BRAND MANAGEMENT

PROJECT – TERM 5

AIRBNB: USING SOCIAL MEDIA AND COMMUNITY STORYTELLING TO

BUILD A GLOBAL BRAND
Group 4, Section A

Aashima Garg (19P001)

Ayushi Garg (19P013)
Ishita Jain (19P021)
Shreyansh Agrawal (19P052)
Tarun Lahoti (19P057)
Siddharth Maroo (20EDHEC01)
 Phase 1

Choice of Topic

The company “Airbnb” caught our attention because of its high popularity amongst the travelers.
We believe that Airbnb’s value proposition comes somewhere in between that of Oyo’s and that
of Couchsurfing’s. We further chose the “Community Storytelling” aspect of the company’s
branding because we wish to explore and understand how brands can leverage the experiences of
its customers to build the brand image and brand identity. This might help a brand to remove its
marketing costs significantly.

Purpose of the study

1) Understand how Airbnb has created its brand value over the years using:
 Social media
 Stories shared by its community of travelers and hosts
2) Understand Airbnb’s growth strategy in the hospitality sector and map out the key decisions
that helped it grow

No. of words: 7286

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 Research Objectives

The study will focus on the following research questions.

Objective 1: Branding, Social Media and Social Media Branding
Scope:
1. To understand what branding is and the various terminologies associated with it
2. To understand the basic difference between social media and traditional media
3. To have an overview of how Social media is being used in general to gain the attention and
involvement of consumers
Objective 2: Storytelling Marketing
Scope:
1. To understand the concept and techniques of storytelling marketing
2. To understand how storytelling marketing is being leveraged by brands to capture mindshare
Objective 3: Understanding the business of Airbnb
Scope:
1. To have a brief overview of the history of Airbnb and its business models
2. To have a deep understanding of how Airbnb combines the use social media & community
storytelling for building a global brand
Objective stage 4: Analysis of storytelling & social media branding used by Airbnb
Scope:
1. To identify which social media platform is suitable to brand a company/product
2. To understand how consumers, engage with brands on social media
3. To study the effect of community storytelling on the brand awareness of a company/product
4. To study the impact of social media branding & community storytelling on developing brand
advocates/brand loyalists
5. To understand how different consumers react differently to such branding techniques and how
storytelling must change according to changing context

With this study, we aim to achieve a deep understanding of how companies like Airbnb have
leveraged the power of community storytelling & social media branding to build a global brand.
We also aim to gather insights about how companies can choose among different social media
platforms based on their value proposition and target customer base & how storytelling
marketing helps them establish authenticity & convert consumers into active brand advocates.

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 Justification of the Study

Community storytelling is a powerful way to engage with the intended audience. People love
telling stories and love exploring their own creativity, especially when they can earn recognition
and status among a community they identify with. In fact, advertising and traditional social
media strategies don’t produce the kind of strong bonds and promotional effects that come with
powerful personal engagement.
Brands work hard and spend a great deal of money to build and engage a base of social fans and
followers. But the value of a fan or follower is negligible unless they are actively engaging back
with the brand. Community storytelling solves this to a great extent. Hence, we aim to study the
power of community storytelling through Airbnb.

Significance of the Study

Social Media has changed the way marketers market their products. The reach is immense and
the costs have reduced. Live Engagement and Instant Feedback are 2 of the benefits that other
mediums of marketing lack. Hence, it is no surprise that social media is being preferred by
hundreds of thousands of companies.
Many methods are followed while using social media as a platform for promoting your product
like Influencer Marketing, Celebrity Marketing etc. However, not many companies are known to
be using Storytelling Marketing as their style of Marketing. Hence, it accrues great interest in
studying about companies using an unconventional method of marketing.
Airbnb has upscaled its brand within a very short period of time and created an international
reputation and awareness. “Let us Airbnb” is analogous to booking a residential stay for a
vacation/other stays. Hence, studying the steep brand awareness curve would help us understand
how a small startup can become a multi-billion-dollar company within a span of 12 years.

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 Outline/Flow of the Study

Establishing the Examining the

Research Objectives of Analysis and
rationale behind the Findings
study the Study

Social Media Branding

Storytelling Marketing How can social media
Purpose, Justification and Understanding Airbnb branding and storytelling
Significance of topic marketing be leveraged by
selected Application by Airbnb other brands to build their
brand

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 Phase 2

Introduction – Company Background

An online marketplace, hosts around the world offer their properties and services for travelers
looking for unique local experiences on Airbnb. The site started with accommodation listings
(homes) and has now incorporated experiences and curated restaurants as part of its effort to help
users’ book something larger than a trip: a culturally-rich adventure. They now have over 3
million listings, more than 1,400 castles (that’s right!), and have accommodated over 200 million
guests.

It developed a USP by characterizing itself on multiculturalism, diversity, and the love of travel.
This helped in differentiating itself from its competitors and leverage it to expand throughout the
world.

