AIR BNB BELONG

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Flying the Nest

Two mattresses, two friends and rapidly approaching unpaid rent were the foundations of the seemingly unstoppable Air BnB. As Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky’s big idea began to take form, they became increasingly aware that the service they intended to offer had to be different from what was already available in the market .The brand aims to provide its customer with a unique accommodation experience at any price point, across the world and to give the chance for hosts to use their space as an investment not a liability. Founder Brian Chesky described the service against hotel giant Marriot as: “A Marriot in New York and in Ireland will look exactly the same yet you don’t know what room you are getting or even what floor you are on. We are providing the opposite” (2011 p. xi). Air BnB wants their users to experience more than just renting an apartment or a hotel stay. As a brand they want their customers to feel they are part of a community, experiencing new cultures and customs by being delved into the heart of their hosts home, giving them a sense of belonging wherever they are in the world.

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Fig 1


Flying the Nest


Flying the Nest

It is hard to distinguish a specific consumer for Air BnB, with such a wide range of price points and vast variety of users, from different cultures genders and beliefs. When considering the Air BnB host I most found what The Economist noted most fitting, individuals involved in collaborative consumption are becoming “micro-entrepreneurs” (20011, p, xviii) This is exactly how many Air BnB host’s see themselves, driven by a blend of making extra money and meeting new people. Host Judith began using Air Bnb after the loss of her husband, the service supports her financially but also the surrounding of new people helps her cope with her loss. The host’s act as ambassadors for their home cities and a concierge for the brand both an array of passion for what they are doing. From this passion personal experience is delivered resulting in a unique connection between host and guest.

The Air BnB guest is one that seeks more than an average accommodation experience. It is not just a question of visiting a place but belonging there and this is something Air BnB champions and has taken in too account with every aspect of the brand right down to the logo. 85 percent of Airbnb guests wanting to “live like locals.” The Air Bnb service allows them to experience things in which they may not with generic accommodation providers. In terms of age group Gebbia and Chesky thought the people that would respond to them would be in their twenties but the people who ended up staying on the first night the pair rented their space were a 35 and 45 year old.

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Fig 2

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Flying the Nest

As my main objective was the growth of the idea of belonging to a new audience I started my initial primary research by looking closely at the concept of belonging and what it meant to people. The most effective way I could think of gaining this insight into this was to go out into the streets of Nottingham asking people to write down in one word what they felt belonging meant to them. The reoccurring answers from this were the words home safety comfort and many using the phrase being a part of something.

I then began to take an in-depth look at the Air BnB, in order to gain a strong insight in to how I could create a creative campaign that was brand appropriate. I began my secondary research by looking at visual campaigns that Air BnB had already created. It become clear that everything had a story, whether that is a host’s or users, all emotive and personal. One in which stood out to me was “Wall and chain” A true story of how Air BnB helped to break down borders and prejudice left by the dictatorship that once divided the city of Berlin. From this campaign I realized that the brand is passionate about telling these stories John Mildenhall CMO, Air bnb states that “ We have to tell these stories to inspire more and more people about the deep and meaningful significant connection they could have through using Air BnB” (https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=aJf-K6nz544 ) This is something in which I thought could be incorporated into my campaign. Following this I researched Emotional marketing and whether taking that approach when communicating affects the relationship with consumers and increases usage. In Antonio Damasio’s study into emotion and feeling he states, “All the devices used to produce emotion can be engaged with automatically, without conscious deliberation” (2011, pg 101) this is present when brands use personal and evoking campaigns for example John Lewis in Always’s a woman to me (2010) and Hare and the bear (2013). 8


Fig 5, 6

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Flying the Nest

Alongside my look into the emotive style of Air BnB’s campaigns, I began to look into the service they offered. Prior to being introduced to Air BnB I had never heard of the brand. For someone who had recently travelled I saw myself as a potential consumer, yet I had no familiarity with the company. It interested me whether I was the only one in my age group, who was unfamiliar with the unique accommodation service. To gain insight into this I collected an online survey, in which 33 people took part. From this 11% of 19-25 year olds had not heard of Air BnB. When you compare this to the extensive research into young travellers for example Bridges provides information “young travellers in 2012 spent on average £2500 on trips abroad – 40 per cent more than they did in 2007, Youth travel is one of the fastest growing and most dynamic markets of the global tourism sector.” (2013) From this there is a clear indication that young people are beginning to dominate leisure travel, which poses the question could Air BnB be doing more to target this type of consumer?

