THE STORY NOTE - Oatly: When Your Copy Is The Brand
- Karen Anderson
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Some brands spend years agonising over and perfecting their logo ... Oatly perfected their tone of voice.
Before oat milk was mainstream fashioanble, before supermarket shelves had entire plant-based aisles, before every coffee shop asked what kind of milk you’d like, there was a slightly strange Swedish brand writing self-aware, mildly chaotic copy on the side of a carton, and it totally worked.
The Origin Story (and why it matters)
Oatly started in the 1990s as a food science innovation in Sweden as a way of turning oats into a dairy alternative. Unusual, yes but the product alone wasn’t the breakthrough.
The breakthrough came when they decided to stop talking like a food company and instead of sounding worthy or nutritional, they sounded quirky and human.
Opinionated, witty, a bit awkward sometimes and very aware that they were disrupting an industry.
They didn’t whisper “plant-based option” like they were slightly embarrassed by the imposition, they said, loudly, “It’s like milk, but made for humans.”
Subtle, it was not but memorable? ... completely.
What They Really Did
Oatly understood something very early ... if you’re challenging an established industry (in this case, dairy), your brand can’t be bland so they built a voice that ...
• Explained things in simple, easy to understand terms
• Called out the dairy industry boldly and directly
• Admitted their imperfections
• Spoke like a person, not a corporation
Their logo looks like it's been hastily scribbled, their packaging became their media channel, their ads sometimes looked unfinished and their billboards felt like inside jokes.
None of this felt like marketing, it felt like someone with a point of view.
The Risk
Let’s be honest, not everyone loves Oatly’s postion or personality - it’s political, a bit irreverent and as a result, occasionally irritates people - but that’s the point ... When you stand for something, neutrality isn’t an option and Oatly chose to be distinctive over being universally liked.
Story Built Into Everything
Here’s what’s really clever about Oatly ... their sustainability messaging isn’t tucked away in a report no one reads ... it’s right there on the pack, in the ads, in the interviews and in their slightly rambling copy that feels like someone typing directly to you. Even their climate footprint labelling became part of the narrative.
They didn’t treat transparency as a compliance task, they embodied it and wore it as their identity. That becomes the story.
What Brands Can Learn
Oatly proves that tone of voice is not decoration, it’s infrastructure, the building blocks that make up who they are. You can’t hand “funny copy” to a junior marketer at the end of the process, it only works because the business itself has a strong point of view.
The product, the activism, the ads, the partnerships ... they all speak the same language and that’s alignment.
The Story Note
If someone covered your logo, would we still recognise your brand? Oatly would be obvious because their voice is unmistakable and in crowded markets, that’s not a nice-to-have, it’s the whole game.
Written by Karen Anderson - Co-Founder of Everything & Nothing
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