Observed Signal · Apr 8, 2026 · Partnership · Source: AdExchanger · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Liquid Death Pilots Ibotta LiveLift for Incrementality
Liquid Death is piloting Ibotta’s LiveLift performance measurement tool to measure near‑real‑time incrementality of retail promotions. LiveLift uses shopper data from Ibotta’s app and retail partners (Walmart, Instacart, DoorDash, Dollar General) to compare test and control groups and estimate incremental cans sold that wouldn’t have occurred otherwise. Liquid Death’s chief media officer, Benoit Vatere, says the insight lets the brand shift budget quickly — week to week or day to day — toward retailers, regions, or tactics that produce incremental volume at acceptable cost, and pause or change offers when incremental cost rises. Ibotta founder and CEO Bryan Leach framed the approach as part of outcomes‑based buying, where brands define pay‑for results and let incrementality data drive media allocation.
Shows practical shift to always‑on incrementality measurement and outcomes‑based media buying using retailer first‑party shopper data, which can change how CPGs allocate budgets across retail, TV/CTV and other channels.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Liquid Death is piloting Ibotta’s LiveLift tool to measure promotion incrementality.
- Ibotta uses shopper data from its app and retail partners including Walmart, Instacart, DoorDash and Dollar General.
- LiveLift compares people who see an offer with similar people who don’t to estimate incremental sales (volume that wouldn’t have occurred otherwise).
- Liquid Death uses incrementality results to reallocate media spend in near real time and maintain an always‑on reference point for promotions.
- Ibotta frames the approach as outcomes‑based media buying, tying spend to cost‑per‑incremental‑dollar thresholds.
Connected Companies & Entities
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Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Liquid Death Prioritizes Incrementality to Measure Sales
This AdExchanger Talks podcast features Benoit Vatere, Chief Media & Digital Commerce Officer at Liquid Death, discussing the brand’s approach to measurement. Vatere argues CPG sales largely occur at retail checkout and that channel-specific metrics like ROAS are insufficient on their own; he links ROAS to new-to-brand metrics as a proxy for incrementality. Liquid Death focuses marketing toward light and lapsed buyers rather than only superfans. The piece also notes the brand’s partnership with performance-marketing platform Ibotta for always-on incrementality testing and raises the prospect that agentic AI could change grocery shopping dynamics between consumers, brands and bots.
Liquid Death and Power Digital Show AI-Native Marketing
At Advertising Week New York, Liquid Death’s chief media and digital commerce officer Benoit Vatere joined Power Digital Marketing executives to discuss their AI-native marketing operations. The panel highlighted how Power’s Omega platform enables daily optimization of retail media campaigns, reducing Amazon analysis time from two weeks to two hours and Prime Day preparation to a day. Vatere emphasized staying lean, automating workflows, and running a sizable budget with just two in-house staff. He also expressed frustration with loyal customers waiting for Prime Day discounts, which hurts revenue, and instead seeks new buyers. The discussion underscored the shift from 'AI curious' to 'AI native' by building custom intelligence layers, with Power reporting an 80-90% reduction in reporting time for clients.
Benoit Vatere: Keep Liquid Death Dangerous at Scale
Benoit Vatere, chief media officer at Liquid Death, outlines a retail-first, full-funnel media strategy to scale the challenger beverage brand while preserving its distinctive mystique. Drawing on 25 years building ad tech products, Vatere argues for converting entertainment-driven creative into measurable retail trial by prioritizing frequency over reach, deep retailer partnerships, and retail media networks as technology platforms that offer first-party data and conversion proximity. He makes a contrarian case against large paid social allocations—citing lack of frequency control—and recommends investing in TV, radio, podcasts and audio to reach audiences in natural consumption moments. Vatere and CEO Mike Varvarato also enforce strict brand filters, rejecting lucrative but misaligned partnerships to protect brand credibility as they scale.
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