The 5-year-old Airbnb is embarking on its first national ad campaign, a $2 million effort that likens vacationers to the ultimate travelers, birds.
The campaign includes a 2-minute version of the film above, which features some 50 birdhouses made by artists and based on actual Airbnb locations. The ad will appear in cinema this month and on the Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum on Dec. 19, according to The New York Times. Banners will also direct consumers to the longer version of the ad above, which runs about 5 minutes. The film shows the artists constructing the birdhouses and then ends with the birds using the accommodations.
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Though Airbnb has run small campaigns before, this is the company's first coordinated national ad push.
Airbnb has received $326 million in funding and now lists 500,000 properties operated by 350,000 hosts. The company, which links travelers to would-be hosts and gets a cut of the transaction, has served some 9 million people since inception. However, Airbnb's business model is being challenged in New York, where the state's attorney general Eric Schneiderman has asked the company to hand over information about its New York City users. The state is alleging that Airbnb violates a law that prohibits renting apartments for fewer than 30 days at a time. Airbnb has proposed changing the law, in which case it would require hosts to pay a hotel tax.
Image: Airbnb, YouTube