Ep. 128 – Airbnb Advertising

Episode Transcript

Don Mock 0:19
All right. Episode 128, Robert, we’re back, you were quick on the music trigger Finger there too. I was like, let’s go. 321, but, like, mute, like, immediate. It’s like, the phone that doesn’t ring, yeah, somebody’s just immediately there. It’s like, Oh, it wasn’t even, like, I didn’t even hear it rings.

Rob Broadfoot 0:35
Well, I don’t have, I don’t have time to lounge today. We gotta, we gotta be efficient.

Don Mock 0:40
Yeah, we got, we got things to do. We’re busy, busy, busy. All right? Episode 128 thought we haven’t done one of these in a while, so I thought, and I keep getting bombarded with this. So shout out to media people. Do a good old fashioned brand review, right? Let’s do, you know, we did one on like the Nike Puma thing. You know, we’ve done other sort of brands talking about other other things that we’ve seen, we’ve all seen, right? But it’d be cool to do another quick little brand review, versus blathering on about ourselves. And I keep seeing these Airbnb commercials.

Rob Broadfoot 1:13
Bed and Breakfast.

Don Mock 1:14
Yes. I’m wondering if people know what BNB stands for. You know,

Rob Broadfoot 1:17
I have to imagine they do.

Don Mock 1:19
I you know, but I’m sure my kids don’t, but that’s not the target audience, right, right? But I keep seeing these cool, fun little, animated, kind of isometric perspective. It’s almost like architectural sort, yeah, like, like, like, it’s almost like game little models, yeah, it’s like a little game almost, though too little pop up. It’s really, really cool style, touting the benefits of, why would you stay at an Airbnb versus, you know, a hotel and whatnot, right? So you’re familiar with these ads, yes,

Rob Broadfoot 1:47
yeah. And I just did a quick little when we were talking about the idea. I just kind of ran through them again real quick. Yeah, yeah. I’m just gonna start talking. I think back like travel, right? I think back to different ways and different campaigns where people have talked about travel and specifically lodging, right? So you’ve got, you know, I loved, and I’m gonna sound like an idiot, I think it was hotels.com that did the campaign, but it was we think about finding like, like, little nuggets and truths, right, commonalities for successful advertising. And it was the whole spots were predicated around the moment that you put the key card in the hotel room and opened the door, moment you saw the room, yeah. And it was such a great idea, because everyone can relate to that. You get excited. You’re nervous, anticipation, like, I gotta hope I have a good room. I hope I have a good room, you know. Is it gonna, you know? And it doesn’t matter if it’s a Holiday Inn, sure, or if it’s a four seasons, yeah, correct that, that feeling is, you know, maybe at the lower motel, eight level, it’s, is it gonna smell like a smoke? They’re gonna be cigarette burn in the rough

Don Mock 2:58
Oh, Lord, okay.

Rob Broadfoot 2:59
Or at the Four Seasons, you know, is it going to be as awesome as.. so I always thought that was a great way to talk about lodging during travel. That was just a great little insight. Yeah, and that was a really cool campaign, sure, I don’t remember how many years ago was, but it wasn’t.

Don Mock 3:16
It’s been quite a while.

Rob Broadfoot 3:17
It’s been a while, but, I mean, I don’t feel like it wasn’t, it wasn’t 20 years ago, yeah. And this one, to me, is equally as as smart, just in the strategy, because it doesn’t focus on what does the room look like, correct? Does the house look like? What does the because they can, as we all have come to learn, right? With Airbnb, you can get all different kinds of houses, yeah, absolutely, and get the low end, I’m just renting a room in somebody’s place. Or you can get, I’m renting the the mansion in, you know, in Palm Springs, or whatever so.

