On day four of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Karandeep Kapany, regional marketing director, Duolingo and Abraham Varughese, chief creative officer, Digitas India, took to the stage to explain how brands can get Gen Z to like their brands.

Kapany started the talk by sharing how education is a serious topic in India, but true learning is a result of building ‘excitement’.

“We are serious about learning, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. True learning can happen when you’re excited,” he said before showcasing the brand’s first piece of work for the day, an April Fool’s campaign. He added, “We have a sassy side on our social media posts and quirkiness during Duolingo lessons because learning should be fun, rewarding and exciting. India has always had a troubled relationship with formal learning. Children miss out on college admissions because of 1/10th of a mark. Education is not enjoyable or construction and some career choices are because of dreams of parents and society.”

Kapany added that the brand’s challenges were taking on the flawed perception of learning and a generation of Indians who were interested in the likes of cricket, films and music.

Varughese discussed how the challenges were taken on.

“While Gen Z was busy with everything other than learning, we had two outcomes to chase. We had to make sure everything we did was shareable, and if it was an offline activation it had to have the potential for earned media. We wanted to tap into fandoms relevant to our audiences and disguise our learning reminders as entertainment,” he said.

The brand chose a narrative for that – a ‘Green Cuddly’ soft toy. 

“Using the ‘Green Cuddly’, we gate crashed the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai. Duolingo made a front-row appearance. We also corrected spelling across India (for example: roadside food stalls) in a fun way. When it came to local–regional launches, we built in the nuances of the audiences we were speaking to. In our daily reminders, for organic virality, we used meme-worthy moments,” he said.

After sharing a few examples of how Duolingo got involved with viral content, he added, “Brands don’t reply to fan comments – we took that on. We replied to every fan comment every day. This turned into daily banter with our fans. They come to provoke us to say something and we did.”

Kapany revealed that this strategy helped them get more than 100 million organic impressions. 

“Gen Z and millennials loved our videos. Brands also collaborated. Sales increased as well and we became one of the buzziest brands,” he said before revealing how it was achieved.

“This was because of our amazing team. We decided that content for Gen Z will be created by Gen Z. 80% of our learners are below the age of 30. We saw that ideas for the best Reels were coming from the youngest people on the team. We actively listened to them while brainstorming. Gen Z shot and edited some of these reels. They led the way,” he added.

He added his advice for brands.

“Have a unique voice and own it. Do that because the audience craves genuineness and authenticity. Lastly, stay scrappy. Good content isn’t equal to expensive content. At Duolingo, we shoot using iPhones and use whatever props are available,” he said.

Varughese concluded the talk by sharing his learnings.

“There’s no rule to success on social. If we had to leave with you three things to keep in mind while creating content – don’t resize other ads for your content. Your content is not content unless it’s worth sharing. Don’t add to the landscape of skippable ads. Last but not least, give every fan a reason to be a fan. Fan engagement influences the algorithm – your content automatically gets pushed organically when you have the right engagement,” he said.