Episode 78 - Oatly Ad Series Reviewed by Cisco and The Digital Voice

This week's episode is very special: we're reviewing an Oatly ad miniseries that they sent us themselves!

A very timely one for Veganuary, unusual and fun, these ads are a bit... different. Do they succeed in their messaging and does the humour work?

What do our guests Emma Roffey (VP Marketing EMEAR at Cisco), Julia Linehan (Founder and Managing Director, The Digital Voice) and Jerry Daykin (in between two global media jobs) think about them?

Watch the episode to find out!


Transcript

The following transcript is automatically generated so may not be 100% accurate, but will give you a good idea of what was discussed.

Tom Ollerton 0:07

Hello, and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, and this is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads and discuss what's good and bad about them. We're brought to you as normal by our partners contagious.com, so please go and check these guys out after the show. But this is a special episode. Unbelievably excited about the fact that Oatly wrote to me and said, "Can you review our ad on this show?" Yeah, of course, we're going to do it. So before we get to reviewing Oatly's ad, please, can we meet this week's guests?

Emma Roffey 0:42

Hi, I'm Emma Roffey. I'm the V.P. of marketing at Cisco for EMEAR, and also I run global advocacy at Cisco as well.

Julia Linehan 0:50

I am Jillian Linehan. I'm the founder and managing director of The Digital Voice.

Jerry Daykin 0:55

I'm Jerry Daykin. I'm on gardening leave between two media jobs, so using the time to write a book.

Tom Ollerton 1:00

Fantastic. Right, so Oatly sent us about 25 minutes for the content, so we're not going to watch all of that. We're just going to share a teaser for the ads. So let's see what you think.

Julia Linehan 1:21

I just really liked it. I mean, not only is it completely on point for Veganuary and the flexitarian whole concept of that, the whole series is based on, it's so timely, with people giving it a go of being a vegan for January, giving it and then very quickly starting to go. Actually, it's not for me. That's one of the other episodes that really resonated with me, but just overall, concept's brilliant. It's from the minds of people, I'd love to meet them, but I just thought it puts a smile on my face. And what's not to love about that?

Emma Roffey 2:30

What I love is the humor side. What I don't like in that little snippet that we just saw. I don't think they need to go on about, in my opinion, that they're puppets. They're not real, blah blah. I think that's... For me, that's a sort of a waste of energy, whereas they've got some fantastic messaging and some real humor that they can play on more. And I love what they're saying around in some other episodes. It's not all or nothing. You know, you can break through sometimes, and that's okay. Playing on the words, you know, Norm and Al and all that. Fantastic. I just didn't like the puppet bits at the end and not real. Like really, aren't you real? Well, never realize that.

Julia Linehan 3:14

There were some particularly cheeky bits in the hipster one that if you actually, it's a bit like panto, I've got to be honest that right up my street.

Jerry Daykin 3:22

I've slightly mixed feelings. I mean, I'll put my cards on the table and say I'm often not a fan of Oatly's marketing, and I think they they play around with this kind of, "Oh, this is an advert. Aren't we clever for telling you it's an advert kind of thing?" I think personally gets a bit dated is also buried in joke for our industry and a lot of consumers, I'm not sure get. When I watch that, you know, three or four clip, I laugh, I smile, like I think it's a it's a great bit communications. It tells a tough and slightly boring, although it's we shouldn't be bored about saving the world, but we know we can be story in a really rich way, and I don't mind the puppets going on about the existential crisis. I quite enjoyed it.

Julia Linehan 3:59

It was a weird one that I watched one and then I, I wanted to watch the next one and then I wanted to watch the next one. Obviously, nowadays you go into YouTube and it's like one after the other and you can see them because it comes up, but it did. It's something valid. Just made me think, "Oh, I quite like that. I quite like what's going to happen to Norm and Al?" I don't know why I'm so, they've won me over completely. It might be because I actually am a flexitarian as well. I like to... My daughter drinks soy milk, and I quite like it. But I also drink milk, and I'm probably their ideal audience in a way. Slightly childish and open to being flexitarian.

Jerry Daykin 4:32

And it's something. I mean, I, you know, it's a very it's a very competitive category, and a lot of the products look quite similar. This message is both helping them stand out in that category and hopefully expanding the categories. A lot of really good marketing stuff in there and even the kind of, "Hey, we're making an advert. Yeah, aren't we funny?" I think they kind of get the right balance. So I just think it's such a media hound. I'd be really worried about the media plan and the way they are making sure that people had a way into this. I think they need to be really careful because when you get into it? Brilliant. When you're at the edges, what is going on here?