Don Mock 3:51
And it’s similar in regards to, like, a booking, or booking dot Yeah, or yeah you’re talking about in that it’s business and, you know, pleasure, right? I mean, it’s, it’s, they’re just providing the service to get you somewhere. You know what? I’m right. Hey, I need to be in Cincinnati for a week. Would I rather stay here? You know? Oh my god, I’m going to Portugal. Yeah, I want to stay in Portugal for, you know, that type of thing. And

Rob Broadfoot 4:12
I think for, you know, when Airbnb, I don’t, couldn’t tell you how long they’ve been around, it’s been a minute now, but, but obviously, when they first came out, it was such a new just business concept, VRBO and Airbnb was like, so they had to spend many, many years explaining what it was, how it works, sure, why it’s safe, yeah,

Don Mock 4:30
I’m in someone else’s house. am I gonna see them? Right? You know,

Rob Broadfoot 4:33
yeah, which proved to be, obviously a very successful business model. But they did all that heavy lifting up front to build, I think, that trust and obviously gain more people into the mix from a business perspective, wow, this can become incremental revenue for me, et cetera, et cetera. And so now they’ve made a big shift away from that which I think is great, which is the focus not on what does it look like, but the broader benefits of travel. And why people travel, and the things people love about travel, yeah, but also the things that drive people crazy about travel. So it’s just these sort of simple little truths and commonalities that I think resonate. And I was looking at the one just now for the for the Paris one, and it’s talked about, hey, when you go to Paris, you know, why would you want to stay on hotel row? Yeah, you’re there to go for the authentic Parisian experience. Stay like a local. You’re already trying to research the local great restaurants and the local great things to do. Stay like a local

Don Mock 5:35
Yeah, get the Parisian experience,

Rob Broadfoot 5:38
yeah? Which is a great, a great strategy. And again, it’s so well done. Just in the way the animations done, the way the models are built, everything is really, really well done. And the shout out to the Notorious BIG is the music drop.

Don Mock 5:51
Oh, I didn’t know that.

Rob Broadfoot 5:52
amazing. Yeah. I mean, just fits perfectly. It’s nice. It’s upbeat. I used to read word up magazine. I mean, it’s so it’s one of those things where I think when they were, when, probably when they were concepting it. Do you know, one of the writers was like, hey, what if we drop into and everybody’s like, what? Yeah, and they put it together, and they were like, Oh, wow, yeah, it fits. It totally fits. And it also, I think it helps with the idea and the strat strategy that Airbnb can be anything for anybody All different musical styles and house styles, and then experiences, and all of the all of those things. Yeah.

Don Mock 6:28
Well, so that one is, you know, live like a local, be like a local, you know, have the true local experience, right? I love the one that is kind of that parent focused one, right, where it’s Hey, when you go traveling with your kids, right? It’s very simple. It’s very simple, direct benefit. When you travel with your kids, their bedtime is your bedtime, right? And it’s like, Oh, why would you stay in a hotel when it’s like, it’s time for Little Timmy to go to bed at eight o’clock. And it’s the animations great, because it’s all of a sudden, everybody’s in their pajamas, like they get in the hotel room, and then all of a sudden it’s bedtime, and bloom, everyone’s in pajamas. And it’s ridiculous looking that the grown ups, these little animated avatars, are in their pajamas, right? But it’s Hey, when you you know, travel with your kids, your kids bedtime or your bedtime, why not stay in an Airbnb where you can put them in their room, right? And then, hey, the grown ups can still stay up and drink wine and watch TV and listen to music like you can do whatever. Yeah? And your takeaway from that is, oh yeah. That makes total sense. Like that is exactly a strategic decision, you know, keep your you know, and as a new parents, or, you know, just parents, you know, you’re like, Oh yeah, don’t break the bedtime because that has catastrophic events. I mean, it’s hard enough with kids, sometimes traveling and different things, right? So it’s this one common sense benefit that just drives home, like, oh, man, brilliant, great truth in advertising.

Rob Broadfoot 7:47
And it’s not a small benefit. It could be a game changer. Yeah, it’s a vacation game changer for some people

Don Mock 7:55
it’s kind of funny, yeah, it’s like, you don’t all sleep in the same room at home, yeah, right.

Rob Broadfoot 7:59
Why in the world would you do that on vacation?

