The first episode of Marketing Manifest Stations, a monthly podcast that discusses the role of marketing in business outcomes for organisations hosted by Manasi Narasimhan, head communications and fund-raising, CEGIS, features Tara Kapur, market lead- India, Duolingo English Test (DET). 

Aimed to revolutionise the traditional English testing setup by offering a digital, at-home English test at one-fourth the cost of the competitors, Duolingo’s goal is to open up doors for students across various demographics. During the conversation, Kapur touched upon what it is like being a challenger, the demographic mix targeted, and building trust and credibility among people. 

From working with micro-influencers in the study abroad space and partnering with study abroad publications, Duolingo is reaching diverse demographics and building awareness. With the brand focused on curating campaigns that are unique to each market, it ensures maintaining global brand principles of being a fun and student-friendly product. 

Kapur also talked about the brand’s partnership with Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Dunki, post which they had a 'sweet' moment-marketing campaign to drive up awareness, which proved to be quite successful for them. 

Born out of a hackathon project, it was during the Covid pandemic that the DET built a proof of concept. As for the Indian market, Duolingo is focused on doing a lot more localised content in the country while also working on a lot of practice content. Kapur emphasised the importance of building trust in a traditional sector like education, which is still old-school in a lot of ways. 

She also spoke about how performance marketing is one of the key areas that they are focusing on. The brand is working on building out a strong campaign which will be around referrals from other students. Duolingo is also partnering with Rajkumar Rao’s upcoming movie Srikanth which is based on an inspirational story of a blind student going to MIT (Michigan Institute of Technology). 

Kapur also highlighted the importance of balancing data-driven decisions while trusting creative instincts by labelling marketing as a ‘strong marriage between data and gut.’

Tune into the podcast here: