Case study: Pingo's TikTok Strategy

This Weeks Newsletter includes:

• Pingo AI’s TikTok strategy + Toolkit overview ✅

• Full collection of all TikTok accounts promoting Pingo AI, here ✅

• Revamped 0→10K MRR Handbook ✅

• New episode live from our new podcast, Hooked, featuring Avery Koka, Co-founder of Plots. In this episode she explains how they gained their first 100K users with Zero ad spend which eventually got them into A16z.

Strategy Overview 📚

Pingo AI is an AI based language learning app that can offer a lot more detailed feedback than other apps currently available. The most interesting feature is the entertaining way in which the app shares its feedback.

In fact, their content strategy is centred around this feedback feature and has generated over 200 million views just creating content from app demos.

Despite the app demo format, the content comes across as entertaining rather than a sales pitch. In fact, reports show that the app hit over 200k downloads and $100K revenue in the last month alone.

Let’s analyse their content strategy and what is working for them.

Here are some of their most successful videos and how they did it 👇:

🎬 "Fue Terrible!"
50M+ views, 8M likes, 680k saves

Hook - “why tf is Spanish so hard” + crying person on screen

Format - App Demo

Why this video worked

• Hook - The crying expression and the text on the video makes people curious as to how hard can spanish be to push someone to tears.

• Mispronounced words – Some Spanish words are mispronounced by the creator to create a humorous moment. This is the first punch.

• Response – The response of the app criticising the pronunciation by being rude is the second punch. It adds to the humour making it even funnier.

🎬 “En le cocina“
24M views, 3.6M likes, 260k saves

Hook - Same hook as above

“why tf is Spanish so hard” + crying person on screen

Format - App Demo

Why this video worked

1. Harmless Mistake - It feels like the classic mistake that first time new language learners make which advanced speakers find very funny.

2. Engagement – The audience finds the choice of word (cocina being pronounced as coochina) hilarious and they heavily engage with the content. (17%+ engagement rate)

3. Account – The account name, the hashtags, and the consistent use of spanish learning tells makes perfect sense and sells the idea that the account is on a Spanish learning journey.

🎬 “Send help”
10M views, 1.1M likes, 98k saves

Hook - Crying face on thumbnail + “why is German so hard” + “IDIOT”

Format - App Demo

Why this video worked

1. Hook – Hook apart from the expression and “why is German so hard” also includes the criticism of the app “IDIOT”. Makes people want to see what led to the app saying that.

2. Universal appeal – The mispronounced word meaning something else in English and the subtitle increases the audience beyond just people learning german.

3. Callback – This is a callback to a popular meme about a hiring campaign in Germany with the same words “Wir Suchen Dich” (We are looking for you).

Key takeaways from Pingo AI’s Strategy: 💡

Many people want to learn new languages but learning from an app is hard because it can give targetted feedback. This is the problem that Pingo AI solves and is trying to highlight through its strategy.

1) Universal Humour – The mispronounced words (cocina, dich) are chosen to be entertaining to native speakers and people who only know English. This increases the audience that the content potentially serves.

2) App personality - App’s response invites curiosity since the feedback is different from other language learning apps like Duolingo. This allows it to stand out in a lighthearted manner without talking about features.

3) Engagement – Usage of a different language increases engagement from people who want the translation, native speakers who are laughing at the creator’s misery and people who are translating for others in the comments

🚨Pro Tip: Use a analytics tool like Trackr to create a collection to save inspiration videos from your competitors videos like we did with ClipTone.

Format Toolkit (Premium Content)🔐

There are three core components of Pingo’s content strategy

1. Hook – Reaction to learning a new language. Exclamations about “why is it so hard” are used here but a different reaction of shame or smugness could also work. The reaction and text is important to set the context.

2. Attempt – The attempt by someone who is still learning and makes mistakes

3. Criticism -The criticism of the attempt by the app in its unique way

Toolkit info: 👇

• Replicability Rating: 

• Video Length: 10-12 seconds (Sufficient time to show reaction, attempt and the app’s response)

• Platform: TikTok

• App category: AI, Education

• Asset format: Demo Video

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