Being out of pocket pays off.

At least that’s the case for Duolingo, which has become synonymous with “unhinged” marketing for its provocative TikTok comments and creating a fake reality dating show. Over the past few years, the language-learning app has shown that being extremely online can lead to significant growth.

As the brand looks at the year ahead, CMO Manu Orssaud said 2024 may just bring some of the brand’s biggest marketing stunts to date.

“New year is our big moment right now,” Orssaud told us, citing a new campaign that will focus on language-learning resolutions, as well as surprises for people with yearlong app usage streaks that could include parties with the brand’s mascot, Duo the owl. The brand is also thinking about how to use CGI in its marketing in the coming year, Oussaud said.

And in what he called an “exciting milestone for the brand,” Duolingo is also planning its first-ever local Super Bowl ad, made possible by its years of marketing experimentation.

Orssaud has headed up Duolingo’s marketing since August, having worked his way up from a director-level role at the company when he first joined in 2020. We spoke with him about the brand’s unhinged evolution, what he’s learned from his past experience working at brands like Spotify and PlayStation, and the importance of taking risks.

Toeing the line: Duolingo is no stranger to a “WTF moment,” which is exactly what Orssaud said people should expect from its upcoming Super Bowl ad. The spot, which will air in local markets, will be just five seconds long and will be similar to what Reddit did a couple of years back, but on a regional instead of national scale, Orssaud told us.

“We’re going for something that is quite stunting in the same way, that hopefully will make people smile and maybe make them do their [language] lesson, as well, hopefully,” he said.

Continue reading our conversation with Orssaud here.—KH

You’re already reading the newsletter, but did you know you can also listen to and/or watch the wittiest and smartest takes on business news?

Morning Brew Daily hosts Neal Freyman and Toby Howell have you covered on everything you need to know before your morning cup of coffee, from the latest headlines on the economy to explanations of viral TikTok trends.

You’ll look so smart in front of your friends.

New episodes are released every weekday at 7am ET. Check ’em out on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

AI is undoubtedly going to be the talk of the town strip this week at CES—searching for “AI” in the CES schedule pulls up more than 80 results. Only a bot would be able to manage that many sessions, nevermind all the conversations on the floor and over coffee or cocktails.

“I imagine that AI is going to be the No. 1 destination for attendees at CES this year,” Lesley Silverman, head of Web3 at United Talent Agency, told Marketing Brew ahead of the official start of the tech show. “Similar to past years where CES was dominated by technologies like Web3 and audio, this year is the year of AI.”

Marketers in particular aren’t exactly expected to be AI experts just yet, so Marketing Brew tapped Silverman, who’s moderating a CES panel about how creators are using AI in their work, to share a few key takeaways about AI for those who can’t make it to all that programming (or just want to seem in-the-know while networking).

Level up: AI was often a “buzzword” at marketing and advertising conferences in 2023, Silverman said. This year, however, she anticipates that brands will think more about the practical applications of AI as opposed to just testing and talking about it.

“One way that brands can supercharge their efforts is by working with creators who have already begun to lean in,” Silverman said. “The creators who have already begun to lean in…are seeing efficiencies being created for their businesses, so that’s one way that brands might be able to get a leg up or move faster.”

That being said, Silverman also stressed that, eventually, brands will likely “leverage their own integrations that are powered by AI” to maximize efficiency in their partnerships as opposed to letting creators take the lead all the time. Some agency execs are already applying AI to their work in significant ways, from creative ideation to coding to client services.

Read more from our chat with Silverman here.—AM

As the 2024 US presidential election inches closer, Stagwell’s creative agency Code and Theory and news site RealClearPolitics teamed up to debut political polling site RealClearPolling.

The website, which Code and Theory designed, features polling data from RealClearPolitics. The partners also rolled out a newsletter, The Takeaway, to keep users apprised of new analysis.

“The elections are really like the Super Bowl on steroids, if you think about it as a cultural moment. There really is no place of record at the level of the data that RealClearPolitics has on polling and what Stagwell can bring to the table,” Dan Gardner, Code and Theory’s co-founder and executive chairman, told Marketing Brew.

Stagwell’s Gale and Multiview agencies are helping monetize the service for advertisers, he confirmed. He said the polls can help advertisers understand public opinion to make brand-safe decisions on where to place ads, despite “fake news” and media bias.

“It’s just numbers. It’s polling,” Gardner said. “There’s no editorial position that creates potential—whether conscious or unconscious—bias…Obviously elections drive politics, and politics drive points of view. What happens is advertisers then bow out, but you can’t really bow out fully of the biggest cultural moments of next year, because your job as advertisers is to get in front of people’s attention.”

Facts and figures: This is not Stagwell’s first political advertising partnership with a publisher. For the 2018 midterm elections, it worked with CNN on the news giant’s Magic Wall, whose touchscreen display showed election polling data that anchor John King explained to viewers. Code and Theory has also inked deals with the BBC, NBC, and Bustle Media.

Up next for the site? Besides further customization, it will integrate AI into RealClearPolling so users can pull older RCP data to get historical perspective on polling data. Stagwell will also be selling ads on the RealClearPolling site, Gardner said.—JS

Sip, click, cheers! Join us virtually on Jan. 18 as we kick off the new year with PepsiCo’s Vice President of Consumer Insights and Analytics Umi Patel and Head of Media Strategy and Investment Katie Haniffy to hear their highs and lows of the last year and where they’re headed from here.

Register now.