Duolingo: How a Passive Aggressive Owl Won Over Millions of TikTok Users.
Founded in 2010, Duolingo was developed as an instrument to close the gap between language education and its often inaccessible price point. Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker’s motivation manifested itself in a highly successful, free educational application. The application allows users to take game-like courses in over 40 different languages, encouraging users to complete a lesson every day to maintain their ‘streak’. Initially catering to those who had the desire to learn an additional language, their focus has switched to provoke this same need recognition in a broader demographic. Reporting consecutive quarterly increases in profit since Q1 2019, Duolingo’s growth strategy has clearly been executed well.
But how has this free application attracted so much attention and generated this growth?
This answer may be obvious to regular TikTok users, due to viral videos published on their page But what makes these videos continuously gain traction and how does Duolingo remain relevant across popular platforms?
Broadly speaking, the brand possesses a unique personality that is presented consistently across their multi-channel marketing approach. Rather than sticking to the five main types of brand personalities which aims to appeal to those who have or aspire to have similar traits, Duolingo deviates, presenting a pushy and somewhat passive-aggressive persona. Embodied by the mascot Owl known as Duo, the brand encourages individuals to download their app and continue their learning, in a less than traditional way. Specifically, this incorporates their primary retention strategy, Guilt marketing.
Rather than encouraging their users through positive reinforcement, the brand often uses guilt-tripping techniques to ensure frequent, repetitive consumption of their service.
Whilst some may view these messages as annoying or even borderline offensive, according to Head of Product Cem Kansu, they are some of the most effective notifications they have employed.
This technique is utilised across all channels of communication, from mobile notifications to emails. Additionally, the shock of this technique encourages user-generated content, which provides further promotion of the application.
Moreover, Duolingo relies heavily on their social media presence to attract new users, in fact, their TikTok account boasts over 6 million followers and 120 million likes. Consistent with their in-app messaging, the account features the passive-aggressive and slightly crazed owl. The brand’s personality allows the business to authentically embrace meme culture, social media trends and pop culture moments. Most notably the brand often produces content referencing pop star Dua Lipa, as Duo, the owl’s, celebrity crush, a widely loved figure among Gen Z and millennial populations. Another storyline created by the brand is a love affair with Sponge Daddy, which successfully produced popular content, co-creating value for both brands and entertaining consumers.
Overall, Duolingo can attribute their immense success and brand recognition to their effective online presence. With a strong integrated marketing communications strategy, the brand thrives in generating repeat consumption. However, their most impressive point of difference is how the brand actively and relevantly engages with Gen Z and Millennial consumers.
