CXO INSIGHT framework to drive growth , awareness and consideration to become present in the market .
Can you tell us about Duolingo ’ s mission and how it started ?
10 years ago , Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker came up with the idea for Duolingo . Luis invented CAPTCHA and RECAPTCHA and he sold it to Google . However , he ’ d always wanted to be an academic , so he went back into teaching and was a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh .
While he was there , Severin Hacker had the idea of making education universally accessible ; they looked at a range of subjects and landed on languages . Luis and Severin had no formal teaching in language learning , but they understood the basics of computer science . So , they came up with Duolingo . We ' ve had 500 million downloads worldwide and have over 100 courses . It ’ s incredible to think we ’ ve reached that goal and mission to have that global outreach .
As the Country Manager for France and the UK , and Director of Marketing in Europe , how have you overseen business growth during your time with the company ?
My priority has been the UK . My first year at Duolingo was all about driving awareness . When I came in , we had 20 % aided awareness in the UK – we ' re now at 65 %. My role was about changing the relationship with language learning , making people want to learn languages like Welsh , because it might have a historical or cultural impact , not just for holidays or work . For example , last year , Hindi was the second-fastest-growing language in the UK , and we ascribe that to family connections , British Indians wanting to learn Hindi and learn a language of their culture .
In recent years , Duo , the Duolingo owl , has gained a reputation as a ‘ dangerous teacher ’, who threatens users when they do not use the application . What was the social media strategy behind embracing this joke ?
Even before I joined , Duo , the owl , was deliberately passive-aggressive and we ' ve always played up to that . Our marketing strategy is focused on driving word-of-mouth growth and social media is a big part of that , allowing people a chance to have fun with our brand and do quirky things .
One example is when we worked with Angry Birds . We had Red , an Angry Bird , in-app . We also created a video of Red and Duo fighting in a New York bar , just smashing content out without any real expectation of what it would do . But that ' s what people like and what they expect from Duolingo . So , we ' re going to do more of that . Bring more of that fun , quirky element to our social media .
Since James Kuczynski , our Creative Director , came in , we ' ve focused on coming up with ideas that can make us part of the culture . It forces us to be creative .
What are the benefits of using social media to promote yourself and are there any drawbacks ?
It comes down to if you ' re using it from an organic perspective or a paid perspective . With a paid perspective , you know the costs but you also get results . With organic , it has to be funny and
YOU ' RE GOING TO MISS 75 % OF THINGS THAT YOU DO AND THEN YOU RIDE THE SUCCESSES OF THE 25 % THAT TAKE OFF .
IN THE E
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