Wasn’t it just last week that Duo, the Duolingo owl, passed away? We were all blown away when his passing was announced on social media on Feb. 11. Who would now threaten us to get our Spanish lessons done before it hit midnight? How would we stay on top of our goals?
Well, less than two weeks after the announcement of his passing, Duo is alive again.
y’all really think i’d let a cybertruck take me out? #duolingohasrisen
Obviously the Duolingo marketing team knows how to stir up the internet, but just how impactful was this marketing ploy? Let’s get into it.
Feb. 11, the announcement was posted to Duolingo’s Instagram stating that, “[Duo] probably died waiting for you to do your lesson,” and pleading with followers to, “include [their] credit card number so [they] can automatically sign [them] up for Duolingo Max in his memory.” Not only did this get people talking about Duolingo and remembering the languages they signed up to learn, but we were left with an emotional plea to upgrade our memberships to a paid plan. Not to mention, the Dua Lipa name drop at the end of the post, which she later responded to. In a twitter reply to Duolingo’s announcement, the famous singer stated, “Til’ death duo part.”
In the meantime, after Duo’s death, the Duolingo marketing team was posting funeral content all over the socials. On Instagram, TikTok, etc… there were daily posts asking fans to make sure they do their lessons to bring Duo back to life.
It seems the hard work of the language learners has paid off, because Duo has risen from the dead. Duolingo even commented on their exciting lie about their dead mascot in a TikTok.
Yes, Duo can sometimes be a little scary. Maybe he threatens you with a knife if you don’t finish your lesson, but he only ever wanted to help you learn. So, we are very excited to see that he has come back to life!
Everyone loves a semi-threatening mascot. So take a page or two out of Duolingo’s playbook and kill your mascot to gather sympathy from audiences. Or maybe take a less violent approach. Whatever you do, duo it as a fun marketing ploy!
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