Liquid Death dumps LiveRamp over Publicis deal, hunts for independent identity graph

Liquid Death stopped using LiveRamp's identity graph in early August, weeks after Publicis Groupe's plan to acquire the company became public, and chief media officer Benoit Vatere is now racing to find an independent replacement before the contract expires at the end of the year.

The water brand used the graph for about 18 months. Vatere's concern is not personal data. Publicis will not see names and email addresses. He fears the buying patterns LiveRamp learned — which ads drove purchases, how people moved between smart TVs, phones and retailer sites — could feed the holding company's AI tools and inform strategy for brands Liquid Death competes with.

"I don't want to train or have them see that super valuable information [for] anybody that I'm trying to get market share from," Vatere told Digiday. "Let's be clear about why Publicis bought LiveRamp. They did it because there is value, right? And the value is not just the revenue."

What does the split change for Liquid Death?

Vatere operates under a hard constraint: the brand is not big enough to build its own identity graph, and the LiveRamp contract runs out at year-end. "I cannot do without it right now," he said.

The deal's terms currently bar such data use, and the FTC's oversight of the acquisition lasts five years. Vatere expects terms to change eventually. He also refuses every holding company option on the same grounds — Havas, still a LiveRamp client, WPP, and Omnicom, which is building its own alternative through Acxiom. Acxiom has already pitched him. Vatere declined.

"I'm not mad at Publicis," he said. "I just don't want any of the holdcos to own it."

That leaves independent providers, and Vatere is skeptical of them too. Most are built with an acquisition and an exit in mind. Any vendor he picks will have to sign a contract clause ending the relationship and deleting Liquid Death's data the moment control changes hands.

"There should be a clause [that] if there's change of ownership, change of control, contract out, right?" said Vatere. "Data deleted, like the whole thing."

How far could the defections spread?

LiveRamp rivals have fielded calls and pitched for business since the deal was announced in the spring. Both WPP and Omnicom have stopped working with the solution. This week Vatere posted his stance on LinkedIn after reports that Publicis was unconcerned about departures now the deal has closed; the replies included a connection request from LiveRamp's CEO. Nothing came of it. The only outcome that would win him back — LiveRamp pulling out of the deal — is off the table.

The financial exposure remains small. Competitors and non-Publicis businesses account for roughly 5% of LiveRamp's $800 million annual revenue, so a few defections at the edges are a price the holdco can absorb. Publicis likely wants LiveRamp's data and connections for its own AI ambitions, combining its clean room and data connectivity tech with Epsilon's identity capabilities and Publicis Sapient's tech services.

Ruben Schreurs, chief executive officer at Ebiquity, argued the risk is overstated. "You can absolutely manage things in a way that if [your] agency also works for competing brands, that doesn't necessarily have to be a problem," he said. "The same is true with LiveRamp."

Still, he acknowledged the structural squeeze: "There is now a big global three to choose from, so you're going to work with a company that also works for competing brands. Then it becomes all about how you retain your competitive edge."

Whether marketers peel away in numbers large enough to dent that $800 million base is the open question — and Vatere has made himself the test case.