Duolingo owls take over Charli XCX concert

Duolingo and Charli XCX are two of the heavyweight champions of marketing strategy.

So, it only makes sense their paths would cross eventually, like two glowing meteors in the night sky.

However, I can’t say I expected an army of Duolingo owls in Brat t-shirts attending Charli and Troy Sivan’s Sweat Tour in Detroit last weekend.

The twenty-something Duo birds were actually employees of the language-learning app. And they were executing a guerrilla-style marketing stunt that has since generated notable buzz online, of course.

It’s no secret that Charli XCX’s album quite literally took over the internet a few months ago, creating the viral phenomenon we’ve come to know as ‘Brat Summer.’

So Duolingo decided to create a little Brat moment of their own!

Hundreds of fans took to social media to flood platforms with videos of the concert. But the most viral video wasn’t of any of the artist's certified bangers.

No, it was Duo (or, the multiple Duos) that stole the show.

TikTok user @elenahirschx posted a video from the stands of the group of owls, dancing in the pit. Her OST read, 'does anyone know why a group of Duolingo’s attended the Sweat Tour?'

The clip has since amassed over 2 million views and 470,000 likes. It's also led to a whole lot of user-generated content by fans documenting the mascots, some of which has also gone viral.

Duolingo's stunt is the latest addition of the platform's ongoing ingenious marketing tactics.

'We’ve previously just seen a ton of success activating at major music events,' Duolingo’s Global Marketing Campaign Director, Michaela Kron, told Ad Age.

Last year, the Duo mascot also made a surprise appearance at Taylor Swift’s 'Eras Tour' concert in Pittsburgh. The furry owl also showed up at K-pop boy band Enhypen’s show in New Jersey.

'We know that there’s something there when we tap into these specific fandoms and around these highly anticipated events in culture. So, when we heard about the ‘Sweat Tour,’ especially on the heels of ‘Brat Summer’—obviously, you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing about it—it really felt like such a natural opportunity for us to plug in.'

Duo’s stunt initially began outside the stadium doors, where a giant Duo mascot showed up adorned in the now-iconic Brat singlet.

People were so excited to see Duo that they literally stepped out of line to get their photo with the beloved mascot.

That alone is a testament to the community the brand has built amongst its users.

Once the owl was kicked out of the venue, the marketing team alluded to the next part of the stunt with a post on X that read, 'they kicked me out, so I multiplied.' And, as concert-goers found out, the Duolingo owls had infiltrated the event anyway, appearing in the pit later on.

Both the Brat and Duolingo brands are behemoths in their ability to create these epic pop culture moments. And they certainly know how to create impressive amounts of hype in the process.

This concert was the perfect opportunity to combine powers, and Duo pulled it off perfectly.

'That’s the bigger point here—we always want to show up as true fans, not as a brand in a way that feels forced or cringe,' Kron said.

'That’s why we really take great care to ensure that whatever we're doing really fits and makes sense [for Duolingo], not just this random brand showing up opportunistically.'

And, I'd say, they pulled this off beautifully.

-Sophie, Writer

We covered this on the pod—check out the clip How Duolingo Went Viral at Charli XCX’s Concert