CXO INSIGHT people have to see it . One of the big downsides is sometimes you ' ll come up with a fun idea which you think is brilliant and it just doesn ' t work .
For example , when we launched the UK Twitter account , we decided to follow famous birds , such as Taylor Swift and Russell Crowe . We thought that might be a fun way to promote ourselves , but it didn ' t fly . It ’ s just trial and error – you ' re going to miss 75 % of things that you do and then you ride the successes of the 25 % that take off . TikTok is the perfect example of that .
Duolingo now has a strong presence on TikTok . How has this helped the company reach its target market ? Have you seen an influx of younger users on the app ?
We had lots of internal discussions around what we were going to do with TikTok and we never hit on the right strategy . What we were doing was based on education – what you would expect from a language learning app . But it
IT COMES DOWN TO RECRUITMENT , FINDING THE RIGHT PEOPLE AND GIVING THEM THE AUTONOMY TO DO THINGS THAT YOU AS A CMO OR DIRECTOR OF MARKETING MIGHT NOT BE COMFORTABLE WITH . almost exclusively comes down to Zaria Parvez , our social media coordinator in the US . She got what TikTok was about , really understood the platform and realised that it could be for messing around , hopping on new trends and helping brand positioning .
Let ' s be honest , have we done any language learning content as we did previously ? No . But it doesn ' t necessarily matter because it gives people a flavour of who we are and how we act .
This shift has had an impact on business metrics . When new learners sign up to Duolingo we ask how they heard about us and we ' ve added Tik Tok on there .
There ’ s this perception that Duolingo is for younger people , but a big part of my strategy has been about ageing up the demographic , and the demographic of TikTok is older than you think . So , it ' s bringing in quite a broad audience .
How can brands take the plunge and adopt a strong social media strategy ?
With social media , you need to have somebody that understands the platform and has the creative vision to do something with it .
Sometimes , it ' s just learning and you are going to make mistakes . Your idea will be diluted down once it ’ s gone through committee meetings and such . We ' ve benefited massively because we ' ve Zaria ’ s personality coming through on TikTok . It comes down to recruitment , finding the right people and giving them the autonomy to do things that you as a CMO or Director of Marketing might not be comfortable with . Don ' t be afraid to take risks .
What does Duolingo ’ s marketing strategy involve over the next five years ? And what does the app ’ s future look like ?
We ’ re adapting because we ' re a global company , so our marketing strategy will be slightly different across the world . For example , in the developing world , it ' s principally getting people to learn English to get a better start in life . Whereas , in Asia , it ' s learning English to get a better job .
The other big focus for us will be about driving that word-of-mouth growth . We don ' t have the biggest marketing budgets . We have to encourage our learners to be our advocates .
The language learning app will continue to change as we ’ re always introducing new features . We launched ABC during the pandemic , which is literacy for three-to six-year-olds . We ' re going to launch a maths app . You ' ll also see the developers producing an English test , which will act as a certification . That ’ s a big goal for us . x
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