Duolingo has just committed murder - and it’s their smartest marketing move yet

At 9:15am this morning, our team jumped onto our morning Google Hangouts call for our standard ‘overnight news and scandal’ run-through. While such updates usually cover the latest algorithm shifts and cool brand campaigns, today was a different story. Duo, Duolingo's wreckless but lovable owl mascot, was announced as DEAD.

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We, along with 1.1M others who liked Duolingo’s Instagram announcement post, were of course initially totally #heartbroken by the news of this sudden death but—call us savvy marketers—something inside us told us that it might not quite be the end of the lovable rogue. At least not his legacy. And there may perhaps be more a’comin’...

The announcement on Instagram was soon followed by a TikTok post, posted on the language-learning app’s TikTok page, showing a Tesla Cybertruck apparently ramming into Duo in a parking lot, followed by an animated explosion and the bird seemingly going to hell thereafter. A slightly elaborate ‘trip’ but, we kind of love it…?

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Working in a social-first environment, where ‘fast-paced’ is an understatement and reactive responses are only considered relevant if you’ve posted about an update within five seconds of it making its appearance online, it was our natural knee-jerk reaction/professional obligation to join the throng of people who took to social to get involved in the convo piece. 

Snaps to our Hannah who had got it up on TikTok within 15 mins of hearing about it. And here’s our Hannah in case you didn’t know the creative genius behind our #stunning Tiktoks...

And by the way, we have absolutely no shame about the concept of ‘piggybacking’. It’s actually a very smart, strategic move in such social media instances. 

…and also big brands including @Crocs, @Pinterest and @KitKat have already jumped in to react to the news also, so there.

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Meanwhile, others are linking the owl's demise to the recent internet feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake.

The mischievous fowl’s legendary reputation has undoubtedly been huge for the brand across all platforms, especially TikTok and Instagram, with the mascot’s content ranking up millions of likes and comments (if you’re in a rabbit holing kind of mood, we’d encourage you to check out a couple of our favs, seen below). And like Kimmy K, we love #iconic sh*t. 

‍But the question on everyone's mind is: why kill him off?

Given Duolingo’s history of embracing internet culture with its unhinged brand voice, this move feels right on brand. And we don’t know why (yet) but we can imagine the ‘social suicide’ of the brand’s proprietary mascot can only be for a very good reason—and not just because someone in the accounts team at DL got too p’d off with his antics.

If this isn’t the end as we know it, Duolingo’s marketing team have created the perfect set-up for the ultimate comeback… 

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When and if the owl returns, everybody will be watching, ready to voice their opinions. We anticipate a strong right hook if not a knock-out punch to follow this marketing mastery.

Tune in to Duolingo’s social channels to view the campaign roll out before your eyes or head to our very own Instagram Stories where we’ll be sharing updates and commentary on the marketing mastery 👉 @ truffle social. 

#DuoLingo #Viral #SocialMedia #SocialMediaNews #Marketing #LastestNews 

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