They have successfully done online branding and studying it will help in deepening our
understanding on the subject. They developed a story around their symbol called Belo and
popularized it through social media later on.

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 Research Objectives

The study will focus on the following research questions.

Objective 1: Branding, Social Media and Social Media Branding
Scope:
1. To understand what branding is and the various terminologies associated with it
2. To understand the basic difference between social media and traditional media
3. To have a overview of how Social media is being used in general to gain the attention and
involvement of consumers
Objective 2: Storytelling Marketing
Scope:
1. To understand the concept and techniques of storytelling marketing
2. To understand how storytelling marketing is being leveraged by brands to capture mindshare
Objective 3: Understanding the business of Airbnb
Scope:
1. To have a brief overview of the history of Airbnb and its business models
2. To have a deep understanding of how Airbnb combines the use social media & community
storytelling for building a global brand
Objective stage 4: Analysis of storytelling & social media branding used by Airbnb
Scope:
1. To identify which social media platform is suitable to brand a company/product
2. To understand how consumers, engage with brands on social media
3. To study the effect of community storytelling on the brand awareness of a company/product
4. To study the impact of social media branding & community storytelling on developing brand
advocates/brand loyalists
5. To understand how different consumers react differently to such branding techniques and how
storytelling must change according to changing context

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 Hypothesis Development
 Airbnb has been able to successfully develop its brand image through social media
branding & storytelling marketing and there is no gap between their brand identity and
image.
 There is a direct correlation between online branding and its growth
 Some social media platforms were better for branding than other
 Better data through different platforms resulted in more successful branding

Research Design
To verify the above-mentioned hypothesis, a survey form will be floated and responses will be
analyzed with various tools. Secondary sources like reports and other newsletters will be referred
for support purposes.

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 Methodology

The study was done in several stages, starting with identification of objectives, research, insights
followed by suggestions.

Study was done on branding where the brand campaigns of few companies were analyzed, and
the terminologies associated with branding were understood by referring to credible information
available from various sources on the internet.

Apart from that, how companies use traditional and social media to their cause has also been
analyzed. It has been identified that most companies are now moving towards social media for
their marketing. However new ways to enter traditional media to capture masses are now being
explored by some companies.

Secondary research has also been done in order to understand more about the business of Airbnb
starting from its inception. The business model of Airbnb is studied and the connection between
the history of Airbnb and its social media initiatives is established.

As a part of research, social media branding has been extensively studied to identify the suitable
platforms to brand a product and understand the consumer engagement through these activities.
We also conducted a primary research to measure the effectiveness of the said strategies
implemented by Airbnb.

The impact of these initiatives on the brand awareness, establishing the brand equity and global
effect on the brand was analyzed applying the theoretical concepts learnt in the class.

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 Analysis

Stage 1: Branding, Social Media and Social Media Branding

Value of a brand:
A well-developed brand can help brand can be very valuable to a business. In the year 2017, the
100 businesses with the most valuable brands in US had net profits rates 42.9% higher than
overall S&P50031. Stronger brands can generate increased profits, enable greater product
differentiation, customer loyalty, talent attraction and even justify premium pricing.

Underestimating the importance of brand:

Despite the value of brands, many marketers are not prioritizing brand in their marketing
strategy. Only one in five (17%) say that building brand is the most important objective of their
marketing
strategy, with many citing increasing sales and revenue, building customer engagement and
increasing market share as equally or more important than building brand2.

Mixed brand performance:

Perhaps as a result of this lack of emphasis on brand, many brands today are performing poorly.
Forging an emotional connection requires brands to understand and reflect the core values held
by their customers (Deloitte, 2018). In the digital age, this requires not only messages that are
relevant but also relevant methods of delivery.

Social Media branding:

With a continually evolving landscape, the basic principles of marketing are being updated. A
single channel mass broadcasting approach cannot reach a brand’s entire audience anymore.
With the rapid change in technology and consumer behavior, marketers need to develop
additional techniques for expanding their brand strategies to engage with an increasingly mobile
and social audience. Multi-screening means that brands need to compete across channels. To cut
through, brands need to rethink the way they tell stories, and consider omni-channel approaches.
Businesses are increasingly seeking real time measures of their brand performance or brand
equity.
Marketers are shifting their marketing mix towards digital channels based on the media
consumption of their consumers. There is every expectation that digital advertising spending will
continue to grow, and even accelerate. Digital marketing also has the potential to support longer-
term business outcomes, like better brand performance. Successful digital marketing can support
better business performance across a range of metrics as in the diagram3 given below:

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It is found that businesses that spent an above average proportion of their marketing budget on
social media reported revenue growth 7% higher than other businesses on average.
A global study of over 300,000 people and 1,500 brands found that meaningful brands
outperform others on the stock market by 206% over a ten-year period. Historically, marketers
used broadcast media to build brand. Today, though, more than two-thirds of marketing
managers believe that digital and social media were the best channels for building a brand (see
the figure below5). This figure becomes higher for marketing professionals that are using digital
or social media channels.