Don Mock 8:01
Yeah? Why would you do that for a week down somewhere out like that? And you’re like, oh, yeah, that makes a total sense, you know? So I do love that one. There’s a third one too. I believe about like, everybody going, like, girls weekend. Is that what it

Rob Broadfoot 8:14
Yeah, it’s the idea that, hey, you’re world traveling to go see Taylor Swift, yeah, you know, in Nashville or wherever. I’m just making that up. That’s not really what it is. But we’re all going to see a concert girls trip. Woo, and it’s, Hey, the concert’s over. We don’t want to all go back to bed. Or maybe Julie wants to go to bed early Maybe Julie partoke A little too much. Whatever the case may be, we’re all together, right? We don’t have different hotel rooms.

Don Mock 8:40
Stay together, yeah,

Rob Broadfoot 8:40
let’s all stay together and hang out an after party and we’re gonna, you know,

Don Mock 8:45
yeah, why would you go to four different hotel rooms that you’re where you’re not together on your girls trip? Why wouldn’t you stay together

Rob Broadfoot 8:50
And this the implied, obviously, well, there’s a lot of implied benefits. One of those, the takeaway is, oh, it’s probably going to cost you less, if you think about it and the math on it. So again, they’re just talking about how to elevate your travel experience based on the lodging alone, which is not a new concept. Lodging is important in travel, and always has been. Yeah, it’s just this great almost, kind of like, Duh. Moment, like, yeah, why didn’t I think, of course, totally. And they’re really great, strong benefits and executed in a really great way. Yeah, I love that you’re talking about places to stay without showing places to stay

Yeah, yeah. Well, animated wise, you get just enough of the hint of what’s happening

And again, it’s been around long enough to know that we can rent all different types.

Don Mock 9:42
Yeah, yeah. Now juxtapose that. I’m putting us both on the spot because I don’t even know the answer to this, but juxtapose that with their main competitor, you know, VRBO, or verbo, as it’s suddenly been called, right? Verbo? You know, verbo is not animated, so we have a visual distinction between the ads, which I think is cool, right? And it’s. It’s a little bit of your travel and your luxury, and look at how great these places are, right, right? I don’t really recall, or know a lot about the verbo ads, though, to be honest.

Rob Broadfoot 10:09
I’m gonna sound like an idiot

Don Mock 10:11
that’s a second time on one podcast.

Rob Broadfoot 10:12
Well, it’s not hard for me to do, but maybe it’s verbo where they talk about staying in a place all to yourself and like, yeah,

Don Mock 10:24
no, I think you’re right.

Rob Broadfoot 10:25
Like, like, why would you rent a room when it’s got the guy in the speedo in the pool?

Don Mock 10:31
Yeah, there’s a woman that has a dog. I think, I think there might even be someone that’s pregnant or something

Rob Broadfoot 10:37
It’s kind of one of those things, um, self care, clearly not as memorable in our opinions. Yeah,

Don Mock 10:43
no. Agreed. Agreed. Here’s an oddball for it, worst travel or hotel experience. Do you have one off top your head? Because it’s funny, because you mentioned, I can go first while you’re, while you’re baking on the idea. But you mentioned, like, oh, you know, it doesn’t matter the hotel key. Doesn’t matter if you’re at the Holiday Inn or if you’re at, you know, the four seasons, or whatever, that that moment of, oh, you know, like enlightenment, or whatever, you have any really bad hotel stories?

Rob Broadfoot 11:06
yeah, I’ve got a good one, and it’s got a, it’s got a surprise twist at the end

Don Mock 11:12
Okay, well, now you need to go, but it’s gonna dwarf my story. All right. So

Rob Broadfoot 11:15
we were speaking of traveling with small children. We were headed down with another family. This was years and years and years ago. We were headed down with another family to Disney World,

Don Mock 11:26
okay It’s the happiest place on earth, right?

Rob Broadfoot 11:31
That’s right. And, and, and I’m like, you know? And we did the whole thing. We surprised the kids, took them out of school. Like, guess what? We’re not going home, we’re going to Disney World. I did the whole, yeah, everything, everything we did the whole thing. It was great. We drove down there the seven, eight hours, Orlando, wherever it is… Cranky kids, Cranky moms, and so we were staying at the Wilderness Lodge, which is one of the Disney properties.

