Not Yet Trending

How does Airbnb become the authority on which destination will be the next travel hotspot,
out sleuthing Conde Nast Traveller or the NY Times, who tend to be seen as the curators of taste and cool for the travel set. Why are they the arbiters?

The truth is, people want to be adventurous and first, but are often intimidated by the unknown, so end up with perceived safer bets found on Conde Nast and New York Times lists.

However, the one thing I could say for a fact was that Airbnb has better data. Airbnbs start to grow years before hotels start to set a footprint and they can see almost in realtime, when a destination starts to attract the early adopters and travel influencers.
Utilizing these insights Airbnb could position itself as the authority on where to travel for
a young Gen Z and Millennial customer base who covet experiences and untarnished destinations.

The result was #notyettrending, a monthly content (written, image and video distributed on web, social platforms and even in print) that brought to life global destinations data indicated were going to be popular soon but that had not yet become saturated within the travel media. 


Behind the scenes my team and I established a unique editorial process which allowed us to be data and 
insight driven, working directly with the NA, LATAM, EMEA and APAC teams, to both tailor bespoke content for their audiences but also highlight up and coming local photographers and creatives.
As with all editorial, we worked within a small monthly production budget, traveling the world to gather content and write unique and insightful stories about local hosts, chefs, artisans and artists to build invitations to those who needed a little nudge of comfort before committing. 

The results were superb. The campaign drove a 2.2x increase in engagement compared to benchmarks. Doubled projected bookings in featured destinations and 
attracted 3.2x more new users than anticipated.
By focusing on early discovery of emerging destinations, the campaign also delivered significantly higher near-term conversion rates compared to traditional brand advertising, further strengthening Airbnb’s growth and positioning it as the platform for authentic, local travel experiences. It also won Airbnb their first awards for content marketing 
including a Shorty award and a Webby.