For example, in Deloitte’s 2016 Media Consumer Survey more than half of customers said that
their perception of a company’s brand improved based on their use of social networking sites.
Similarly, businesses who invested in digital marketing channels were nearly 1.4 times as likely
to be effective in achieving their goals of increasing sales and revenue6. Social media has
allowed brands to successfully connect to consumers even in traditionally less engaging
industries. Ensuring that content is relevant and resonates emotionally with audiences increases
the likelihood that people will share the content or talk about it with their own network. Research
suggests 94% of viewers will share material if it provides value or entertainment while 78% will
share to nourish relationships with their existing network7. Marketers can also use analytics to
more accurately identify their target audience for a product.

The digital age has challenged marketing professionals to reassess how their brands are built and
managed. Alongside this deeper change in brand ethos, there is plenty of supporting actions in
marketing and communications strategies necessary to deliver success. Some of them are:

● Need for having the right tools is reinforced with the shift in media consumption from
traditional channels such as television and radio, to digital channels such as the internet and
social media. A new era for brand and storytelling means a new toolkit and new skills for the
team.

● Investment in marketing technologies combined with an ecosystem of partners including

media agencies, PR agencies and platform providers as building and maintaining a brand is more
complex than ever.

● Measurement is vital. Qualitative and quantitative metrics should both be used to further
optimize marketing activities and thus brand. Marketing decisions should be evidence-based to
ensure investments are done efficiently. Invest in data and analytics to track performance.

● Making it a brand-led organization. If a brand is to be authentic, everyone needs to be

behind it. Decision-making must be shared in a way which ensures a brand can be nimble and
responsive. This may mean selective involvement from the C-suite in marketing to ensure teams
can react as quickly as possible and avoid time intensive approval processes.
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● Focus on long term. Businesses should not get caught in a cycle of only measuring short-term
metrics and interim measures. Successful brands aren’t built overnight; the long-term matters. A
mix of metrics will be important.

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Stage 2: Storytelling Marketing

Storytelling is the process of making a connection with the customer first, and selling a product
second. This method of marketing is contrary to most advertising programs, and often seems
more like a creative writing program than a marketing strategy

Community Storytelling involves sharing the stories of the people engaged in the value
chain of a company like the experiences of the customers.

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The power of community storytelling lies not only in the stories created – but also in the process
of their creation. Storytelling itself has a unique power to engage — that hasn’t changed since
the dark ages. Is there anything more compelling than a great story? If we sniff one out, don’t
we hunt it down tirelessly and even try to be the first to report it out to others? And if we have
one of our own, most of us can hardly wait to offer it up to whomever will listen. It’s what we
do, and what we have done since the beginning of time. Imagine if we could come together,
within the physical and virtual communities we live in, to tell our stories as a community — to
be a part of something bigger, part of something that matters to us. We may not be a leader in
each community, but we know we have something special, something important, that only we
can contribute. And we recognize and acknowledge those members who respond to, and are
inspired by, our contributions

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Stage 3: Understanding the business model of Airbnb and how it used social media for
branding

About Airbnb:

FIGURE 1

Established in San Francisco in 2008, Airbnb is a peer to peer platform on which people can list
and book accommodation around the world. Airbnb enables individuals to list their spare rooms,
homes and holiday houses as available for short-term stays. Short-stay rentals facilitated by
platforms like Airbnb are part of the sharing economy, through which consumers are choosing to
share assets and services via digital platforms. While at its core, Airbnb fills the same role as
traditional short-stay accommodation – providing a place to sleep at night – the way in which it
delivers this service has a number of differences to many existing operators. This differentiated
service leads to a number of benefits for guests and hosts, as well as positive effects for local

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communities. Other platforms exist which provide a similar service to Airbnb. Some real estate
agents can also list and arrange short-term leases of holiday homes and apartments.

How does it work?

Listing a property on Airbnb:

 A person who has a space that they would like to list on Airbnb is required to register as a
host on Airbnb’s website to use the platform.
 The registration process involves signing up to the platform and completing information
about their property, including a description of the space available and uploading photos.
 The host also provides personal details, and can add a government identification to verify
their account.
 The person who lists the property is able to set the cost of renting the accommodation,
with Airbnb receiving a small percentage fee per booking.
 The host also decides the availability of the property and booking settings.
 Hosts on Airbnb have a range of options, for example, whether instant bookings are
available, or whether stay requests need to be confirmed by the host.
 Hosts can also set minimum requirements for guests, including verified identification,
profile picture or rating.
 Hosts are protected through Airbnb’s host guarantee, which will reimburse eligible hosts
for damages up to $1.3 million.

Booking a stay on Airbnb:

 Guests register through the Airbnb platform in a similar manner to hosts.
 Guests can also verify their account using government identification, and link other
online profiles to their Airbnb account.
 Guests can book a stay via Airbnb’s website or on its mobile application.
 Guests can search for listings using different criteria, such as by date, city, neighborhood,
price or type of property.
 Depending on the host’s booking settings, a listing may be available for instant booking
or the stay may need to be approved by the host.

