Airbnb’s brand goes beyond “well known”– there are few who haven’t heard of this online lodging marketplace.
So much so that it is a commonly-used verb – you’ll commonly hear holiday-goers responding on their stay, “We Airbnb-ed in Paris”. Getting a brand to rise to that kind of infamy, especially as it’s not a legacy brand such as Coca-cola or Levis, requires innovation and marketing.
Exploring how Airbnb got to where it is today gives plenty of insight for a company looking to head in the same direction – up.
In 2014, Airbnb’s revenue was $0.4 billion; in 2019, that number had risen to $4.7 billion. Even during the pandemic, where most people were under governmental orders to restrict their movement, Airbnb’s revenue only fell to $3.4 billion.
Looking to the massive surge in Airbnb users, the number in 2012 lay at 6 million. By 2018, that number became 150 million.
Experiential marketing
Airbnb rose to fame right when experiential marketing was becoming a really effective method of securing loyal customers. Before Airbnb, travel had already become the norm for most people in the western world. The number of long weekend flights away had risen. However, there was also the element of people have seen everything before. There isn’t much that sets most hotels apart.
With Airbnb, however, lies a platform where ordinary people can let you into their corner of paradise. Some even offer to do local tours or break bread with their visitors. It’s the sense of getting off the beaten track and into an old farmhouse cottage, a geodesic dome or a boutique townhouse that oozes personality.
All of this is bang in the centre of what people want now – experiences. 76% of consumers prefer to spend on experiences than on material items. On top of that, consumers identify “inspiration and meaning” as the most sought-after quality in brands, a 200 per cent increase from 2012 for this particular set of attributes.
So perhaps it’s worth asking how your business can provide that experiential element – even if you’re selling products. Is there a way to give a more meaningful brand-customer interaction? Find untold secrets to brand awareness in this article.
Investment in video content
In 2019 Airbnb announced a video strategy that simply lets branding and entertainment drive profits.
“The more we put content out there, the more you’re going to bring people to the platform,” says Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s senior vice president of global policy and communications, in the Reuters interview.
Airbnb has partnered with Apple’s upcoming streaming service for their docuseries “Home,” which features unique homes around the world and the stories of the homeowners. Although the show’s premise isn’t new to viewers, viewers can book these locations through Airbnb.
Showcasing the most exciting properties reminds people why Airbnb is such an enticing marketplace. Video content can be a subtle way of inspiring and entertaining an audience rather than the obvious hard-sell. Using unconventional marketing campaigns helps to set Airbnb apart from the hotel industry and online travel agencies.
Previously Airbnb gambled with launching its own magazine. However print has been dwindling for years now, and there isn’t much interest in new magazines hitting the shelves. Digital, and video in particular, has been a much more effective strategy serving viewers their dream getaways – especially during a pandemic.
Email Marketing
Airbnb saw this as a real opportunity to build a community among users and ran with it. Their emails are highly personalised, and this is largely down to the fact that they have regional teams on the ground rather than one marketing campaign for all of their users.
Airbnb’s marketing campaigns, especially their referral campaigns, are highly successful. In the referrals, customers will receive an email offering a discount for both themselves and a new customer should they sign up using your link. A quick copy and paste of the link into Whatsapp, or just pressing the “share to Facebook” link makes for quick work and easy to share discounts for both parties. Paypal had a similar offer when they started and was the source of their surge in signups. It certainly worked for both these businesses.
Cross-selling
The most successful companies know how to showcase what a customer wants. When going on holidays, tourists will enjoy excursions, activities and experiences. Airbnb knew this and so set up Airbnb experiences – an easy to find tab on the Airbnb homepage.
Airbnb experiences are also shared on the page just before checkout. This simplifies the person’s holiday planning, making it more of an all-in-one process. Using data analytics to their advantages to provide a personalised booking process makes customers come back.
How can your company simplify life for your customers and cross-sell to increase their likelihood of becoming loyal customers?
Influencer marketing
You may not be aware that Airbnb invests in influencer marketing. That’s because of how subtle and enticing this content appears on the social media user’s feeds. Their most common method is to collaborate with celebrities who share snap pics of their latest Airbnb stay and post to their socials. Simple but effective and has boosted its impressive growth over the years. It is a great way to find your target market – influencers across Instagram and Facebook have their own niche, and finding one that fits your own target market gives you a direct line to them. Site traffic to Airbnb website lies at 91 million in January 2020– influencer marketing is a leading driver of these impressive stats.
Airbnb’s success is directly related to their deep and adaptive understanding of what their customers want. They understand that needs and desires change and are willing to try unconventional forms of marketing for a fresh and welcome approach to brand awareness.
Finding that nuanced approach takes experience and talent to deliver. We’re a small team here at Videoworks London with a knack for storytelling and creating video content that connects people to your brand. If you’d like to get started with a video production project that boosts your brand’s awareness, you can get in touch here.