How Duolingo is moving beyond social media to connect with customers

For years, Duolingo’s big green owl mascot, Duo, showed up on social media with witty advice and quirky jokes. The language learning brand was a hit on TikTok before most other marketers had even factored the platform into their own media plans. But it wasn’t until last year that Duolingo moved beyond a social-first approach, tapping into pop culture moment after moment, to gain universal appeal. “Duolingo transcended being a social brand,” said one Creativity Awards juror. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Creativity Award winners here An influencer in his own right, Duo walked the pink carpet at the “Barbie” movie premiere in Los Angeles and attended a K-pop concert. To stay abreast of key moments, Duolingo deployed AI, using a scraper tool to identify social media trends, and used Chat GPT to predict which TV shows would be popular in international markets, the brand said. In 2023, the company said it grew 170% year over year across its global social channels to generate 2.5 billion impressions and averaged 300 million monthly organic impressions. That momentum has not stopped in 2024. Duolingo continues to show up for consumers with memeable content at the ready. duo showing up on my app screen today like a puckered old fart, there is no place safe from duolingo’s marketing team pic.twitter.com/MVm1z1GSuN— Tracy Chou 🌻 (@triketora) April 3, 2024 my brain when i’m on the verge of falling asleep pic.twitter.com/mBPXPBnKwb— sophie (@netcapgirl) April 2, 2024 Me: Babe, I took care of the laundry. I even put all your Lululemon pants in the dryer for you.My wife: pic.twitter.com/WhbX4WZeEl— Robert Sterling (@RobertMSterling) April 3, 2024 Earlier this month, it created an in-house campaign called “Duolingo on Ice,” a four-hour skating spectacular that was actually an April Fools’ Day joke. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Creativity Award winners here

How Duolingo is moving beyond social media to connect with customers

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