A sample listing is shown below:

 The host will be able to see the guest’s profile and any reviews written by other hosts
when accepting the reservation request. Similarly, the guest will be able to see other
guests’ reviews of the listing.
 When an instant booking is made or a booking request is accepted, the guest’s reservation
is automatically confirmed.
 Hosts and guests agree a check-in time and how the keys to the property will be
exchanged.

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  Hosts can also add a security deposit to their listing before the reservation is booked.
 Guests are charged for the reservation by Airbnb at the time the booking is confirmed.
Airbnb then remits payment to the host 24 hours after check-in. Guests are also charged a
guest service fee by Airbnb.
 While staying at a property, Airbnb guests are asked to follow house rules set by the host.
 After the stay is completed, both the guest and the host are invited to submit a review on
their experience within 14 days of checkout and provide a star rating out of five about
their experience.

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Business model of Airbnb

Airbnb is a peer-to-peer accommodation facilitator using a digital platform. A typical business

model for such an arrangement looks like in the diagram below:

FIGURE 2

With a mission “to create a world where people can belong through healthy travel that is local,
authentic, diverse, inclusive and sustainable,” Airbnb now makes over 5+ million unique spaces
accessible to travelers across 81,000 cities and 191 countries.

Customer as a Brand - The highest end of the spectrum is seeing brands eliciting full-scale
participation from customers, getting them to act as part of the brand. Airbnb is an example of
how companies are building platforms around the customer, with users functioning dually in the
role
of both brand and consumer. In this model, customers wear other hats as well, acting as
educators, trainers, and customer service providers.

There is no doubt that the sharing economy has transformed many aspects of the traditional
tourism sector with digital transport and online booking platforms such as Uber and Airbnb. The
rapid growth of the sharing economy in recent years has challenged traditional economies in
many countries around the globe. A very prominent example in tourism is the online platform
Airbnb that enables people to list, find and book accommodations worldwide with more than 3
million listings in more than 190 countries. Many consider Airbnb as one of the most disruptive
developments in tourism over the past decade.

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Although, the concept of sharing goods and services is not a new phenomenon, the web-based
business model of the sharing economy adds new dimensions and technological opportunities to
economic activities with respect to scale, convenience and costs.
With worldwide more than 3 million listings, in more than 65,000 cities, in 191 countries
(Airbnb 2017), Airbnb has shown exponential growth (see figure 2 below for growth in low and
lower-middle income countries & figure 4 for % of hosts renting their primary residence in some
major cities) and provoked a variety of economic policy reactions worldwide.
Due to these rapid growth rates, and associated economic and social impacts, Airbnb has
attracted increasing attention and controversy by various industry, government and community
stakeholders.

FIGURE 3: GROWTH OF AIRBNB GUESTS ARRIVALS IN ‘LOW ’ & ‘LOW -MIDDLE INCOME’
COUNTRIES

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 FIGURE 4: PERCENTAGE OF AIRBNB HOSTS RENTING THEIR PRIMARY RESIDENCE , 2015
Other Airbnb Services

Airbnb recently expanded beyond accommodation to include city tours and activities through
Airbnb Experiences.

Airbnb Experiences are activities designed and led by local residents, who can share their
hobbies, skills or expertise to give guests access to activities and places they can’t typically find
on their own. Experiences are categorized into sports, nature, social impact, entertainment, food
and drink, music, nightlife, health and wellness, concerts, history and the arts.
Examples of Airbnb Experiences include a Parisian teaching violin making, a Shanghainese
woman demonstrating her mother’s dumplings recipe, and an Italian man taking guests truffle
hunting in Florence. Queenstown was one of the first cities in the world to offer Airbnb
Experiences, with experiences ranging from guided hikes to learning about Māori customs.
The introduction of Experiences expanded Airbnb’s footprint in the hospitality sector by offering
“unprecedented access to local communities and interests through 15,000+ unique, handcrafted
activities run by hosts across 1,000+ markets around the world.”16

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Social Media Branding at Airbnb

Airbnb disrupted the short-term lodging and vacation rentals space. The brand is doing great
things on social media by leveraging user-generated content on Instagram, and emotion
evoking videos on YouTube. Though the brand has ventured into offline marketing campaigns,
social is still a key part of their marketing mix.

1. Airbnb continues to invest in video marketing, as a key part of telling their brand and product
story, with more than 500 videos on YouTube accumulating more than 100 million views.
Facebook native videos have become the fastest-growing ad type in 2015, and Airbnb also
followed the trend by increasing their video posts by 7%. Airbnb’s videos received a high
number of interactions in 2015 however, their audiences’ content preferences have shifted. In
2016, they published only 19% of Links, yet they accounted for the majority of their interactions.

