In a special edition of Scratch, Eric Fulwiler is joined by Rahul Chopra, Vice President at Duolingo, for the ANA's Global Day of Learning, for a fireside chat on what it takes to scale one of the world's most distinctive challenger brands. With a mission to bring learning to a billion people around the world, Duolingo is entering its next phase of growth: expanding beyond language learning, evolving its product and marketing strategy, and exploring how AI can help it reach more learners. Chopra shares how Duolingo brings product, marketing, and experimentation together to drive growth, why a great product has to sit behind great marketing, and how the company can continue evolving without losing what makes it distinctive. From the thinking behind its famous social campaigns to AI's potential to transform research, personalisation, and learning, the conversation explores what it takes to keep growing without losing sight of the mission. We get into: → How Duolingo is working towards its mission to bring learning to a billion people — and expanding beyond language learning into subjects like math → How product marketing helps Duolingo tell a stronger story about the value of its product → Why great marketing starts with a great product, and how Duolingo connects its marketing, app experience, and product development to drive growth → How the thinking behind the viral "killed Duo" campaign demonstrates the potential of turning creative ideas into meaningful business growth → Why great social marketing takes more than a single creative genius — and how audience insight, clear guardrails, and collective thinking make the difference → Why challenger brands need to keep evolving, balancing a distinctive brand personality with new forms of storytelling → Where AI can accelerate content creation, personalise learning, and improve the way teams research and experiment → Why AI-generated content volume is overrated, and why its potential as a listening, research, and R&D tool deserves more attention → Why the people closest to the audience should be closest to the publish button — and how to make testing and learning part of your culture The key takeaways:A clear mission gives growth direction — Duolingo's ambition to bring learning to a billion people shapes its expansion into new subjects, product development, and approach to reaching learners. Growth is about more than acquiring users; it also means delivering learning that works.Great marketing starts with a great product — Duolingo's social presence attracts attention, but the product gives people a reason to stay. The strongest marketing reinforces a real product benefit rather than trying to compensate for its absence.Product and marketing should work as one — Campaigns, app reminders, and features like a changing app icon all reinforce the same experience. When marketing and product are aligned, the brand promise carries through from the first social interaction into the product itself.Viral moments need more than a good idea — From the "killed Duo" campaign to cultural moments like Charli XCX concerts and Apple's iPhone events, Duolingo knows how to turn attention into conversation. But sustaining that creativity requires a collective of audience-savvy people, clear guardrails, and strong internal communication.Challengers must keep evolving — Shock-driven content can generate attention, but relying on one trick eventually becomes a limitation. As Duolingo matures, it is exploring a broader range of storytelling, including more wholesome creative, without abandoning its distinctive personality.AI should accelerate the work, not replace the thinking — AI can ease content bottlenecks, help personalise learning, and speed up research and testing. But producing more content is not the same as producing better work. Human judgment remains essential to deciding what is worth making and publishing.AI's research potential is underhyped — Beyond content generation, AI can help marketers listen to audiences, investigate opportunities, and accelerate R&D. Used well, it can make teams smarter and more effective, not just faster.Put audience understanding close to the publish button — The people who understand the audience best should have a direct role in deciding what goes live. Reduce unnecessary friction with useful processes and guardrails, rather than burying creativity under layers of approval.Make experimentation part of the culture — Challenger brands cannot rely on a playbook that worked yesterday. Testing, learning, and adapting should be built into how teams operate, giving them the confidence to try new approaches and discover what works.Chapters00:00 Meet Rahul Chopra and Duolingo's growth challenge02:25 A mission to bring learning to a billion people04:41 How product marketing tells Duolingo's value story07:02 From the viral Duo campaign to organic growth10:10 The people, guardrails, and product behind social creativity13:00 Why product and marketing must work as one16:16 Evolving the brand beyond shock-driven marketing20:16 AI's role in faster learning and smarter marketing23:36 What's overhyped and underhyped in AI marketing26:59 Advice for challengers: audience proximity and experimentation Watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube ▶️: [Watch the episode] Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, who is joined by Rahul Chopra, Vice President at Duolingo, in this episode. Find Rival: wearerival.com | LinkedInFind Eric: LinkedInFind Duolingo: Website | LinkedIn Say hi: media@wearerival.com Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We’re on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.
