It’s clear that people love this sort of marketing. PR team really think you can lock me in a closet and I won’t break out? no one’s safe #run #bescared #Duolingo #comedy ♬ helllp the killer is ey scape ing – abi The latter also tied in with the contemporaneous Squid Game memes circulating socials at the time. Another shows him chasing down anyone who would dare use Google Translate instead of actually learning another language. One highlight includes Duo escaping from a closet. That was enough of a proof-of-concept for the marketing team, as the malignant mascot began to be the focus of all the company’s TikToks. The next video to feature the owl received a massive 3.5 million views and nearly 730,000 likes. Who are you picking…Pikachu or Duo? #DUOLIPO #LanguageLearning #Exploring #NYC #HereComesTheBoy #Duolingo #Pokemon #ADayInMyLife ♬ original sound – Duolingo The next few TikTok videos didn’t feature the owl, and while the viewership was still improved substantially, they didn’t receive nearly as many likes. The video also received 130,000 likes, which is a phenomenal ratio. The first video featuring Duo garnered 800,000 views, over three times more than their previous best-performing video. That changed when the mascot was brought back. But these videos weren’t getting a lot of attention on the platform.

This seems like a pretty natural concept for the company. Initially, the company’s TikTok presence consisted of users sharing unique words in their native languages. This is largely thanks to the many viral shorts the company has made starring the unhinged owl. The language company’s page has accumulated more than three million followers in just over a year. More recently, Duo, the duolingo owl, has become a bona fide hit on TikTok. The brief video showed the owl, evidently fed up with the miniscule effect his messages were having, showing up in real life to remind people to practise. The company decided to lean into this unintended(?) association by bringing the mascot to life for a hilarious April Fool’s Day ad a couple of years ago.

Not every accidental association is bad, though.ĭuolingo became a bit of a meme for its constant, stalkerish, and slightly threatening notifications.

Other times, OJ Simpson tries to flee the country in one of your best-selling cars, like Ford. Sometimes you get lucky and Kylie Jenner starts wearing your band’s t-shirts. Brands can’t always control what its product becomes associated with.

Duo owl