Most smartphone users are flooded with push notifications each day, with many of them ignoring these messages. People barely take notice even of those notifications that are meant to give them a helping hand in learning something new – such as Duolingo‘s, which remind students that it’s time for study. Yet, some of the platform’s users made Duo — the company’s mascot — sad because they stopped using the app. So, the cute owl wanted to give them a “push” in the right direction, surprising its students with a notification to remember.

Helped by Brazilian agency Jotacom, Duolingo went further than the “humble” mobile screen, reaching out to students with the world’s largest push notification. “The Unignorable Notification” is intended to encourage students to keep learning and, to give them the motivation they need, the brand customized and projected its message on the walls of its users’ neighboring buildings.

The selection of users who were surprised by the huge Duolingo notification involved a search and posts asking for fan recommendations on the company’s social media accounts. There were more than 500 responses with nominations from all regions of the city. The surprise was implemented with the help of lucky students’ families and friends, who were assigned the mission to bring the users to their apartment window. Projected on the building in front of them, the personalized notifications — with sizes between 10 and 15 square meters — were simply impossible to ignore.

“This campaign has Duolingo’s most precious asset as protagonists — our students. In this action we created a fun way, which is our secret ingredient, to encourage them to study with us, reinforcing our most important mission, which is to offer free and quality education for all,” says Analigia Martins, Marketing Director for Duolingo in Brazil.

João Passarinho Netto, VP of Creative Strategy at Jotacom, adds: “‘The Unignorable Notification’ has an additional special touch due to the unusual, bold, and technological strategy involved to remind students of the importance of keeping their studies up to date. Certainly, an original action that will catch eyes everywhere”.

To bring the giant, customized projection to life, Duolingo used a Matrice 600 Pro drone, with a weight of 10 kg and more than one meter in diameter, equipped with a camera and an Epson S18+ projector by Bizsys company exclusively for this initiative.

Luciano, Sueli, and Jasmin are some of the students who skipped Duolingo classes. But not anymore, as the campaign inspired them to use the app, continue learning, and accumulate more consecutive days of practice. Check out the video below to see how they reacted to the biggest push notification ever made.

Credits:

Client: Duolingo

Agency: Jotacom – The Cross Performance Agency

CEO: Jurgis Figueiredo

VP of Creative Strategy: João Passarinho Netto

VP of Creative Performance: Fábio Mello

Head of Creation and Content: Felipe Andrade

Art direction: André Lopes

Writing: Luiz Barrella

Content Coordination: Brunno Maceno

Content: Mariana Félix Teixeira

Interaction Coordination: Fellipe Camarossi

Head of Digital Media: Ausra Sliesoraitis

Head of Brandformance: Gabriel Igima

Brandformance: Flávio Pereira

Head of Projects: Mariane Cunha

Project Manager: Álvaro Abreu

Motion Design / VFX: Victor Cardoso / Brunno Dias

Creative Planning:Felipe Andrade / João Passarinho Netto

Data Insights Coordination: Natália Avellar

Data Insights Analyst: Gustavo Barbosa

Technology Producer: BIZSYS

CEO: Rodrigo Cassino

Film producer: Violeta Filmes

Director: Will Mazzola

Executive producer: Gilberto Pires (Gibinha) e Roberta Reigado

Creative Research Coordination: Vera Esteves

Creative Assistant: Rafaela Franco

Customer Service: Roberta Noc e Marina Dodi

Production Coordination: Cadu Dantas, Karin Greco e Adressa Miyasato

Production director: Miguel Pixis

Assistant director: Ariela Hertel

Cast Production: Ana Maria Destito

Camera: Jackson Kleber de Moura Franco

Post Production Coordinator: Rodrigo Parente e Diego Nascimento

Finisher: Diego Nascimento

Montage: João Amato

Color: Acauan Pastore

Audio Producer: CANJA

Co-founder: Lucas Sfair

Audio service:  Luba Freitas

Client Approval:

Analigia Martins, Country Marketing Director

James Kuczynski, Creative Director, Marketing & Brand

Emannuel Orssaud, Head of International Marketing

PR Agency: SMARTPR