🧑‍🔬 How This App Got Over 500M Downloads

🧪 The Halo Effect

🤳How Duolingo Uses The Halo Effect

Duolingo used to run expensive and well-branded TV ads, until they discovered the potential of the Halo Effect.

Duolingo uses the Halo Effect through their beloved owl mascot, Duo.

The mascot is the face of their social media.
He’s funny, hops on trends, and has an ongoing crush on Dua Lipa.
And in doing so, has racked up an incredible 9.9 MILLION followers on TikTok.

Duolingo calls it “unhinged marketing” and it’s paying dividends:

• As of early 2023, 80% of their users were acquired organically

• From 2022-2023, Duolingo’s daily active users increased by 62%

• When a video goes viral, they also see a jump in resurrected users

When people think of Duolingo, they think of the mascot and they capitalize on that positive impression in their ads:

🧠 How You Can Use The Halo Effect

The key to The Halo Effect is to play on your strengths and focus on what sets your brand apart.

For example:

• Highlight your best-seller in your ads (like this)

• Display testimonials and any certifications (like this)

• Leverage celebrity endorsements (like we discussed previously)

• Nail your brand messaging and brand personality (like Duolingo)

• Use attractive people in your ads (like this)
  (I know it sounds icky but there are studies that show using attractive people in your ads influences people’s perception of your product)

• Invest in high-quality design (like this)

The whole idea is to just lean into what makes your brand likeable.

Here’s the main question to consider:

If you were to ask your customer what’s the number one thing they like about your brand or comes to mind when thinking about your brand, what would it be?

For Duolingo, that’s Duo.

For you, that may a specific product, a feature, brand personality, customer service, or anything else.

Whatever it is, highlight it in your ads.

Some Links You May Find Interesting:

• Marketing Millennials Podcast: How an Ex-Twitter Boss Think About Content Creation: Interesting conversation about how to capture attention in short-form content.

• LinkedIn Will Now Enable Brands to Sponsor Any Organic Post in the App: Businesses on LinkedIn can now boost any post on LinkedIn through its “Thought Leader Ads.”

• 22 best AI marketing tools I'm using to get ahead in 2024: I think 22 is an overwhelming amount of tools but it’s a great list and just choose what you actually need.

Books I’m Reading:

• $100M Leads: Finished. Great content, as always from Hormozi.

• Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving: The title caught my attention and after reading a preview, I liked the writing style. It’s by Celeste Headlee, who’s TED Talk, “10 ways to have a better conversation”, has racked up 13M views.