How Oatly Brings 'a Healthy Dose of Weirdness' to Marketing

Best known for its boisterous billboards and TV ads mocking dairy-loving dads, Swedish plant-based brand Oatly has never been afraid to take risks. Recent investments in a spoof true-crime podcast and a puppet-fronted YouTube series show this ethos is bleeding into its branded content too. So much so, it’s been quietly building an entire editorial team around it. Oatly—an oat-derived milk substitute—was founded in 1994, but as the demand for vegan produce has grown it’s upped the ante on advertising over the past five years, billing itself as a more sustainable alternative to traditional dairy. For the past 18 months, Jeremy Elias, former executive creative director at The Atlantic, has been spearheading these efforts in the role of global editorial director, overseeing three others. The fast-growing unit has tapped talent from across the industry to produce video, written word and multimedia stories aligning with Oatly’s mission to make it easy for people to eat better and live healthier lives without “recklessly taxing the planet’s resources in the process.” Plant-Based Food Tops $7.4 Billion in Sales, but Has the Market Hit Peak Fake Meat? Elias admits he's had to think deeply on how to apply the brand’s sensibility to topics that are hugely consequential, including the climate crisis and the food supply chain. “Whether we tell that story through puppets or a self-referential, over-the-top billboard," it still works, he said. "That’s what drew me to this brand and why it resonates with individuals. We try and apply this [brand thinking] to all the editorial content we produce, which can be a challenge. “People don’t come to us for the 3,000-word long pieces you’d find in The Guardian or The New York Times, but we do have a responsibility to talk about issues that affect our business,” he added, saying the team recognizes the need to do this in a way that doesn’t “bore people and sound self-righteous or preachy.” Whether we tell that story through puppets or a self-referential, over the top billboard, [it still works].Jeremy Elias, global editoral director, Oatly Oatly's decision to take editorial more seriously comes as native ad business AdYouLike predicts branded content spend will reach $402 billion by 2025—up from $85.83 billion in 2020. However, this comes with its own set of challenges, including increased scrutiny from regulators cracking down on greenwashing and the environmental claims brands make in their content and advertising. Encouraging creative risks When Oatly floated its initial public offering in 2021, the business revealed just how heavily it relied on its in-house team “to develop and maintain” its brand. It credited the “provocative and unconventional marketing” produced within its own walls for giving it a competitive advantage. Elias explained how Oatly’s creative unit has created an environment that encourages marketers to take risks and push ideas that break through the more “traditional” cacophony of voices from competitors. “We're not constricted by the normal constraints brands put on themselves,” he said, adding Oatly has never been overprotective of its image or overanalytical of ideas. This culture led to the creation of the parody true crime podcast Oatly Lake, which was covertly released last month as an 18-minute ad for Oatly. The first (and last) episode “Deep Waters” saw the editorial team travel to the small town of Mesick in Northern Michigan to probe a little-known body of water that shared its name. The series featured real interviews with the accommodating townspeople of Mesick, discussing some (dubious) folklore about the lake and recounting their own experiences in the area. Of course, though, it was all a ruse. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Oatly (@oatly) Like most good ideas, the concept started life in a Slack thread. “We found out about this lake and decided it was something fun, interesting and cool to go deeper on," Elias said. "When you’re part of a department tasked with covering big important topics, it’s nice to deviate from that and explore the more unusual stories we stumble upon." The idea evolved naturally, with help from real NPR podcast host Schuyler Swenson. It now serves as a blueprint for how the brand wants to create content. “With advertising, you have a set of core principles you apply," he added. "When you’re going through an editorial process, you don’t know what you’re going to get, and you don’t have a story until you get on the ground and interview people, research and shape the journalistic story. So that’s what happened." Another recent production in tandem with ODMC has been The New Normal show, a miniseries starring two puppets: Norm and Al. Comprising five episodes, the original slate uses awkward singing, dancing and humor to show how anyone—not just hipsters and die-hard vegans—can adopt a plant-based diet. The editorial team has also overseen the launch of Hey Barista, a digital magazine focused on coffee culture, and Instagram series Tiger Hood profiling a famous and fascinating New York City street golfer. The Top 10 Weirdest Ads of 2021 'A healthy dose of weirdness' Oatly isn’t the only brand introducing a dedicated editorial function. It joins the ranks of WeTransfer in doing so as consumers increasingly turn to businesses for content. A recent job ad for an associate creative director within Oatly’s editorial department explains how the team’s job is to bring “bold creative thinking and a healthy dose of weirdness to stories and campaigns that cover everything from plant-based eating to sustainable agriculture and everything in between.” “Our work takes many recognizable forms—documentary film, podcasts, written articles, print magazines and more—but aims to aggressively break from the stylistic and tonal conventions of what we all now call storytelling,” the vacancy description reads, giving a nod at what to expect next. The plant-based milk market set to grow 11% between 2020 and 2026 to reach $21 billion, according to industry research firm Global Market Insights. With plant-based milks firmly taking their place alongside dairy in food service, the team certainly has plenty to keep them occupied. Turns the Milk Potato'y: Is Dug the Next Big Plant-Based Food Brand?

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Oatly's Editorial Team Aims to Break Storytelling as We Know It

Beyond the Oatly Department for Mind Control, the brand's editorial director explains its slightly weird and wonderful content strategy

Rebecca Stewart

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Rebecca Stewart