Oatly paper cups on a black tray, printed "In a blind test 53% prefer Oatly to cow’s milk in coffee"
Submitted by The Romans

Oatly Taste

Influencer Marketing

The Romans staged a blind coffee tasting for Oatly with media and influencers at an Amsterdam bakery, with the agency reporting 4M+ media reach.

4M+media reach
1.2Msocial media reach through influencers
30+visitors

Case in 60 seconds

The Romans states the brief was to prove that plant based is not only better for the environment, but tastes better, so the work had to win on flavour rather than on environmental credentials.

The campaign appears to turn on the page's own claim that food preferences rest on deeply rooted biases, because a taster who knows which cup holds the oat milk judges the label rather than the drink.

Two coffees served side by side with the difference held back until after the choice was made, so guests committed to a preference on taste before learning that only the milk had changed.

Together with the Amsterdam bakery Scandinavian Embassy, The Romans invited media and influencers to give a twist to their Monday morning coffees, serving two different coffees and asking which one each visitor preferred. Taste guru Chantal van der Leest then guided guests through how food preferences rest on deeply rooted biases, and Oatly introduced its new signature drink, a liquid version of the Swedish pastry Semla.

The Romans reports 30+ visitors at the tasting, 4M+ media reach and 1.2M social media reach through influencers, all of them counted on the agency's own case study page.

Strategy Breakdown

Media and influencers invited to the Monday morning tasting in Amsterdam, and through them the coffee drinkers whose food preferences the brief treats as shaped by bias.
Plant based products are argued over on environmental grounds, while the brief puts the open question on flavour, so the work enters a debate about credibility on taste rather than on sustainability.
Based on the available evidence, the difficulty is that a taste claim made for a dairy alternative is discounted before it is tried, which is why the comparison was run blind rather than announced.
Oatly appears as the hidden variable rather than the host of the argument, since the page states that visitors judged two coffees and only afterwards learned it was the milk that differed.
Preferences described on the page as deeply rooted biases suggest that removing the label, rather than adding information, is what lets a taster register the drink actually in front of them.

Creative & Execution System

Partners

  • The Romans

Participation mechanic

  • Visitors were welcomed with two different coffees and asked which one they preferred, without being told that the milk rather than the coffee was the variable, so the choice itself was the demonstration.

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Media Reach4M+ media reach
Social Media Reach Through Influencers1.2M social media reach through influencers
Visitors30+ visitors

Why The Romans' strategy worked

  1. 1

    A blind comparison turns a product claim into something a guest proves personally, which leaves attending media and influencers with a first hand story to tell rather than a brand assertion to repeat.

  2. 2

    Bringing in a specialist host, here taste guru Chantal van der Leest, supplies the explanation a tasting needs, because the mechanic only lands once someone names the bias it has just exposed.

  3. 3

    Running the test inside an established bakery rather than a branded space lends it a neutral setting, which matters when the claim being tested is that the product wins on taste alone.

  4. 4

    Pairing the reveal with a new product, the liquid Semla drink, gives attendees a second reason to publish, so one invitation carries both a demonstration and a launch.

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