Duolingo Duet Challenge CASE STUDY
The Brief
Duolingo is the world’s leading language learning app that makes learning a new language easy, fun, and accessible for everyone. When Duolingo came to the Philippines, Vero was tasked to establish its reputation as the brand of choice of Filipinos when it comes to easy and fun language learning.
Despite the country’s high English proficiency, many Filipinos feel that they still have inadequate speaking capabilities, and they wish to be more confident using the language in both daily and professional life. For Filipinos that are already proficient in English, learning new languages beside English is also a common desire; we have seen a lot of interest in learning Korean, Spanish, Japanese and French.
Vero went on to developed a full IMC campaign with a creative strategy grounded on authentic local insights to launch the Filipino to English language course in the country.
To tap into Duolingo’s spirit of fun, Vero developed a campaign around something that no Filipino can ever resist – karaoke!
By combining karaoke and language learning, Vero was also able to spotlight the easy nature of Duolingo’s language learning app. Songs are a great tool for language learners, with rhythm and repetition providing a fun way to practice new pronunciation, expression and vocabulary.
Execution
Targeting both Tagalog and English speakers who have an interest in learning new languages, we went on to launch Duolingo Duet to challenge learners to sing along to a beloved Filipino song in English. We collaborated with a mixture of micro and macro influencers who can sing, have the fun charisma that aligns with Duolingo’s identity, and have good engagement with their followers.
The Duolingo Duet challenge was picked up and shared widely on social media and PR, encouraging Filipinos to download the app to join the challenge. Simultaneously, Vero deployed localized performance ads and Google search ads, while optimizing Duolingo’s Philippine App store to generate more downloads. Communications were revamped to speak in the casual vernacular of Filipinos, making it more accessible and enticing more users to download and learn new languages.
Starting from the campaign for Tagalog to English course, Duolingo learners also discovered many other exciting languages they can learn on the app.
In terms of PR, Vero organized media engagements between Duolingo and local publications to further cement Duolingo in the Philippines, highlighting their equity of being the world’s No. 1 leading language learning app, making the learning process easy, convenient, and fun. Exposure took shape through a virtual media roundtable, media 1:1s on broadcast, online and streaming platforms of tier 1 media, supported by relevant press releases. We recommended a virtual media table because culturally, it is a respectful gesture to introduce oneself before doing business in the Philippines. It was the perfect avenue to introduce the brand, the team behind the brand and talk about the new course to Filipinos.
In preparation for media engagement activities, Vero also walked Duolingo’s staff through a soft media training program about the Philippine media, and engagement protocols. We provided 3 pre-event media training courses for the Duolingo interviewee and 3 separate briefing books for each of the media engagements (media roundtable discussion, broadcast media 1:1 and online streaming 1:1 interview). Additionally, we also anticipated questions from the media with the Duolingo representatives and recommended quick, snappy answers that would be impactful soundbites.
