- Objective: Our objective was to launch an audacious social experiment to rid the world of strangers. At Airbnb, we aspire to create a world where people can Belong Anywhere. The primary barrier we face in achieving this aspiration is strangers. Strangers disrupt feelings of acceptance and therefore the enemy of belonging.
- Strategy: What happens when Airbnb invests and entrusts the community to unlock the creative power of human hospitality to change the world? To entrust our community to help rid the world of strangers. Brian Chesky, Airbnb's CEO, gifted one million dollars in the form of ten dollars into the accounts of 100,000 people in the Airbnb community. He urged them to put this donation towards committing one act of hospitality for a stranger, document it, and upload that to social media with the hashtag #OneLessStranger.
Then, Airbnb urged the world to join in. By using the hashtag #OneLessStranger, we were able to harness the power of our community to encourage their friends and followers to join in and participate.
- Outcome: As of January 27th, 3 weeks after the launch of the campaign, over 3M people around the world engaged with the campaign, created #OneLessStranger, and were talking about the campaign.
- Objective: help create a world with fewer strangers through the sharing of a simple hashtag
- Key features: Distribution and amplification exists entirely on social media. Social was the only core channel, ceneterd on the hashtag #OneLessStranger. The campaign was truly powered by our host community and their will to do good.
- We empowered our community to bring our brand vision to life with this pay-it-forward approach to inspire participation.
- Not only did the campaign live and get passed forward on social media globally, the hashtag stream of activity is pulled into airbnb.com/one-less-stranger. Additionally, to further integrate digitally, we utilized the map on airbnb.com/map to showcase moments of #OneLessStranger around the world!
- People have been spending on average over 6 minutes 03 seconds, well above industry averages, on the landing page, engaging with all of the user generated acts of #OneLessStranger.
- 3 weeks into the campaign, over 3 million engagements and interactions were made with the campaign- this includes people creating #OneLessStranger, talking about the campaign and engaging with all of the generated content.
Our community also had positive feedback on the social power of the campaign:
Rebecca said: "Love this! The idea of doing something kind for strangers with no ulterior motive (other than to feel good!) is a beautiful act that truly can change worlds. I've come to believe, especially when we're going through rough times, kindness is what really matters. "
Raquel said: "This is how we work to make the world a better place. one person at a time! :) "
Paul said: "I continue to be in awe of Airbnb - harnessing technology not only to bring need ( accommodation ) to availability (hosts) but really also helping to flatten the world, one booking at a time. Brian, the #onelessstranger is intriguing , I am in! "
