Not Yet Trending is a social-first editorial series that uses Airbnb platform data to shine a light on the lesser-known corners of the world, revealing new locations and unexpected perspectives to a community of perpetually curious travelers and beyond.

After selecting these destinations, we set an emerging photographer and writer up with a local Airbnb listing and host to capture the best of their city and its community. Knowing that social is one of the top places consumers go to seek travel inspiration, we used a multi-media, multi-channel social distribution strategy to reach our discovery-driven audience, sequencing each story out over a 6 week flight. Facebook became a core platform thanks to effective interest targeting, and Twitter tips, captivating Instagrams, and media exclusives with travel publications like Afar and imgur GIFs added to the strategy to criss-cross the internet.

The locations may have been Not Yet Trending but the content certainly was. The series has produced 116M impressions, 1.78M Likes, 78k Shares, and roughly 153k new followers. It drove 2x more nights booked than expected, garnered cumulative social engagements 2.2x above the benchmark, and recruited 3.2x more new users than anticipated. Near-term conversion rates were significantly higher than for those who saw traditional brand advertising in social channels. The series proves that we have both the insight and authority to inspire the seriously curious traveler, making Not Yet Trending a global storytelling platform for Airbnb that will continue to travel broadly in 2017.