Pagan rituals, cult horror nods and a gut-friendly healthy breakfast aren’t often found in the same sentence, but overnight oats brand Oat Cult is looking to offer something a little different in its new campaign from Edinburgh and London-based agency Insiders.
The ad launches Oat Cult, a new probiotic overnight oats brand, into the UK market with a dark and funny film that references everything from the Wicker Man to Edward Scissorhands, with a big dose of British humour.
Oat Cult is the first ambient premixed overnight oat brand with added probiotic bacteria, and taps into the huge growth areas of both overnight oats and probiotics.
The ad plays with the idea that overnight oats are worthy of cult-like devotion, but that there’s no need to make a huge sacrifice to make them.
Inspired by cult horror classics, and shot in black and white in homage to Robert Eggers’ horror films like The Lighthouse and The Witch, this campaign subverts the usual breakfast narrative.
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In the ad we see a man, in pyjamas and a dressing gown, sitting alone in a secluded cottage, deep in the British countryside and preparing his Oat Cult ready for breakfast.
He looks up to see pagan figures dance past his door, dressed in white and covered with sheafs of oats. Intrigued, he joins them, still in his PJs, as they dance in a circle on top of a hill, but gets drawn into ever darker oat-loving rituals, until he fears the worst.
Thankfully, the ad ends with the Oat Cult members back in his house, eating his breakfast with the tagline ‘Oat Cult: overnight oats without the sacrifice.’
The ad, directed by Three Shades, is almost entirely in black and white, with just the Oat Cult end frame in vibrant colour. The soundtrack of atonal strings and chanting adds even more to the ad’s cult movie quality.
“This was a dream brief, the chance to stretch our creative brains and create something absolutely standout in a category that has been dominated by boring porridge brands,” said Josh Clarricoats, co-founder, at Insider. “Oat Cult is putting creativity and the heart of its business. Its packaging, branding, market position and now this ad are all testament to going all in on creativity to generate growth. Start up brands can’t afford to be ignored and this ad, just like everything else about Oat Cult, is absolutely unmissable.”
Overnight oats are one of the UK’s biggest growth areas and the top-searched UK food trend on TikTok with 70,300 monthly searches and a 49% increase year-on-year.
Gut health and probiotics are another huge growth area, with a global market size of $49.46 billion, projected to reach $94.41 billion by 2030.
Oat Cult comes in three flavours: cinnamon, cacao and strawberry, and in unmissable, stand-out shelf-ready packaging for its single serve sachets.
