Corona x Duolingo

We all butcher pronunciations from time to time, especially when the words aren’t in our native language. While being corrected can be slightly embarrassing, it’s a whole lot worse to go on without knowing that you sound totally clueless. 

Brands with global distribution face the challenge of having customers who don’t know how to pronounce their products. As a Mexican beer brand, Corona uses Spanish in many of their product titles, including their lemonade drink, Hard Seltzer Limonada. 

Evidently, their U.S. customers struggle to use the Spanish pronunciation (if you’re not familiar with Spanish, it’s pronounced lee-moh-naa-da). 

In 2021, Corona launched a creative campaign to educate their U.S. customers about the correct pronunciation. But since no one likes to be told they’re wrong, Corona recruited a partner that’s famous for making learning languages fun: Duolingo.  

Duolingo’s mobile and online learning platform has helped hundreds of millions of people pass their language classes by turning conjugation into bite-sized games. With only a few minutes a day, you can learn how to read, write, and speak in 19 different languages. 

Duolingo was the perfect partner to help educate the masses. With their help, Corona built a voice-activated vending machine that asked customers to order a hard lemonade in Spanish. Naturally, those who succeeded were rewarded with a free drink. Those who failed were also rewarded… with a premium subscription to Duolingo’s learning platform. 

This campaign was a clever and playful way for Corona to establish brand authenticity and foster respect for its Mexican roots. Plus, people are more likely to buy Limonada if they can pronounce it with confidence. And while it’s not as if they need any help attracting customers, this collaboration did expose Duolingo to a whole new group of users who probably wouldn’t have used the platform otherwise. 

This campaign is a great example of the type of creativity that only a brand x brand collaboration can deliver.