We have partnered with two Irish entrepreneurs to create a new to world healthy oat-based snacking brand, The Heroic Oat. We created the name and developed the brand strategy and brand identity for the new venture. The brand launched in 2022 and is now available in leading convenience stores, forecourts and health food shops throughout Ireland with launch in the UK expected in 2024.

The brains behind the new venture are Tomas Codd and Oran McGrath, a sports-mad farmer and a health-conscious physicist respectively. The idea for the business originated as the two sat together over a pint of beer asking why crisps could not be healthy and tasty, and so set themselves the challenge of doing so. Using 100% natural ingredients, the physicist found a revolutionary way to bake the oat gently that keeps the goodness of the oat in the process and yet results in a product that looks and tastes like the beloved fried crisp, but is a world apart nutritionally. With 66% wholegrain oats in every pack, the slow-release nature of the oats ensures a snack that “keeps you fuller for longer”. For today’s nutritionally-savvy consumers they’ve packed 22% protein and all the natural high fibre of oats into each pack.

Inspired by the success of the Hippeas chickpea based healthy snack in recent years, McGrath and Codd identified a gaping hole for nutritionally valuable tasty snacks in the savoury category – where existing snacks offer flavour and texture rewards, but leave you wanting and feeling a little cheated in satisfaction – as they are often just a few pieces of tasty empty crunchiness.

Our task for the strategic and creative development of the new brand was to focus on the honest goodness of the oat (not pretending to be a potato-based crisp), as an aura of goodness surrounds the oat, in addition to a solid understanding of the sustenance it can deliver. While most savoury snacks are being chosen for being ‘better than’ (things that are bad for you) – this snack is offering more than ‘supposed goodness’ – it is genuinely nutritionally valuable. Each pack is equal to 1/3 bowl of porridge grounds, a proposition that consumers can relate to, in a world where everything else feels pretend or confusing.

After a creative name generation process, the name “The Heroic Oat” was chosen. The brand is positioned around the idea of ‘tasty honest goodness’ – in a category where there is a lot of confusion, a lack of depth of nutritional information coupled with self-deception of trying to be healthy yet wanting satisfaction of a tasty reward. We sought to strike a balance between the element of honest goodness, in knowing you are doing yourself some good, whilst at the same time being rewarded with great flavours. The brand design heroes the playfulness and realness of the brand story – two men and an oat, and what they have created together.