Creative Audacity, Tapping Into Interwoven Subcultures and Bottom-Up Creative Leadership with Extreme sports and marketing guru Oli Russel-Cowan (  / olirussellcowan  )

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.



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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TIMESTAMPS
[00:00] Intro
[00:50] Creative Audacity
[08:58] Key leadership learnings from Mike Cessario
[09:55] Liquid Death Marketing
[13:27] Launching in the UK
[18:37] D2C Merch Sales
[19:57] Liquid Death looks like a beer can
[38:11] Entertainment Company or Brand?
[40:51] The Liquid Death operating System
[50:22] Expanding beyond core customer base of early adopters
[57:23] Surf Talk and Staying Calm in the face of Death
[1:33:00] The essence of a brand - Cult Indoctrination