Don Mock 11:57
Is that animal kingdom?

Rob Broadfoot 12:00
I believe it’s called the wilderness. I know it’s called that because I’ll never forget, yeah. And so we pull up to the Wilderness Lodge, and oh my god, everybody’s so excited to be out of the car. And here we are. There’s log cabins and logs and giraffes and things everywhere. So we walk in, and we go to check in, and they said, Yeah. So about that we have overbooked.

Don Mock 12:25
Oh no, at Disney? Disney, dude, that never happened. Like, the greatest customer service ever.

Rob Broadfoot 12:30
We don’t have a room for you. Well, you can imagine how that went over. Not well, not Well,

Don Mock 12:39
How many people? There’s like eight people or something

Rob Broadfoot 12:40
It was two families, okay

Don Mock 12:43
And you were supposed to stay in like, a suite or something, like everybody’s jam.

Rob Broadfoot 12:47
Yeah, no, no. I think we had two. I think we had two side by side room. Okay, guys, we want to stay together. We don’t have any room at the end. So we’re looking around for other lodging options…well, this did not go well, no, and, and I will, the moms especially did not like this scenario. And so they, they flipped a lid as they should, sure, sure. And the next thing you know, they were like, the manager comes out. And, yeah, I’m making this story way too long, but the manager,

Don Mock 13:25
the manager can I interest you in some stitch juice?

Rob Broadfoot 13:28
And it’s like, hey, good news, yeah, the Presidential Suite just became available. We’re bringing back the magic. Okay, magic is not lost, and we’re gonna move you to the presidential suite. And he’s like, You are both gonna have to stay in there, both families. But there’s, like, there’s like, three or four rooms. We’re like, okay, yeah, okay, okay, all right,

Don Mock 13:55
Let’s go take a look.

Rob Broadfoot 13:57
Everybody’s jazz, yeah, we got a special key to get up to the floor and everything. Yeah, this is great, yeah, follow the guy all of our luggage. I mean, we have all the luggage. Yeah, go up, get to the top floor. Crack open the door to the presidential suite. Thinking about that moment. Crack open it. Oh, there are a team of painters in the Presidential Suite, actively painting the place,

Don Mock 14:24
Oh my God.

Rob Broadfoot 14:25
And, I mean, just fumes of wet paint

Don Mock 14:34
we went from the basement,

Rob Broadfoot 14:41
I mean just Oh no. And you know, you can imagine me, and me and the other dad are just like, all we want to do is go down to the bar. Yeah, yeah. At this point, meanwhile, the moms are just raging.

Don Mock 14:55
I have been driving for seven hours with children and yeah, and

Rob Broadfoot 14:59
I have to imagine. I don’t remember exactly, but I have to imagine, at least an hour had passed, yeah, yeah, at this point, since we

Don Mock 15:05
pulled up to the place, yeah, you’re in the lobby there. Click on the clock.

Rob Broadfoot 15:08
Million people there. It’s overbooked. Yeah. Oh. So anyway, again, long story short, you know, another hour goes by, rage fest, okay? And they finally come back and they’re like, Hey, we we are so sorry. We are going to move you over to the contemporary.

Don Mock 15:28
Okay, I do love the contemporary. It’s the oldest hotel.

Rob Broadfoot 15:31
It’s the oldest one, but it’s like the most modern one that

Don Mock 15:35
has the monorail that goes through. I’m embarrassed, that I know this, but it’s one stop away from the Magic Kingdom, leaving the Magic Kingdom. It takes the longest to get around, yep, because it’s like, the end of the line, but at the end of the day, but at the end of the day when it is full evac mode, boom, you’re home. That’s the only reason why I love that place. So

Rob Broadfoot 15:55
they’re like, we’re gonna, we’re gonna move you over there, and we were actually going to put you in one of the towers that it’s the resident tower.

