Duolingo on why brands are becoming more human
We speak to Duolingo’s global head of social media Katherine Chan about managing the team behind its lauded social strategy and how people’s perceptions of brands are shifting in the era of individual clout
The story of Duolingo’s stratospheric rise to social fame over the last few years has become the stuff of lore for many in the marketing world. While the language learning app was already well known for its engaging design and iconic owl mascot Duo, it first began experimenting with social in a big way in 2021, when then 23-year-old graduate Zaria Parvez asked if she could start making videos for the brand’s dormant TikTok account.
Since then, Duo’s chaotic cameos on TikTok (where the brand currently has 12.6 million followers) have become emblematic of internet culture’s ‘unhinged era’, where social media managers actively break the digital fourth wall from branded accounts. Global head of social media Katherine Chan joined Duolingo as the second member of its social team in 2022, having previously led marketing and communications at Red Bull, Tesla and Facebook. “It just seemed like a really good fit in terms of a tech company that cares about brand,” she says.
As well as overseeing the “controlled chaos” that goes out day-to-day and introducing the brand’s cast of characters to new audiences around the word, a big part of Chan’s role is ensuring that her now eight-strong team has the right mix of talent and skillsets. “If you’re looking for someone who is really great at making TikTok videos, I actually think the likelihood that they’re on the younger, more Gen Z end is very high, just in terms of when the platform became popular. But I do think our team is very diverse in the sense that we come from a lot of different cultural backgrounds and we’re pretty highly indexed for women. I actually joke that we might need a man on the team!” she laughs.
@duolingo