FIGURE 4

2. Airbnb has successfully integrated their core value of sharing into their social media
presence. They have created an authentic experience for their digital communities, boasting a
large international fanbase on Facebook and Instagram. It makes most of the user-generated
content. Their social media content has enabled them to create a sharing economy that their
entire brand embodies. Airbnb’s content frequently features stories from their guests and
hosts, which helps strengthen their image by reinforcing their brand story of sharing.

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 FIGURE 5

3. In contrast to traditional accommodation advertising, Airbnb uses social media to showcase

their listings - rather than the destination. Just one look at their Instagram page can excite
followers about endless accommodation possibilities. After they post a listing, they always
redirect their followers to a link in their bio. Rather than planning their vacation around a
location, Airbnb followers might be planning around a home.

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 FIGURE 6

4. By collaborating with their guests and hosts, they are able to feature authentic content that
inspires audiences to book a reservation from any location. Airbnb understands that great content
is the foundation of every successful social media strategy and has found the elements to
consistently create highly engaging content. Airbnb does not post as frequently as other
accommodation competitors, yet they received the most interactions during the summer months.

5. Airbnb has implemented an exceptional social customer care strategy to satisfy the demands
of their growing audience on the platforms they use. Airbnb understands the risks associated
with a share-based service and has implemented stellar social customer service to meet their
customers where they are in record response times which can ultimately improve customer
acquisition, retention, and brand loyalty.

6. Airbnb uses Instagram heavily as part of their awareness-generating strategy. A key piece to
their early days was getting travel influencers involved in their business. So they work with
Instagrammers with influence – people with lots of followers and good engagement rates.

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7. Airbnb’s use of shoppable Instagram is their hand-selected, high-quality, seamless execution.
Now, there are a few third-party options for making your business’ Instagram shoppable, and the
platform itself even rolled out the option to businesses on specific ecommerce platforms in 2017.

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Community Storytelling & Content Marketing at Airbnb

Belong Anywhere | Refining a Brand Through Community Experience

Airbnb’s mission is to create a world where people can belong when they travel by being
connected to local cultures and having unique travel experiences.

In 2013, Airbnb decided they needed to change their brand story. The brand’s new philosophy
was unveiled as “Airbnb is different from most brands,” Its CEO Brian Chesky said, “We’re a
community of individuals, and yet there’s a consistency holding us together through the values
we share.” These shared values would inspire Airbnb’s new company mantra: belong anywhere.
“For so long, people thought Airbnb was about renting houses. But really, we’re about home,”
Chesky continued. “You see, a house is just a space, but a home is where you belong. And what
makes this global community so special is that for the very first time, you can belong anywhere.”

To support this new mantra, Airbnb stopped telling the story of a tech company, and started
telling the story of a hospitality company which encourages guests to travel “through the eyes of
a local.”

Airbnb has regularly shared the stories of their guests and hosts on their blog, social media,
YouTube, and even their very own Airbnb Magazine.
“Nothing can express our identity more profoundly than the stories of people who make up
this community,” Chesky wrote after unveiling Airbnb’s new look and mission.

Hosts and Experiences are important components of Airbnb’s success, but so are happy guests.
That’s why Airbnb shares the stories of guests.

Airbnb loves to share their host’s and guest’s stories. Whether it’s a slightly silly Superhost and
their one-of-a-kind home or the heartwarming story of a family adventure, above all else Airbnb
values authentic travel experiences, a sense of belonging, and their community who make it all
possible.

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 FIGURE 7: STORIES ON THE COMPANY WEBSITE

FIGURE 8: STORIES SHARED ON AIRBNB MAGAZINE

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 FIGURE 9: VIDEO SERIES ON HOSTS ON YOUTUBE

FIGURE 10: S TORIES ON INSTAGRAM

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 FIGURE 10: S TORIES ON INSTAGRAM

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Marketing campaign ‘That’s why we Airbnb’
The campaign was launched in India, narrating the stories of real travelers, and celebrating the
uniqueness of life, the concept of nonconformity, and the mavericks who march to the beat of
their own drum.

The initial set of TVCs illustrated two stories. The first one is of an unconventional family of
five, the Govandes, who are true believers of the fact that travel enables newer forms of learning,
by teaching us life skills through real life experiences.
The second story is about Malvika and Karuna, a couple who run their own wedding planning
company. The two believe that travel contributes greatly to increasing one’s levels of tolerance
to the unfamiliar. They feel that with travel, one can learn much more about the world around us,
and start to understand our differences.

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 Phase 3

Social Media Marketing Analysis

Facebook
Facebook is 1 of 3 social media platforms that Airbnb is currently most active on. Airbnb’s
Facebook content serves 3 main purposes:

 Taps into the aspirational elements of travel through engaging imagery to encourage
bookings
 Encourages property owners to become an Airbnb host
 Highlights their hosts as a key part of the Airbnb experience

Facebook Page

FIGURE 7: FACEBOOK PAGE COVER PHOTO

With a fanbase of about 15.6 million users, Airbnb’s Facebook page sports an image of the
interior of an Airbnb’s property which promotes their overall aesthetic wall – cultured, colorful
& stylish. Utilizing the Sign-Up CTA option, they redirect users to their homepage to increase
new sign ups.

