Duolingo Marketing: Analyzing The Magic Behind Our Favorite Green Owl

If you were to look up unhinged in the dictionary, you'll find the definition to be duolingo marketing.

From countless memes to quirky social media antics Duolingo has entered the chat when it comes to unconventional marketing.

Mascot turned marketing icon

When thinking of Duolingo the image that appears in many people's minds is Duo the mascot. When first created it was 2D with DUO as its face the company started to incorporate duo more he had a major glow up.

In the beginning Duo was a cute mascot that served as a helpful guide for users to say on track with their lessons

With the progression of time Duo has become more of a menace thanks to social media. 

No longer sending out just a simple reminder, sweet or threatening Duo trolls users on social media no escape, no excuse.

The switch up is crazy a bit like night and day, think cady heron in mean girls or veronica sawyer in heathers sweet and innocent to bold and chaotic.

The evolution of duo and him becoming a social media sensation has served for duo to be a bit more in demand 

With the duolingo social media accounts having over 13.3M followers on TikTok, 3.3M on Instagram and 909.8k on X.

The evolution of Duo into a cultural icon is a prime example of the effectiveness of Duolingo marketing

Social media Success

A lot of credit for the success of Duolingo Marketing goes to their senior global social media manager Zaria Parvez. She has helped grow the Duolingo TikTok  account from 50k back in September of 2021 to 5M in a year.

With the help of her team they’ve grown the TikTok page another 8.3M together to have it at its current state.

Her innovative approach really captivated the essence of gen z and their preferences

The team under her has complete creative freedom who seems to have mastered relatability

Taking advantage of trends, humor and the latest pop culture moments.

The team isn't afraid to take risks or experiment with bold content.

A great example is the collaboration that duolingo had with scrub daddy. That is content that most brands probably wouldn’t be able to get away with.

Engagement

Duolingo’s marketing is in a league of its own, but their true genius lies in their ability to keep users actively engaged.

On occasion duolingo changes the app icon in order to get users to complete more lessons. A lot of users don’t like seeing sad or sick Duo.

It also leaves many confused which gets a lot of people talking about duolingo.

This really highlights the emotional triggers that can occur within marketing

It is important to note that this is one of the strategies that people dislike. In multiple cases it resulted in people deleting the app.

Duolingo has the option if a user isn’t a fan of the temporary changes that occur they may change their icon to depict something else like a users streak.

The idea of having a streak helps to incentivize users too. Duolingo can be mindful at times by offering a streak freeze if a user misses a day.

Partnered with the streaks are the badges users can earn for completing certain achievements

As well as the leaderboard which gives the feel of duolingo to be a bit more gamelike and allow for competition.

This gamification method helps keep users motivated, most people like rewards therefore this system taps into that.

Duo in the real world

Its officially fall which means brat summer has come to a close 

While Charli xcx may have created brat summer it gave duolingo the perfect opportunity to pop out

Depending on who you’d ask, people would probably consider Duo to be a Brat.

Honestly 360 was probably written about Duo “I’m everywhere i’m so julia? You mean Charli xcx didn’t make that for duolingo?

Even though it's unconfirmed if the song is or isn’t about Duo they called for the end of brat summer after going to the first show of Charli’s sweat tour.

This just goes to show how duolingo marketing can jump on a pop cultural moment and turn it into something of its own.

This actually isn’t the first time Duolingo has pulled something like this! Duo attended Taylor Swift’s Era’s tour.

Duo was decked out in a customized outfit for midnights and lovers!

They took this a step further by having a Duo’s version era’s tour backdrop. .

As all swifties know going to the era’s tour isn’t complete until you trade friendship bracelets and Duo had special limited edition ones to give out

Duolingo marketing understands the assignment everytime the way they’re able to so seamlessly integrate trends and real world events into their marketing strategy.

Shift in strategy

When Duolingo first started they ran tv commercials for their marketing that are the polar opposite of what they post on social media.

While the strategy wasn’t bad it wasn’t nearly as effective as the current strategy being used.

They’re a prime example of how a brand can successfully pivot and market in a new market. 

Duolingo Marketing made the necessary change of switching up its primary marketing channel.

The increase of reach and engagement Duolingo had last year at the end of the first quarter is remarkable. Going up by 62%.

Duolingo continuously pushes the envelope when it comes to marketing. Most people would probably agree Duolingo marketing is top tier. 

While chaotic it is so unique to them and is a bit hard for others to copy. The unhingeness is just so authentic and wouldn’t make sense for most brands.

One of the best parts of their marketing is by seeing videos 99.9% of the time you don’t know what the product is but yet people are still drawn into their videos.

The creativity on their end to have made Duo almost more than a mascot and into not quite an influencer but an owl that is quite famous. * chef’s kiss*

They use various marketing techniques to help capture their audience's attention and 9/10 times it leaves them in shock and ready to talk. Which is exactly what good marketing should do.

✍️ Written by Trinity Beale