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Duolingo Launches An Animated Series
Courtesy of Duolingo
No content quite carries the cultural cachet of a great movie or show — so brands are increasingly producing their own as a savvier form of marketing.
The Big Picture: While brands have dabbled in premium scripted content before — BMW’s The Hire and Intel’s The Beauty Inside are standouts — the latest batch of programming demonstrates it’s becoming an even bigger trend… and maybe one of the few ways left to capture people’s attention.
Behind The Series: Is that a new streaming show or a high-end commercial? These days, it’s becoming harder to tell.
Duolingo is debuting a new Japanese anime series, 最後の決戦 (The Final Test), on October 13th, that was made in collaboration with Titmouse — the studio behind Big Mouth and Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Gushers just released a short horror film, FruitHead, starring Bradley Whitford — a playful nod to its ‘90s commercials where kids’ heads would turn into fruit after eating the snack.
Angry Orchard partnered with Blumhouse and Jason Universe to create a Friday the 13th short film, Sweet Revenge, where the alcoholic cider plays a surprising role in the movie.
Final Episode: By leaning into narrative — both in terms of scripted storytelling and a company’s own story — brands are hoping that building lore around their products and aligning with cool studios can give them extra cultural cachet.
Imagine if A24 or Neon launched a commercial division — every brand would want in.
Next Season: Powered by a reimagined upfronts season that’s further bridging Hollywood and Madison Avenue — and a growing appetite for meme-worthy marketing — expect branded movies and shows to start taking even bigger risks.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.