Communications Campaign Analysis

Airbnb

Airbnb’s Journey to Building Trust Through the ‘Never a Stranger’ Campaign

Portfolio Project Meherunissa Tariq

November 28, 2016

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Airbnb is an online home-sharing marketplace where guests and hosts can rent and list

properties. In 2014, it was found that despite having the most number of properties listed Airbnb

was not as well-known as its competitors like VRBO, HomeAway or Expedia in the U.S. This

unfamiliarity with the brand led to assumptions and concerns. Assumptions like it was a couch-

surfing platform and concerns about safety and security of living with a stranger. To foster a

sense of familiarity and trust amongst its audience, Airbnb launched a campaign to directly

address the uncomfortable truth about trusting strangers, by showing how one could benefit from

meeting different and new people. According to Jonathan Mildenhall, the Chief Marketing

Officer of Airbnb, the campaign had a “sensational” impact on “brand awareness, site traffic and

business” (Effie Case study, 2016). The campaign ran in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, but this

paper focuses on the impact of the campaign in the United States.

BACKGROUND

Airbnb lies within the ‘sharing economy’ business category. It serves as a platform for two

individuals to connect and make a mutually beneficial exchange powered by technology, for

which it charges a transaction fee. It charges a 3% fee to users who list their properties and

anywhere between 6%-12% to guests who reserve properties (WARC, Airbnb Inc, Travel). When

Airbnb was first launched in 2007, out of the homes of its co-founders Brian Chesky and Joe

Gebbia, it was called ‘Airbed and Breakfast.’ (Salter, “Airbnb: The story behind the $1.3bn

room-letting website”). Headquartered in San Francisco, it has over 60,000,000 guests, operates

in 34,000 cities and has over 2,000,000 listings worldwide (Airbnb Website).

Airbnb’s Story

2007 - Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were friends living together in San Francisco, unable to pay

their rent as they were unemployed. To solve this issue, they inflated three air mattresses, created

a website and invited people to stay at their home during a local design conference (Salter,

“Airbnb: The story behind the $1.3bn room-letting website”).

2008 - Chesky and Gebbia partnered with Nathan Blecharczyk a Computer Science graduate to

recreate their website. Blecharczyk became the Chief Technology Officer and launched their

new website (Salter, “Airbnb: The story behind the $1.3bn room-letting website”).

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2009 – Airbnb raised $20,000/- through their first round of funding by Paul Graham’s Y

Combinator, a firm that invests in newfound tech companies. By the end of the year, it raised

$600,000/- from venture capitalists (Thomson, “Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on Building a

Company and Starting a 'Sharing' Revolution”).

2010-2011 – It raised $7.2 million followed by another $112 million in funding by venture

capitalists and independent investors like Ashton Kutcher (Salter, “Airbnb: The story behind the

$1.3bn room-letting website”).

2014 - Airbnb was valued at $10 billion in 2014. The team brought Jonathan Mildenhall on

board as the Chief Marketing Officer, and signed TBWA/Chiat/Day/LA as their creative agency,

as well as Starcom MediaVest as their media agency. Following which, it rebranded by

introducing the Bélo logo .

Airbnb’s Logo - Bélo

2016 - In August 2016, Airbnb raised $850 million in funding and is valued at $30 billion

(Salter, “Airbnb: The story behind the $1.3bn room-letting website”).

Airbnb’s Ladder to Success

During Airbnb’s 7th year, it had 800,000 users worldwide, which meant that it had the most

number of properties amongst any of the hotel chains without owning a single property (Helm,

“Airbnb Is Inc.'s 2014 Company of the Year”). At the Skift Global Forum in 2016 Chip Conley,

Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality & Strategy, explained three strategies that helped Airbnb

maintain its position (McMillin, “Reasons Why Airbnb is Achieving So Much Success”):

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1. Setting standards of hospitality - “Airbnb isn’t an anything-goes platform.” It has set

criteria based on which it accepts or declines host requests. According to Conley, Airbnb

terminates “tens of thousands of hosts off the platform each month who don’t satisfy the

need to deliver excellent and dependable hospitality.”

