Written by Eva Mitchell

Last week, the IMPACT team had the pleasure of heading to Mumbrella360 and attending a fascinating talk by our client Oatly and its Chief Creative Officer, John Schoolcraft.  

Kickstarting his inspiring session on building Oatly into the global success it is today, Schoolcraft delivered an incredibly hot take: it’s time to kill the marketing department.  

Having captured the full attention of the room, filled to the brim with marketers, he elaborated on how traditional marketing is outdated and holding back brands from reaching their potential.   

Oatly’s recipe: One-part oats, two-parts creative freedom 

Put the creatives in the centre of the company. This was a key insight that underpinned the session as well as Oatly’s triumph in carving its own path to growth.  

Schoolcraft encouraged businesses who want to grow to remove ‘what gets in the way’ of creating a world class brand by eliminating unnecessary process. Cutting back traditional marketing methods allows creatives to focus on the details and spend time “making something great”.   

Further supporting creatives in getting good work out the door, he stressed the importance of letting the people making the ideas, approve the ideas. He shared how everyone at Oatly plays their part in the creative process.  

Schoolcraft recited an example where a Swedish dairy company’s ad aimed to discredit Oatly with the tagline ‘only milk tastes like milk’ and used silly fake names to depict ‘fake milk’. What did Oatly do? One of its lawyers realised the dairy company had not trademarked the names, so Oatly did and went on to use the names on packaging to flip the script.   

Schoolcraft also believes that a creative-led brand allows for more risk-taking, which should be normalised. However, he stressed you must be committed and fully invested in what you are doing in order to succeed.   

Another key piece of advice was that “inviting creatives into business meetings puts them in front of the brief”. He paired this with the need to embed the creative team into the company – sitting with legal, product development and not being a separate department, helps build trust, collaboration and culture.  

He also encouraged the leaders in the room to “allow your people to do the best work of their lives”.   

Stick to your voice, not the script 

From using the inside of a tub to find a colleague a boyfriend, to sharing their core values on the side of milk cartons, Oatly certainly finds creative uses for blank spaces. But it’s more than this. 

Schoolcraft explained that these are opportunities to build a voice and share opinions – this is essentially what makes Oatly human and not just a logo.  

Being fearlessly authentic in every market is fundamental too as Schoolcraft explained “we must be ourselves everywhere we go”. He highlighted the Australian ‘Support your Local Oat Dealer’ campaign, which IMPACT collaborated on, as an example of this.  

The project was designed to encourage traffic to local coffee shops and support baristas in Sydney and Melbourne, offering free oat milk coffees in September. The IMPACT team developed and executed an influencer program and earned media strategy to help build awareness of this fantastic Oatly initiative.   

To learn more about how IMPACT can amplify your next campaign, tap into social opportunities, leverage influencers or build media awareness, contact Trish McGee at trish@impactagency.com.au.