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Flying the Nest

I wanted to find out more from young travellers about their feelings towards travel and accommodation services they had previously used. Following this I asked a friend, Wayne McLaughlin whilst currently travelling Thailand to keep a day in the life account of travelling from one accommodation to the next and if he felt a sense of belonging in his stay. From this research again it was highlighted that he had not heard of Air BnB and that on the day the research was recorded he had used hand held device to book their accommodation through Agoda.com. On arrival at their Ban Thai Guesthouse in the island of Phi Phi, owner Miss Lee greeted him warmly where he recorded that “I felt like she wanted us to feel at home”. This is something which I felt really projected what Air BnB stood for and if a young traveller like Wayne liked the feeling that someone cared enough to make them feel at home then they would be more After the day in the life he also gave me some insight into how the experience was throughout his stay recalling her knowing all her guests on first name terms and where they were from. He felt this gave more of a personal feel and that it was important for young travellers to feel this when they are so far from home. This statement was something that encouraged me to think of the emotional experience of leaving home specifically with young travellers especially as this was something I had experienced myself. I wanted to look at this emotional experience of young travellers leaving the home environment from not only the point of view of the young person but their parents.It was also from my research of Air BnB videos that I realized all figures that were sharing stories were of our parents age, giving me grounds to believe that the people in fact that It could be this generation that I would be empowering to grow the idea of “belonging”. Although I was aware that our parents’ generation are users of the Internet I felt I would get a more detailed response from market research on the streets of Nottingham. After speaking to a number of parents who’s children were either planning to or had been travelling the main concerns seemed to be the safety of their children in all circumstances and whether they would have enough money.

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Fig 7



The Big Idea

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Fig 1

I have chosen to focus my big idea on creating a digital campaign advert that looks at the emotional experience of leaving home to travel the world and how instilling a sense of belonging can benefit the way young travellers experience it. I specifically looked at the idiom of “flying the nest� The reinterpretation of this idiom into a story was something I really wanted to portray with Air Bnb having storytelling present in almost every campaign making it brand appropriate. As I am trying to emotively connect with my new audience I feel this is the best approach with Bo Bergstorm stating that a story is the best way of arousing emotion and of conveying information and messages.(2008, pg 14.)

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The Big Idea

The younger audience of around 19-25 that I am I intend to target is an ideal consumer for Air BnB to be able to grow the community with the idea of belonging .While travelling young traveller would be able to meet new people and still have the experience of sharing with other travellers. By using Air BnB they would gain valuable insight into their surrounding ones in which they would of not gained without their hosts. Following my research I asked out of 33 19-25’s where they would prefer to stay if everything was at the same price point 45% of of 33 people said they would prefer to rent an apartment/room where you had a host that would give you information. Something I personally found when travelling and has been mentioned amongst my peers was the aspect of safety in their stay and this is something in which also concerned parents in my market research. With such a strong focus on trust within the brand and the ability to talk to hosts beforehand and read reviews the service is safer and more reliable than other competitors, something that is key for young travellers. Whilst at the accommodation in most cases the young travellers would be able to use wifi connection to contact home and assure parents they are ok. By targeting this age group you are essentially targeting the future of tourism marketing. If by using Air BnB they at least once experience a strong feeling of belonging they will share this with other people of their age group creating a domino effect. With a message embedded of Belong to fly this can be driven with the power of the hashtag sharing stories of inspiring travel stories of young travellers.

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Creative Concdpt

I have decided to create an animated digital campaign. Initially I was inspired by the “Wall and Chain” and this became even more so when looking into the making of it, when head of globals at AirBnB Dennis Geodegebuure stated that the reasoning for animation was to make the advert magical and universal, the story was able to be brought to life apposed through to a reenactment or generic photo collage. Another reasoning for me choosing to have the campaign as an animation was that the places in which the Air BnB figure would be travelling too would be full of creativity and culture, this would be hard to represent by just collecting a series of images or motion pictures. The colour pallet and texture of the animation would be a watercolour effect with light tonal colours to communicate the magic of the story. I found visual inspiration not only Air BnB’S wall and chain but previous adverts in animation that carried an emotive message combined with storytelling. I found visually I was inspired by Twinings Get back to you (2011) and its dream like quality with light colours and artistic textures. Although it wasn’t the exact style of animation I wanted for my animation I was still inspired by John Lewis “Bear and the Hare.”(2013) The combination of animation and story telling made this the most talked about advert of securing sales of £101.45 million, 10.7 per cent up on 2012. (2007)

