It can be tricky for a strictly online business to turn digital word-of-mouth into something more concrete. Airbnb, for example, is a well-known property-renting business that has garnered enormous media presence, good and bad, as well as international business to go with it. How does that translate to mainstream advertising?
The company is about to find out as it launches a series of ads especially aimed at users of mobile devices and visitors to viral video sites, according to Advertising Age. Though the company seems to have a singular view of how to reach its users, the video ads will be accessible across the globe, including China, Brazil, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.
The international approach is actually emphasized by the ads themselves, which center around the different "views" that homes across the world offer, from igloos to crowded city balconies. The article quotes the company's CMO, Amy Curtis-McIntyre, on the thought that went into this particular style.
"We're a platform and not a hotel company, so our hosts are essentially our innkeepers," she said. "We thought it would be really interesting and authentic to have a commercial that has the hosts inviting travelers from around the world to stay with them."
TechCrunch recently noted that Airbnb is trying to expand its business in other ways, such as offering "guided experiences" in different locations in addition to places for users to stay. These include activities that would theoretically connect the hosts closer to the guests staying with them. Although this is just in a sort of trial stage at the moment, if successful it could lead to a further way for the company to brand itself.
This is just one way that an internet-business has attempted to create advertising, and custom made signs can follow suit as a means of taking the digital into the physical.