OATLY’S ELECTRIC SAMPLING TOUR

In a bold move towards better brand experiences for people and the planet, Oatly has wrapped up its first-ever fully electric sampling tour and our team was behind the wheel (literally and figuratively).

As part of Oatly’s BLIND TASTE campaign, the three-week “TASTE Tour” set out to shift perceptions around plant-based coffee by letting the product do the talking. But this wasn’t just about flat whites it was a live experiment in sustainable sampling, reimagined from the ground up by our team to deliver real impact with zero emissions.

From a sustainability perspective, this tour hit the accelerator. Oatly tasked us with creating a mass-sampling experience that was simple, smart, and scalable with a fully electric vehicle at its heart. The brief was clear: take oat lattes across the UK at pace, with maximum visibility and minimum footprint.

We delivered an all-electric mobile café: a branded vehicle kitted out with a commercial-grade coffee machine, soft-serve setup, and detachable walk-up tent, all designed for high-footfall environments. But what really powered the experience? AES’s EnergyHub a mobile, battery-driven system that kept the setup running off-grid for seven to eight hours daily, with no reliance on fossil fuels. Solar panels and standard mains were used for recharging, proving that mobile, low-carbon infrastructure isn’t just possible it’s practical.

Over 25 action-packed days, the van visited Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and back covering 1,235 miles and dishing out 8,522 coffees. That’s thousands of meaningful conversations, smiles (around 29,827 by our estimate), and sustainable sips, all powered by 1,018 litres of Oatly and some brilliant brand ambassadors.

We designed the van to flex into other formats too with activations popping up in places like Sainsbury’s car parks. The idea? A modular, repeatable setup that can plug into future campaigns with minimal tweaks and maximum efficiency.

“This was about more than just oat lattes,” said Positive Experience MD Rik Haines. “It was about rethinking how we show up in the world — and proving that sustainability, creativity, and scale can go hand in hand.”

With low impact and high return, this was a brand experience that didn’t just meet the brief — it built a roadmap for future activations. From zero-emissions transport to renewable energy on the go, the project proved that plant-based sampling doesn’t have to come with a carbon cost.

Stephanie Elgegren, Brand Project Manager at Oatly said: “Taste is the one of the biggest
motivations for people, particularly when it comes to breaking old habits, and we know that
people love Oatly in their coffee, they just don’t know it yet. Whilst barista-crafted oat drink
coffees have become a staple in the specialty coffee scenes, our blind test shows that there
are still millions of people who are missing out on first-class taste experiences. With the
launch of our national Taste campaign, we went on a journey with the team at Positive
Experience to bring tens of thousands of barista-crafted Oatly coffees to people across the
UK, proving what we know to be true, our oat drinks taste delicious.

The sampling tour with Positive Experience formed an essential part of the campaign. From the production stage of bringing our fully electric, off the grid vision to life, down to the 4-week tour across the country with exceptional brand ambassadors as extensions to the brand, providing people
with first-class brand and product experience.”

And best of all? It’s just the start.