2. It ensures transparency by verifying listings to make sure it accurately depicts what the

guests are getting. “Disappointment equals expectation minus reality,” according to

Conley.

3. It views one of its core responsibilities as teaching “its hosts how to deliver a one-of-a-

kind experience.” This has led to 50% higher Airbnb satisfaction rates as compared to

hotels.

According to multiple members of Airbnb’s senior management, like James McClure the

General Manager of their U.K. and Ireland branches, the focus is on reaching the goal of being

the first “community-driven superbrand.” In McClure’s words, “Airbnb is really all about the

customers, the hosts, the guests, even the cities and countries we operate in. We have a lot of

stories from our community. After all, the product is effectively the hosts you meet” (Pickup,

“Staying personal key to Airbnb’s success”).

Renewed Branding

In 2014, Airbnb rebranded itself with a new visual design, updated brand positioning and revised

mission statement. The new mission is “creating a world where 7 billion people can belong

anywhere” (Chesky, “Belong Anywhere”) with a focus on creating cultural experiences for

travelers through the eyes of a local. The Bélo logo symbolizes the brand positioning of ‘Belong

Anywhere’ according to an official Airbnb blog post by (Chesky, “the Bélo: the universal

symbol of belonging”). Following Airbnb’s rebranding efforts, campaigns have been initiated to

reinforce the new mission and positioning. As part of this effort, the ‘Never a Stranger’

campaign was launched in April, 2015.

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COMMUNICATIONS PROBLEM

Airbnb Versus Competition Experience Survey

By the end of 2014, Airbnb found that they had two main challenges. First, it was relatively

unknown and second, it was susceptible to a lot of misperceptions both of which led audiences to

be wary of the platform. In a study done by Hall & Partners called ‘US Benchmark Brand

Tracker Results,’ it was found that “fewer than 1 in 5 travelers” in the U.S. knew about Airbnb

as compared to “54% competitive average” (Effie Case study, 2016). In another study done on

‘Sharing Economy’ by Price Waterhouse Coopers in 2014, it was found that “over half were

intrigued but had major concerns about the sharing economy. Only 6% had used an Airbnb-like

company, while 70% wouldn’t try it until recommended by someone I trust” (Price Waterhouse

Coopers, “Sharing Economy”).

As humans we have basic animal instincts that lead us to behave in certain ways. One of which is

our instinct to distrust something or someone foreign to us, which is nurtured by years of

culturally prevalent notions like ‘stranger danger’. Breaking the barrier to getting people to open

up their homes and living with unknown people isn’t easy. Airbnb’s co-founder Gebbia revealed

in his TED talk that the secret behind Airbnb’s success was their design approach, which focused

on gaining trust to attract users. He further explained that to increase trust in their platform, they

began sharing more information, enlisting reviews by users and taking professional photographs.

Airbnb started seeing a growth in revenue from $200/- to $400/- per week. Michael Munger, an

economics professor at Duke University and an expert on the sharing economy, sums up

Airbnb’s qualities that led to its success by saying, “improvements and refinements helped

Airbnb do something previous sharing companies hadn't managed--to acquire an aura of style,

respectability, safety, and trustworthiness. The photos in particular made the locations seem

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prestigious, compared to bad, blurry photos on other sites. That meant people were slightly more

likely to go with Airbnb. It's these tiny initial differences that lead to cascades" (Helm, “Airbnb

Is Inc.'s 2014 Company of the Year”).

Adding to an already wary attitude of people, were stories floating around bringing to light

sexual harassment, robbery and racism by Airbnb users (Lieber, “Airbnb Horror Story Points to

Need for Precautions”). Racism especially has become a deterrent for guests who can’t trust the

system (Airbnb) to be treated equally. According to a study done by Harvard Business school in

2016, “African-American-sounding names were 16% less likely to be given a room than

travelers with white-sounding names.” This has spurred a national conversations through

#AirbnbWhileBlack which is used to share stories about discrimination based on color (Badger,

“Airbnb announces 'comprehensive review' after complaints of bias”).

