The primary target audience were members of the LGBTI community. Research found them to be affluent interstate travellers – more likely to embrace the diverse nature of Airbnb's offering than stay in a bland hotel chain.

We researched several lesbian and gay events that would form passionate calendar moments to directly engage them whilst maximising our limited budget. We needed an idea that would build on Airbnb’s brand ethos of ‘belong anywhere’, create buzz around their launch to the new Australian market and drive new sign-ups online.

In this entry you will see how we went direct to the public with our idea. We got into the target audience’s world and let them literally ‘live’ our brand experience. By enabling consumers to actually feel what it’s like to be part of our brand, Airbnb – rather than just telling them why they should consider us. The campaign elicited a direct response through experiential events, as well as driving acquisitions through owned online platforms. We also targeted prospects directly through edm, online video content distributed through social media and owned channels. All for a very limited budget of less than US$100,000.

We constructed the world's first liveable house-float and listed it on Airbnb.com. We worked with interior designers to create a liveable space with mezzanine bedroom, lounge and garden. To drive sign-ups we gave the public a chance to win a stay in it.

We parked the house-float outside Sydney's Opera House giving members of the press and public a chance to look inside. We toured the house to major LGBTI events, notably Harbour Party in the lead-up to Mardi Gras.

One lucky couple won a stay in the house overnight where waiting news teams covered their Airbnb experience. That evening, we took them to the Mardi Gras parade accompanied by drag queen Dj and hundreds of Airbnb hosts to dance alongside them as they experienced the world’s biggest gay and lesbian parade. This experience was captured as content with the message #StayWithPride.

The campaign achieved tangible success for Airbnb, which converted into hard sales. Bookings were up 20% over forecast during the campaign and beyond as a direct result.

As well, it generating significant social media impact for an Australian campaign – 303,800 people reached directly via Facebook with 3.939 million Twitter impressions.

It also generated positive word-of-mouth for the brand evidenced by positive sentiment in tweets and Facebook likes. The campaign crossed into mainstream media with over 80 items of earned media in publications including Murdoch’s News.com.au; Sydney Morning Herald’s traveller.com.au; and front page of MX daily newspaper. The campaign was mentioned in Japan, Russia and France evidenced by Twitter and LGBTI blogs.

With $0 media budget the campaign featured on National TV with a 2-minute feature on Channel 7 news, plus coverage on Channel 9 and SBS news.

Airbnb was new to the Australian market and briefed us to help leverage their sponsorship of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. As part of Airbnb's global brand strategy they also wanted to communicate that through Airbnb’s network of hosts you can find interesting places to stay and ‘belong anywhere’. The challenge was to ‘own’ the Mardi Gras sponsorship within a very limited budget in a crowded advertising landscape.