Oatly Is Praised for Clever and Cheeky “Update Milk” Campaign That Exceeded Goals

Watch all of the Oatly "Update Milk" spots here.

Swedish company Oatly has been a pioneer of oat-based dairy alternatives since 1994. Today, it leads the oat milk market in the USA. At most coffee shops across the country, it’s the de facto oat milk provider. Still, oat milk drinking only makes up a portion of total milk consumption. Dairy dominates, and it’s understandable because cow milk is an American staple. Oatly’s marketing team had a thought — wouldn’t it be great if Oatly had the kind of clout that dairy has?

Thanks Milk, We’ll Take It from Here

Once the aha moment hit, ideas began to flow. The creative brief was simple. Find examples of quintessential American cultural moments that feature dairy, and replace dairy with Oatly oat milk. It’s a cheeky nod at dairy’s presence throughout American history, and then hacking that history. The initial tagline, “Thanks Milk, We’ll Take It from Here” ended up being a simple, “Update Milk” mantra.

The final product would be a series of a few archival clips with the replacement of Oatly for dairy both visually and aurally. The best archival clips would be somehow instructional in nature. It would show dairy being used to cook something, in an activity, or as the default drink in cultural tradition. In all of these scenes, the point is to emphasize Oatly as a replacement for dairy. The compilation of archival footage proves how ubiquitous milk is in everyday life. So whenever you need milk, choose Oatly.

Search, Clear, License: Rising to the Challenge

Oatly’s internal production house approached Catch+Release early on, knowing they needed the extra help to source, clear, and license all this archival footage. The unique challenge of this particular campaign was that they not only needed permission to use the clips, they also needed permission to edit them by overlaying Oatly both visually and aurally. This adds another layer to the clearance process.

Together as partners, we assembled our dream team. On the Catch+Release side, we brought in our Executive Creative Director, Tom Christmann, our Director of Curation, Liz Mandeville, our Director of Clearance, Lloyd Winston, Customer Success Manager, Katie Shanks, and Account Director, Anna Garwood. From Oatly’s team we had their Sr. Producer, Creative Director (North America), Brand Director, and Executive Director (Brand and Creative).

Beginning with search, the whole team got to work digging through internet archives to find the perfect clips. Though the final compilation would only include a few clips, as a best practice we cast a wide net. We found dozens and dozens of footage that fit the brief. It was important to find a variety of options — cartoons, advertisements, documentaries, movies, reality shows, etc.

To keep the project moving forward, we started clearance early, even as we were still searching. This is a smart move because archival content in particular can be more challenging to get cleared than other types of licensable content. This is for a few reasons. Archival content is often managed by large companies or estates that might charge exorbitant prices and be hard to get in contact with. Before you even get to that point, it can be tricky identifying exactly who legally owns the rights to a clip that’s especially old. For example, the brand behind a commercial from decades back might not exist anymore.

A Successful Campaign Wins the Hearts of the People

After three months of hard work, Oatly published nine short spots that hilariously retell history by hailing Oatly as the beloved — not just milk, but — drink of choice for America throughout time. In total they licensed one vintage cartoon from the 1930’s, four vintage tv show clips from the 1950’s, one children’s nutrition special from the 1980’s, two infomercials from the 1990’s, and one live cooking show from the early 2000’s.

The spots were promoted on social media, streaming video and connected TV, and cinema. Specifically, they were placed on Instagram via Stories, Feed, Reels, and Explore, YouTube Instream, YouTube Masthead, CTV, and theater screens through NCM and ScreenVision partners. On Instagram, the campaign exceeded their reach goals by 2x. On YouTube Instream, the campaign delivered 83% more Trueviews and a 24% higher VTR (view-through rate) than what was initially anticipated. The spots were also featured at over 1,000 movie theaters across the country, for more than 606,000 showings of the Barbie film, garnering more than 26 million impressions. Additionally, the Thirsty Cats video ran prior to the record breaking, concert film Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour in over 400 theaters and nearly 5k screens generating an additional 7MM impressions.

Viewers loved the spots, commenting on Instagram about how “legendary” the ad was, how the marketing team deserves praise, and how the ads made them happy. Overall, the campaign was a huge success and a wonderful display of creativity.

33 million + impressions at cinema showings
24% higher view-through rates on YouTube

Props to the All-Star Oatly Team

Oatly’s production team executed this campaign beautifully. By setting clear expectations, mapping out a reasonable timeline, and bringing in the right resources, they were able to see their vision come to life and watch it perform beyond expectations. Oatly’s Sr. Producer said she had a great time working with Catch+Release. “We couldn’t have done this without you!” We were happy to help them source and license the best clips for their campaign.

Oatly’s team showed just how collaborative they are by taking advantage of all the teamwork features on the Catch+Release platform. They enjoyed the label feature, which allows you to attach tags to any of the shots in a collection. They also used the commenting feature to give creative feedback on all the shots that were up for consideration. It was great to work with their team and be part of their creative process.

Bravo to Oatly for this clever and absolutely brilliant campaign! We hope this challenges other brands to push the boundaries and think up new and inventive ways to market themselves. You can watch the final Oatly spots here.