Episode 178 - Oat Cult Ad Reviewed by Haleon, by LUME CONSULTING and Direct Line Group
Wellness is a cult, but does it really require a sacrifice? If you’re one of those people who think overnight oats take too much commitment, Oat Cult have a solution.
The ad “Overnight Oats Without the Sacrifice,” created by Insiders Studio and sourced for us by Contagious, is a black & white, eye-catching, intriguing piece of creative. It’s something to talk about, definitely, but will it make consumers buy the product?
Our guests Sara Neves Paixão (Brand Strategy Consultant and Fractional Marketing Director at by LUME CONSULTING), Can Senses (MEA Media Manager at Haleon) and Tony Miller (Interim CMO at Direct Line Group) debate its merits, from marketing strategy to creative effectiveness and possible next steps, on this week’s episode. Let’s see their verdict!
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Transcript
This is automatically generated, so it’s not 100% accurate.
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a show where brands watch other brands’ ads.
Tom Ollerton 0:27
My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, the creative effectiveness adtech platform. So before we watch this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Sara Neves Paixão 0:37
Hi, my name is Sara, and I'm a Brand Strategy Consultant and Fractional Marketing Director at by LUME CONSULTING.
Can Senses 0:44
Hi, I'm Can Senses. I am Oral Care Media Manager at Haleon.
Tony Miller 0:48
Hi, last but not least, I'm Tony. CMO, currently at Direct Line Group.
Tom Ollerton 0:53
What a panel! This can only be the best version we've ever done of this show. So high expectation guys. But let's see this week's ad. So it's for a brand called Oat Cult that launched this year early 2025, very much as a disruptor in that breakfast market, promising probiotic rich overnight oats. I'm still not sure what that word means, but anyway, hopefully we'll find out during the show. The campaign was created by Insiders Studio, darkly comic and referencing one of my favourite films, I think. The Wicker Man. So let's see this week's ad.
Tom Ollerton 2:25
So, on a scale of 1 to 5. On a count of three, raise your fingers. One, two, three...
Tom Ollerton 2:32
A four, a four, and a three. Well... So, Tony, what did you think when you first saw that ad?
Tony Miller 2:38
I did think it was creative. I loved the intrigue of just the black and white film noir element to it. I thought, obviously, it grabs attention and kind of keeps you watching and wanting to find out if is he going to be sacrificed or not. It would stop me in my tracks if it was in a busy section on TV or streaming, I would absolutely stop and watch it. Would it make me want to buy it? That's another question.
Sara Neves Paixão 3:05
I actually really liked it. It took me a minute to understand it, but I think that it's very clear that their objective was to do something that would be very talkable and memorable given that they're just launching the brand. I think it's definitely something that you get really intrigued and you remember. From what I see it’s kind of, it’s their phase one. They probably will follow up with a phase two.
Can Senses 3:28
I can easily say that the creative bricks, the category norms and all of these clichés, we can all infer that the inspirations come from the movies like Midsommar and The Lighthouse. I think with the spice of British humour, right? To underline that without sacrifice benefit, it definitely breaks the clutter. However, the real missing part is the benefit, the product's real reason to buy is not there. Let's say maybe they sacrificed simplicity and clarity over differentiation.
Tony Miller 4:02
Yeah, I think it does a good job on cut through and kind of name recognition. If it's kind of its first phase one activity to kind of get attention. But I think there is elements of it, and you'd have to see it in connection with kind of like all of the other marketing mix that it's trying to do off the back of this, but in isolation, it does a good job at landing Oat Cult, but it doesn't do a good job in landing the differentiator of, “Why Oat Cult?” Why this overnight oats? Over others that are out there. It's not going to make me in this one minute ad that I might see on repetition, really understand it, or even to go find out more.
Sara Neves Paixão 4:39
I actually think that their differentiated point is that they're catering to a different audience. I think the overnight oats and the wellness, culture and ritual is, you know, during the past years has been very much, you know, the pastel colours, very calm, Instagram perfect. And I think they've seen an opportunity to cater to a different audience here and in a different way. So for me, that's that differentiated point. It's also from a business point of view. They've identified the segment from what I see.