SITUATION ANALYSIS

Environment

U.S. Hotel Industry Revenue from 2001-2015 (in billion USD)

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The worldwide economic impact of the travel and tourism industry is around 6.5 trillion U.S.

Dollars. There was a 50% increase in the number of international tourists in 2012 with people

from China, Germany and the United States being the biggest spenders. In the U.S., the global

hotel industry contributes approximately $400 to $500 billion, being the third largest contributor

to the economy (Statista, “Statistics and Market Data on Travel, Tourism & Hospitality”).

Hotel Market Sentiment in the U.S. Compared to Global Average from 2009 - 2015

The positive perception towards the hotel industry in the U.S (not including Airbnb) compared to

the global average shows a dip in 2015. In February 2016, domestic leisure travel grew at a

steady pace while business travel has been on a decline and is expected fall further (U.S Travel

Association, Travel Trends Feb 2016).

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U.S. Vacation Rental Revenue Growth Projections from 2014-2020 in million USD

On the other hand, vacation rental services defined as private holiday homes or rooms rented out

online for short-term use like Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway, and Couchsurfing, would see a

growth in revenue from $6,491 million in 2014 to a projected growth of $8,079 million in 2015

and growth in number of users from 11.6 million in 2014 to 12.7 million in 2016 (Statista,

“Vacation Rentals”).

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Number of Vacation Rental Users Projected in the U.S between 2014 – 2020 (in millions)

Also, consumer technology and the sharing economy industry has affected the purchasing

behavior of current consumer market trends. Today, an online review is a highly trustworthy

source for making purchasing decisions. Whether it is to order food, cab service or renting a

room, consumers rely on reviews of other users. In the Price Waterhouse Cooper research

conducted in the U.S., it was found that 44% consumers knew about sharing economy. Amongst

these 44%, 86% agree it’s more affordable, 83% agree it’s more efficient and 89% agree it is

based on mutual trust amongst users. 72% of the consumers have concerns regarding consistent

experience and 69% say they will not use a service unless recommended by someone they trust

(Price Waterhouse Copper, “Sharing Economy”).

Airbnb Audience

The core target audience for Airbnb are tech savvy young travelers who are willing to trust the

sharing economy based ecosystem. In the PWC research mentioned above, it was also found that

“18 to 24 year olds, households with an income between $50K to $75K and those with kids in

the house under the age of 18 years are most excited about the sharing economy once they’ve

tried it.” According to a Nielsen survey, “Millennials have become the largest living

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demographic segment, accounting to 75.4 million in the U.S.” They also believe that technology

is the most defining characteristic of their generation as compared to other factors like music,

pop-culture consumption, and liberal mindset. Apart from this, more than 74% feel that

technology makes their lives easier (Nielsen, “Millennials: Technology = Social Connection”).

Airbnb broadly segments their current audience into two categories they term as guests and

hosts. The guests are ones who seek to find a place to stay and the hosts are those who list their

space on the website. Diving deeper into their audiences, we can define guests as ‘travel

culturists’ who visit a place not only to see it but seek cultural experience through the eyes of a

local. And, the hosts as ‘home natives’ who are inclined to opening their homes to visitors and

play the role of a friendly guide to them.

Competition/Barriers/Obstacles

Ever since Airbnb began, the hotel industry has been keeping an eye open because of Airbnb’s

increasing popularity amongst young travelers (Glusac, “Hotels Vs. Airbnb: Let the Battle

Begin”). In 2012, a Boston University study conducted in Austin showed that for every 10%

increase in new room and home share listings the hotel room revenue drops .35% (Meehan,

“Keeping Watch on the Airbn Competition”). In June 2015, Airbnb was priced at $25.5billion

above hotel giant Marriott’s $20.90bn.

