Episode 137 - Duolingo & Peacock Love Language Ad Reviewed by the LEGO Group, Disney+ Hotstar and Nude
💕 Is there a universal Love Language? Maybe not, but what if there was a reality TV dating show where contestants had to learn each other’s languages? Duolingo and Peacock thought it was a realistic enough premise to make it into an ad for April Fools’.
This week’s campaign chosen by Contagious is funny and intriguing, but does it have a clear enough call to action to benefit the two brands? Beyond the hilarious fake trailer, what more could they have done to get some marketing benefits?
Join us to hear from guests Nikita Longdon (Senior Creative Project Manager at the LEGO Group), Abhijit Sah (Head - Consumer Insights at Disney+ Hotstar), and Yoann Pavy (Chief Marketing Officer at Nude) and watch the ad, in the latest episode.
Episode 137 - Duolingo & Peacock Love Language Ad Reviewed by the LEGO Group, Disney+ Hotstar and Nude
Transcript is automatically generated, so not perfect, but you get the idea!
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, and this is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads.
Tom Ollerton 0:25
Thanks to Contagious, for helping us source the ad this week. But before we get to this week's creative, let's meet this week's guests.
Nikita Longdon 0:32
Hi. So I'm Nikita. I'm a Senior Creative Project Manager, currently at LEGO.
Abhijit Sah 0:37
I am Abhijit, and I lead Consumer Insights for Disney+ Hotstar in India.
Yoann Pavy 0:41
Hi, guys and I'm Yoann. I'm the Chief Marketing Officer at Nude.
Tom Ollerton 0:46
What a brilliant panel! Right, let's see this week's really weird creative.
Tom Ollerton 0:56
I want you to give this a score out of five. So on the count of three, one, two, three... A three and a three and a three. What is going on?
Nikita Longdon 2:29
So, first of all, I absolutely love this advert. So I think first and foremost, you've got to make clear that it's not a real show. And it was in fact, done for April Fools, as part of an April Fool's campaign where both brands at the end were offering promotions for their products. So I think Duolingo were offering free access for a month to their platform, and Peacock's were offering 50% off to subscriptions, which I thought was an amazing way in. And the reaction on social media was absolutely amazing. I don't know if you guys are familiar with Duolingo's TikTok, they're quite known for their quite unhinged approach to content. Zero filters. So it was amazing to kind of see it, like, you know, filtering to, like, such a unique partnership.
Abhijit Sah 3:21
You know, it definitely anchored me and it piqued my interest to say, "What exactly is going on?" And I... I definitely felt like clicking on the links to actually understand more about what's... What's up? What's happening there? And I'm speaking as a consumer right now, as a recipient of this communication by the way.
Tom Ollerton 3:41
What's the goal here? Help me understand what's the goal of this campaign?
Yoann Pavy 3:44
Top of mind. You know, like, definitely more engagement than anything. And I think it was, it was well executed because you kind of question, "Is this real? Is that going to come out?" And I kind of wish it did, but you know...
Tom Ollerton 3:59
Are they alienating a much wider audience of people who don't like dating shows?
Nikita Longdon 4:03
I don't necessarily think so. I do think, though, I mean, again, like doing a little bit of background, like digging and research. Like Duolingo did say they wanted to tap into the reality TV space. So this was like the perfect opportunity for them to do that. And also, just to note, one of the cast members that they used is like, Queen of Reality TV, Francesca. She's been on around three reality TV shows. So again, that was just like perfect casting and a perfect way to actually reach a wider audience as well. Like, she's got six, like 6.3 million followers on, on Instagram, even though that this, you know, like it was, you know, all in humor and all in jest, you're still about to reach a wide amount of people and interests with it as well. So I actually think it was really clever.
Yoann Pavy 4:57
I actually think it would have been better not to be in the April Fools, and actually do a program for real because in terms of attention and cross pollination of like their, both audience, so you got like 50 plus million monthly users on Duolingo. And I think, what I read is like Peacock is 25 or 26 million to, to, I think to get even a bigger impact, they actually should have done the show.
Tom Ollerton 5:27
So looking at the creative itself, how would you make this better?
Abhijit Sah 5:31
What it doesn't do is the end point where it sort of takes me to Peacock, and that's when I realized that if I'm, there's nothing around that. I mean, it's actually an April Fool's... Or I'm going to discover something else, and maybe I get baffled, I get confounded. But the ending of this particular communication is not tying up properly in terms of execution. Even the end slate that you actually see Duolingo had to do with the owl and the copy that's written at the end, right? I mean, effectively it's not leading us to any particular action. I actually tend to ask as to what exactly was the goal? Or was it just the conversation around this communication? What exactly were we trying to do with this particular communication? While the execution is okay and good and it piques interest, creates curiosity but what is the angle?
Yoann Pavy 6:18
I learned about the offer by searching through articles, not looking at the video, which is yeah, I guess that's probably the biggest missed opportunity. If you're only going to do one and it's only going to be for one day and you may have some like collateral or like videos and snippets you're going to put on like YouTube Shorts and Instagram and stuff. Like, the offer needs to be more, more front and center. Well, at least at the end, you know, when you're like leading people out of, after watching it.
Nikita Longdon 6:49
Perhaps that could have been, you know, like a drive to like, landing page or you know like, whether it's a call to action to like a website where you've got a landing page where it then lands that, you know, this is in fact a hoax and, you know, April Fools and, but then check out all of this, you know, this, you know, promotional things you can engage in. But there isn't anything again like around doing similar research that you know like that suggested that. You had to literally go to press articles to then find out that there was in fact promotional activities around it.
Abhijit Sah 7:27
They have pegged it around good learning about, around behavior when we are in love or whether you are trying to actually woo someone, date someone, etc. So it's definitely packed in there to learn that particular love language. They have used the logo pretty well. They've placed logos strategically across the creative, but the tying up at the end where landing on Peacock and then being linked to Duolingo would have been, like, amazing. Would have created a culmination for this particular creative.
Yoann Pavy 7:57
To be better, I would have gone all out, especially with companies that have this type of, I assume, marketing budget. I wouldn't have gone, "This is an offer for 50%" at the end. I would have gone full out with the mini website where there's something fun to do with both brands and maybe opening the casting for next year and do it proper. And then you preempt the thing for a year later. It starts as an April Fools, but then it just, like, you close the loop and you make it like a super exciting thing where it's like, "No, we actually going to make this." And then suddenly the engagement is not inflated or fake just for a week or a few weeks or like a pinned tweet for a month. It actually means something. That's that. Yeah, that's, that's, that's how far I would have gone with this. Like, actually make it happen.
Tom Ollerton 8:52
Would you have signed this campaign off in its current guise, and that's a yes or a no. Three, two, one... Woah, right. Thanks so much, guys.
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