At Home With Airbnb

Airbnb

Brand | Influencer

Through ‘At Home with Airbnb’, we identified India’s coolest, ‘influential’ personalities to build the Airbnb Online Experiences platform in the country. We presented consumers with a set of specially curated, intimate and engaging experiences that took them to the host’s personal spaces and forged a connection that was special

THE CHALLENGE

The background - In March 2020, India joined the list of countries around the world that adopted measures to combat the pandemic. There were restrictions for all travel. Yet, people were itching to meet and interact with others and experience a world beyond their homes.

The impact on Airbnb - With no travel on the horizon, business had all but stalled for Airbnb globally. Airbnb’s Experience host community, were also hit hard as income came to a standstill.

The challenge - Despite an array of transformative virtual Experiences on offer globally, ranging from South Korea to Ukraine, bookings from India continued to be low.

The objective - The objective of the campaign ‘At Home with Airbnb’ was to help Airbnb drive bookings for Online Experiences in India and inspire hosts to create experiences and ignite demand from consumers. But all without any budget.

THE STRATEGY

What reports said: In India, time spent browsing the internet went up significantly during the lockdown.

What consumers wanted: They spent approx. 87% more time on social media and engaged with a plethora of ‘experiential’ content including online concerts, live panel discussions, cooking challenges and dance classes to keep themselves occupied.

The insight: Indian consumers wanted to spend their time doing new things at home that they never had time for before. Moreover, there was an appetite for consuming ‘experiential’ content via celebrities. Lockdown in mobility didn't have to mean lockdown in experiences.

Our belief: Airbnb prides itself in helping consumers ‘Belong Anywhere’. The success of the brand has always been in fostering human connections and making experiences more authentic

Combining brand truth and insights: The amalgamation gave birth to ‘At Home with Airbnb’ - a simple idea that allowed people to ‘Belong Anywhere’, all from the comfort of their own homes. 

 

THE EXECUTION

Authentic Influence: Identified India’s coolest, ‘influential’ personalities to build the Airbnb Online Experiences platform in the country through the campaign

Zero dollar campaign: We collaborated with popular personalities who had authentic influence, and were happy to come onboard without any commercials involved. 

The Experiences created - Fashion Illustrations by Shivan & Narresh; Table Styling with celebrity wedding planner & designer Devika Narain; Rediscovering the Self with yoga phenom Sarvesh Shashi; Sustainable Cooking with the renowned Goan chef, Sandeep Sreedharan; Kitchen Cocktails with renowned mixologist Pankaj Balachandran; Basics of Faux Calligraphy with lettering artist Sanjana Chatlani; Worked closely with each celebrity host to ensure their experiences were true to their genres, engaging and exciting.

 

Activated multi-pronged media, host, influencer, and owned media strategy, aimed at creating maximum visibility across traditional, digital, and social media

THE OUTCOME

What started off as a way to promote Online Experiences in India, has become a case study for Airbnb internally with other markets inspired to replicate the success.

  • Zero Dollar Campaign 
  • 95% of bookers were of Indian origin; India became the No. 1 traffic driver for experiences in Airbnb APAC region
  • Sharp spike of 150% Product Detail Page views from India
  • An all-time daily high tracked from India
  • Sessions for Shivan & Narresh and Devika Narain were sold out within 48 hours. High demand resulted in hosts opening more sessions
  • 50% of our celebrity hosts wanted to continue hosting on Airbnb regularly 
  • Other personalities also wanted to host Experiences 
  • 100 media stories in the first 10 days along with 200+ organic social media posts.
  • Reach of 135 + million and PR value of INR 76 million through media outreach 
  • Social media reach of 3.6 million

No.1

Traffic Driver for Experiences in Airbnb APAC region

$0

Campaign

200+

Organic Social Media Posts