What Can The Water Industry Learn From Airbnb's Brand Publishing Efforts?
By Bill King
Have you tried Airbnb yet? The digital community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book accommodations around the world has certainly been in the news recently. Whether as an innovative disruptor of the hospitality industry or by running arguably the most topical (and memorable) ad during this year’s Super Bowl (#weaccept).
Perhaps less heralded but no less meaningful is the company’s adoption of brand publishing.
On November 19th 2016 at the company’s annual Airbnb Open event in Los Angeles, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky was joined on stage by Hearst Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles to debut their self-published Airbnbmag.
In a fun stunt, copies of the first issue were taped to the bottom of auditorium seats, allowing Chesky and his audience of Airbnb members to enjoy their shared “miniature Oprah moment.”
The big question in my mind is why? Why would Airbnb choose to publish a magazine? And what can manufacturers in the water and wastewater equipment industry learn from that decision? It’s the reason for this blog post.
The first place to start searching for answers is audience. In Airbnbmag’s case, the magazine caters to both the host who would receive the magazine directly and the traveler who they would share it with at their rented unit. As many Airbnb property providers also utilize Airbnb for their own travels, the magazine helps to reinforce Airbnb’s sense of community.
For water and wastewater equipment manufacturers, think barriers to entry or boosting customer engagement. Something I like to call “building vendor preference” but more of that in a later post.
Another benefit to Airbnb and also to their renters is that the magazine connects properties to the Airbnb brand. The premier issue contains 28 pages devoted to Los Angeles with content focused on navigating around town (always an issue in LA), neighborhoods, tours and activities. All of the content is sourced from hosts and regular travelers to LA. Unlike other travel magazines that focus on new hotel openings and swanky destinations to visit, Airbnbmag contains real information from audience members.
For water and wastewater equipment manufacturers, think arming your sales reps with a publication written by operators for operators or a web community where engineering consultants share their stories. Burns and McDonnell do this very well with their Benchmark publication.
There are only three ads in the magazine from Airbnb Open partners Delta Airlines, American Express and the film La La Land (cannot be escaped in LA). It also carries a short introduction from CEO Chesky and incorporates Airbnb’s branding and design character.
For water and wastewater equipment manufacturers, think insightful, end user-generated content written for their peers delivered consistently with a light-handed brand wrapper from your company wrapped around it.
With its focus on the local sights to see, Airbnbmag becomes the perfect vehicle to support the company’s newest revenue stream, Airbnb Trips. Not by running traditional advertising promoting the service but by telling the stories of the people who have used the service in their own words.
For water and wastewater equipment manufacturers, think case studies interwoven with vendor-agnostic insight in a seamless, integrated media experience. Corporate websites struggle to achieve this with the necessary listing of your products, services, applications and industries. But company blogs are a step in the right direction and standalone web communities or publications provide unbridled separation.
Why shouldn’t Airbnb simply run ads promoting Airbnb Trips in the myriad of travel magazines out there? Or push Airbnb Trips through third party websites tailored to travelers? Or just use Airbnb.com to do this? Have no fear; they’ll continue to do all of these things to appear in the same venues as their competitors. But Airbnbmag allows them to siphon off brand-devotees into their own protected messaging channel.
For water and wastewater equipment manufacturers, think customer retention, loyalty and creating separation from your competitors.