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Short term property rental site Airbnb has launched its first integrated marketing campaign that smoothly ties together public policy with a creative showcase of the variety of homes available for rent on the site, called Birdbnb. By using the analogy of "birds as ultimate travelers," the company commissioned Los Angeles artist Joshua Stricklin to fashion 50 birdhouse replicas of actual Airbnb homes.
The artist, alongside a team that included birdhouse specialist Mike Bowen, minitature prop artist Brooke Ashe, colorist Gracie Alie and miniature expert Paul Wendling, painstakingly replicated these peculiar homes down the last detail.
An impressive feat, the collection of birdhouses premiered in New Orleans this week, where they will be on display in the Tree of Life in Audubon Park. The birdhouses were filled with Spanish moss and seed, as the company enlisted ornithologist Carolyn Atherton to help create the ideal conditions to attract actual birds.
The video below, which was directed by documentarian Alma Har'el, shows the process behind creating this campaign - and the ultimately successful bid to attract short term bird visitors to the installation.
The website, Birdbnb.com, is a cute accompaniment to the marketing campaign.
Visitors can move through the various birdhouses and see the actual human homes that they were based on. Audio is tied in nicely with interviews of the key creative team, and several videos complement the main message with behind-the-scenes video of the New Orleans installation, the workshop's creative process, and the music contributed by musician Zach Shields.
Airbnb's CMO Amy Curtis-McIntyre, said in the announcement:
We created these birdhouses inspired by real Airbnb homes and the accompanying film as a metaphor for the hospitality about which our company is built: Our hospitality is completely individual and designed by our hosts who know that making people (or birds!) feel at home any where in the world comes from warmth, intuition and an attention to detail. We love the world's real travelers and this is an invitation to travel in a new way.
A spokesperson for Airbnb was not available to comment directly to Tnooz on the genesis, goals or objectives of the campaign.
The campaign was the debut work of Airbnb's agency of record, Pereira & O’Dell. The marketing blitz is being backed by a $2 million promotional budget, which will show the short film in cinemas across the country and place full page ads in travel magazines such as AFAR. A long version of the video has been released here on YouTube.
Another compelling addition that brings a solid amount of interactivity to this campaign is a 360 degree tour of the Tree of Life.
Long touted by the likes of Sphere (formerly TourWrist), here's an application where providing a new viewpoint can increase engagement and offer another means of capturing user attention within an interactive marketing campaign.
NB: Author is an Airbnb host.