Don Mock 16:02
Oh, like the timeshare owner,

Rob Broadfoot 16:05
we’re gonna put you in the penthouse at the resident tower at contemporary, yeah, and, and we’re like, okay, great. That all sounds great. Hooray. Yeah, yeah. Hope it’s as nice as the presidential suite that’s being painted. Yeah? You know, so reluctantly, we all got to get all of our bags, get our bags in, and they couldn’t have been nicer in terms of loading us up and getting us away from the Wilderness Lodge as fast as humanly possible. Yeah. So anyway, again, this story has been way too long, but we show up at the at the contemporary, we take the thing up. And I’m not even joking you, it was like a two floor, maybe it had five bedrooms in a situation. It was one of the most incredible, like whoa, like

Don Mock 16:53
at Disney, of all places,

Rob Broadfoot 16:55
At Disney, of all places, yeah, full, full glass windows, where every night, every night, they have the fireworks are over the way, the fireworks over the lake and the dragons and the, I mean, we had a weird balcony. You could walk out and just watch… Anyway, it ended up being incredible, amazing.

Don Mock 17:12
Is it like, New York, Manhattan? Like, super modern like, where am I right now? Yeah.

Rob Broadfoot 17:18
Like, whoa. I mean, huge, ginormous. And we had children everywhere, and ended up, and ended up being great, but it was like, we left there, and it was like, Okay, well, we can never go back to Disney again. We’ll never have this. And we never did. That was the end of Disney .That was the second time we had been there. But anyway, it, that was my hotel story that went, where it went from worst, okay, to a good

Don Mock 17:46
It starts off bad, but it ended up. It ended up well, so okay, I don’t have a 20 minute Disney story of all things I was thinking about, the con, the again, back to the the moment of Zen, the moment of excitement of the hotel. Yeah, whatever that I don’t really remember how it ended. I mean, I think it ended fine, or whatever led but we were, it was the Ritz, I believe a Ritz Carlton, I think it was Lake Oconee, isn’t there one? Yeah, Reynolds plantation, yeah, Reynolds plantation, exactly. And it was, hey, we’re doing a weekend down there. It’s gonna be great. It’s awesome. And you’re at the Ritz. I mean, it’s like, five, you know, like, good things are happening there, right? And it was, oh, Beep boop, get in the room like, Oh, this is a perfectly fine room. Like, this is a perfectly nice room. Someone before us clearly had a pack of wolves with them. There is dog hair everywhere, like, all over the bed, all over the couches.

Rob Broadfoot 18:38
So the beds are made like

Don Mock 18:39
the beds are made like, the room is made yet all of it, but there is hair. like Oh, wow, this is not good. We have two dogs. I love dogs, yeah,

Rob Broadfoot 18:52
no ones has dogs in their hotel room.

Don Mock 18:54
But it was, man, I’m not, to your point. I’m not at like, the Motel Six, the pet friendly Motel Six, you know, on 95 you know what I mean, like, halfway through which there’s a level of expectation of, like, hey, if I stay at a pet friendly hotel,

Rob Broadfoot 19:08
maybe there’s a, there’s a stray dog hair.

Don Mock 19:10
Maybe there’s a dog hair around, you know what I mean. Or maybe you hear dogs barking, you know I mean, like, you know, like, you kind of know what you’re getting into, you know, you go to the Ritz for the weekend, you know. And you’re like, wait a minute here. Like, I don’t, you know, like, hello, hello. Like, I’m gonna need somebody to come over here right now, you know. And it was one of those, like, I need you to see what I see. Yeah, because I can’t explain this to you how bad it is on the phone. And we and we need to move rooms, type. And of course, we moved room they had, and everything was fine, you know. But it was that, that like, Oh, yeah.

Rob Broadfoot 19:43
And that’s a big one, because you’re staying at the Ritz, so it’s extra disappointing.

Don Mock 19:48
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So you know, and all’s well, that ends well, well, but it was what it was, very surprising, if that makes any sense.

Rob Broadfoot 19:55
Well, one last quick anecdote, and you were there for this when. You and I did a work trip to Charlotte.

