Calling All Emilys!
Duolingo
Issue 62 | March 2022
Agency
BETC
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Stephane Xiberras Creative Director David Martin Angelus Copywriters Nadia Doherty, Nicholas Bakshi Art Directors Moritz Maus, Erika Reyes
Production Team
Executive Producer Karim Naceur Producer Slim Trabelsi TV Producer Leslie Levy Post Producer Leila Geslain Production Company General Pop Traffic Grace Gueyes, Florence Bonneau
Other Credits
Agency Managers David Martin Angelus Client Brand Managers James Kuczynski, Emily Cosnotti
Date
January 2022
Background
‘Emily in Paris’ was a Netflix series following Chicago marketing executive Emily Cooper’s move to a new job and a new life in Paris.
With its stereotypes of rude waiters and philandering men, the show was described by British Vogue as being “exquisitely tacky”.
French Vogue was not so kind.
Idea
To coincide with the launch of Season Two of ‘Emily in Paris’, Duolingo offered Duolingo Plus, its premium membership, free for a month to encourage people to learn French. (The Duolingo French course was the equivalent of four terms at university but required half the time.
Magnifique!) The brand enlisted the help of six real Emilys of Paris to reach out to all the other Emilys of the world to tell them about how they could improve their French, avoiding the linguistic and cultural faux pas made by Lily Collins’ character.
The very French Emilys implored Emilys everywhere to reclaim the dignity of their name by trying the course for free.
Other pronunciations of the name were also accepted – Amelie, Emilie and Milly.
Results
Two million views on all channels (without media buying), 7,000 offers redeemed from 121 countries.
Lily Collins, star of the show, shared the campaign video on Instagram and Twitter.
Our Thoughts
Such a nice idea, to hijack the Netflix hit show. It makes the brand seem current and relevant. The insight, though, wasn’t so much in how Series One butchered the French language and reduced its French protagonists to crude stereotypes but in the name, Emily. It is one of the most popular names in the West with over 300,000 Emilys in the USA alone. By addressing them, Duolingo obviously hoped to reach millions with its message of easy learning.
It certainly worked here. I spent at least 30 minutes on the site trying to establish whether my French is poor, abysmal or hopeless.