In a survey done by Topdeck Travel in 2016, on latest travel trends, 76% say that a friends’

recommendation is great influence in picking destinations and so is social media as compared to

a travel agent. The study further reveals that 86% travel for cultural experience and 69% to try

local cuisine as compared to partying and shopping (Lane, “Are Millennial Travel Trends

Shifting in 2016?”).

Bjorn Hanson, a clinical professor of the Jonathan M. Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism

at New York University said, “there are things that are happening at traditional lodging

companies that are accelerating related to Airbnb, and that is less uniformity. Ten years ago at a

hotel in Honolulu and in New York, the art and decoration might be identical. We’ve seen brands

recognize guests want a more genuine experience and a place that’s more reflective of local

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culture.” And this is reinforced by Tina Edmundson, global brand officer of luxury and lifestyle

brands at Marriott International “The way this consumer likes to travel is not to spend time in the

guest room but to have access to communal spaces.” Keeping this in mind, Moxy Hotels was

launched. The rooms are compact and can be entered into with a smartphone app and the lobby

has a bar, grab and go food and many charging points.

Similarly, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts’ are trying new ways to indulge travelers by making local

food and culture accessible to people staying at their new brand Hyatt Centric. It allows guests to

order from local restaurants through GrubHub and offer an express menu with delivery within 20

minutes. Apart from this, it encourages employees to be casual while talking to guests and offer

information about the destination. Understanding these trends culturally, where young travelers

are more inclined to localized experiences, hotels are now changing their designs and offering to

meet these expectations to compete with Airbnb (Glusac, “Hotels vs. Airbnb: Let the Battle

Begin).

Airbnb also caters to business travelers and as recently as November, 17th 2016, has added new

features to their platform called Trips, Experience and Places in an effort to provide alternate

ways to travel. The new products provide travelers with an option to choose from different

activities to do and/or pick places to visit, eat and drink based on recommendations by locals. So

from only being a home-sharing rental service, Airbnb is expanding its product offering and

competing with the more traditional travel and tourism industry (Airbnb, Facebook Live

Broadcast of Launch).

AIRBNB’S ‘NEVER A STRANGER’ CAMPAIGN

Airbnb #OneLessStranger Social Media Campaign

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On January, 1st 2015, Airbnb hosts woke up to $10 credits in their accounts, a gift from its CEO

Chesky, to encourage them to do a good deed (Shankman, “Airbnb’s New Campaign Gives

Hosts $10 to be Brand Evangelists”). Chesky, sent a video invitation along with the credit to

encourage the host community to perform random acts of kindness. This was the beginning of

the launch of #OneLessStranger on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to help meet their

company’s mission “to create a world where all 7 Billion people can Belong Anywhere” (Airbnb

Marketing,“Creating #OneLessStranger:Stories of Belonging”). It was accompanied with a

website, www.airbnb.com/one-less-stranger (discontinued) where people could post their

random acts of kindness. The goal was to encourage people to perform acts of kindness towards

each other and kindle a spirit of kindness that would lower their skepticism towards strangers.

“To further integrate digitally, we utilized the map on airbnb.com/map to showcase moments of

#OneLessStranger around the world”. The campaign resulted in people spending 6.03 minutes

more than what they usually would to engage with user generated content, and in 3 weeks over 3

million interactions were made using #OneLessStranger (Airbnb Marketing Team, Shorty

Awards Entry Under Hashtag).

The Campaign

Screenshot from ‘Never a Stranger’ Campaign

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The #OneLessStranger served as the springboard that led to the launch of Airbnb’s largest and

first international television campaign, ‘Never a Stranger’ in April, 2015 (Richards, “Marketers

need to be Fearless”), with an advertising spend of $22.5 million (West, “Anatomy of an ad”).

