This story is part of a series exploring how brands craft standout social media strategies. If you’d like to chat about how your brand is approaching social, Katie Hicks wants to hear about it. Reach out to her at hicks@morningbrew.com.

Nothing’s being watered down here.

Liquid Death, which began as a canned-water company in 2017, has amassed more than 14 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, which Dan Murphy, the brand’s SVP of marketing, attributes to a commitment to making people laugh. In recent years, the brand has put out memorable campaigns like “Kegs for Pregs” and casket coolers in an effort that goes beyond standing out from other brands.

“We’re competing with the feed,” Murphy told us. “We’re trying to be the funniest thing in your feed that day.”

For Liquid Death, it’s comedy at all costs—often quite literally—with stunts that toe the line of realism and often make fun of the exact industry they’re participating in: advertising.

• Last year, the brand gave away a $400,000 fighter jet in a stunt inspired by the now-infamous Pepsi campaign that resulted in a lawsuit against the beverage company.
• The brand has also sold skateboards infused with Tony Hawk’s blood, as well as “pit diapers” for concertgoers headed into a mosh pit—moments that have been geared toward social and have amassed millions of views across platforms.

“Everything we do is try to satirize advertising because we all hate ads,” Murphy said. “But those tropes, those jingles, the setups are so embedded in our consciousness, so when you can take this familiar thing and twist it and make it funny or unexpected, there’s tremendous bang for the buck.”

Despite the brand’s pricey stunts, its growing product lines, and a recent $1.4 billion valuation, Murphy said his in-house team remains intentionally lean, with only enough members to “fit in an SUV, legally.” We spoke with him about the ways in which his small team is pulling off mighty feats online.

Keep reading here.—KH

Sometimes the obvious answer is the right answer. Case in point: If you’re making an ad about bananas, that ad should probably be, well, bananas.

That’s what the team behind Instacart’s second consecutive Super Bowl ad was thinking when they cooked up a 30-second spot that will air during the first quarter of the game.

• The ad, starring Ben Stiller and Benson Boone as a faux-’80s Europop duo, finds Stiller jockeying for attention after Boone lands one of his signature flips all while the pair sing a tune about how “Instacart lets you choose your bananas.” (Yes, those are the actual lyrics.)

“People watch it and they’re like, ‘That was bananas,’ and we’re like, ‘Yep, bananas, just how you like,’” Laura Jones, Instacart CMO, told Marketing Brew. “We love the double entendre of the comedy and kind of zaniness of it being bananas, but then also hitting the nail on the head. This is really just an ad about bananas.”

Produce-r credit: The wacky concept serves as a way for Instacart to communicate a new offering called Preference Picker, which allows customers to select additional details about the products they want delivered to them. And bananas are Instacart’s “most-commented” and “most-sold item,” per Jones, with 1.8 billion bananas sold and 32 million notes about how people want their bananas.

“If we can get the banana right and people can trust us to get them their perfect banana, then that is a really good indicator that we can be trusted to get your whole order right,” Jones said, adding that the tool will allow people to share their preferences in a more structured manner than the existing Notes function.

Keep reading here.—KM

This story is part of a series exploring how brands craft standout social media strategies. If you’d like to chat about how your brand is approaching social, Katie Hicks wants to hear about it. Reach out to her at hicks@morningbrew.com.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Jane Prior, CMO of Vita Coco, attributes much of the brand’s success on TikTok to its playful tone and community-first approach.

“We’ve always had this perspective that consumers want authenticity, not ads,” she said. “They want to hear from real people.”

That’s especially evident in the brand’s latest viral moment on TikTok with creator Romeo Bingham, who first gained traction online after posting a made-up Dr Pepper jingle that was eventually used in one of the brand’s TV ads.

• Tapping Bingham to create a Vita Coco jingle and star in its online Super Bowl campaign ultimately helped the brand amass 130,000 new TikTok followers in the span of a month and reach 1 million followers and drove Google searches for the brand to a four-year high.

Vita Coco plans some branded campaigns in advance, Prior said, but it’s increasingly focused on finding quicker ways to inject the brand into cultural conversations as it looks to further increase household penetration.

“That’s the beautiful part, and the need for fluency in social,” Prior said. “It’s often the organic campaigns that generate the most value.”

Keep reading here.—KH