The Marketing Strategy Behind the Internet’s Favorite Green Menace

Whether clambering into a sweaty mascot suit, trying to source an owl bust carved from watermelon, or recording 200 clips of armpit fart sounds for a Super Bowl commercial, there’s rarely a dull day for Duolingo’s marketing team.

Just ask Zaria Parvez, the language learning app’s global senior social media manager. “This morning, I was putting a mustache on our CEO,” she told ADWEEK with a laugh.

The reason for Luis von Ahn’s new facial hair? The boss was starring in a spoof of the Apple TV+ series Severance for Duolingo’s 16.8 million TikTok followers. “He was like, ‘I only have 30 minutes to do this because I have a meeting with our biggest investor,’ but he still prioritized it,” said Parvez.

It might sound like merely an amusing anecdote, but this is symbolic of the reverence and trust Duolingo’s marketing department has built at the highest levels of the business.

Its 51-strong marketing team has spent the last four years fine-tuning the brand’s social-first approach on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and X by planting it at the center of culture—whether that’s a Charli XCX concert or the Barbie movie premiere—and listening closely to its followers.

“The mantra for our team is that the comment section is our social brief, and the community really drives what we do,” said Parvez.

This strategy has driven an increase in monthly active users from 40.5 million in 2021 to 116.7 million now.

As people have flocked to Duolingo to learn over 40 languages, app revenues from ads and booster purchases have also increased. The business logged $192.6 million in billings last quarter, a year-over-year boost of 40%.

Its core business is evolving, too. Math and music courses have been part of its curriculum since 2023. Duolingo has also baked in generative AI tools, including a video call feature powered by machine learning that lets people converse with its mascots in languages including Japanese and Italian.