Airbnb Advertising Spend 2014-2015 in USD million

The campaign ran in the U.S., U.K. and Australia. In the U.S. it debuted on April, 22nd 2015,

during NBC’s The Voice (Cava, “Airbnb creates ad touting kindness of strangers”). There were

15, 30 and 60 second edits of the campaign (Olson, “Airbnb ‘Never a Stranger’ by

TBWA/Chiat/Day”) that were aired on TV, digital cinema and social media (Dennis, “Airbnb

launches ‘Never a Stranger’ TV ads in Australia”). It was accompanied with a microsite that

detailed where one could get more information about the Airbnb hosts and local business owners

in the cities they lived in (Editor’s Pick, “Airbnb Aims to Appease Your Doubts About Staying in

a Stranger’s Home”). It was also one of the first to use Instagram’s carousel ads to push the

‘Never a Stranger’ campaign. (Ghosh, “Airbnb first to use Instagram carousel ads in ‘Never a

Stranger’ campaign”). Additionally, they employed experiential marketing tactics on their

website. When a user logged onto the website they were asked “Where are you going?” and

based on what they filled in, a list of places would appear which they never really dreamed of

like a sleepover in an Ikea setting. The core function of the experiential marketing tactics was to

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further encourage people to go beyond their comfort zone and still experience a sense of

belonging (Precourt, “How Airbnb Plans for Super-Brand Status”).

The campaign was created by TBWA\Chiat\Day LA as their first assignment for Airbnb. TBWA

was approached by Chesky and Mildenhall with the ambition of making Airbnb “the world’s

first community-driven super brand.” It took one month to shoot the entire ad, as they were shot

in real Airbnb host listings and recommendations of places to visit across five countries. The ad

depicts a real Airbnb guest Ellie, a girl experiencing her travel from New York across Paris,

Tulum, Tokyo and Rio while staying at an Airbnb. The video is accompanied with feel good

music and a soft but distinct voice over of a letter to her hosts. In an interview with Brent

Anderson, the Executive Creative Director from TBWA by thedrum.com, he states that “there is

a trend of leaving handwritten letters of appreciation” which was the inspiration behind using it.

Delving deeper, Anderson stated that this and taking a lead on the cities to shoot were inputs

from Airbnb. TBWA envisioned what the emotional impact of the ad should be and what they

wanted to cover. He further explains that they were “set out to prove that you can truly belong

anywhere, because that is Airbnb’s true north as a brand, and that journey is unique to Airbnb –

you go from being a stranger to acceptance then to bonding and then belonging.” This also

represents the structure of the narrative (West, “Anatomy of an ad”). The campaign aims at

attracting new users to try their platform by challenging concerns about living with a stranger. It

tackles the issue Airbnb faces head on through the campaign. And, by showcasing their host

community through the ad, they are targeting potential hosts to make them understand that they

are partners of the brand who represent their community and are a guide to their culture.

As an extension of the ‘Never a Stranger’ campaign, in July 2015, Airbnb launched the ‘Is

Mankind?’ ad to further establish positioning of “Belong Anywhere” and propogate a feeling of

inclusivity. According to Chesky, “The breakthrough of Airbnb is that it does more than give

you a place to sleep – it changes the way you experience the world, because when we trust in the

kindness of our fellow man, we discover that the world isn’t such a scary place after all” (Airbnb

Marketing, “Is Mankind”).

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Objectives and KPI’s

The three main objectives of the campaign were perceptual, business and behavioral. The

perceptual objective was to enhance the understanding of the Airbnb experience. The experience

was defined by association with their positioning like ‘belong anywhere,’ and phrases like ‘home

can be anywhere,’ and ‘lets me connect with communities all over the world.’ The outcome

would be measured based on how many recognized the campaign versus how many did not

(Effie Case Study, 2016). According to Chesky, the positioning and new logo were driven by the

idea that “belonging has always been a fundamental driver of humankind” (Email Interview with

Gillian West).

