I love brand that makes me smile, and Oatly is one of them.
I smiled a lot while watching their video “What is Oatly”, receiving their HR newsletter thanking me for making their work easier by actively connecting with them, and seeing the little clouds drifting across the product page.
Oatly is world’s original and largest oatmilk company founded in Sweden. Their goal is to always deliver products that have maximum nutritional value and minimal environmental impact.
Why I love the brand
1.They have strong opinions, but they make it like coming from a friend with some characters. And they know how to attract the like-minded people.
“Ditch Milk”.
“Hey food industry, show us your numbers.”
“Are you stupid? The milk lobby thinks you are.”
Brand receives exceptional attention with very strong opinion, but also risks with strong opposition and resentment. Oatly’s adverts are almost impossible to ignore with their overbearing statement, but they are clever with brand’s tone of voice (bold but humorous, straightforward but with a point) and creatives (fun and extremely simple), so among all adverts on the street, you saw this one, laughed and remembered it, and you don’t hate it at all because they are so human and real.
My personal favourite is their TV commercial where Oatly CEO was playing keyboard and singing in an oat field “It’s like milk but made for humans. Wow, wow, no cow. No, no no-no. Wow, wow, no cow…“ It has a point but it’s hilarious and so memorable.
Similarly, the section on their website about the adverts they’ve done is named “Brainwashing”, and it’s the attitude of “making fun of themselves” and being authentic, wins the heart of many consumers. “I can’t tell if I hate these or love these, but I’m intrigued by this oat stuff they speak of.”
What’s more clever is, with such a bold marketing, Oatly gets attention and creates debate by all, and the group support them is the exact group of people who would go for alt-milk. They are anti-authoritarian, and they want to drive social changes, and they would be very open with plant-based milk!
Of course, it’s never a smooth journey for Oatly. They received 109 complaints recently on two TV ads, a paid-for Facebook post, a paid-for Twitter post and two press ads, according to the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Those complaints mostly challenge the messages such as “Oatly generates 73% less CO2e vs. milk” misleading and could be substantiated. And now Oatly can no longer use such ads in the forms complaint about.
Lesson learnt for marketers, it’s great go for bold marketing, but together with any strong opinion or claim made, provide adequate evidence to substantiate as they would be understood by consumers.
2.They are great at using text to grab attention.
The clever usage of text is everywhere, on packaging, on the OOH ad (a billboard, a tube ad., a bus wrap, etc.), on the print ad., on their social channels. They never intend to say everything, they only make one point at a time. And their strategy is simple too, the first stage upon entering a new market is to get awareness (e.g. the “Haven’t you seen this ad before? Totally Dejavu”), in whatever way, and then sell you the opinion (e.g. Help Dad Campaign) and convert you. Yes one point at a time.
3.Sonic marketing to have message linger and communicate the brand in a soft and multi-sensory approach.
I love all their jingles, absolutely consistent with the brand’s tone of voice and style, and definitely said something of the brand. It’s actually one of these jingles reminds me there’s “!” in the brand.
4.They trap you in their website, forever.
Do not go to their website, they have a “Department of Distraction Service” specialising in trapping you there.
While most brands’ website are just there for some online presence, Oatly’s there for much bigger purposes. It’s for storytelling, for engagement, and for you to fall in love with the brand. The home page is a canvas filled with cool ideas and thoughts, from sketches, jingles, videos (love the New Norm&Al Show) to ways to play with the product carton. I wonder what’s their average session duration. And I hope it’s constantly updating.
If there’s one thing I’m disappointed with the brand, it’s the lawsuit they brought against a small independent oat milk producer in the UK on trademark infringement, as they claim the UK oat milk looks too similar as theirs. They lost the lawsuit since the judge ruled there’s “relatively low or, at best, very modest level of similarity” between the two brands. It’s easy to agree with judge’s ruling as soon as you put the 2 products side by side. I understand the brand might have their perspective on this case, especially in regards to local development strategy, but this incident is definitely damaging that singing CEO image. Many of their early adverts “attacking” the big multinational milk company while positioning themselves as the disruptive challenger, and I hope they are not growing into someone they dislike one day.