Duolingo's viral Ashton Hall parody shows how brands can smash social media

The report of Duo the Owl's death was an exaggeration, Mark Twain might have said. Duolingo's brand mascot has made a remarkable recovery, and it seems it may all be thanks to Ashton Hall's morning routine.

For those not plugged into social media 24/7, I'll explain. Ashton Hall is a former American footballer turned online fitness influencer who caused much hilarity with a video of a five-hour morning routine that included rubbing banana skin on his face. Duo is a green owl who promotes the language-learning app Duolingo and recently faked his own death.

Despite his supposed demise, Duo is still outclassing pretty much any other brand when it comes to social media media marketing, showing how to take advantage of viral trends in order to keep the brand visible and relevant. But how hard can that be – and why do so many other brands get it so wrong?

@duolingo

♬ Duolingo Score - Duolingo

We've seen lots of brands still struggling to find their way in social media marketing, which can require masses of engaging content and interaction with customers. Lots of brands have tried to adopt a more casual, cheeky, even flippant tone to connect with young audiences. Some, like Duolingo and Aldi, get it right. Some, like Ryanair take it too far, and others, like Adidas, just get it all wrong.

Part of Duolingo's success is how quickly it moves, jumping on trends while they're still hot, and going all-in rather than merely dropping a half-hearted reference. It tapped into the popularity of Apple TV's Severance with a series of pitch-perfect deadpan recreations of moments from the series with complete recognisable sets, props and graphic design.

Duo's not afraid of mocking other brands that try to jump on its wave either. The bright green owl even joined in with the surge in anti-Tesla sentiment by suggesting that both he and Larry the Twitter bird were "killed by a Cybertruck" after X tried to jump on the publicity caused by Duo's death. Again, the tone was right: it not so harsh to upset Elon Musk fanboys but enough to leave everyone else in hysterics.

But jumping on viral trends is a risky business. The toughest decision is which ones to embrace and which ones to avoid. The other big viral trend this week was the use of OpenAI's new AI image generator to apply a Studio Ghibli art style to images and memes.

Some brands saw an opportunity, quickly 'Ghiblifying' their own content and risking a backlash. AI image generators remain controversial, and Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki is known for his disdain for AI. A throwaway 'Ghiblified' image is a quick way to lose followers and respect.

To respond successfully to trends on social media, marketing teams need to act quickly, but they need to think quickly too. A structure needs to be in place to allow them to analyse and decide if a trend is relevant to the brand, if it's something their audience will relate to, and if it's potentially controversial or harmful.

For more of this week's marketing controversies, see the mayhem caused by Lady Gaga' new logo.