From opening a museum of wonky translations to twerking to the beat of the latest TikTok trend, our work for Duolingo is always pushing us to come up with new, culturally relevant ways to get people to do their damn lessons. And when all else fails, we've got Duo, the brand's unhinged owl mascot, ready to fly in and save the day.

We don't just launch campaigns, we make them land with a big thump — pun intended. That thump came in the form of a never-before-seen spectacle: Duo, Duolingo's beloved owl, stepping into the sumo ring to take on Japan's most iconic mascots, including Sonic, Pac-Man, and Donpen, the famous penguin of Don Quijote.

By uniting Japan's passion for mascots with its national sport, we built anticipation through a month-long stream of social-first content that led to a live showdown in Tokyo, broadcast across TikTok, Instagram, and X.

The campaign delivered millions of impressions and created a viral cultural moment that proved that even in Japan's fiercely competitive mascot scene, Duo can throw his weight around.

Duolingo knows consistency is key when learning a language. But keeping a streak during the holiday season, with dinners, parties, and dates becomes almost an insurmountable task, even for the most disciplined. In our time of need, we decided to turn to Duo, Duolingo's owl mascot, who's known to go to insane extremes to get people to do their lessons. We asked of him to commit the ultimate sacrifice: be chopped into pieces, deep-fried, and given away in buckets to anyone who did their lesson on Christmas Eve. Why? Because in Japan, a KFC bucket is the go-to Christmas meal, (and because we are a bit macabre). People came in droves to Shibuya Hikarie (where we held the event) and we were out of buckets in just a few minutes. 

Everyone we asked agrees: Duo tastes like chicken. 

In our first campaign for Duolingo, the world's #1 language app, we decided to give language-learning mistakes a reputation makeover. Instead of feeling self-conscious about Japan's unorthodox usage of English in public signs, menus, and advertising, we saw beyond the obvious and found profound, poetic beauty. Thus the Museum of Wonky English was born: the first institution in the country to shed light on the art of mistranslation. What started as a local brand activation made worldwide headlines and gave people another reason to visit Tokyo. How did we do it? With precision and elegance.

Duolingo TikTok Channel launch & management

Launching and managing Duolingo's Japanese TikTok account has felt more like a science class than advertising: full of experimenting, trial and error, testing hypotheses, arriving at conclusions, and even burning our fingers with Bunsen burners... This is not only because the bar was set extremely high by what the brand has achieved on their US account, but also because what works elsewhere might not necessarily do the trick in Japan.

Suffice it to say that, in our search for the right tone, we've tried everything from sulking because Sonic didn't invite us to his birthday party, to playing Project Sekai with Duo's beak, and turning his wings into gigantic gyozas. So, knowing that only four months in we are one of the top accounts in the country feels doubly great.

From 0 to over 760K followers in less than a year.

Top engagement rate of any business account in Japan two months after launching .

https://adage.com/creativity/work/duolingo-celebrates-mistranslations-museum-wonky-english/2455846

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/11/29/ad-the-day-duolingo-creates-exhibition-dodgy-translations-tokyo

https://www.designboom.com/design/duolingo-museum-of-wonky-english-ultrasupernew-12-05-2022/

https://lbbonline.com/news/duolingo-offers-fried-chicken-in-exchange-for-people-doing-lessons-during-the-holidays

https://lbbonline.com/news/Duolingo-Owl-Mascot-Sumo-Showdown-Tokyo

https://www.campaignlive.com/article/duolingos-owl-takes-japans-beloved-mascots-sumo-showdown/1932755

https://www.brandinginasia.com/sumo-battle-of-the-mascots-in-new-duolingo-campaign/

https://musebyclios.com/advertising/sumo-showdown-duolingo-owl-battles-sonic-pac-man-and-other-mascots/

Sometimes it takes a mistake to make a masterpiece.

Duolingo

When you pair up two celebrities with little in common except a growling appetite, you get some pretty off-the-wall comedy. And a roaring success. 

Our launch campaigns for Uber Eats Japan feature the likes of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Kei Nishikori, Nana Komatsu and Hiroshi Abe. Megastar duos declared their cravings across TV spots, bite-sized social media clips and humongous billboards at Shibuya Crossing. Not long after the launch, Uber Eats became Japan's no.1 food delivery service. Yum.

Ranked #1 most effective ad campaign of 2020 by Nikkei Shimbun.

