Duolingo’s “iconic” marketing strategy

About a week ago, my editor sent me a video of Duolingo doing Sabrina Carpenter’s Juno pose from her Paris show. Sure, it was funny, but how was watching Duolingo folded into the “Eiffel Tower” going to make me more inclined to complete my Duolingo math lesson for the day?

Fun fact: it was not successful.

Even though I am not always into what Duolingo is doing, what they have accomplished with their marketing strategy is truly impressive. Duolingo knows how to perfectly market to Generation Z. When they killed off the bird with a Cybertruck, everyone was talking about it on social media for weeks. In my social media rhetoric class, we continuously bring up Duolingo.

Duolingo has taken over social media because the company knows how to target different audiences on each platform. It targets TikTok and Instagram users with short and funny videos, and it uses the comment feature to post snarky, yet hilarious, messages.

For example, when the company created “Duolingo on Ice” as an April Fools prank last year, it posted a short video of Duolingo and other characters skating to the song “History Maker” from “Yuri on Ice.” When a user commented “OMG DUO ARE YOU FR (not that I would come),” Duolingo responded with “OMG YEAH (I bet your streak is zero).” That reply alone received over 93,000 likes.

Similarly, Duolingo targeted millennial and Generation X users on Facebook with this same marketing ploy. It posted a “Duolingo on Ice” song called “Spanish or Vanish” encouraging users to purchase tickets to the show. Even though it was all an April Fools Joke, the site to buy tickets was hilarious.

Finally, Duolingo wrapped everything together with a trailer for their musical on YouTube. The video received over 3.5 million views, 106,000 likes and close to 7,000 comments. Many fans noted they would not be against attending this four-hour musical with no intermission where “the fun never stops.”

Duolingo continuously commits to its marketing strategy across all platforms, and it works. It gets people talking face-to-face and users posting about it online. And every time you think it has done it all, it comes out of left field with something new – this year’s April Fools prank featured a new Duolingo-themed cruise.

However, even with the unmatched creative marketing, I still get lost with how users feel inclined to complete their lessons. “Duolingo on Ice” may be extremely creative and fun, but how does it push users to complete their lessons and stay on top of learning a new language?

Killing off Duolingo may have been the cherry on top, but what happens after users “revive” Duolingo? Will they still feel inclined to complete their lessons?

mulfordsj@miamioh.edu