Oatly installation at the IRIS:Your Escape event continues brand's HK push

Oatly made a notable event appearance over the weekend (27 and 28 April) at the “IRIS: Your Escape” event – Hong Kong’s largest health and wellness festival - with a range of activities to introduce plant-based milk option to Hongkongers. The Swedish oat drink brand rolled out numerous activations throughout the two-day event held at the Central Harbourfront Event Space. This included the debut of an installation based around its newly-created Chinese word for plant-based milk. The Chinese character itself combines elements of the Chinese character for “plant” with the character for “milk”. Oatly also set up a malevolent-sounding “Brainwash-o-matic” with a slightly more altruistic aim of brainwashing Hong Kong people to embrace a plant-based revolution and step up for environmental protection. Another highlight was the blender bike, still a trendy event staple for health and environment-oriented brands. Participants made their own fresh fruit Oatly vegan milkshakes by riding the blender-bike to mix them up. Furthermore, to encourage people to rethink their milk consumption choices, Oatly set up a “Plant-based milk VS Animal-based milk” voting wall at IRIS to let people have their say. Some would say it's a dangerous gamble to allow the public to have a public vote over the worth of your brand in case it backfires but it seemed to pay off. After becoming a trendsetting beverage stateside, Oatly has been making a strong push into Asia and Hong Kong. This has included numerous OOH ads and partnerships, such as one with Starbucks who recently concluded an Oatly-focused drink promotion and has added the milk drink to its menu. Expect to see more event appearances by the brand as it continues to solidify local brand awareness.