By Sam Bradley • October 18, 2024 •
Ivy Liu
Airbnb wants more people to list their properties on its platform. To persuade them to do that, it’s relying on a brand campaign that’s built up steam over the last two years.
This week, the company launched an internal “co-host” market intended to make it easier for hosts renting out their properties on its platform to access services like property management and cleaning. The brand’s hope is that if hosting on the platform becomes easier, more people will list their properties and increase its supply in core destination markets such as the U.S., U.K. and Australia.
“Sometimes it just feels like a little bit too much work and if you’re new to the whole idea, it may seem a little bit overwhelming,” said Hiroki Asai, global chief marketing officer at Airbnb.
Previously reliant on performance marketing techniques, Airbnb returned to bigger, brand-focused campaigns after hiring Asai in 2020. In the first half of this year, the company’s sales and marketing spend rose to $1.08 billion, up 13.9% on the same period in 2023.
Airbnb’s message targeting potential hosts is wrapped up in “Airbnb It,” a brand campaign that has run since 2022. Its in-house creative team developed the campaign’s latest spot, “Rodeo”m to communicate the introduction of the internal market.
Though Asai declined to share budget details or a specific media mix for the campaign, he said it would primarily focus on paid social, including YouTube and Instagram. “There is a little bit of paid TV in some markets, but it is predominantly a social campaign,” he added.
Airbnb has also updated its on-site search to include destination recommendations based on users’ previous bookings and “suggested” search filters. The intention, Asai said, is to offer a “simpler, more intuitive” and more personalized experience for those booking vacations through the app.
The changes are Airbnb’s latest efforts to guard against competition from hotel chains and intermediary platforms such as Booking.com and Expedia-owned Vrbo, which launched its own campaign in April seeking to appeal to potential property hosts.
“They’re getting pressure from both sides,” said Stefan Siedentopf, group head of planning at VCCP, an agency that works with travel operator and airline EasyJet.
“Many large hotels have upgraded their facilities and started to embrace more local experiences. We’ve also seen a lot more boutique hotels, particularly in Europe, who offer more an independent, curated experience. That’s become more and more a threat to Airbnb,” he added.
As the price gaps between hotels and home-share experiences like those offered by Airbnb have eroded, brands in the hotel category, such as Premier Inn, have adapted to emphasize the convenience and consistency of their offers. Travel operator Tui credited an unexpectedly healthy start to 2024 to high demand for package holidays, for example.
“There’s definitely been a sort of swing away from the kind of traditional Airbnb and back towards hotels,” Katie Mulligan, a strategy director at creative agency Brave Spark, told Digiday.
In the face of those pressures, Siedentopf said Airbnb’s brand focus makes good sense.
“There’s a lot of direct and indirect competition. If that happens, you need to feed the top of the funnel,” said Siedentopf. “Consistency is so important. Consistency creates a compounding effect on creativity.”
Asai said Airbnb’s focus on consistent brand efforts doesn’t just bring commercial benefits, but it also helps shield the brand from the public criticism it’s faced in recent years.
For instance, Airbnb has grappled with local governments in the U.K. and Europe, which have attempted to crack down on the short-term rental market. And tourist hotspot Barcelona is set to implement a ban on short-term rentals starting in 2028.
Brand campaigns provide “a moat” between Airbnb and those critiques, Asai said. “Without us saying what we want to say and creating the message that we want … there’s a universe [on] social and [in] the press that’s going to create that message for us,” he said. “We just want to make sure that they’re understanding what we’re about and what’s important to us.”
https://digiday.com/?p=558281
More in Marketing
How Walmart is evolving its data analytics platform to reflect an AI-driven focus
Walmart is renaming its data analytics platform, formerly known as Walmart Luminate, and adding new features. It’s meant to reflect Walmart’s overall goal of not only providing data but also, increasingly, recommendations.
As breakthrough WNBA season nears close, entry of brands new to basketball could be lasting legacy
WNBA has signed advertisers previously strangers to basketball, such as dating app Bumble, over-the-counter birth control brand Opill and most recently, automobile lubricant-maker Castrol.
Marketers are not won over by new AI-powered search tools
The conversation around search advertising has reached a new fever pitch thanks to recently launched AI-powered tools like Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews. Despite the buzz, marketers and advertisers remain on the fence, uncertain about pricing and performance.
Information contained on this page is provided by an independent third-party content provider. This website makes no warranties or representations in connection therewith. If you are affiliated with this page and would like it removed please contact editor @cedarcity.business