Oatly's creative director says the company deliberately skips a brand book
Oatly creative director Michael Lee says the company has long refused to create a standard brand book, the style guide most large companies use to keep messaging consistent. He says new creative hires are told to 'unlearn everything you know about marketing,' and the company instead gives its creative team unusual autonomy to write and execute its own briefs. Oatly's shift traces back to 2012, when new CEO Toni Petersson and creative chief John Schoolcraft rebuilt the marketing department around creatives rather than traditional marketing structures.