Global language learning app, Duolingo, wants people to succeed at learning a new language. It’s so much better for business. Consistency, it knows, is the key. So when the holiday season intervened, so did Duolingo’s Japanese creative agency, UltraSuperNew. The agency called on the classic way to motivate people to do something – food.

One of Japan’s most puzzling Christmas traditions is having a bucket of fried chicken as a Christmas Eve meal. It’s so popular that supplies will sell out weeks in advance of December 24. The agency devised Krispy Fried Duo (KFD), a delicious alternative to the traditional fried chicken bucket, made (supposedly) with actual parts from Duolingo’s mascot owl, Duo. Making the ultimate sacrifice, Duo volunteered his tastiest and greenest pieces, had them chopped, deep-fried, and placed inside a KFD (Krispy Fried Duo) bucket, and offered them to those learners who completed their lessons even on Christmas Eve.

The campaign started as an influencer-led push in the week leading up to December 24. TikTok and X posts showed a series of entertaining content launching Duo’s lightbulb moment in offering Krispy Fried Duo to those in need of fried delights.

Another video featured one of the biggest cooking influencers in Japan helping Duo come up with the right recipe.

There’s even a spicy challenge where Duo personally delivered a super hot version of the KFD bucket and challenged an influencer to eat it while doing Duolingo, as punishment for skipping his lessons.

Finally, on December 24, when almost every other bucket in the city was sold out, Duo himself came to Shibuya, Tokyo’s busiest district, and handed out buckets of KFD to those who showed him on the Duolingo app that they had done their lessons that day.