Duolingo’s Katherine Chan is amplifying its owl mascot’s online fame and pop culture reach

Duolingo’s notoriously unhinged social media persona needs no introduction. But far fewer people are acquainted with the woman behind the scenes steering the language learning app’s intentionally chaotic social strategy and weaving owl mascot Duo into viral pop culture moments. In two years as Duolingo’s director of global social media, Katherine Chan has emphasized extending the brand’s social content beyond its thriving TikTok account and bolstering Duolingo’s larger online presence with buzzy viral moments. Chan and her team capitalized on the social media frenzy around last year’s “Barbie” movie—and Duolingo’s brief cameo in the film—by running an ad starring Duo ahead of the movie and teasing that ad via social media. Chan flew the owl mascot out to Los Angeles to walk the “pink carpet” at the “Barbie” movie premiere, a stunt that drove more than 100 million impressions on social media, including more than 23.5 million TikTok views. And she and her team also sent Duo to the Pittsburgh (where Duolingo is headquartered) leg of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour,” where he posed with fellow Swifties in a rhinestone-studded jumpsuit. @duolingo honored Greta asked me to replace Margot #duolingo #languagelearning #barbie #barbiepremiere #barbiechallenge #barbenheimer ♬ original sound - Model Commissions OPEN - Diya Chan also spearheaded Duolingo’s expansion onto YouTube Shorts, where she and her team last fall launched a sitcom-inspired series called “Living with Lily,” centered around the eponymous purple-haired teen who forms part of Duolingo’s broader mascot lineup. The YouTube series garnered more than 26 million views within just a few weeks of its November debut, and the premiere episode currently sits at 14 million overall views. TikTok, where Duolingo has nearly 12 million followers, has remained a priority for Chan. But rather than concentrating on just the brand’s original U.S.-oriented account, she has expanded Duolingo’s global TikTok presence by launching a slew of new channels for countries including Germany, Brazil and Japan. Because of those efforts, more than half of Duolingo’s social media reach in 2023 came from its international TikTok accounts, Chan said. Ultimately, her leadership of Duolingo’s social-first marketing strategy led the brand to generate 3 billion social impressions in 2023 alone. "What’s been unique for me at Duolingo is really seeing the direct business impact that my work has, which I think for a lot of marketers is hard to get very often,” she said, noting that, while working at brands including Meta and Red Bull, it was often hard to tie marketing directly to business impact. “Whereas at Duolingo, I feel like we’re in a very unique position where I can see the impact of what the team does directly,” she added. Read about Ad Age’s 2024 Leading Women here What advice would you give to your younger self? A career is not a straight line. I’d remind myself to work my ass off, learn as much as I can and focus on building my craft. The rest will come. I say this fully recognizing my younger self would never accept this advice. What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? I’ve taken a lot of risks—it’s hard to narrow it down to one! I’ve always loved the pain of a steep learning curve. I moved to Salzburg, Austria, for a job at Red Bull without speaking the language or knowing a single soul. I ended up living there for six years, learning German, building my career and meeting my partner. Not too long after, I raised my hand for a job as a project manager in the office of the CEO at Tesla without ever having been a project manager and ended up in the wildest ride of my life. There’s no reward without risk. If you weren’t doing your current job, what would you be doing and why? I’d probably be doing something completely different, like running a neighborhood restaurant. It might be a side effect of having a job that’s extremely online, but I would love to live a life that is focused only on people you have high context on. Plus, I love to cook. What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks? I’d love to see more men take an active role in pushing for more diversity. I want more men to mentor women, to call out biased behavior, to consciously hire for diverse teams! How will AI impact your job in the future? I hope it will make creative work and content production a lot easier and allow for better, higher quality output for less cost. On the flip side, I worry that it will devalue content to the point where marketing roles are obsolete and shrink the number of humans who can make a sustainable living on creative work. Read about Ad Age’s 2024 Leading Women here

Duolingo’s Katherine Chan is amplifying its owl mascot’s online fame and pop culture reach

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