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Fig 10,11,12,13,14,15,16


The advert would start with the backing music found in the same way in which Air BnB select their music on Musicdealers.com, (http://blog.airbnb.com/introducing-airbnbs-first-ever-song/)a service that allows you to choose backing music based on anything from mood to theme. From this I chose instrumental of Matthew Santos break free. The tone is very on brand with Air BnB being both lighthearted and dreamy and has at a slow enough tempo for a voice over telling a story to still be heard and communicated effectively. We would then see a figure of a bird nurturing her nest with one single egg. I have taken into account that every detail of the brand is taken into account and made personal for example naming their logo Belò. I wanted this effect with the bird present in the advert so decided to take from the word Belong and call her Belà. This is something that would later be explained on the communication platforms. The advert would then show the egg hatching and show the process of Belà chick flying the nest, even at one point flying in the shape of the Belò logo. Following this we would then see the figure of a young female beginning her journey around the world. There would be a change in destinations and events taking place however Belà offspring will be present with her throughout. We at the end would see the message of Belong to fly an empowering message showing the younger audience as young people we are meant to see the world and experience all it has to offer. Whilst visually we would be seeing a story unfold, there would also be an over voice vocally doing the same. This would be one of a young adult telling of their account of leaving home and how Air BnB exhanced their expereince for example I could use the story told in my Day in the Life. It would take a non dramatic technique approach based on a gentler dialogue with its audience, giving them the opportunity to interpret the story in a freer manner (Bergstorm, 2008)The story would also be told in first person with Berg Bergström providing information that telling a story in first person either singular or plural brings the storyteller closer to the listener.(2008)

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Fig 20

There would be a number of ways in which this advert would be communicated mainly through the internet and social media two things in which young people are constantly in use of meaning this would generate the most exposure and would be the ideal way to communicate with them. The advert would be shown on the Air BnB You tube channel and would also be placed before chosen videos giving the audience to see it, even if they didn’t know it existed. Another platform the video would be see on would be Twitter. Ochman (2013) provides information that 79% of people follow a brand for exclusive content, so this would allow the new consumer to keep constantly updated with Air BnB. For the new audience that may not follow Air BnB on twitter there would be a use of Promoted tweets. This is a new way brands can reach a wider audience and spark engagement, showing up on newsfeeds that would of previously not been reached. Another reasoning for such a strong focus on social media as mentioned by Jessica Kelly that global adoption of mobile devices, smartphones and more recently tablets, has bolstered the use of social channels before, during and after a trip (Mintel 2013) This was also supported by my day in the life research where is showed that accommodation was booked on a mobile device.

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In conclusion I believe that by creating an animation showing the emotional experience of leaving and hearing other young travellers stories it will inspire young travellers to use Air BnB services for a deep and meaningful accommodation experience while they travel, instilling the importance of belonging wherever they may be in the world. However I also believe it will empower the parents/careers to encourage their children to travel using the service, giving them a sense of reassurance and comfort that letting them go on a voyage of independence and adventure will result in their children feeling they can belong anywhere in the world giving the young adult they have raised, a sense of self assurance, confidence and identity in a way that remaining at home in most cases could not allow.

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REFERENCES

Air Bnb. (). New Study. Available: (https://www.airbnb.co.uk/ press/news/new-study-airbnb-community-generates-502million-in-economic-activity-in-the-uk), . Last accessed 5th January 2015. Bergstorm, B (2008). Essentials of Visual Communication. London: Lawrence King . 14-27. Botsman, R and Rogers,R (2011). Whats Mine is Yours. London: Harper Collins. xi . Bridges, A (2013). Young travellers spendings soar . Available at : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/10322925/Youngtravellers-spending-soars.html . Last accessed 6th January 2015 Heath, R (2012). Seducing the Subconscious . London: John Wiley and Son. 101. Prynn, J (2013). Hare and Bear Effect . Available at : http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hareand-bear-effect-101m-record-takings-at-john-lewis-thanks-tochristmas-advert-8956662.html . Last accessed 13th January, 2015 Ochlan. L (2013) The Ad. Why Twitter is better than Facebook? Available at: http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/twitter-abrand-platform-facebook/235115/ Last Accessed : 13th January 2015 Kelly, J (2013) The Impact of social media on Tourism Available at: http://academic.mintel.com/display/643811/?highlight Last Accessed : 14th January, 2015


