Made Possible by Hosts
As people emerge from lockdown, the isolation they’ve experienced will drive them to seek more connection and meaning from travel. Airbnb delivers on that connection and meaning through something that is unique to us—our Hosts.
Our goal in Marketing is to educate the world on the possibilities that our Hosts open up for our guests.
As we think about this work, we start by recognizing that there is some traditional marketing we don’t need to do. As we’ve noted before, most of the traffic to our platform is organic, so while we do some performance marketing, we don’t have to make buying customers and driving traffic to our site a top priority.
Instead, we are focused on educating the world about hosted travel and what makes Airbnb unique. Earlier this year, we launched the Made Possible by Hosts campaign to educate people on the magical experiences that Hosts make possible for our guests. To do this, we created a series of films using real photographs shot by photographers on real trips staying in the homes of Airbnb Hosts around the world. These films connect with the sense of nostalgia we all feel about trips we took with people we care about, and the prospect of taking those trips again.
The campaign is still in its early stage and while we know traffic to our site is influenced by a range of factors, we are excited to see the positive response and an increase in traffic to the platform in markets where it is running. We are also excited for the next chapters of ads we are releasing as part of this documentary style storytelling, including this chapter about a family’s first trip with their child, and an upcoming chapter we will launch when the stars show up for the Oscars.
This campaign was inspired by our executive team. Unlike most companies that depend on outside agencies for creative inspiration, Airbnb is led by designers, including two of our co-founders. Our creatively-led approach is in our DNA, and guides everything we do. Having a creative team at the helm means we can develop concepts quickly and without compromise. Much of the execution of our campaign was done by our internal team, and going forward, we will build on this model. We are working every day to make our amazing team even more nimble and creative so we can execute on great ideas and get it out into the world quickly.
This is an incredibly exciting time to be at Airbnb. As the world emerges from lockdowns, there is a tremendous desire to travel, connect and explore. Working with this team to tell the world about Airbnb Hosts and their homes is an incredible opportunity and I look forward to sharing more of our work with our community and the world in the weeks and months to come.