「今夜、私が見るのは…」　2020年効果的だったCM10選

Uber Eats」日本版CM は錦織圭選手＆くっきー！のラリー合戦

Uber EatsのテレビCM第2弾、黒柳徹子と小松菜奈がヘアアレンジに挑戦！

黒柳徹子と小松菜奈がUber Eatsの新CMで共演　「今夜、私が頂くのは…」

黒柳徹子と小松菜奈「今夜私がいただくのは…」

【動画】小松菜奈＆黒柳徹子、料理名をかみまくり！　アドリブも満載　「Uber Eats」新CMのNGシーン公開

Uber Eats ウーバーイーツ「今夜、私が頂くのは」 黒柳徹子 小松菜奈

黒柳徹子＆小松菜奈が「Uber Eats」新CMに

ウーバーイーツ最新CMで女優小松菜奈＆黒柳徹子が共演｜豪華すぎる組み合わせが話題に。

Oddballs meet meatballs

Red Bull gives you wings, we provided the runway. Our decade-long partnership as lead agency for Red Bull Japan has resulted in the brand to become the top-selling energy drink in Japan which, in turn, has become one of its leading markets globally. From creative directing the launch of their first Japan-only cans to creating unique platforms in Japan such as the first E-sports tournaments, etc. It's been one wild, taurine-induced ride, and we rode it all the way home, together. Oh, and we've brought B-Boys, BMX riders and indie music lovers along for it.

Following "The Orange Edition," USN was again in charge of the launch campaign for this season's new "The Ruby Edition" for the Red Bull Editions series. The Ruby Edition's goal is to give positive energy to those starting a new chapter in their lives under the concept, "Wiiings that bring out the inner sparkle." Based on this concept, USN created the copy, key visuals, original kits, and sparkle certificates, all catered to the Japanese market. Also, we planned and executed a special PR event that tied in with the concept, in which Japan's No. 1 YouTube star and Red Bull athletes played our original game, "Sparkle Grading," where the same game was also used for product samplings. It's safe to say that this campaign really made those wings sparkle!

For the release of Red Bull's original documentary "ALL FOR ONE - SUPER GT, A Story of Humans and Cars" USN was in charge of producing a PR kit for motorsports professionals and media. The film, which focuses on SUPER GT and the individuals who support Team Mugen, has the same power as a movie. USN produced a DM in the shape of a real ticket to convey the "real" of the film from the moment you pick up the kit.


USN was in charge of the launch campaign for "The Orange Editon,” a new product for Red Bull's limited edition series, the ”Red Bull Editons" line. USN developed  and created key visuals, copy, events, influencer and special kits around the concept, "Wiiings that shine with happiness,” which we also proposed.  Four events were held simultaneously in Sapporo, Shibuya, Umeda, and Hakata, with the main event in Osaka featuring a live performance by popular illustrator Chalk Boy. We also were in charge of the follow and retweet campaign, and the creation and production of an original coaster game to be promoted and sold separately on Amazon. Phew, I hope we didn’t leave anything out!

Red Bull Race Day, the biggest motoring event held by Red Bull in 2021 under the concept “GO-ON Tokyo” or “Roaring Tokyo,” featured machines like Super GT, Super Formula, and MotoGP that roared throughout the city of Tokyo. For this event, USN was in charge of coming up the idea, design, and production of the DM, and yet again, we decided to go with something “out-of-the-envelope.” Based on the concept “GO-ON Tokyo,“ we designed the visuals of the DM so that the onomatopoeia of the roaring sound, "Go-ooh,”  literally ripped through and popped out of the envelope. We designed the card, wanting people to wonder, “What the heck is this?” before even opening the envelope, which we then sent out to the media people

Have you ever had a part stolen from your bike? Well, that's too bad. To promote the Red Bull Box Cart Race in Tokyo, where contestants had to build their own vehicles with spare parts, we deliberately parked 100 bicycles around the Shibuya/Harajuku area, with wheels and seats removed to make it look like they were "borrowed." We then purposely placed signs that were addressed to "the owner" of those bikes, promising to return the parts after the race was over. This publicity stunt gathered massive attention online, as well as on the streets including suspicious policemen. The policemen were smiling as they praised us for the clever idea, but asked us not to do it again. We never returned those parts.


You name it, we did it, and we did it big. USN created a full 360° campaign for BC One Finals in Asia. We launched Red Bull's BC One Finals with a concept that combined traditional Japanese print and binding techniques with modern B-Boy aesthetics, which resulted in a huge success. Tickets were going faster than they could be printed, and as soon as they were sold out in three days, people started offering them online for over 35x the original value. Many at Red Bull still talk about this event, calling it the turning point in the Red Bull World. It certainly made our Head-Spin.

After localizing many global Red Bull platforms, we were able to convince Red Bull HQ to create unique Japan-born platforms. Expectations were high, but like always, we delivered like we had wings. We created a 100% USN-like, planned and produced platform, "Live on the Road," that shed a bright spotlight on up-and-coming indie talents to give them the opportunity to really stand out and rock it in Japan's hyper-saturated music scene. Each band were to promote their own music and presence on the platform, which lead to a judging system where the most fan-endorsed band got to perform on the Red Bull stage at Summersonic Festival alongside Japan's renown rock band, ONE OK ROCK and a recording at the Red Bull studios in Europe. This event was such a success that it was then exported and incorporated to Korea and Australia as well. It's not easy being a rockstar in this industry, but it sure feels good.

Of culture, subcultures and vandalized bicycle sculptures

Of culture, subcultures and vandalized bicycle sculptures.