Learn the Language: How Duolingo Conquered TikTok

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Duolingo , the education app designed to teach people new languages, wants you to also use another app: TikTok . The creative minds behind the brand have mastered using the social video platform to grow brand awareness and advocacy with viral videos that capture views — and new users.

Don’t believe us? Consider this: In just a matter of months, Duolingo went from 100,000 TikTok followers to more than 2 million — and they were able to do so with virtually no production costs.

The b. spoke to Zaria Parvez , the company’s global social media manager, who is credited as the Gen Z genius behind Duolingo’s TikTok strategy earlier this year. On top of recounting how Duolingo was able to capture an entire platform with an iPhone, a mascot, and the right vision, Parvez also shared what smaller businesses can do to gain traction on the platform.

b.: How did you come up with the Duolingo mascot as the face of your TikTok persona that took off back in 2021? What’s the story there?

Zaria Parvez : The green owl has always been Duolingo’s brand mascot. The suit was originally used for college recruitment events. It wasn’t until we returned to the office in September 2021 that I saw it in the office and had the idea to use it and the Duo character in our TikTok videos.

The marketing and branding team developed the mascot into more of a character a few years ago. They saw the memes around Duo threatening people to do their lessons across other social platforms like YouTube and Twitter, so we leaned into the jokes and had fun with it. Since then, my job has been to bring that same quirky persona to TikTok, with the mascot suit, and push the envelope on how we show up on different platforms.

b.: Why do you think your videos have trended and resonated so well with the TikTok community? What is it about your approach to TikTok that makes the campaign so successful?

Parvez: The key to our success is that we are just entertaining on TikTok. We never try to explicitly sell our product. Sometimes this can feel counterintuitive to the more traditional marketing channels, but it really works.

b.: What are TikTokers looking for? Duolingo, Ryanair, The Washington Post, and other brands seem to connect to people with fun, witty, and organic content, as opposed to informative, educational content. What’s the common thread?

Parvez: People on TikTok are mainly looking to be entertained. Whenever we post content from our account, we always think: Is this something we’d want to watch if we didn’t work at Duolingo? Holding yourself to this high standard helps create engaging content that isn’t always product first (even though we all love our logo!).

b.: What are some actionable strategies businesses can implement to do well on TikTok? Virality is kind of a weird thing that’s hard to predict, so what can businesses do to put themselves in a good position to resonate with TikTokers?

Parvez: Most brands on TikTok are trying to reach Gen Z. The biggest advice I have is to hire someone from whatever demographic you’re trying to reach to actually make the content for you. Empowering them to create content with minimal layers of edits will enable them to go viral. One of the biggest challenges brands face is their inability to let go of tight control and trust younger talent who are native to these new, growing social platforms.

Like the wisest owl, Parvez has much more wisdom to impart — read the full Q&A here!