Tom Ollerton 5:05

I think it falls halfway between an ad and like a good ad and an an OK YouTube series. Like if if the ad didn't exist, let's forget that TV spot. Forget that media budget. And it was a bunch of guys who were just trying to like a launch, a launch, a product. Is it stronger or do you think they tried to do two things here when one could have been better?

Emma Roffey 5:26

No, I think you have to take it for what it is actually and not too serious from that point of view. And that's where I can understand, you know, we're not real, we're puppets. That works. I think people would want to see more. Really good messages in that, but they can get across in a fun way.

Julia Linehan 5:42

The message was so clear to me, and I think it could be it worked in either. I just found it quite entertaining, and I think it could also encourage children as well as another layer to it. They could go further down, down a route, down towards more the children's market. But for me, this worked and I really liked it.

Jerry Daykin 6:00

Fantastic piece of content. If you get into. There is a real watch out, you know. I think in this multi-touch, multi-channel scheme, a lot of us think, "Oh, to make a great advert, it has to come alive in all of different spaces." That has to be something else people can do. Not all people have the luxury or the time to watch it. So, but no, it's a there's lots of really good stuff in there. If they can get people down that funnel.

Tom Ollerton 6:21

I feel, and we could get your views that, as Gareth Turner from Weetabix wrote a post in LinkedIn to that really struck with me. And it's the old tennis ball analogy. Throw one ball and you'll catch it. Throw two, you might get one. Throw three... And this is like 17 like marketing messages. You know, it's aimed at kids, at adults. It's funny, it's YouTube ad. It's a TV ad. It's like, well, the Veganuary. All those different things. I feel like the threw a ton of tennis balls to us here and it's like, "Oh, but I knew about Oatly anyway." Like...

Emma Roffey 6:48

Do you know what? I might disagree with you there, Tom, because I think the overarching message for me, from them, is give it a go. Just give it a go.

Julia Linehan 6:59

I'll back Emma up on this, and I caught a lot of those tennis balls, Tom, I don't know how many... I think they're not very good at tennis. Something in there.

Tom Ollerton 7:06

Well, Christ, what put down.

Jerry Daykin 7:10

My key word that none of us have said is preachy. And I think because it's not preachy. And I think a content in this space often it's like trying to communicate this stuff and tell you've got to make the world a better place and give up milk and stuff. It's easy to preach, too, so I think they've dodged a bullet and come up with something good by not being preachy.

Emma Roffey 7:29

And do you think they're blatantly talking about the competition as such? You know, they're breaking that rule.

Tom Ollerton 7:36

I think that they be marketing to or preaching to the choir to a degree, you know, going for the people who really care about climate change and all the rest of it. Is this a clever step away from that more aggressive, preachy planet saving? And if so, have they gone far enough? Is it mainstream enough? Have they blended it with the person who hasn't tried Oatly yet?

Julia Linehan 8:00

To my side, yes, because now I'm thinking, as you said it, I thought in every single one. Now I can remember the phrase they used about sustainability and saving the planet. But actually, that wasn't what came through. It was a very much softer message of trying to be a flexitarian. Try this because it's good for you. Try this because it's plant-based and you're dipping your toe in being a vegan. Try this because it's in in all these different messages. But actually, there were, they still said that phrase about this is sustainable. This is this is about our planet, but I think it was trying to. It was also said, but you that might not be your p-one. But whereas being healthy might be more of a priority. It felt like they were throwing us all those different messages.

Jerry Daykin 8:40

I think from a business perspective. The reason there is now, you know, every supermarket has a huge plant-based range, has huge growth in these categories. It isn't actually because there were now millions of extra sort of super passionate vegans campaigning for the party. It's because a lot of people have kind of gathered that this is a good idea to do. Sometimes, you know, they know there's something going on in the environment. We should do something. Actually, this concept quite nice, actually Oatly's quite nice. So I think it really is to become a mainstream brand. You have to kind of leave some of that behind because the majority of consumers aren't going to become a passionate environmental campaigners. They might happily make a slightly different choice here and there if it tastes good and isn't a bad thing. And I think that's the kind of audience sort of starting to move into just a good growth opportunity.

Tom Ollerton 9:26

It's voting time, guys. Can you give the Oatly campaign a mark out of five? Three, two, one... A five, a three, and a four. Well, there you have it, Oatly team. Congratulations, thank you so much for sharing that ad with us ahead of time. What a treat to get first dibs on that. See you next week!

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