Summer Intern

Liquid Death lets incrementality decide what tactics to kill and what to keep. Wednesday, April 8th, 2026 - 1:00 am Liquid Death is known for its irreverent branding and provocative slogans, such as "murder your thirst" and "death to plastic." Its campaigns also lean into that over-the-top vibe. A couple of years ago, the heavy-metal-inspired canned water brand collaborated with Burton to create deliberately dangerous flat snowboards and dared professional snowboarders to ride them and "not die." Before that, it manufactured limited-edition skateboards using red paint mixed with a vial of Tony Hawk's blood. And, more recently, the brand teamed up with e.l.f. Cosmetics to produce a coffin-shaped makeup set called "Corpse Paint," riffing on the famous KISS look. But behind all that edgy marketing is a classic CPG problem: Most of Liquid Death's sales still happen at the register, which is where media measurement goes to die. "Attribution is not easy in the real world," said Benoit Vatere, Liquid Death's chief media officer. "ROAS on any given platform doesn't tell me anything because, of course, it'll just say, 'Hey, I'm doing a great job.'" "I don't even pay attention to that stuff," he added. Murdering misleading measurement. To get closer to what's actually happening in stores - and a sense of whether its campaigns are really driving sales - Liquid Death has been piloting a new approach from performance marketing platform Ibotta called LiveLift, which measures and adjusts promotions in near real time. Ibotta uses shopper data from its own app and retail partners, including Walmart, Instacart, DoorDash and Dollar General, to compare people who see an offer with similar people who don't. Then it looks to see how their purchases differ afterward. But instead of just counting how many coupons were redeemed or how much sales went up overall, the tool focuses on incrementality, which means, in Liquid Death's case, the number of cans sold that wouldn't have been sold otherwise. This insight helps Vatere decide where and when to cut or to spend more. If a promotion is generating a healthy amount of incremental volume at an acceptable cost, the team can shift more budget to that retailer, region or tactic. But if the lift flattens or the cost-per-incremental dollar of sales climbs too high, he knows it's time to change the offer or redirect spend elsewhere. When the test and control groups behave essentially the same, it's a strong sign that a campaign isn't actually doing much for sales, said Bryan Leach, Ibotta's founder and CEO. "But you don't know that until you run the experiment," Leach said. "You have to put a stimulus into the world and observe the answer using statistics." Killing the guesswork. Getting a clean read on how any single campaign is impacting what people buy is quite difficult, though, when TV, CTV, social, influencer, retail media, in-store promotions and whatever else are all running at once. "Usually, it's not just a single thing that moves the needle," Vatere said. That's one reason he doesn't put much stock in slow, backward-looking media mix models or geo-testing, which can be disruptive. What Vatere wants is a view of incremental sales while campaigns are still running so he can make decisions week to week - or even every few days - about what to keep running, what to tweak and what to shut off. Liquid Death now keeps LiveLift running in the background and checks it regularly to see how its promotions are doing. Over time, it's become less of an experiment and more of an always-on reference point for how aggressively the team can spend. It's also changed how Liquid Death thinks about brand spend, Vatere said. As the brand shifts more budget into TV, streaming and other broad-reach channels, he said, it helps having a safety net of sorts at the bottom of the funnel to justify tactics higher up. "If I have a tight net at the bottom," Vatere said, "I can feel a lot more confident pushing hard at the top." And Liquid Death is also using the data to look beyond simple new-to-brand metrics and regular customers. Attracting new buyers and appealing to existing fans is great, he said, but there's also a whole cohort of people who bought the product once or twice and then dropped out - which, in CPG, doesn't necessarily mean they didn't like it. "There's no loyalty in CPG," Vatere said. "If you buy water, you usually bounce around between four or five brands. On the media side, that means the strategy is often about needing to remind people, to tell them, 'Hey, remember you bought us once? Well, we're still here.'" With incrementality data in hand, the strategy can shift. More media budget can go toward light or lapsed buyers and less toward super fans who would probably open their wallets regardless. Ibotta's Leach framed this mindset as part of a broader shift toward outcomes-based media buying, where brands define the results they're willing to pay for and let the data determine where the money goes. Rather than deciding in advance which channels "work" and then building a model around proving those assumptions, he said, the point is to see what actually happens when different offers and tactics hit the market, and then move spend accordingly. One way to do that is by anchoring decisions to a simple profitability line. If, say, a brand's margin on every sale is 30 cents per unit, then 30 cents becomes the North Star for optimization. "As long as the cost-per-incremental dollar is less than 30 cents, we'll keep spending," Leach said. "It turns off when it becomes inefficient and on when it becomes efficient again, which is not all that unlike a Google campaign." Tagged in:

