Duolingos Tik Tok strategy is something that confuses many other brands as its successful against all marketing conventions. It’s pure unhinged random chaos in every video but very few of their posts have below 500k views and the majority have two million plus views.
Duolingo are in somewhat of a unique position, being that the community developed the memes around (the mascot), but their strategy can be copied regardless of brand. All it takes is some creativity and a willingness to look silly, potentially for no benefit at all.
How Duolingo Became a Meme
Duolingo began in 2011 with the goal of making learning languages a fun activity that would be free and doable in short bursts. Their app launched in 2012 and along with their mascot, the green owl whose name is Duo, and the app has seen growth every year since.
The app works by having short lessons or games that the user can take in their chosen language with a goal to complete at least one per day. If the user does not complete a goal, or doesn’t open the app at all, then Duo will pop up as a notification to remind them to do so. He will then keep a count of how many days the user has not returned for and remind them of this at the end of every day (usually quite late at night).
Sometime around 2017, people started making memes about Duo and his behaviour. The joke was that if you didn’t practise your language then he would aggressively remind you do so. This then progressed into him finding you and demanding that you beg for your life in that language. Duolingo then joined in with the joke by making their own memes around the topic and that’s how their famous marketing strategy started.
Why is Duolingo so Successful on Tik Tok?
Duolingo have mastered the art of randomness which they use to maintain a high retention rate. You never know what will come next, even in a 10 second video, and this keeps you watching to find out. Retention is one of the biggest factors for success within the Tik Tok algorithm which is why almost all of their videos go viral regardless of quality. People stick around because they can’t look away.
Duolingo are also in a very unique position where their content doesn’t have to relate back to their business at all which gives them free rein to do whatever they want. Almost every other brand is creating content that is in some way related to their business. Ryanair content is always connected to planes or flying, Life 360 is always connected to location, and Lumix is always connected to cameras. Duolingo are special because they’ve made the business connection be to Duo, not their app. This means that they are not restricted by content having to connect back to learning languages at all and they can do whatever they want.
The biggest factor to Duolingo’s success on Tik Tok is that they focus on comedic content, even when they do promote their new products. They started off making content just like any other brand would, with the team acting out trends, but quickly found that it didn’t get engagement and changed to their current strategy. Tik Tok users don’t care for business, they care for content that affects them and that they can consume quickly. Jokes and sketches work wonders in this regard because they get a reaction out of people whilst also getting higher engagement than other content.
Where Duolingo Falls Short on Tik Tok
Duolingo stands in a very unique place on Tik Tok which is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, they have free rein to do whatever they want without fear of being out done by competition. On the other, they have no incentive to develop jokes or sketches because there’s no one to challenge them.
I feel like Duolingo has fallen into the later here as most of their content isn’t particularly funny under scrutiny. In most cases, the joke is simply that no other brand is doing what they’re doing which is an external meta joke and not something that they’re worked on themselves. This can work but when jokes don’t land it leads to viewers becoming aware of the formula.
In many of Duolingos Tik Toks, the joke is that Duo, a green fluffy owl, is simply doing something that a normal human might do. This could work if Duo was an absurdity amongst normality, but everyone around Duo seems to be alright with his behaviour. In most comedic sketches, the joke will come from someone doing something and then someone else reacting to it. The joke comes from the reaction, not necessarily the initial action. For example, screaming in a library will likely annoy someone but it’s someone jumping in fear that’s funny, not the screaming itself.
Duolingo will continue with their simple “jokes” until they can’t get away with it anymore which is a shame because they’re in a truly unique position. They have unlimited freedom and could tell whatever jokes they want to. If they put effort behind setting up their jokes and payoffs then they would undouble be the funniest account on Tik Tok.
How to Improve Duolingo’s Content
Duolingo have complete freedom when it comes to the jokes they can tell so should focus on what makes a joke funny and build from there. Duo should become an absurdity amongst normality, meaning that everyone else should be trying to work whilst he is being disruptive.
A comedic moment requires three parties: a clown, a victim, and an audience. The joke is the audience witnessing the actions of the clown and then the victim’s reaction. There has to be a reaction in order for the joke to work or else it’s just the clown acting silly. This is why it’s common advice to ignore children when they start acting out as they’re just looking for a reaction.
