Meet Zaria Parvez, the mastermind behind Duolingo's viral social media success, who grew their TikTok from 50K to over 11M followers. Discover how she transformed Duolingo into a social-first brand, creating cultural moments and redefining marketing for a new generation!

From New Graduate to Social Media Innovator: Zaria’s Journey at Duolingo

Tell us about your journey so far and the essential turning points that got you to where you are today.

I think it’s important to go back to when I graduated from university in June 2020. At that time, a social media coordinator role opened up at Duolingo. It was right in the middle of the pandemic, and while I was interested in marketing, I wasn’t sure I wanted to specialise in social media. As a new graduate, I was still experimenting, trying to figure out what would fit best.

Duolingo stood out to me because of its commitment to diversity. Language learning is inherently diverse, and at Duolingo, you’re interacting with a wide range of people, from linguists to learners around the world. A year into my role, TikTok announced it had 1 billion monthly active users, and that was a huge turning point. It became clear that if more people were on TikTok, then they weren’t on our app. So we asked ourselves: how can we leverage where people already are to bring them back to Duolingo?

That’s how our now-famous "unhinged" comments strategy started. We didn’t have the bandwidth or skills for creating TikTok videos at the time, but we thought, why not just comment on other people’s videos? It didn’t even have to be about Duolingo—just funny or relevant to the video. And it worked! People started sharing user-generated content (UGC) of our comments, and from there, we realised we needed to build our own video content. I noticed the Duolingo mascot suit in the office, and thought we could use it as the face of our videos. The rest is history!

Scaling Creativity: The Process Behind Duolingo’s Social Media Success

Attend Zaria's Presentation This September

Get ready to meet Zaria Parvez, the creative genius who took Duolingo's social media presence from ordinary to extraordinary. As Senior Global Social Media Manager, Zaria has been at the helm of transforming Duolingo into a social-first brand, turning TikTok into their playground and making their quirky mascot a viral sensation.

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What does the behind-the-scenes process look like at Duolingo now that the social team has grown?

The social team has evolved. We're now part of the broader Brand Marketing team. My team specifically handles social content, which includes me and two direct reports. We also have a creator/influencer team, and an editorial team that works on blogs and our feature called Duo News. Plus, we have a creative brand studio that helps execute big ideas.

Our meetings are a mix of chaos and creativity. Every Tuesday, we have what we call a "content idea dump." We gather ideas, look at what audio or captions we want to use, and think about Duolingo’s unique point of view. Each week has a focus – sometimes it’s product, other times we build out Duolingo lore or involve our characters like Lily or Zari. The meetings are a mix of brainstorming and comedy, with lots of riffing and community-focused ideas.

You often talk about starting big and scaling down ideas. Can you explain how that works in your process?

Definitely! I always believe in dreaming big but iterating small. If you start thinking about budget and feasibility too early, you restrict yourself from finding the best ideas. We start by shooting for the stars with a campaign concept and then we ask, “Just because the internet will love it, how can we make this happen?” After that, we look at how the idea fits into our brand guidelines and what’s actually feasible to produce.

Interestingly, we’ve never said no to a big idea we were passionate about. For example, we created the "Duolingo on Ice" musical with mascots dancing on ice. It wasn’t out of the question, it was just a matter of figuring out how to execute it. That’s the cool part of our culture – if you believe in something enough, Duolingo will usually give you the budget and support to make it happen.

Creative Risks, Fandoms, and Global Expansion

What’s the biggest creative risk you’ve taken at Duolingo, and how did it pay off?

I’d say our Taylor Swift activation was a big creative risk. Legally, there were challenges, and initially, there wasn’t much buy-in from the team for things like ticket giveaways or showing up in person at her tour. But the idea of activating around a fandom really worked, and it demonstrated how a small video concept could evolve into a full campaign. If it hadn’t worked, it could have set a precedent that small ideas shouldn’t grow into larger campaigns. Luckily, it was a success, and since then, we’ve leaned more into fandom activations.

Duolingo now has TikTok accounts across several countries. How do you ensure consistency in the brand voice while adapting to different cultural contexts?

It’s a bit of a tug and pull. We work with Country Marketing Managers who are based in each market – Brazil, Japan, France, and so on. They understand Duolingo’s tone of voice but also know the local culture inside and out. We collaborate with them, and while the trends may be similar, the way we execute the content can differ. Having these local experts has been crucial to making sure our brand resonates globally.

Building a Creative Team and Empowering Talent

What’s the main quality you look for when hiring for your team?

I look for people who can think outside the box. It’s not about following a rigid strategy; it’s about seeing what’s happening in the community and riffing off that in a creative way. For example, someone on our team turned the phrase "Spanish or Vanish," which our community loved, into a song that was published on Spotify. I value creativity that stems from the community and is executed in a fun and impactful way.

Are there any concepts you wish you could have pushed further?

Yes! We did a mascot convention featuring characters like Scrub Daddy and the Teletubbies, which was a lot of fun. I wish we could have turned it into a larger sketch campaign, maybe something like a long-form YouTube series. Mascots have become so big again, and I think a talk show-style format with brand mascots could be really interesting.

Future Ambitions and Lessons in Social Media

What’s a brand you’d love to work for, aside from Duolingo?

I love Lego! They have so much potential for a social-first strategy, and their brand is already all about creativity and imagination. They’re a bit more traditional, so I imagine there’s a lot of approvals and buy-in required. But if they leaned into creative social content, they could easily outshine all of us.

What advice would you give your 20-year-old self about working in social media?

Don’t sweat the small stuff. When I first started, I took everything so seriously, whether it was positive or negative feedback. The internet is a very black-and-white place, but in reality, most things exist in the grey area. I’d remind my younger self that nothing is as great or as terrible as it seems online, and at the end of the day, it’s just a job.

Finally, what’s something you’re still looking forward to achieving in your career?

I’d love to pull off an in-person brand experience that really excites people. Something like Jellycat Café, where you bring the online community into real life and create a space for them to interact with each other. That would be a dream project for me.