Frequency: On average, Airbnb posts a mix of images & videos every 3-4 days on Facebook, in
comparison to Instagram where they post almost daily.

Image Posts: The majority of their image posts feature an Airbnb listing, utilizing user-
generated content (UGC) which gives the brand a very authentic and relatable feel. A lot of their

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image posts can be compared to a ‘Wanderlust’ Pinterest board; aspirational imagery featuring
real people with locations that offer stunning backdrops, architecture and interiors.
The caption that accompanies the image often introduces the host/s on a personal level – “Make
yourself at home at Patrick and Elizabeth’s historic homestead”. This type of messaging
perfectly ties back to their brand ethos of belonging and community 

FIGURE 8: IMAGE POST ON FACEBOOK

Using a data driven approach, they keep their content localized & use previous bookings &
keyword searched to curate their Facebook content.

Video Posts: Currently, video content is more polished, brand focused & doesn’t feature user
generated content. Neither are the videos localized. The same video content is shared across
regions.
Dynamic Ads: Airbnb has been running dynamic ads for reservations for a number of years
now, with them even being featured in a Facebook case study on this back in 2017 where they
reported a 3X increase in return on ad spend and 47% lower CPA’s using the Dynamic Ads
objective.

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Instagram
Airbnb are using Instagram mainly to promote their listings, Super hosts & Experiences. Unlike
Facebook, they’ve chosen to have just one global Instagram account which requires them to
create content with a universal appeal.

The main objective with Instagram content is to generate engagement & awareness and, where
possible, they will try and prompt users to click through to their website, either through the link
in their bio or by using the ‘swipe up to learn more’ option in Stories.

Super hosts: An attention grabbing, warm image of an unusually built house, super host images
directly appeal of audiences who are yearning for a secluded getaway/adventure beyond the city
limits. The image is also a part of UGC. The super host is credited in the post to build trust as
super hosts have an average rating of 4.8+ on 5. Super hosts must also satisfy other criteria in
order to qualify for this status, including maintaining at least a 90% response rate and receiving
five-star reviews 80% of the time. All of this means peace of mind for any prospective guest.

FIGURE 9: SUPER HOSTS POST

Listings: Listings make up a big chunk of Airbnb’s Instagram content, and are meant to evoke a
sense of wanderlust in all those who stumble upon them. These posts mostly feature UGC, which
gives them a really authentic feel and allows them to easily blend into a user’s Instagram feed.
The focus of the images is on the outstanding property and the equally beautiful backdrop

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 FIGURE 10: AIRBNB LISTINGS

Instagram Engagement: Using the Phlanx Instagram Engagement calculator, it can be seen that

out of their 4.1 million followers, Airbnb get around 26.7k Likes per post, 283 comments, and
have an overall average engagement rate of 0.65%. 

Instagram Stories: Airbnb was an early adopter of Instagram Stories, and featured in
numerous articles across the internet as a brand that is crushing it with this feature. They have
successfully managed to engage their audience and kept them clicking through.

FIGURE 11: INSTAGRAM STORIES

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Youtube

Airbnb has more of unconventional posts on Youtube when compared to other hotel or online
travel agencies. As with just about any content marketing strategy, there’s an emphasis on hard-
to-quantify factors that could heavily influence customers’ perceptions and decisions.

Airbnb is betting that video content can inspire curiosity, convince viewers to plan trips in their
heads, and then turn that daydreaming into real travel demand. A mix of vacation nostalgia and
aspiration served up in video content can act as the foundation of the brand’s affinity with those
feelings and long-term customer loyalty.

Airbnb launched its first YouTube video in October, 2010, and has steadily grown the channel to
225,000 subscribers by uploading over 500 videos in numerous languages and creating playlists
like “Airbnb for Work” and “Not Yet Trending,” that are aimed at customers and hosts alike.

The videos posted focus on stories of hosts, airbnb properties, various locations where they are
present, stories of guests, travel tips and other useful informations. The videos posted are
generally high quality emotion-evoking in nature. However, Airbnb also posts user generated
content to give it a more community-oriented feel.

