Oatly
The Original Oatly: Youthfully Reinventing the Way Companies Communicate
Prioritizing change and excitement in every aspect of the company
By: Ryann Armstrong
As a young cow-milk hater and advocate for plant-based products, I admire Oatly products for many reasons. Whether it be its unique, engaging social media efforts, playful company voice or advocacy work in environmental sustainability efforts, Oatly deserves a lot of praise for its work in public relations.
According to PRSSA, public relations “is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. At its core, public relations is about influencing, engaging and building a relationship with key stakeholders to contribute to the way an organization is perceived.” Oatly meets these requirements and exemplifies them with its innovative communication methods.
Engaging Social Media
Overall, Oatly has a solid social media presence that caters directly to its key demographics. For example, the company recently did a campaign on its Instagram that challenged the idea of cow milk being the default milk option in American culture by parodying old cow milk commercials. The company's social media is edgy and unique, which drives attention from their younger, Gen Z and millennial audiences. As a result of its chiseled social media style, Oatly has enjoyed continuous following growth on all of its accounts. However, its most impressive account is the Oatly Tiktok account. With about 660,000 followers, the company continuously receives more and more engagement on the account. All of Oatly’s social media accounts exemplify PR in social media. However, its TikTok is one of the leading innovative accounts on the app.
Company Voice
Oatly has a youthful, sarcastic tone in its communication strategies. This tactic works well with the company’s publics because they tend to be younger adults who appreciate this type of humor. Oatly also does not grow to remain silent about social and political issues, which is another tactic that Gen Z appreciates. By “leveraging its Jester-Outlaw archetype,” Oatly has gained international attention from young adults with mostly organic public relations tactics, something that is almost unheard of in today’s PR ecosystem.
Environmental Stability Advocacy
Oatly’s sustainability awareness is its strongest asset. Most of its significant partnerships and social stances revolve around environmental protection issues. Some of its biggest initiatives within this field are its F.A.R.M program and its yearly climate footprint reports. The Future Agricultural Renovation Movement (or F.A.R.M) is a series of partnerships between Oatly and local farmers across the world to improve regenerative agriculture. The movement’s primary goals are to restore carbon, improve biodiversity and support farm viability all through farming. Oatly’s other big initiative towards sustainability is its climate footprint reports. Although most companies have some sort of footprint report at this point, Oatly takes its a step further by going into extreme detail and setting improvement goals for the upcoming year.
Through its innovative use of traditional public relations methods, Oatly sets the precedent for how new PR should look. The tactics to receive engagement from young people look a lot different than what they once did, and instead of staying stuck in old, outdated methods, companies must learn and adapt to the evolving culture of Gen Z. Oatly is a perfect example of a company that routinely successfully gains positive attention from young people.
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Sources
https://www.behance.net/gallery/96234869/Oatly
https://www.instagram.com/oatly
https://medium.com/@ai_hana/what-does-gen-z-really-want-from-brands-f1859f9775e6
https://www.oatly.com/things-we-do/stories/the-farm/14
https://journalism.unt.edu/index.html
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