The business objective was to generate brand awareness by at least narrowing the gap by 5% as

compared to other travel websites like Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline and increase the edge

that it has over other home-sharing competitors (Effie Case Study, 2016). According to Airbnb’s

Mildenhall, “We have fantastic retention rate once people start using us, so the real mission was

to make more and more people aware of and comfortable with us.” He also states that people

think that Airbnb is an online retail property site and they are trying to establish the idea that “to

travel the world as a local is the superlative experience” (Cava, “Airbnb creates ad touting

kindness of strangers”). For him, “the consumer proposition boils down to providing friendly

local help that happens to come with lodging.”

Finally, the behavioral objective was to drive curiosity amongst audience without having a call to

action. It was a brand ad that was an attempt to prove it would drive business. This increase in

interest was measured by Airbnb’s web analytics to see if the ad attracted more website traffic

(Effie Case Study, 2016).

Campaign Audience

For the ‘Never a Stranger’ campaign Airbnb’s audience is based on psychographics rather than

demographics. According to the Effie case study, after doing an analysis of its current target

audience, Airbnb understood that travelling was an essential part of their life. This aided in

identifying a new target segment named “Identity Voyagers.” Identity Voyagers were identified

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as individuals who are “tech-savvy, super-social, open minded travelers of all ages: 1/3rd

millennials, 1/3rd Gen X and 1/3rd Boomers from the U.S (Effie Case Study, 2016).

RESULTS

Airbnb Awareness Calculations

According to the Effie case study, “in just 60 days, Airbnb challenged Americans’ fear of

strangers to create a positive brand awareness, understanding and credibility.” “With only two

months to target an all-new audience, Airbnb engineered a 7% uptick in brand awareness.”

Airbnb showed more awareness increase than other brands in the category though they spent

only 10% of what is usually spent. “A double-digit lift in brand perceptions with great resonance

amongst Identity Voyagers” (Effie Case Study, 2016).

Airbnb Perception Calculations

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Airbnb Website Traffic Calculations

Finally, “web traffic spikes 3-4x the baseline during broadcast airings.” The cities of

Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Phoenix that were selected for heavy advertising showed

a 16% increase in site traffic as compared to cities like Portland, Nashville, Richmond and

Denver (Effie Case Study, 2016).

Airbnb Revenue in NYC from 2010-2015

Additionally, in an email interview Gillian West conducted by me, she mentions an increase in

revenue post the campaign. Elaborating further she states that it was predicted in 2015 that

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Airbnb could a generate revenue of $900 million in 2016 and in the third quarter of 2015 it

recorded 2.2 billion bookings and earned $340 million in revenue.

In 2016, TBWA\Chiat\Day and Starcom MediaVest were awarded a Silver for Airbnb’s ‘Never a

Stranger’ campaign in the Global Effie awards category. And, also won a Bronze for the same

campaign in the North American Effie awards category. Mildenhall also won Adweek’s 2016

Brand Genius Award for his work at Airbnb which includes the ‘Never a Stranger’ campaign.

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

Soylent Drink - Product Image

In an increasingly crowded landscape for marketing it has become more important for brands to

build trust by breaking the clutter, according to a Nielsen survey “6 in 10 global respondents

prefer to buy new products from familiar brands” (Nielsen, “Top 10 Trusted Brands”). Soylent

falls under the category of scrutiny because it’s a brand that is trying to replace an instinctive

human habit of consuming food. It invented in 2013, by co-founders Rob Rhinehart and Matt

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Cauble as way to avoid cooking and getting frustrated over spending money. Soylent is a meal

replacement product and comes in powder, liquid and bar form. It is said that it provides the

essential nutrients required for a human to sustain themselves. Soylent doesn’t address its trust

issues the way Airbnb does (by addressing it). In the words of Rhinehart, “it's a salacious, easy

story that we're trying to drastically change people's behavior, or do something against how

people would want to live. We're not. We're trying to use science and technology to make food

better.”