PLAYLISTS ON AIRBNB YOUTUBE PAGE

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 Community Storytelling Analysis

Storytelling is the bedrock of a quality content marketing strategy, and Airbnb has understood
this from the beginning. But unless your story resonates with your ideal customer audience, then
while people will read your content and engage with the piece, they won’t necessarily engage
with your brand.
Airbnb were looking for those who wanted to be a traveller, not a tourist, and for this audience
there is one fundamental ingredient: authenticity.
There’s a thirst for it; local lifestyles, customs and culture, transformative moments. Forget the
tourist menu pedalling another overpriced pizza margherita, wouldn’t you rather taste nonna’s
homemade pecorino stuffed ravioli while her son Francesco tells you comedic tales about
growing up in Sardinia?
And, perhaps, this is what has really driven the growth of Airbnb and played the greatest role in
building their content strategy to date.
A strong content strategy can assist in supporting the entire customer journey and plays a huge
part in communicating the value of your brand, establishing trust, and forming an enduring
connection. For Airbnb, it underlines everything they do and has transformed their site from a
marketplace to a travel platform which engages users and hosts.
Airbnb has really spring boarded off the message, “‘Don’t go there. Live there.” For Airbnb,
travel is about a personal, unique and local adventure no matter where you are in the world – and
we start to see this within the personalisation aspects of the platform.
Building a community is one of the most powerful assets a company or brand can build.

It’s all about empowering existing customers, networks and advocates by connecting, engaging
and establishing discussion through a particular medium – anything from ‘meetup’ groups,
subreddits, Facebook Groups, events, blogs … you name it.
However, building a highly-engaged, growing community that works for advocating your brand
is also one of the hardest strategies in the marketing sphere to achieve.
When it comes to Airbnb, they are a fantastic, world-class example, and a brand that has built
(and continues to grow) a successful community.
Airbnb's content is totally focused on people—on the people who own the homes listed and the
travellers who go there. They show how connecting with others is important to their brand and
how their brand makes that possible. It's a very human approach, and it works perfectly. In a
very clear statement about the importance of stories to the Airbnb brand, there's an entire page on
their website labelled airbnb.com/stories.

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 Primary Survey and Analysis

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Airbnb Brand Resonance

Identity: Who are we?

Brand Salience: It refers to, how well the customer is informed about the product and how often
it is evoked under the purchase situations?
The use of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube helps to build a strong
brand awareness for Airbnb. The survey revealed that 88.89% of people were able to identify
the logo of Airbnb when presented to them as blurred and 51.85% of people named Airbnb in
the top 3 travel sites they prefer for booking their stay. Also, 96.30% of people surveyed had
heard of Airbnb.

Meaning: What are we?

 
Brand Performance: It refers to, how well the functional needs of customers are met?
Airbnb uses social media to showcase their listings - rather than the destination. The survey
showed that people considered Airbnb houses for their reliability and durability, style and
design, price and serviceability with 75.93%, 68.52%, 68.52% and 72.22% of people giving
high rating to Airbnb on these parameters (either 4 or 5) respectively.

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Brand Imagery: It refers to, what product image the customer creates in their minds?
Airbnb uses videos to connect with the customer. The survey revealed that on watching a video
of Airbnb, people related it to word like “belongingness”, “homely”, “comforting”, “warm and
friendly”, “wanderlust”, “dreamlike”, “happy” etc.

Response: what about us?

Brand Judgements: It refers to, what customer decides with respect to the product?
The survey revealed that people rate Airbnb high on terms of quality, credibility, relevance to
unique needs and superiority to competition with 77.78%, 70.37%, 66.67% and 75.93% of
people giving high rating to Airbnb on these parameters (either 4 or 5) respectively.

Brand Feelings: It refers to, what customers feel, for the product or how the customer is
emotionally attached to the product?
Airbnb tries to send a message of “belong anywhere” with its branding, which is clearly reflected
in the survey as 72.22% people rated Airbnb high (4 or 5) on the feeling of “live like a local”.
Other feelings associated with the brand came out to be warmth, fun, and adventure with
74.07%, 70.37% and 68.52% people giving high rating to Airbnb on these parameters (either 4
or 5) respectively.

Relationship: what about you and us?

Brand Resonance: It refers to, what psychological bond, the customer has created with the
brand?
The customer of Airbnb associates with it a sense of community, i.e., a sense of community with
people associated with the brand, including other guests and hosts of the homes. This is evident
from the survey as 75.93% of people gave high rating to Airbnb on this parameter (either 4 or 5).
Other factors include trust, loyalty (repeat purchase) and an attitudinal attachment (seeing it as
a special purchase) with 64.81%, 59.26% and 62.96% people giving high rating to Airbnb on
these parameters (either 4 or 5) respectively.

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Airbnb Positioning Map

As compared to the companies mentioned by people in the survey, Airbnb is seen as having a
highly unique model and affordable, and falls close to other offering like Couchsurfing and
Zostel.
Other sites like tripadvisor, goibibo, trivago, OYO though are considered affordable by people
but low in terms of uniqueness.

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 Inferences and Implications

Closely tracking the history of Airbnb’s Social Media Brand, it was found that Airbnb was
actually successful in developing its base through existing channels like Craigslist way back
when it started in 2008. Hence, leveraging existing social media networks to create a holistic
network effect for brand awareness and recall is our dominant assumption.

