How Oatly Became a Creative Force, by Breaking All of Marketing’s Rules

The Oatly Model: Redefining Brand Voice Through Creative Autonomy

Oatly’s creative director, Michael Lee.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Oatly

The Oatly Origins

Oatly launched in Sweden in 1994, initially positioned as an oat‑based alternative to dairy. Its early branding was subtle and understated. The turning point arrived in 2012 when Toni Petersson assumed the CEO role, later recruited John Schoolcraft as chief creative officer. Schoolcraft dismantled the existing marketing apparatus and restructured the business around a creative‑first approach aimed at granting Oatly personality and global relevance. His experimental framework allowed Oatly’s creative team—the Department of Mind Control—to operate autonomously, crafting its own briefs, strategies, and executions independent of traditional oversight.

Schoolcraft stepped down in 2025, yet the decentralized structure persists. “No one can veto our decisions,” notes Lee, who joined as creative director in 2017 during Oatly’s U.S. expansion. “We aren’t presenting to marketing directors or sales personnel.” Such rarity makes the model critical: a distinctive voice cannot thrive without stripping away the approval layers that typically temper bold ideas.

“When things go well, that’s fine. When they don’t, you must accept feedback—and then have the fortitude to push forward and stay true to what feels authentic,” Lee explains. “This requires collective instinct, not bureaucratic guardrails. Creative leaders should instill a shared sense of brand truth so the whole organization can reject safe but soulless proposals.”

A Brand Voice Is a Feeling

The unconventional hierarchy produced a profoundly voice‑driven product. Oatly’s messaging—humorous, often provocative—has carved out a loyal following across markets. Notable examples include its cartons stylized with the hyphenated “OAT‑LY,” cartons filled with evolving self‑referential typography, and billboards posing questions like “Why do giant oat‑milk ads ruin cool neighborhoods?” and “Could a social media celebrity turning this poster into an Instagram hit make it seem cooler than you feel today?” Even product taglines such as “like milk but made for humans” sparked legal challenges from Swedish dairy interests—a conflict Oatly leveraged for widespread publicity.

Nevertheless, Lee admits the intangible nature of this approach poses challenges. “There is an Oatly idea, and there is… that is not an Oatly idea,” he observes. “Defining boundaries relies on developing a visceral feeling—what *feels* Oatly and what does not—for each instance. Attempting to codify this into a checklist undermines its essence; the brand identity must evolve as dynamically as the creators themselves.

Lee contends that genuine brand voices resist reduction to formal templates. Instead, they inhabit a fluid, perpetually updating state that emerges from lived experience rather than rulebooks. While cultivating this human‑centered ethos sounds idealistic, maintaining it inside large organizations demands radical transparency and unwavering commitment at every level—not merely from creative leadership.

Courage Gets Harder As You Scale

Founders frequently lament lacking the massive budgets available to established competitors. Yet Lee argues that startups can leverage their very size. Early stages allow daring experimentation, but scaling introduces heightened scrutiny, stakeholder expectations, and pressure to defend accumulated equity. At larger scales, brands risk over‑polishing until edges soften, compromising their identity. Preserving creative integrity therefore depends on foundational design: clear structure and intentional support for creatives from organization leadership down to the junior ranks.

What enables Oatly is precisely this architecture. Without a prescriptive brand book, the creative team continuously shapes and refines the brand itself. Without hierarchical gatekeepers forcing conformity, creatives feel accountable for excellence and possess the freedom to define new approaches when joining the firm.

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