The Olympics marketing medal goes to Airbnb

Airbnb has created two marketing campaigns to capitalise on the hype of the Paris Olympics, and they’re both perfect for going viral on Instagram. 

The first campaign promotes Airbnb’s core offering: access to unique places to stay that make you feel like a local, wherever you travel. Airbnb transformed the clock tower at Musée d’Orsay, one of Paris’ most iconic art museums, into a bedroom for a lucky couple to stay in – just in time for the Olympic Games. The room was given away for free to a lucky duo through a social media competition, and advertised through Instagram Reels, which is the ideal format for this type of campaign as it reaches followers and non-followers. The fact that the stay was for two people, meant fans who wanted in were likely to send the video on to at least one other person, which increases the video’s chance to go viral.

Check out the Instagram reel here.

Instagram’s Chief, Adam Mosseri, recently shared a tip to brands, to prioritise making reels that are likely to be sent on, as they have started prioritising video shares over engagement (likes/comments etc!) in their newest tweak to the algorithm. 

Airbnb has quite the track record of hosting social competitions where fans win the privilege to stay in places with pop culture relevance, most famously by offering up the The Barbie Malibu DreamHouse during the peak of Barbenheimer hysteria last year. It’s an excellent strategy for reaching new audiences in a super entertaining way, that also ties straight back to their product. 

Airbnb are also promoting their experiences during the Olympics, also by staging social media competitions, for fans to engage one-on-one with Olympic Athletes. For example: Watch Olympic men’s basketball final with Tony Parker or Beach volleyball with Olympian Lina Taylor at the Eiffel Tower. 

These campaigns are social, they’ve got star power, but they’re also democratic and encourage followers to get involved and be part of the story – all this means it’s a marketing gold from me.