Don Mock 20:02
I knew you’re gonna say, Charlotte, what was epicenter?

Rob Broadfoot 20:05
You went to the hotel.

Don Mock 20:08
Oh, god, that was bad.

Rob Broadfoot 20:09
I was on one side. We had separate rooms. Obviously, I was on one side of the hotel and you were on the other side. Well, it just so happened that I go to tuck in for a good night’s sleep for an early morning meeting, yeah, it’s probably nine or whatever, and all of a sudden, outside my window. And I mean lights, yeah, full EDM experience, yeah, 20 feet from my room, and I called down. I may have called you first. Yeah. Are you hearing this? No it’s quiet over here. Like, I don’t know. So I called and they’re like, Oh yeah, sorry.

Don Mock 20:48
It’s Thursday night party town

Rob Broadfoot 20:50
Thursday night, you know, EDM night. Oh, and they do it, you know, they only do it twice a year. It just so happens. And I’m like, Okay, well, I need to move rooms. And they’re like, Oh no, yeah, no, no, we are at capacity,

Don Mock 21:04
yeah, because everybody’s here for the electronic music festival. Yeah, exactly, yeah.

Rob Broadfoot 21:09
So I had, I mean, I probably popped an Ambien, yeah, you know, covered my head in a pillow. Yeah,

Don Mock 21:15
I do remember that. Oh man, but we that was this weird. I think it was called epicenter. And it’s like, it’s like a complex. It’s like, Atlantic Station, you know? It’s like, oh, there’s movie theaters, there’s restaurants, there’s parks, there’s this. And that it was like an outdoor electronic music that like, but I remember the strobing lights, I mean, like laser light show, like crazy. Yeah, that was a pretty bad

Rob Broadfoot 21:38
in my window, yeah? And there was nothing. There was no sound machine loud enough to drown out. You could not, you couldn’t avoid just dumping bass all night. And I don’t know if you know this about EDM shows, yeah, they don’t end early.

Don Mock 21:53
no, no, they usually start late and end early. Yeah, exactly.

Rob Broadfoot 21:59
That was pretty bad.

Don Mock 22:00
That was brutal. Well, we got off topic, off of Airbnb, but, yeah, hotel. I mean, hey, everyone’s got full good, fun hotel stories and whatever. I’ve discovered that I love being places. I don’t love traveling there. But that’s probably, that’s a whole nother podcast.

Rob Broadfoot 22:14
You should do one about that, actually,

Don Mock 22:16
sure, sure. Yeah, being places is fun. Getting there now is, is more challenging than ever sometimes, you know, yes, I mean crowd strike. I mean just in general, just just globally, getting places, you know, I don’t have a level of expectation of getting anything done on a travel day anymore. Yeah. I mean, like anything could happen on a travel day. So, but again, that’s a topic for another time. But, yeah, Airbnb, I think that it’s a great example of finding those truths in advertising, you know, and we’re very fond of saying nobody likes to be sold to, but everyone will listen to a story. I think these ads are little vignettes that tell little stories that are eminently relatable to everyone, and the fact that they then, you know, self select by little vignettes, right of scenarios, I think really drives home the ultimate benefit of Airbnb. And kind of ends your takeaway is like, of course, you should do that. Yeah. It’s not a like, oh, maybe I should consider it’s like, oh yeah, that’s a no brainer. Brain, yeah, exactly so, yeah.

Rob Broadfoot 23:17
So well done, shout out to Airbnb and shout out to whoever did those. I don’t know if they have an agency or if they have an in house team, but whoever did those great, great job. Great stuff.

Don Mock 23:27
Absolutely, if you’re in the market for great stuff, where can the people find us. Mr. Rob

Rob Broadfoot 23:33
Don go to airbnb.com, go to www.mocktheagency.com Of course, or find us on the socials. @mocktheagency We’re pretty easy to track down and hey, have a safe travels out there if you’re going somewhere.

Don Mock 23:43
Absolutely everybody.

Rob Broadfoot 23:44
And we’ll see you next time, next trip.

Don Mock 23:46
Yeah, 129 thanks.