e.l.f. Turns Vanity vandalism into a true crime mockumentary. Phoebe Dynevor and Christina Chang lead a mock investigation into shared vanities shaped by clutter and routine. April 3, 2026, 2:44 pm e.l.f. Cosmetics expands its mockumentary series with Vanity Vandals, a 10-minute film starring Phoebe Dynevor and Christina Chang. Following the release of Cosmetic Criminals in 2024, the new installment places shared bathroom routines under investigation, using a true crime format to explore how beauty products accumulate and take over personal space. The film introduces the concept of "vanity vandalism," defined by the brand as the act of overtaking shared vanities due to the accessibility of beauty products. This idea draws from a wider conversation among consumers who describe daily conflicts over space, storage, and routine. A survey cited by the brand reports that 70 percent of couples experience tension in shared bathrooms, creating the foundation for the film's central case. Directed by Alex Buono, Vanity Vandals follows a fictional investigation led by the Federal Cosmetic Crime Task Force. Detective Bob Fleck, played by Gary Kraus, works alongside behavioral profiler Dr. Erika Sparrow, portrayed by Christina Chang. Their focus centers on a newly married couple, Maya and Dante Formosa, played by Phoebe Dynevor and Christopher Sky. The couple's shared sink becomes the site of escalating disorder, framed as evidence within the investigation. Phoebe Dynevor takes on the role of Maya, a character whose growing collection of makeup products leads to tension within the relationship. The performance introduces a mockumentary approach that places Dynevor directly in conversation with the camera. She described the experience as a shift in format, engaging with a style she had long wanted to explore. Her character's fixation on blush drives much of the narrative, turning a specific product category into a defining detail of the case. Christina Chang's role as Dr. Erika Sparrow adds another layer to the investigation, presenting a perspective shaped by observation and analysis. During production, Chang noted that the products featured on set influenced her own routine, with the e.l.f. Camo Liquid Blush becoming part of her personal makeup kit. She described its buildable texture and accessible pricing as key reasons for its appeal. The campaign builds its tone through a structured investigation, where cluttered vanities, shared routines, and expanding collections function as evidence. Each scene presents a version of everyday behavior framed through the language of crime storytelling. This approach allows the film to address familiar situations while maintaining a defined narrative arc driven by character and scenario. Alongside the release, e.l.f. Cosmetics introduces two limited-time product bundles connected to the film's theme. The "Criminally Good" Blush Bundle includes two shades of Camo Liquid Blush and a Primer-Infused Matte Blush, directly referencing the central product in the narrative. The "Criminally Obsessed" Boo Bundle gathers ten lip products described as core items within the brand's range.

E.l.f. promotes affordable beauty with true crime-inspired mockumentary. "Vanity Vandals" attributes cluttered bathroom counters to a surplus of its affordable beauty products and includes a giveaway and Roblox experience. Published April 2, 2026 Dive brief: * E.l.f. Cosmetics is digging into the world of true crime with the release of a new mockumentary called "Vanity Vandals," according to a press release. * Key to the effort is a 10-minute film that explores what the brand calls "vanity vandalism," or the act of over-cluttering vanities due to a surplus of affordable beauty products. The film made its theatrical debut at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on March 31. The brand also hosted a live watch party on its Twitch channel. * E.l.f. will amplify the effort with an activation within its existing Roblox space, a giveaway and limited-time product bundles. "Vanity Vandals" follows a similar effort from E.l.f. called "Cosmetic Criminals" in 2024. Dive insight: E.l.f. Cosmetics is raising awareness around the chaos of cluttered bathroom counters with "Vanity Vandals," a mockumentary inspired by research indicating that nearly one in five people have ended a relationship over a partner's bathroom habits. On TikTok, the hashtag #makeupmess has 115 million views, while the hashtag #messyvanity has 1.3 million views. The beauty marketer is framing the clutter as a broader shift in consumer behavior driven by the affordability of beauty products from brands such as itself. The 10-minute "Vanity Vandals" film follows an investigation led by the "Federal Cosmetic Crime Task Force" as they look to solve a series of cases surrounding shared sinks that are filled to the brim with E.l.f. products. E.l.f. has made accessibility a core part of its brand, with 75% of its products priced $10 or under. E.l.f. debuted the film at the TCL Chinese Theatre, supporting the launch with a red carpet hosted by iHeartMedia radio personality Ellen K and a Q&A session with the cast members and director Alex Buono. The brand also hosted a live watch part on its @elfyou Twitch channel. The effort will span digital, social and streaming platforms. Additionally, E.l.f. launched an experience within its existing e.l.f.UP! Roblox space, which the brand launched in 2023. The beauty purveyor also launched a "Save Our Sink" contest that will run from April 2-16 and invites consumers to share their own chaotic sink for the chance to win a prize valued at over $10,000 inclusive of a year's worth of E.l.f. products, a one-on-one bathroom or vanity design consultation and a $5,000 Target gift card. The latest true-crime push from E.l.f. follows a similar effort, "Cosmetic Criminals," that launched in 2024 on Amazon's Freevee streaming platform. The 15-minute parody documentary revolved around stolen E.l.f. products and served as the longest branded content spot to ever run on the big screen, per the advertising platform National CineMedia. Entertainment-focused marketing has long been a part of E.l.f.'s marketing strategy, with past efforts riffing on Animal Planet content and in-flight safety videos. Digital channels are also routinely a focus within E.l.f.'s marketing playbook, with its Roblox space often folded into its latest campaigns. In November, the brand launched a social-first campaign for World Kindness Day designed to combat doomscrolling. Rounding out the effort, the brand released two limited-time bundles online: a "Criminally Good" Blush Bundle, which includes its Camo Liquid Blush and Primer-Infused Matte Blush, and a "Criminally Obsessed" Boo Bundle, which includes 10 of its best-selling lip products. E.l.f. Beauty, the parent of E.l.f. Cosmetics, saw net sales increase 38% to $489.5 million during its third quarter of fiscal 2026 for the three month period that ended Dec. 31.