Everybody wants breakthrough work. But is your brand brave enough to actually pull it off? If you’re ready to follow in the footsteps of brands like DUDE Wipes, Liquid Death, or Oatly, renowned brand (and White House) strategist Heidi Hackemer, Principal at Hackemer, has built a framework to get you there.
In this episode of Question Everything, Heidi breaks down the thinking behind campaigns from Oatly (remember the Super Bowl?), Duolingo, and Patagonia. She also shares her advice for legacy brands that want to grow like challenger brands, along with the “4Cs” proven to supercharge brand strategy.
These lessons are strong enough that any brand can apply them.
One way to break through is to create your own hate train. When Oatly set its sights on the Super Bowl, the team pre-printed “I hated that Oatly commercial” t-shirts and delivered them to vocal critics within 30 minutes of the ad airing. In other words, they weren’t surprised by the backlash. They engineered it. Instead of following a classic Super Bowl formula, Oatly went deliberately lo-fi to stand out. It translated into huge business gains.
Turns out all press can be good press if it’s intentional. The difference between backlash and breakthrough is whether the brand planned for it. For Oatly, this was not a stunt. It was a strategy. The brand’s MO is to challenge advertising norms, even if that means repurposing footage from a Norwegian iPhone shoot for a Big Game ad. When you embrace risk and stay true to your point of view, even criticism can drive growth.
Oatly can break through the noise, but most brands are not spending 8 million dollars on a Super Bowl ad. The good news is you don’t need to.
Heidi’s framework is built for a world where attention is fragmented and audiences are juggling multiple screens. At its core is a simple truth. Brands need a sharp, unwavering sense of who they are and what they stand for. Then they need to decide how far they are willing to push it.
From there, breakthrough comes down to focus. There are three dimensions. Pick one and go all in.
Best-in-class: Oatly and Patagonia
Oatly provokes the dairy industry, even inviting lawsuits, because it fuels attention. Patagonia takes a similarly unapologetic stance, using its platform to push political action, including tagging products with “Vote the assholes out” to protect public lands.
Best-in-class: Tony’s Chocolonely
The fair trade chocolatier’s stance against child and slave labor shows up across the entire business. It is not a gimmick. It is embedded in how they invest, putting nearly as much into lobbying and systemic change as they do into marketing.
Best-in-class: Duolingo
There is nothing inherently disruptive about learning a new language, so Duolingo made it weird. By breaking nearly every social media norm, the brand turned its difference into its most ownable asset. One scroll through its feed makes that clear.
Heidi reinforces that your ability to break through depends entirely on your commitment to the bit. Breakthrough creative is not about budget. It is about conviction. The brands that win are the clearest on what they stand for and bold enough to follow through.
For large legacy brands, creating bold work that embraces real risk does not always feel possible. That is why Heidi recommends that companies like P&G and Unilever create dedicated spaces for ambitious brands to scale without rigid guidelines or red tape.
When Axe set out to disrupt men’s grooming, Unilever recognized it could not operate under the same rules as the rest of the portfolio. So they created the “Republic of Axe,” a model where the brand was freed from standard processes and given permission to move fast, take risks, and operate differently. We know what happened next.
The lesson is simple. If you are a CMO inside a large organization and want a brand to break through, you need to create the space and processes required for that kind of work.
It is a gold-standard framework for a reason. Heidi relies on the 4Cs as a core part of her process and credits them with helping her avoid major missteps in high-stakes meetings.
To create a strong strategy, pressure test these four areas:
Culture: What movements are shaping the world?
Consumer: Who are you serving, and how do they relate to you and the category?
Category: Who are you up against, and what space are you in?
Client: What is true about the brand, including strengths, flaws, and leverage points?
If you miss even one, you will likely end up with a strategy full of holes and missed opportunities.
So how can challenger brands use this to their advantage?
Start with the consumer. Talk to real people. Understand what they love and what they hate, then use those insights to break through. Get out of your echo chambers and have real conversations. It makes the work better, and in a pitch, clients love it.
Want more from Heidi? From her pivotal strategy win for the Obama White House to why quitting her job was the best decision she ever made – and her take on brands that have lost their way (and how to fix them) – there’s plenty more to unpack. If anything here sparked your interest, there’s a lot to learn and a lot to love about our full conversation.
ABOUT THE QUESTION EVERYTHING PODCAST
Part interview, part therapy, part Price Is Right, the Question Everything podcast puts your favorite CMOs and thought leaders in the hot seat. That means while they're facing off against our game board, you'll learn from the successes and failures of the best in the biz who were daring enough to be curious.
