Duolingo’s Kevin Daley draws in audiences with cheeky writing and viral campaigns

Duolingo Senior Copywriter Kevin Daley knows a thing or two about going viral. The “Lawyer Fights Duolingo Owl for $2,700,000” spot he wrote for April Fools’ Day 2022 organically reached the front page of Reddit and landed at No. 23 in Trending on YouTube. See all of Ad Age's 2023 Creativity Award winners here Daley also wrote the Duolingo and HBO Max “High Valyrian Lessons” campaign to promote the premiere of “Game of Thrones” spinoff “House of the Dragon.” The out-of-home ads were written in one of the show’s fictional languages, High Valyrian, which users could actually study on the language-learning app. He could harness his cheek for good, too. For the launch of Duolingo’s Haitian Creole campaign, Daley created an integrated campaign that included a billboard in downtown Miami challenging Mayor Francis Suarez to learn Haitian Creole in exchange for the company donating $30,000 to Haitians in Tech—and it worked. Daley’s expertise also reaches beyond traditional video and OOH campaigns. He wrote the “Duo Invades Roblox” activation, which celebrated the Duolingo owl mascot’s 10th birthday in the metaverse and drew 13 million visitors to play more than 60 million minutes of language-learning games. He also created the company’s “Fowl Language Generator” for the World Cup, which taught fans how to cheer—and insult rival teams—in other languages. See all the 2023 Ad Age Creativity Awards winners.

Duolingo’s Kevin Daley draws in audiences with cheeky writing and viral campaigns

Featured Stories