By Megan Graham
When oat milk was still largely a curiosity, Oatly made a name for itself with verbose, self-aware billboards. A bus-stop ad reading "We made this specifically for vegans and non-vegans and for normally-not-vegan-but-sometimes-flexi-veggie-person-tarians" helped consumers understand what the product was and who should buy it.
Now that oat milk is a staple for many consumers, the Swedish company has shifted its focus to trying to inform beverage culture and trends through events and other efforts, even as Oatly itself focuses on efficiency and frugality. While Oatly doesn't break out marketing spending in its financial reports, its annual selling, general and administrative expenses -- which include costs such as advertising, branding, sales teams and other corporate overhead -- have fallen $92 million from the peak in 2022.
"We have migrated from analog-heavy individual advertising to a more relevant, integrated and digital-first approach, always blended with iconic culture-making life events," Oatly's Global President and Chief Operating Officer Daniel Ordonez said in an investor call in April. Oatly still runs out-of-home advertising.
Oatly executives see clear signs its growth playbook is working.
Michael Lee, executive vice president and one of four executive creative directors who lead Oatly's marketing for different regions, spoke with the WSJ Leadership Institute about the company's new strategy and how it is working with coffee chains to do more than just supply the oat milk.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
WSJLI: Oatly executives have spoken in the past about how the company does marketing differently. Is that still the case?
Michael Lee: It all starts from how we're structured. It wasn't really until 2012 when the former CEO, Toni Petersson, came in. The first thing he did was bring in the chief creative officer at the time, John Schoolcraft, who initially said there's no way I'm going to work for an oat milk company. And then Toni persisted, and John said, "I'll do it on one condition: if you fire the marketing department."
So he did. They fired the marketing department and put John in charge of everything, structuring things to bring creativity into all aspects of the company. That persists today. The executive creative directors sit at the highest level and we're involved in all aspects of the business: commercially, the brand, product development, HR, everything. We don't have marketing directors, we don't present our work to the sales team, there's no CMO that we have to contend with. We essentially do our own strategy and sign off on our own work. The biggest difference is that trust with creativity.
WSJLI: Oatly's leadership has spoken on recent earnings about switching its advertising strategy. Why the change, and what does it mean for the kind of marketing you're doing now?
ML: In the early days, when we were introducing the idea of oat milk and also a voice around sustainability, it was very much out-of-home driven.
We basically wrote novels on billboards, and all the media agencies said this will never work, but it created this following.
Where we're at now is really an evolution and an extension of something called the barista strategy. We felt the best way for people to understand what oat milk is is to go to your coolest cafe, get a cool barista who pours you a perfect latte or cappuccino with oat milk. We leaned in to that and hired a bunch of baristas instead of salespeople. We had like 60 or 70 of these ex-baristas on our staff, and they were just spending their time in the coolest cafes, talking with the coolest baristas all over the world.
We started to see this massive explosion in beverage culture, and in coffee culture in particular, where coffee was moving way beyond flat whites and cappuccinos into different taste experiences, different colors, textures and endless customizations. Drink drops are treated like sneaker drops, drinks have become fashion accessories.
We started stealing a page from the fashion industry, where fashion labels come out with their lookbooks on trends that season. We present our bold predictions on the drinks, flavors, colors and textures that we think are going to be interesting. That brought us out from the out-of-home billboard space into real life -- events and experiences.
WSJLI: And how do events like this month's Aftertaste, where retailers, restaurant partners, creators and media came to hear speakers about where beverage culture is headed, fit into that?
ML: When we were thinking about this event, we talked about it as the "Davos of beverages." Bringing the people who influence drinks and beverage culture together to discuss the future of what's happening. We scale that by creating content and spreading that vibe over the internet.
WSJLI: So is the hope that you are shifting the culture and injecting Oatly into drink culture in these bigger markets, then having that bleed into the consumer mindset across the board?
ML: We can't do big events all over the place, but we're doing events with our barista team with local cafes all over America, then displaying the FOMO [Fear of Missing Out] on digital. Leading with these events, leading with activations in real life is a more powerful way for people to experience these drinks and the culture surrounding them.
WSJLI: Are you still doing more traditional advertising to fuel sales?
ML: We're doing all of that. But the bulk of the spend is really about what we're talking about now. We of course do a lot of shopper marketing and kind of cover all the bases, but in terms of the work that we do with the brand, it's where we kind of focus most of our creative power.
WSJLI: How has the way you're working with restaurants and cafes changed as part of all this?
ML: In the past, when you talked with a restaurant or beverage chain such as McDonald's or 7 Brew or Dutch Bros, it was all about distribution.
What's happening nowadays is we're moving from just becoming an oat milk supplier to a strategic partner with our QSR [Quick Service Restaurant] channel. Our conversations with them aren't just about volume and price, it's about where drinks are headed.
When we come in with our insight that is gleaned from actual baristas all over the world, they tend to lean in and they tend to listen. We come in more as consultants on what's happening with beverages, especially as it relates to younger consumers, and we're invited to help develop their beverage and coffee programs.
The QSR channel typically understands trends faster than retail, so we apply the same approach to retail, but with retail it's more of giving them a wake-up call and saying, "Hey guys, your shelves are not built the way Gen Z is shopping for coffee right now."
WSJLI: Oatly executives have also referred to a culture that's obsessed with efficiency. This kind of work isn't really what I would historically consider as efficient. How do you square that directive with this very high-touch strategy you've begun to employ?
ML: We do what we think is right. The fact that we've been given so much leeway within the company to take risks and to do stuff, I think makes us more aware. We're not frivolous with our spend, and we wouldn't be doing this unless we felt it was the best way to create the sharpest brand amongst the people that we want to reach.
Write to Megan Graham at megan.graham@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 16, 2026 06:00 ET (10:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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