One of the most brilliant brands to come out of Sweden after IKEA

Oatly won’t be a stranger to most of you who are vegan. You’ll likely already have seen its ads. It indisputably put oat milk on the scene this last decade. Even though it took a while to get to Canada, most grocery stores in major cities are likely now carrying it. 

Oatly actually tied with Slutty Vegan for the top-mentioned company in 2024’s newsletters. When I took the tiebreaker to a poll on LinkedIn, it won in a landslide. I offered to send a 2024 Vegan Marketer of the Year plaque, but Oatly’s PR rep said they wouldn’t do a video interview with me nor content around it, so they just get their accolades from positive vibes over here. 😆

Date founded: 1994

Headquartered in: Malmö, Sweden

Founders: Rickard Öste and Björn Öste

Current CEO: Jean-Christophe Flantin

Current COO: Daniel Ordonez

Current CMO: None; John Schoolcraft is Chief Creative Officer

Annual revenue: $791m

Annual marketing budget: Unknown

Here’s CNBC Make It‘s recap of Oatly’s origin and rise to $100m.

Products/Services

Dairy alternatives, including:

• Oat milk (barista edition, original, chocolate, full fat, and low-fat)
• Oat-based frozen desserts (chocolate chip, mint chip, coffee, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, oat, and salted caramel)
• Oatgurt (oat-based yogurt alternatives in plain, strawberry, peach, black cherry, and mixed berry flavours)
• On-the-go beverages (chocolate oat milk, cold brew latte, matcha latte, and mocha)
• Cooking cream, creamy oat spread, and custard

Brand features

1. Oatly’s brand is centred around hand-drawn, funky designs. DIY-style typography and playful illustrations give the effect of being a natural product.

2. Oatly’s website is uniquely designed with a horizontal scroll feature highlighting top products, blog posts, and campaign visuals.

3. Oatly’s messaging is quirky, bold, and socially conscious. Its tone is casual, humorous, and makes plant-based eating feel fun and accessible. Oatly has a solid stance on sustainability and isn’t afraid to challenge the dairy industry with cheeky, thought-provoking ads and field marketing initiatives.

4. Oatly is unique in the plant milk industry because of its elaborate marketing initiatives. Their campaigns stand out not only in the vegan world but in food marketing. The company goes above and beyond to make a statement and have fun with its ads. It makes loud statements in communities to gather attention, including the use of user-generated content and guerilla marketing.

Top marketing tactics

1. Bold, attention-grabbing, shock value ad campaigns

Oatly is known for its unconventional and eye-catching advertising, involving super random and loud campaign ideas and guerrilla marketing. They have an emphasis on OOH (out-of-home) marketing like London Underground takeovers, billboards in NYC, and field campaigns. Online examples include:

• Bringing Oatly products to America’s dairy state
• Celebrating a father who made a boat made out of Oatly boxes
• The giant milk carton
• Huge brand partnerships with Starbucks and Nespresso

Its offbeat Super Bowl “Wow, No Cow” commercial from 2021:

Crashing the International Dairy Food Association’s annual Capitol Hill Ice Cream Party:

2. Engaging social media presence

Oatly maintains an active and engaging presence on Instagram and TikTok. They also put long and short form content on YouTube, but their engagement is much lower there.

Posts are often funny and ominous. They really just try things and see what sticks. They are not afraid to post super obscure and random content, looking for a reaction. It works, with many of their videos getting over 1 million views. They share content to create an uproar in the comments and attempt to go viral.

Website: oatly.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/oatly
Instagram @oatly
LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/company/oatly
YouTube: YouTube.com/user/oatlyAB
TikTok @oatly
X @oatly

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