DENVER, COLORADO (Interested in SF)
20:00 UTC
Airbnb x AirDNA World Cup Campaign
How we beat our target by 5x by creating a product experience beyond ads.
OVERVIEW
AirDNA captures traffic from property owners often before the rest of the market does; we are the industry's default calculator for short-term rental earning potential. Recognizing this top-of-funnel tech advantage, we partnered with Airbnb to turn our data pipeline into a localized acquisition engine, specifically engineered to capture and convert high-value homeowners into New Active Listings (NALs) ahead of the biggest tourism event in U.S. history.
The brief
GET: Homeowners in World Cup host cities
WHO: Are unaware that they can make meaningful money by hosting world cup travelers
TO: List their homes on Airbnb for the World Cup
BY: Providing accurate data on how much they can earn
CONCEPT
In collaboration with the creative team, we came up with the concept of "Game-Changing Money". It worked because it didn't only tie clearly to the event, but allowed the consumer to seem themselves beyond the dollars and to what that money could mean for them.
PRODUCT EXPERIENCE
We knew that running a flashy video campaign or dropping standard ads wouldn't cut it. To truly impact how consumers felt about the opportunity, we had to innovate the underlying product experience.
We aligned engineering, product, and data science teams in short order to build a brand-new, frictionless World Cup Earning Calculator. Instead of passive reading, users typed in their exact physical address in exchange for lead info. The tool instantly deployed AirDNA's proprietary data models to project localized tournament rates, expected occupancy lifts, and custom fee structures.
DAta-Driven targeting
To ensure maximum resource efficiency, we bypassed broad-strokes targeting and built a multi-variable analysis index score for every host city based on six strict criteria:
Number of scheduled games
Historical ticket demand / quality of games
Municipal short-term rental regulations
Platform hospitality fees
Existing local hotel room supply deficits
Home commute times to the main stadiums
The data pointed to six high-leverage primary markets where homeowners had the highest statistical probability to list: Kansas City, Dallas, Seattle, Vancouver, Boston, and Philadelphia.
GTM PLAN
With the product calculator built, we deployed an aggressive, highly localized full-funnel media strategy across six channels to maximize search volume:
PR Strategy: Published a weekly data-cadence pitching national and regional press on dynamic rate surges, real-time demand curves, and dwindling hotel room availability across the six target cities.
Local Roadshows: Launched experiential, on-the-ground activations in high-scoring zones; specifically Dallas, Kansas City, Seattle, and the Bay Area, to drive live calculator searches and walk owners through the listing onboarding flow in real time.
Targeted Direct Mail: Deployed high-impact mailers to specific residential zip codes in Seattle and Kansas City with high home ownership.
Paid Social & Influencers: Ran geo-fenced social campaigns alongside hyper-local lifestyle influencers who spoke directly to suburban and urban homeowners in host zones.
Local Podcast Networks: Sponsored regional sports podcasts to naturally contextualize the Airbnb opportunity right alongside tournament schedules and team commentary.
Lifecycle Email: Cleaned and segmented our existing internal database to re-engage historical AirDNA leads who owned property in host markets but had not yet listed.
RESULTS
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Product is Marketing: If we had simply run ads telling people they could make money, the campaign would have drowned in the noise. By building a functional piece of technology we gave users immediate value and transformed a marketing pitch into a utility.
Granular Modeling Over Guesswork: Prioritizing markets via municipal rules, hotel deficits, and commute times meant we didn't waste a dollar of our paid media budget on cities where homeowners faced heavy legal blockades or low traveler yields.
Full Funnel Impact: The seamless handoff between high-credibility channels (PR and local data releases), direct-response channels (Direct Mail and Paid Social), and in person events created an ecosystem where the consumer met our brand multiple times before taking the leap to list.