• We found that Airbnb used it’s Instagram campaigns effectively. For example, when it
launched the #Experiences campaign in 2016, it leveraged the “FOMO” (or the Fear of Missing
Out) effect, something which a lot of marketers and brand managers are increasingly keeping in
mind when it comes to designing social media campaigns.

•Airbnb continues to invest in video marketing, as a key part of telling their brand and product
story, with nearly 500 videos on YouTube accumulating more than 100 million views. Other
notable YouTube videos from Airbnb include: (Views, with 3 million views) – “We Accept” and
“Breaking down walls”

•Airbnb, touted as the queen of User Generated Content (UGC) leverages brand awareness,
Establishes credibility as a thought leader, Streamlines lead nurturing, Boosts social media
metrics and Supports lead generation, along with the various other benefits of UGC.

•User-generated content is a gold mine of data - an advantage that's often overlooked. Analyzing
the content your audience shares can generate key insights. This helps you better understand
your audience and what they find engaging. And when applying the principles of a data-driven
content marketing strategy, these insights help generate leads and increase sales.

•Captions: When it comes to captions, Airbnb connects with followers in an inviting and friendly
tone that establishes trust and warmth. Posts relating to Experiences always focus on the host(s)
—highlighting their passions, and revealing the who, what, where and WHY of the Experience,
while painting a vivid picture that brings about an emotional connection.

Basis, the secondary research done from the various sources highlighted in earlier phases, the
following results were obtained:

1. Revenue (2019): $4.7 Billion

Marketing Spend (2019): $2 Billion

It can clearly be observed that Airbnb has to pump in almost 50% of it’s revenues into the
marketing stream in order to attract, retain and promote bookings both from the customer side
and the hotel side. It is advised that marketing efforts be directed towards heavy social media
users for optimum brand recall. (Source: Primary Research)

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2. In newer developing markets like India, brand awareness shows approximately a 70% increase
when curated content is streamed via Instagram feeds as against a 45% brand awareness increase
when the same spend is routed through traditional and print media. Customers and Hotel Partners
viewed Airbnb more favourably than competitors like Oyo and FabHotels and considered it a
premium offering than the other two. Oyo had spent approximately 130% of the marketing spend
than Airbnb with almost equal revenue increases.

3. Customer Satisfaction Metrics of Airbnb outscores that of competitors as only about 1073
cases of customer grievances were reported worldwide last year as against 3.3 Billion Bookings
worldwide. Purchase intent increased by 25% to a net score of 73% with the additional influx of
marketing spend toward informal channels. Advocacy intent is almost a 99% among hotel and
travel advocates.

Implications

These results imply that Airbnb needs to keep on redirecting marketing spend more towards
informal channels like Facebook and Instagram in order to deliver a truly personalized
experience.

A huge number of people who are aware of the brand, came to know about it via word-of-mouth
publicity and use social media. Hence, Airbnb should redirect a major chunk of its marketing
expenses in an amalgamation of storytelling and influencer marketing by narrating the Airbnb
experience of an influencer.

User generated content makes every property owner a custodian of the brand where they can
share guest experiences in an aesthetic format on Instagram and other social media networks.
This in turn drives the brand advocacy rates.
However, background checks needs to be intensified in order to prevent leakages where
customers blame to brand for an unpleasant experience. These leaves room for new competitors
to enter the market and establish niche value propositions and offerings.

Airbnb halted all of its marketing activities to save a whopping $800 Million in 2020:
 Dissatisfaction amongst the hosts
 Reduced its valuation by 16%
In times like these, they should explore all the marketing mediums possible and go for the
optimum ones rather than halting marketing activities. For example, during COVID-19 – social
media influencer marketing

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REFERENCES:
 https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/Economics/deloitte-au-
economics-facebook-shared-stories-060718.pdf

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  https://press.airbnb.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/05/dae-economic-contribution-
Airbnb-new-zealand.pdf
 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/161471537537641836/pdf/130054-
REVISED-Tourism-and-the-Sharing-Economy-PDF.pdf
 https://skedsocial.com/blog/instagram-strategy-how-airbnb-experiences/
 https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/2020-global-marketing-
trends/DI_2020%20Global%20Marketing%20Trends.pdf
 https://bcec.edu.au/assets/The-impact-of-Airbnb-on-WAs-tourism-industry-report-web-
version.pdf
 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/161471537537641836/pdf/130054-
REVISED-Tourism-and-the-Sharing-Economy-PDF.pdf
 https://bcec.edu.au/assets/The-impact-of-Airbnb-on-WAs-tourism-industry-report-web-
version.pdf
 https://www.slideshare.net/mayraRuiz/brand-storytelling-at-airbnb-88176102
 https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/01/power-community-storytelling/
 https://www.nxtbookmedia.com/blog/airbnb-brand-storytelling/
 https://bestmediainfo.com/2019/06/airbnb-launches-first-india-specific-integrated-
campaign-that-s-why-we-airbnb/
 https://www.growthmanifesto.com/airbnb-growth-strategy#artS7
 https://craft.co/airbnb/revenue

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