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Put the LINGO Back in DuoLINGO

Project type

Digital Marketign Campaign

Date

May 2026

Location

NYU SPS - Digital Marketing

Link

Check out the entire deck

Duolingo has a direction problem, not a capability problem. With 50M+ daily active users and a viral cultural presence, the brand mastered attention — but drifted from its core promise: actually making people fluent.

This campaign repositions Duolingo around real-world cultural moments, anchored by the 2026 FIFA World Cup and built for two distinct audiences: the World Cup Traveler who wants to belong in the moment, and the Cultural Globetrotter who wants language to unlock the cultures they already love.

The strategy operates on two tracks. Track 1 — Duolingo: The Official Language of Fútbol — ties language learning directly to match-day moments through social content, dynamic out-of-home, in-app World Cup Mode, stadium pop-ups, and airline partnerships. Track 2 — Find the Moment. Learn the Language. — builds year-round retention through participatory cultural programming including Movie Nights, film and music integrations, and community-driven learning experiences.

Team: Vanessa Marquez-Kramme · Christina Corbisiero · Alyssa Byam · Jimmy Zhang

Dark navy slide with green and white text reading "Nobody remembers how many lessons they've done; they remember the first time someone understood them in another language." Duo the Owl and Lily appear in the bottom right corner looking skeptical. A streak flame icon floats above them.

Colorful collage of language learning app logos including Babbel, Rosetta Stone, Busuu, Memrise, Pimsleur, Speak, and Preply arranged on a dark navy background with green borders. Duo the Owl appears in the bottom right corner.

Four-column SWOT layout on a dark navy background. The Strengths column is highlighted in white with a bright green circle above it. The other three columns — Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats — are visually muted. Title reads "Where the Owl Soars."

Same four-column SWOT layout. Now the Weaknesses and Threats columns are highlighted in white. Weaknesses include overreliance on social media virality, streak culture not equaling fluency, game perception, and overwhelming notifications. Threats include overcrowded market, Babbel and Rosetta Stone, AI tools, app fatigue, and trend-driven brands aging faster. Title reads "Where the Owl Can't Fly."

Dark navy slide with the headline "Duolingo: The Official Language of Fútbol." Below it, three illustrated cards labeled GET, TO, and BY. GET shows Duolingo characters around a globe. TO shows a character interacting with a phone. BY shows Duo the Owl. Each card contains the corresponding text of the Get-To-By statement.

Three-column table on a dark navy background with green column headers reading Execution, Need It Answers, and Gap It Closes. Seven rows cover Match-Day Social, DOOH, In-App World Cup Mode, Stadium Pop-Ups, Travel Creators and Athletes, Airline Partnerships, and Movie Nights. Each row maps a specific user need and strategic gap in plain language.

Split slide with dark navy on the left and lighter background on the right. Left side labeled "Think Before Campaign" with four dark pill-shaped bullets: It's just Duolingo, I'll do it later, The streak doesn't really matter, I tried it — I built a streak — I still can't speak it. Right side labeled "Think After Campaign" with two bullets: Duolingo meets me where I already am and gives me the confidence to actually speak to people, and Maybe I can actually talk to someone in another language after this. Duo the Owl sits reading a book in the center.

Split slide layout. Left side labeled "Do Before Campaign" with four bullets: Open the app, complete a lesson, close it; Build a streak with no clear goal; Drop off after 30 days when the novelty fades; Never convert to paid. Right side labeled "Do After Campaign" with four bullets: Open the app to learn tonight's chant; Chase the tournament, not the streak; Stay for Movie Nights, community, the next cultural moment; Upgrade to paid plan. A golden winged Duo the Owl character floats in the center.

Dark navy slide with Lily and a mystery Duolingo character in speech bubbles on the left. Right side reads "In 5 years duolingo will be known as" followed by italic text: "The app that made people fluent." Duo the Owl appears in the bottom right corner.

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