2025

Liquid Death recently made headlines after partnering with late Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne. The partnership led to the introduction of a series of limited-edition iced tea cans. What was intriguing about the series was that the products contained traces of Ozzy's DNA in them.

The limited series surfaced with the name "Infinite Ozzy" in June 2025. Many netizens then took to social media platforms to wonder who would buy these products. At the time, Andy Pearson, vice president of creative at Liquid Death, told USA Today that Ozzy Osbourne was a fun person to work with.

The unconventional marketing tactics had reportedly been the main reason behind the success of the brand.