Brand

Context

Duolingo is the world’s leading education app used by three million daily active learners worldwide, whose mission is to make learning accessible to everyone for free, no matter who they are. They collaborated with The One Club for Creativity to create a brief for their Young Ones One Show Awards.

Duration 3 months

Role

Digital Product Design ✺ Advertising

As a gamer and an anime enthusiast, Dhruvil understands the value of being part of a foreign community and the frustration of language barriers. He took on this challenge to help an influential brand like Duolingo explore this need gap and create a product that could benefit him and be accessible to his fellow fans who face the same difficulties.

Context

Thanks to globalization, 2024 has seen an unprecedented surge in cross-national content exchange.

4.5B＋

Total streams makes Bad Bunny's Un Verano Sin Ti the most-streamed album on Spotify

1.6B＋

Total view hours makes Squid Game the most-watched Netflix series of all time

643M＋

Viewers per game makes the English Premier League the leader in sports viewership across the globe

Users

Dhruvil tapped into the world of social media-savvy Gen Z and millennial fans ✺ aged 16-34 ✺ who live and breathe their favorite sports, music, games, anime, and fantasy content ✺ to understand their communities, struggles, and what gets them buzzing.

1﹕4

Ratio of native to non-native fans that were interviewed

5y 6m

Average duration of the interviewees' fan following

Insight

Non-native fans often struggle while participating in online conversations regarding their favorite content ✺ due to language barriers ✺ which leads to limited access to information, feelings of isolation and exclusion, and diminished enjoyment of the fandom experience.

33%

Fans struggle to participate in online fandom communities

10%

Fans learn a new language because of their interests in genre

Challenge

How might we help Duolingo break down language barriers ✺ between the members of online fandom communities who feel alienated ✺ keeping their shared interests alive and encouraging them
to sign up to learn a new language?

Translingo by Duolingo

Translingo is a globally accessible web extension that facilitates fans to converse across web platforms and languages as their favorite characters, fostering global community and cultural exchange.

Understand

Translate from and to any language of your preference on any webpage.

Communicate

Comment in any language in the voice of the character of your choice.

Learn

Visit duolingo.com to learn the language and effortlessly connect with your favorite fandom community.

Text-to-speech-based AI Integration 🔊

Using the power of AI to convert your text to sound like your favorite characters. Simply select a voice and its mood to apply it to your comment.

Duoverse

Duo steps into your fantasy realm as the lead character, starring in various avatars across NFTs, consumer goods at DuoStore, exclusive merch at Duocon, and possibly so much more.

Results

Users love the idea of personifying conversations likening it to a digital ComiCon ✺ and strongly believe it could be a product akin to what Duolingo offers.

70%

Users preferred the Translingo extension over Google Translate's because of the added features

40%

Users were interested in learning a new language after their Translingo experience

Learnings & Next Steps

✺ Fans are highly influenced, loyal consumers who thrive on digital engagement and crave to be heard.

✺ Voice-based AI can effectively aid human-centered problems.

✺ A conversational product or platform can be a highly profitable market.

Build equity for Duolingo's characters

Drive traffic to the leaning website