August 19, 2024

Oli Russell-Cowan: How Liquid Death are Taking Their US Success to Europe, Creative Audacity, Tapping Into Interwoven Subcultures and Bottom-Up Creative Leadership

1 hour 34 minutes

Just because a product or brand works in the USA doesn’t mean it’ll work in the UK.>USA Ideas that Bombed in the UK:

Hard seltzer
Hard kombucha
Protein water (Fiesty will change this)
Nootropics - taking ages to land on our wet little islands>

The UK and USA are WILDLY similar and WILDLY different. So much cultural nuance. Think of The US Office (pile of sh*t) vs The UK Office (…long live the BrentMiester General). Lancashire isn’t Los Angeles. York isn’t New York. Liquid Death is a glorious, stomping, romping, raging triumph in the States. But, how are they building the brand in Europe?

Deee-light-ed to chat with the Head of Cultural Indoctrination, Oli Russel Cowan, on the podcast.

Oli is a surfer, podcaster, founder of festival platform Rad Season, and a legend.

And, he is the Head of Cultural Indoctrination for Liquid Death.

Different inputs = different outputs = TOTALLY unique approach to brand building.

Absolutely LOVED this one.

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ON THE MENU:
1. How Liquid Death thinks, feels, and acts like surfers and skateboarders - leaning into fear through “Creative Audacity.”

2. The simple way Liquid Death does marketing: What do we find funny? What do our mates find funny? It’s that simple.

3. Why Liquid Death acts like an entertainment company first, and a brand second.

4. How Liquid Death is launching in the UK - find “interwoven subcultures” (this is genius): skateboarders, tattoo artists, punk rockers - “your early adopters are your mass market microphone.”

5. How Liquid Death uses D2C merch sales data to find their core sub-tribes globally (so clever) - always asking, where are the people who just “GET IT”?

6. Why Liquid Death looks like a beer can = Seth Godin’s Purple Cow.

7. Key leadership learnings from Mike Cessario: “As you get bigger, think smaller, bottom-up innovation.”

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By Dan Pope

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