Airbnb is one of the world’s most dynamic start-up companies, with over 1,000,000 listings globally. But there’s a huge gap between knowing of Airbnb and knowing how to use it. One that’s even greater in our primary market, Asia. Therefore, we needed to introduce Airbnb in a compelling way while also educating our audience. We believe that the world feels smaller when you travel. And when you’re part of the Airbnb community, that feeling grows even stronger. So to tell our story - and educate people on how to use Airbnb.com - we created a small world of our own.

As the direct mailer was addressed to journalists from travel and lifestyle publications, the mailer had to be unique and creative enough to stand out from the clutter of other DMs these journalists receive on a daily basis.

We created the world’s smallest screen rooming - a handcrafted replicate of the first Airbnb apartment rented out by its founders along with a mini-projector showcasing various Airbnb properties in popular outbound destinations for Chinese travelers.

The 50 DMs were split into 2 batches. The first batch of 23 direct mailers were sent to top-tier travel and lifestyle journalists before the Lunar New Year to capitalize on this key travel period. After receiving overwhelming positive feedback directly or via the journalists’ wechat and weibo accounts, the second batch of 27 mailers were then sent out in early March, approximately 3 weeks later to other key travel and lifestyle journalists.

The brand received enthusiastic reactions from the journalists, who described the DM as “creative and unique”, “sincere”, “the most creative present I’ve ever received”, and said they were “impressed by the creative gift” and “hope to experience an Airbnb house in the future”. The awareness of these key opinion leaders was leveraged by positive PR on social media. Lena Sönnichsen, Airbnb’s Head of Communications for APAC, defined the World’s Smallest Screening Room as a DM that “Not only explains Airbnb's background, brand and benefits beautifully, it also transports the sense of quirk and whimsical magic that we are always after. Feedback from journalists in China was so amazing that we are now localising this for other markets across Asia.”