Can Senses 5:08
I also feel like this is more like a teaser trailer of a movie, and it definitely needs to be supported with different channels and content, and of course, which leads to more content creation and distribution budgets, because it feels like too indirect to me.
Tom Ollerton 5:26
And could someone explain something to me? I'm going to look really stupid here, but what does without the sacrifice mean? Does a consumer say I have to sacrifice my whole evening to prepare my porridge for the next day? Am I missing the point here?
Sara Neves Paixão 5:37
It’s a bit about the perception of these kind of rituals, and the type of person you have to be, and the kind of rituals you have to do in order to eat something like overnight oats. So it's probably not something very tangible in terms of like, you can save this amount of hours, but rather the perception that actually maybe you would think that overnight oats is something quite complicated and takes a lot of time, but it's actually quite easy and convenient. So that's at least how I take it. I guess if we, if we go and actually check the amount of time, let’s say it was probably not that much.
Tony Miller 6:10
I think it's going for an audience that is into instant oatmeal. If you go for a traditional oatmeal pack that is probably filled with sugar and artificial flavours, and lack of goodness, you can actually have the same, but with better nutrients and no sugar added with the same amount of preparation. Potentially. Maybe? Maybe not.
Can Senses 6:35
You don't need to purchase different ingredients and mix it. Yeah, the idea comes from that thousands of overnight oats TikToks that the company’s saying. So there's a ritual. There are lots of different recipes, ingredients. So I think they're trying to eliminate that time and effort and that's it. You still need to wait overnight.
Sara Neves Paixão 6:58
For me, it's one of the most brilliant things that they've done here. It's really they took a product that it's not an innovation. You know, it is in the sense that they’ve added probiotics, etc., but the overnight oats concept already existed, but they've realised that there's an untapped opportunity for a new audience that has never tried that because of the barriers of, you know, takes too much work, it’s not for them, the way it's marketed to them.
They don't really relate to it because they're not... Not everyone wants to be a perfect Instagram, TikToker. For me, that's the biggest strength here.
Tom Ollerton 7:31
Yeah, it's kind of odd, isn't it? Because they're trying to land this like 1 billion cultures message and they're trying to land the kind of like it's less effort message. So it feels sort of pulling in different directions. But ultimately, what they've done I think is brilliant. They’ve visually and creatively disruptive. I mean their logo is that kind of like old sort of, I don’t know what you call that, which is mad, it's the opposite of like comforting, and you know, that sort of FMCG loveliness. You know, it's dark and it's twisted. What can we learn from this? What will you be taking back to your team saying, “Oh, I saw this thing by Oat Cult. We should think about this because it taught me that...” So on and so forth.
Can Senses 8:04
This is really disruptive, breaking all the category norms. However, it requires much more clarity about the product benefits and maybe it needs to tap a little bit more about the rituals and the cultures. So with that missing part, I think they need to be improved with this, these new additions. So the creative will flourish and enlighten more for the audience.
Sara Neves Paixão 8:29
The biggest learning is how they created something that is completely unexpected, and that has indeed generated a lot of PR and talkability.
Tony Miller 8:38
I would have to have some work done to it, or actually some follow up to really land the reasons to believe in the product differentiation. I think I threw this out to my team actually, end of last week, just to get their insight and view on it, just to say I've got, you know, I’m coming on, what do you guys think of it? And I think the majority of people kind of were saying similar things to us. A really lovely, creative stand out makes me want to watch it and get to the end. It was funny. It was very British, but it doesn't make me want to buy the product. And I think there is an element of advertising in this sense where you're trying to land the product, which is great, but you have to entice people to find out more and to find out why this is the product I'm going to purchase over what I'm already into. And it doesn't do that.
Tom Ollerton 9:25
Thumbs up or down. On a count of three, would you sign this campaign off in its current form? One, two, three... Can, you've got to commit. Oh, it's a down. Okay. So Sara, Can, Tony, thanks so much for your time.
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