‘You don’t get a chance to own your narrative’: Airbnb’s CMO on why ramping up brand helps it counter the naysayers
Since rebalancing its marketing mix to focus on brand building, Airbnb has reaped the rewards, though top marketer Hiroki Asai says its model will not work for all brands.
By Molly Innes
Many marketers dream of working for a business that prioritises brand building over performance marketing. While these two sides shouldn’t necessarily be pitted against each other, the positive reaction that follows when a brand begins, or re-introduces, brand marketing into the mix highlights the desire many in the industry have to change their setup.
Airbnb’s shift from performance channels was widely reported in 2021, when top marketer Hiroki Asai set in place a strategy to ramp up brand spend to move away from “buying customers”. Now firmly bedded in, the shift helped Airbnb boost earnings, direct bookings and retention in 2023, with sales and marketing spend last year reaching $1.73bn (£1.35bn) while the firm generated $9.92bn (£7.90bn) in revenue. Its revenue grew 18% year over year.
“We do have a mix of performance versus brand, but we definitely index much heavier on brand,” Asai tells Marketing Week. “If you rely too heavily on performance, which a lot of marketers do, you don’t have the ability to put your own message out there.”
