How Airbnb will empower communities to turn their neighbourhoods into tourist hotspots at The Drum’s Do It Day 2016
Sharing accommodation brand Airbnb will look to implement a new app on Do It Day (10 November) in order to shine a light on off-the-beaten-track locations that could benefit from a tourism boost.
For a brand that had one of the more straightforward challenges (on paper at least), Airbnb’s groups were faced with balancing ambition with pragmatism more readily than some of the others. Tasked with coming up with a “toolkit” hosts could use to transform their local neighbourhoods into tourist hotspots, both teams toiled with how far they could push a brief, that Airbnb has said if the final idea is good enough, it could form a permanent part of its marketing mix.
After discussion, planning and pitching it came down to two ideas that Airbnb’s brand marketer Jeanne Salvanès had to pick between. However, this was easier said than done given both teams had gone to great lengths to ensure their ideas empowered hosts to champion their own neighbourhoods but also focused on a social, local and mobile activation, as advised during a brief that lasted a lot longer than some of the others.
Such was the scope of the challenge that Salvanès and her colleagues were peppered with questions from both sides, each searching for a killer insight that could give them a competitive edge.
Having those insights aided both teams as they attempted to work out how to motivate hosts to help their communities rather than just wait for guests to come to them. It makes the fact that team one could come up with a winning idea even more impressive. Pitched as a ‘trusted local guide for guests, created by hosts,’ the ‘Local Gems’ app won over Airbnb on the day. All content on the app is powered by the community, with the idea being that hosts are recommending places in their local area to convince guests to spend more there.
Of the winning idea, Salvanès said it was a “hyper-local, community-driven and scaleable guidebook that could eventually drive footfall to local businesses and local communities”.
Winning team: Samantha Hibbard-Daniels, account director at Kitcatt Nohr, Becky Stuart, insight and planning manager at Ear to the Ground, Alistair Tweedie, senior digital designer at The Drum, Lauren Holden, project consultant at Reading Room, Millie-Mae Twort, account manager at Rapp.
Other episodes in the series
Episode 1
How IBM will help police forces to find missing people faster at The Drum’s Do It Day
We caught up with IBM’s Julia Glencross to find out how the brand will be changing the world on Do It Day.
Episode 2
How Dennis Publishing plans to generate awareness for the Heart of England Forest on The Drum’s Do It Day
Dennis Publishing is back for a second year of Do It Day, hoping to build on the forestry success of 2015 with its ‘Hug a tree: Name our forest’ campaign.
Episode 3
How ClientEarth will help combat London deaths from air pollution at The Drum’s Do It Day 2016
ClientEarth will help Londoners avoid life threatening air pollution levels with a new awareness campaign, which will be put into action at The Drum’s Do It Day on 10 November.
Episode 4
How the Eating Better Alliance will encourage men to eat less meat on The Drum’s Do It Day 2016
The Eating Better Alliance will oversee the launch of a new campaign at this year’s Do It Day, encouraging men to cut down on their meat consumption by coining the phrase ‘VegCurious’.
Episode 5
How Digital Futures will find 100 young people work placements at The Drum’s Do It Day 2016
Educational movement Digital Futures will use the idea of ‘blind CVs’ and a double decker branded bus to get young people into digital work placements on Do It Day.
Episode 6
Challenges, brainstorms, pitches: What happened at Plan It Day UK 2016
With just one week to go until Do It Day 2016, take a look back on last month’s Plan It Day to find out how hundreds of marketers came together to devise creative solutions to the real-world challenges set by our sponsors.
Episode 7
How Business In The Community will begin reviving local high streets on The Drum’s Do It Day 2016
Plan It Day challenger Business In The Community selected two campaign ideas as solutions to its set problem: how do we rally companies together to revive the British high street, increase local retail footfall, turn around empty premises and create jobs.
Episode 8
How O2, Greengrass and Bing Ads will get men to tackle gender inequality on The Drum’s Do It Day
O2, Greengrass and Bing Ads asked creatives at Plan It Day to come up with a way to tackle gender inequality in the work place, focusing directly on men.
Episode 10
Ads from Amnesty International, ClientEarth and more run in Piccadilly Circus and Times Square for Do It Day
The Drum's Do It Day challenges were presented at Piccadilly Circus this morning (10 November) in order to engage with the London commuters on their way to work.