Berlitz Global · 2026
Stop faking it. Start speaking it. A campaign against the shortcuts people take to look fluent.
A global campaign concept for Berlitz: one messaging system, “Stop faking it. Start speaking it. Get real with Berlitz.”, and three creative routes to carry it, from split-image posters to a speech bubble that works as a portal back to the real world.
The challenge
Language apps sell the feeling of progress: streaks, points and a few phrases for the trip. Berlitz sells the real thing, a person who teaches you to hold a conversation. The global campaign had to say that in one line that works in every market and every language, without sounding like an attack on apps or a nostalgic defence of the classroom.
The approach
We wrote one messaging system and built the campaign on its tension: Stop faking it. Start speaking it. Get real with Berlitz. The line pairs a fake version of fluency with the real one, so every execution can show both halves.
Three creative routes carry it. Divider splits a single symbol down the middle, the fake on one side and the real on the other: a microphone, a face, the Eiffel Tower, each with its own pair of lines (stop scoring points, start scoring conversations; stop chasing shortcuts, start mastering a culture). Typo makes the line itself the image, copy-heavy and set with letters borrowed from other alphabets, so the poster is already in more than one language. Portal turns the Berlitz speech bubble into a gate back to reality: a character drops their phone and steps through into the joy of speaking.
The work
The results
The campaign is a concept, presented in the Berlitz global strategy for 2026 with the messaging system and all three routes worked up as posters and social sets. It has not run yet, so there are no results to report.
What we delivered
- The messaging system and its line in three parts
- Divider route: split-symbol posters with paired lines
- Typo route: copy-heavy posters in mixed alphabets
- Portal route: illustrated character and social set
- Campaign positioning for the 2026 global strategy
Related projects
All work
We apply the same thinking to every engagement.
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