Skift Take
Airbnb is going with huge brand marketing campaigns in 2021 to take hosting mainstream. But when travel recovers and rivals turn on their performance marketing on Google, will Airbnb de-prioritizing search engine marketing come back to haunt it?
Airbnb's first global branding campaign in five years appears to be a biggie: The short-term rental company spent close to $9 million during the first week of the advertising blitz on U.S. TV alone, outpacing all online travel rivals by a wide margin.
That estimate of Airbnb's Made Possible by Hosts Campaign, which kicked off on U.S. television nationwide February 22, according to data from TV analytics firm iSpot.tv.
During the February 22-28 period, Airbnb spent an estimated $8.78 million on U.S. TV, accounting for 78.8 percent of travel website TV ad spending, according to iSpot.tv. The second largest spender was Priceline ($1.32 million or 11.9 percent), followed by Travelocity and sister brand Expedia in a distant third and fourth, respectively.
Consider the potential size of Airbnb's global advertising campaign, which is designed to create awareness about hosting, with the ultimate goal of bringing more hosts and listings to the Airbnb platform.
If Airbnb were to spend the same amount — $36 million per month — for the next four months in t
