Duolingo knows that nearly half of those who sign up for a fictional language go on to learn a real one next. Based on this strategic insight, Duolingo partnered with HBO Max to create High Valyrian lessons that teach fans the fictional language from the highly anticipated House of the Dragon series.

To extend the partnership across several touchpoints, Duolingo promoted these new High Valyrian lessons through cryptic billboards, a challenge with a life-size Valyrian Steel sword as the prize, and viral content featuring Duo the Owl on the iron throne at HBO Max's Comic-Con event.

As the world’s #1 language learning app, Duolingo knows entertainment content drives interest in language learning and vice versa. From K-pop music to television shows like Squid Game, our data shows a direct correlation between user growth and what’s happening in the cultural zeitgeist.

So when HBO Max announced a new prequel to the Game of Thrones series named House of the Dragon, Duolingo saw an opportunity to join the conversation and drive brand awareness. How? By speaking the show’s language.

How do you raise awareness for learning languages like Spanish and French without spending a significant amount of money on paid media? Get them to learn a fictional one first.

At the core of Duolingo's brand marketing strategy is the belief that "when we have fun, we go further." That's why the Duolingo app makes language learning fun with game-like lessons and delightful characters.

While most traditional education marketing is rather dull, we wanted to tap into the most anticipated TV series of the year and drive interest for language learning through an unexpected partnership.

The goal was to connect Duolingo to culture through a strategic creative idea that would earn attention around the world and inspire people to start learning languages of all kinds.

Knowing millennials, who make up Duolingo’s target audience, are obsessed with Game of Thrones and the new House of the Dragon series would feature its fictional language, we were confident an idea based on High Valyrian would speak to our audience. From reviewing existing data, we also knew nearly half of those who sign up for a fictional language go on to learn a real one next.

So we turned this insight into a cultural phenomenon by partnering with HBO Max to create real High Valyrian lessons. With such a highly anticipated show, we needed approval from multiple stakeholders including the author of the story himself, George R.R. Martin. The breakthrough moment came when Duolingo proactively reached out at the same time that HBO Max was looking to re-engage Game of Thrones fans after the original series had ended years before.

For the new Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, Duolingo partnered with HBO Max to create High Valyrian lessons that teach fans the fictional language from the show.

Our strategy to connect entertainment with education determined where and when we brought the campaign to life. We launched ahead of the season premiere with multiple activations, including cryptic billboards in Times Square and Comic-Con, an in-app challenge with a life-size Valyrian Steel sword as the prize, and viral social content featuring Duo the Owl on the iron throne at HBO Max’s Comic-Con event.

By tapping into the insight that nearly half of those who learn a fictional language go on to learn a real one next, we were able to focus on promoting a magical made-up language that would receive global attention while knowing that fans would eventually sign up for our other real languages down the line.

“High Valyrian Lessons” became the #1 most talked about campaign for Duolingo ever and helped drive fans to HBO Max’s most watched premiere in history. The strategic partnership generated more than 150 press mentions and 700M earned media impressions around the world with a single TikTok video receiving 10.8M views alone. The campaign has created a lasting cultural impact with one learner even deciding to hold her entire wedding in High Valyrian. So far over 300,000 fans have started learning High Valyrian, but most importantly 43% of them will go on to learn another language like Spanish or French next.