Soylent Facebook Ad Aimed at Women

Soylent markets its products very similar to weight loss products by providing calorie counts

rather than as something you would consume instead of the food that you are usually used to. It

has a long way to go in terms of its marketing efforts but has created a buzz in the industry proof

of which is its sales have gone up by 300% in 2016. What it seems to do very similar to Airbnb

is that it tells its founding story very similarly and one of the reasons it was founded was because

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Rhinehart was broke (Elliot, With Soylent Sales Up 300 percent, “Its Founders Have Eyes on

Europe”).

MY ASSESSMENT

Airbnb has come a long way from a startup in 2007 to a multi-million-dollar global business

today. Airbnb was successful in creating brand awareness through the ‘Never a Stranger’

campaign. However, a shift in human behavior cannot be achieved through one campaign and

Airbnb still needs to make headway to change perceptions related to trust which is on the decline

with recent political and legal issues the company has faced. In an interview I conducted with

Tom Slee, he explains that, “a promise that appeals to a lot of people, ‘never a stranger’

campaign invokes this promise, personal versus corporate contact, not a mass but personal

experience, got authenticity to it. That kind of travel is appealing to travelers. When you scale it

up, is the problem.” What he means by this is, once everyone starts renting their houses for a

short period of time, it affects the long term rental value and makes it harder for locals to find

places to live. On the other hand, Airbnb is also the reason for many individuals to be able to

make a living and save money while travelling so it is not black and white when it comes to

decide whether it’s disrupting or enhancing an economy.

Airbnb is doing a great job highlighting emotional drives of its potential audience but at the same

time, I believe it is also a bit far-fetched. It needs to strike a better balance with reality and

emotional drives. Understanding why people visit places or go on vacations apart from exploring

or business travel is another key aspect that Airbnb needs to focus on. A lot of people go on

vacations to relax and this is a potential market segment that Airbnb can tap into. To speak to

this, one of the respondents to a survey conducted by me said, “Airbnb is good for cost savings.

Hotels are good if you want to relax and not care about taking care of your surroundings.”

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SOURCES CITED

Primary Resources

Email Conversation with Gillian West, Journalist, The Drum.com. Conducted on Oct 21, 2016.

On the Phone Interview with Tom Slee, Industry Expert on Sharing Economy. Conducted on Oct

15, 2016.

Online Survey Conducted with 34 Respondents, Age Range of 18-55 years, Men and Women.

Conducted on Nov 3, 2016.

TED Talk by Joe Gebbia, Feb 2016

Secondary Resources

Adage, Airbnb Expanding Services to Dining, City Tours with New App, Aug 16, 2016.

Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Adam Olson, Airbnb ‘Never a Stranger’ by TBWA/Chiat/Day, campaignlive.com, Apr 22, 2015.

Accessed on Sept 21, 2016.

Airbnb Marketing, Creating #OneLessStranger:Stories of Belonging, Airbnb Blog, Jan 1, 2015.

Accessed on Sept 21, 2016.

Airbnb Marketing Team, Shorty Awards Entry Under Hashtag, shortyawards.com Apr 20, 2015.


Airbnb Website, About Us, https://www.airbnb.com/about/about-us. Accessed on Sept 21, 2016.

Airbnb Marketing, Is Mankind, Airbnb Blog, Jan 1, 2015. Accessed on Oct 10, 2016.

Airbnb’s $2 Billion Negative Impact on Lodging Industry and NYC economy, Hotel Association

of New York City, Oct 30, 2015. Accessed on Accessed on Oct 10, 2016.

Brian Chesky, Belong Anywhere, http://blog.airbnb.com/belong-anywhere/, July 16, 2014.

Accessed on Accessed on Oct 10, 2016.

Burt Helm, Airbnb Is Inc.'s 2014 Company of the Year, Inc, From the Dec 2014/Jan 2015 issue

of Inc. Magazine. Accessed on Accessed on Oct 10, 2016.

