By Our Staff
Duolingo, the popular language-learning app, has now added Telugu to its list of supported Indian languages, alongside existing Hindi and Bengali courses.
Digitas India, the agency-on-record (AOR) of Duolingo, has created a social-focused campaign to raise awareness about the app’s new Telugu-to-English course in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where Telugu is spoken.
While people in this region are skilled and ready to face the world, their confidence often takes a hit owing to difficulties in communicating effectively in English.
The objective of the campaign is to encourage users in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to learn English using their local language. It not only helps them gain conversational confidence but also empowers them to pursue their global aspirations.
To emphasize the enjoyable and free nature of Duolingo’s lessons, Digitas India also partnered with Roll Rida, a renowned Telugu rapper known for numerous Tollywood tracks. Together, they created a Telugu rap song that tells the story of how mastering English on Duolingo can transform anyone from a local star to a global sensation for Telugu speakers.
Abraham Varughese, CCO, Digitas India said: “What a blast we had working on this campaign! From identifying local barriers to English fluency and unraveling cultural nuances, we took all that we learnt from the success of our brand strategy for Duolingo in India and brought it to life with Duo’s pushy motivation, irreverent humour and an authentic Telugu makeover.”
Added Karandeep Singh Kapany, Country Marketing Manager at Duolingo India: “Telugu is one of the top 20 most spoken languages globally and we are happy to introduce a new Indic language course that helps Telugu speakers learn English. Our social-first campaign titled ‘Star Nunchi Global Star Avandi’ (From Local to Global Star) in collaboration with Digitas was aimed at referencing elements from the Tollywood industry. Digitas has played a pivotal role in making this campaign a remarkable success by keeping the brand’s authenticity alive and seamlessly blending elements which are specific to the heartland of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.”