BILIOGRAPHY

Daryl Travis (2000). Emotional Branding. USA: Prima Publishing Dr Alice Boyes. (). 5 Reasons why Travel is good for you. Available: http://www.aliceboyes.com/why-travel-is-good-foryou-positive-psychology-travel/. Last accessed 13th Jan 2015. Friedman, T.L. (2014). Now a bit of good news. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/opinion/sunday/thomasl-friedman-and-now-for-a-bit-of-good-news.html?_r=1. Last accessed 12th Jan, 2015. Great Ads . (). Air BnBs new handmade ad. Available: http:// great-ads.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/airbnbs-new-handmade-adshot-in-one.html. Last accessed 13th January 2015. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Luke Sullivan (2012). Hey whipple, squeeze this!. 4th ed. Michael M Coltman (1989). Tourism Marketing. Van Nostrand Reinhold. Rachel Botsman & Roo Rogers (2011). What’s Mine is Yours. 2nd ed. London, UK: Harper Collins Publishers. Robert Jones (2000). The Big Idea. Hammersmith, London: Harper Collins Publishers. Euromoniter International. (2014) Airbnb, Inc in Travel and Tourism. Available: http://www.euromonitor.com/airbnb-inc-intravel-and-tourism/report.pdf (January 5 2014).


APPENDIX

Air BnB (2014) Wall and Chain . Available : https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=BpAdyFdE3-c Last Accessed : 4th December 2014 Air BnB (2014) Wall and Chain Behind the scenes . Available : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpAdyFdE3-c Last Accessed : 4th December 2014 Air BnB (2014) Welcome to Air BnB . Available : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA2F0qScxrI Last Accessed : 4th December 2014 Air BnB (2014) Introducing Belo. Available : h https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMITXMrrVQU Last Accessed : 4th December 2014 F&F (2014) How Air BnB Started . Available : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axqh6SJ0O0c Last Accessed : 4th December 2014 John Lewis (2010) Always a woman to me. Available : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYOsWWKHZVw Last Accessed : 4th December 2014 PandoMonthly (2014) Fire chat with Brian Chesky . Available : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yPfxcqEXhE Last Accessed : 4th December 2014 Music used for Video : Music Dealer (2015) http:// www.musicdealers.com/#!/mddtool&m=discoverytool&p=1&v=tabs-results&q=%7B%22filters%22%3A %5B%5D%2C%22vocalTypes%22%3A%5B%5D%2C% 22similarto%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%22vocalInstr%22-


IMAGE REFERENCES Figure 1 Google ( 2014 ) Available : http://stoppress.co.nz/blog/2014/11/ airbnb-calls-cirkus-elaborate-hand-made-ad : Accessed : Jan 4th 2015 Figure 2 Google (2014) Available : http://blog.airbnb.com/one-newyorker-feeds-soul-feeding-others/ Accessed : Jan 13th 2015 Figure 3 Google (2014) Available : http://blog.airbnb.com Accessed : Jan 13th 2015 Figure 4 Molly McGarry Figure 5 Google (2014) Available : http://belonganywhere.com Accessed : Jan 4th 2015 Figure 6 Google (2014) Available : http://belonganywhere.com Accessed : Jan 4th 2015 Figure 7 Created by Molly McGarry with image from google. (2015) Figure 8 Created by Molly McGarry Figure 9 Created by Molly McGarry with information from http://www. staywyse.org/2014/11/19/infographic-what-you-should-know-about-themillennial-as-traveller/ Figure 10 Pinterest ( 2015) Available : www. pinterest.com Figure 12 Pinterest ( 2015) Available : www. pinterest.com Figure 13 Pinterest ( 2015) Available : www. pinterest.com Figure 14 Pinterest ( 2015) Available : www. pinterest.com Figure 15 Pinterest ( 2015) Available : www. pinterest.com Figure 16 15 Pinterest ( 2015) Available : www. pinterest.com Figure 17 Molly McGarry (2015) Figure 18 Molly McGarry (2015) Figure 19 Molly McGarry (2015) Figure 20 Molly McGarry (2015)


Research Methodology When approaching my research into my Big Idea and Creative concept in question I will gather nformation that gained valuable insight and opinions that would coincide with statistics to back my idea. In order to reach my younger audience I am aware I will have to use social media platforms however for an older audience I will interact on a more personal level to gain effective insights. My intention was to personally gather this information whether that be face to face research or via social media. Initially I intend to gain an insight of brand awareness via secondary research for example their website and articles. Following this I intend to put together a survey using Typeform to be posted on social media. I will then conduct a day in the life of someone who is my target market. I will also interact on a more personal level q card and street interviews. I will analysis my findings and then apply percentages for my own statistics




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