David McMillin, 3 Reasons Why Airbnb Is Achieving So Much Success, pcma.org, Oct 03

2016. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Derek Thomson, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on Building a Company and Starting a 'Sharing'

Revolution, The Atlantic, Aug 13, 2013. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

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Elaine Glusac, Hotels Vs. Airbnb: Let the Battle Begin, New York Times Jul 20, 2016. Accessed

on Nov 9, 2016.

Emily Badger, Airbnb announces 'comprehensive review' after complaints of bias, The

Washington Post, Jun 2, 2016. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Editor’s Pick, Airbnb Aims to Appease Your Doubts About Staying in a Stranger’s Home,

creativity-online.com, Apr 21, 2015. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Effie case study, 2016, Accessed on Nov 23, 2016.

Geoffrey Precourt, How Airbnb plans for "super-brand" status, WARC, March 2015. Accessed

on Oct 10, 2016.

Gillian West, Anatomy of an ad: Behind the scenes of Airbnb’s first global campaign ‘Never a

Stranger’, The Drum, May 14, 2015. Accessed on Sept 21, 2016.

Jack Dennis, Airbnb launches ‘Never a Stranger’ TV ads in Australia, bandt.com, Apr 22, 2015.


Jessica Salter, Airbnb: The story behind the $1.3bn room-letting website, The Telegraph, 07 Sep


Joshua Meehan, Keeping Watch on the AirBnB Competition, e-marketingassociates.com, Mar

13, 2015. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Katie Richards, Marketers need to be Fearless, Adweek.com, Oct 16, 2015. Accessed on Nov 9,

2016.

Lea Lane, “Are Millnnial Travel Trends Shifting in 2016?” Jan 15, 2016. Accessed on Nov 23,

2016.

Marco della Cava, Airbnb creates ad touting kindness of strangers, USA Today, Apr 22, 2015.

Accessed on Oct 10, 2016.

Marion, Airbnb’s consistent rebrand focuses on the sense of belonging to a community,

Accessed on Oct 10, 2016.

Nielsen, Top 10 Trusted Brands, October 31, 2015. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Nielsen, Millennials: Technology = Social Connection, Feb 26, 2014. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Oliver Pickup, Staying personal key to Airbnb’s success, The Telegraph, 22 Jan 2016. Accessed

on Nov 9, 2016.

Tariq 23

Peter Elliot, With Soylent Sales Up 300 percent, Its Founders Have Eyes on Europe, Jan 15,


Price Waterhouse Cooper, Sharing Economy. Accessed on Nov 23, 2016.

Ron Lieber, Airbnb Horror Story Points to Need for Precautions, New York Times, Aug 14,

2015. Accessed on Sept 21, 2016.

Robert Klara, Adweek Announces Winners of the 2016 Brand Genius Awards, Adweek, Aug 22,


Samantha Shankman, Airbnb’s New Campaign Gives Hosts $10 to be Brand Evangelists,

Skift.com, Jan 3, 2015. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Stephanie Rosenbloom, Giving Airbnb a Run for Its Money, Feb 10, 2015. Accessed on Nov 9,

2016.

Shona Ghosh, Airbnb first to use Instagram carousel ads in ‘Never a Stranger’ campaign,

campaignlive.com, Apr 21, 2015. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

STR, US hotel performance for year-end 2014. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Statista, Total Revenue of the U.S. Hotel Industry. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Statista, Vacation Rentals in United States Market. Accessed on Nov 22, 2016.

Statista, Sentiment Ranking on the Global Hotel Market. Accessed on Nov 22, 2016.

Statista, Statistics and Market Data on Travel, Tourism & Hospitality. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Statista, New York City Airbnb Revenue. Accessed on Nov 22, 2016.

Statista, Airbnb Ad Spend. Accessed on Nov 22, 2016.

U.S Travel Association, Travel Trends, Feb 2016. Accessed on Nov 9, 2016.

Communications Campaign Analysis

Documents