All Duolingo need to do is think of Duo as an absurdity amongst normality. They do this occasionally with him boasting or being concerned about being the induvial who clogged the toilet which is genuinely hilarious. They’ve just got to have someone then reacting to his actions and their content would improve overnight.
How to Make your Brands Tik Tok Like Duolingo’s
Duolingo are success due to their comedic randomness that viewers can’t look away from. Even though they’re in a unique situation, there are quite a few methods that you can copy for your own brand that will guarantee similar results.
How to Create a Central Character
A large proportion of Duolingo’s success is due to Duo who is the focus of each video. His passive aggressive demeanour, threatening behaviour, and love of certain musicians, gives him the persona of a cartoon or tv character. You could imagine him being a character in The Office for example. Even though the content is completely random, each video revolves around Duo which makes him the driving force behind the brand. He is almost like a content creator or influencer but as a green owl.
Even if your brand does not have a mascot, you can create a central figure or main cast of characters by having the same people feature in most videos. You’ll see a lot of supermarkets doing this where they’ll have the same 5 or so employees throughout each video. This is then broken down further into older and younger employees and each group performs content relative to their age / gender / or position. For example, younger employees tend to feature in content related to working hungover.
No matter how many people there are in your team or videos, the same core group of people or single person must be the focus of most videos. This creates your mascot or cast of characters. Think of it like a TV show and each video expands on the character. They don’t necessarily have to bring a personality, but through each trend (and with the way they naturally move/look) they’ll build a personality.
This could be taken a step further by making your core character a person of power. Many restaurants on Tik Tok will focus on the manager since the dynamic of manager – employee brings the potential for many jokes. There’s also a visual difference which helps with this dynamic.
How to use Randomness to go Viral
Duolingo uses randomness to keep viewers watching their videos until the end. This increases the retention rate and increases the likelihood that they’ll engage with the content, which are factors that the Tik Tok algorithm looks for. High retention rate plus a high engagement rate is valued as good content and get’s an organic push from Tik Tok. This is why the majority of Duolingos videos have 500k plus views.
Duolingo are smart when it comes to randomness because they use it to create jokes. They will start with an idea, take it to its logical extreme, and then introduce a random element to enhance the joke. This approach allows videos to have a clear story that can be followed whilst also playing with several ideas. Think of it like the cutaways from Family Guy.
Take the video pictured below.
The theme is people who have survived horrific events and it’s obvious that there’s going to be a twist or change of tone at the end. Not only is Duos situation not horrific, but it’s also for a specific audience. Most people, and dare I say most normal people, won’t be aware of the Senpai meme or its history but could probably guess it’s connotations. This appears to be quite random which fulfils the goal of keeping people hooked, but also has a huge payoff for that audience which makes it likely that they’ll engage with the video. It’s also an unexpected payoff which makes it funnier.
Duolingos Genius April Fools Video
For April Fools 2023, Duolingo released a trailer for the TV show “Love Language”. The premise is a reality TV show, similar to Love Island, with the twist being that none of the contestants speak the same language. They must complete daily language lessons whilst also doing other challenges or else Duo will “punish” them.
This video is pure genius and plays to Duolingos strengths. For starts, Duo is finally placed in a situation where he is the absurdity. Whilst everyone else is getting together and learning languages, he is running around the house in the middle of the night, giving out punishments, pushing people over bannisters, and just acting like a lunatic. He is the absurdity in an already absurd situation, and this takes the joke to another level.
The premise itself is genius as it connects to the business but also uses a format that everyone would know. From just the first line of this section alone, you can probably guess how things are going to play out. The video doesn’t subvert from these expectations and actually relies on them to make many of the jokes work. Within the first 25 seconds, the main characters are introduced, and you can immediately tell their personalities. The English girl is confident, the Chinese girl is quiet, the German guy is loud, and the Spanish guy is the one people will fight over. This does rely on stereotypes, which could be a good or bad thing depending on person, but it allows for more to be done with less.
Better yet, it works as a trailer as I’m sure that most people would love to actually watch this show.
Overview
- Tik Toks with a high retention and engagement rate go viral
- Having a central character or cast of characters is the best way to create a mascot that viewers can associate with your brand
- Take ideas to their logical extreme and then use randomness to enhance jokes (similar to how Family Guy does cutaways)
