AIRBNB

I joined Airbnb as a their first brand writer — a team of one. I left as a creative lead of what had effectively become an all-star in-house agency. In between were six years of some of the most riveting brand work of my career so far — spanning multiple product launches, dozens of campaigns, endless host stories, and nearly every stage a company can move through: rebrand, rocketship growth, global controversy, cultural reckoning, that whole pandemic era as a travel brand, and then of course the fated IPO.

With a front-row seat — and more than a little authorship — in shaping how one of the world's most watched brands showed up, what it chose to say, and the stories it told, it’s hard to encapsulate the whole experience in one page.

But the projects here are a good start.

REAL-TIME BRAND VIDEO RESPONSES: CREATIVE LEAD

2016-2017 was a complicated time to be a brand built on belonging. When the travel ban hit, we didn't wait. Within 24 hours, we had social videos in the world. Within a week, we had written our first-ever Super Bowl spot to meet the moment. The world responded. I’ll never forget witnessing the real-time response exploding on social. This kind of ‘real-time response’ to cultural conversations (on travel and belonging) became a big part of our content strategy. There was a whole lot of press and online chatter. Every time there was an unsavory comment from someone in the White House, we were ready.

PRESS

CREATIVITY ONLINE EDITOR'S PICK - "AIRBNB'S DEFIANT RESPONSE TO SCOTUS' UPHOLDING...."

FAST COMPANY - "AIRBNB'S NEW AD RESPONDS TO  SUPREME COURT'S TRUMP TRAVEL BAN RULING"

ADWEEK - "AMERICA DOESN'T EXIST IN AIRBNB'S RESPONSE TO TRUMP'S TRAVEL BAN"

FAST COMPANY - "NEW AIRBNB AD SHOWS DIFFERENT SIDE TO PRESIDENT TRUMP'S 'SH*THOLE COUNTRIES'" 

CREATIVITY ONLINE EDITOR'S PICK - "EXPLETIVE-FILLED DESTINATIONS" 

E! NEWS — “AIRBNB WAS ONE OF THE MOST DISCUSSED COMMERCIALS OF THE SUPER BOWL.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES — “AIRBNB’S AD CAME JUST NINE DAYS AFTER MR. TRUMP SIGNED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO TEMPORARILY CLOSE AMERICA’S BORDERS TO ALL REFUGEES AND TO CITIZENS OF SEVEN PREDOMINANTLY MUSLIM COUNTRIES.”

EXPERIENTIAL CAMPAIGNS — CREATIVE LEAD, WRITER

Before Airbnb was a household name in every market, we did a lot of showing up in person. A significant part of my early work was developing concepts, copy, and video for experiential campaigns and event sponsorships that put the brand directly inside the communities it was trying to serve. Some favorites: Sundance, NYC Marathon, Pride, Olympics, World Cup, and our annual host conference — Airbnb Open.

Being there to build human trust was the strategy. The stories we got to tell along the way were the reward.

AWARDS:

SHORTY AWARDS — Best Online Community Campaign for Airbnb Sundance “Local Characters Live Here”

MASHABLE - "AIRBNB IS ALREADY A WINNER WHEN IT COMES TO THE NEW YORK CITY MARATHON" 

NEW YORK TIMES - "HOW AIRBNB'S SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN WON THE NEW YORK MARATHON"

WEBBY AWARD — Best Long-Form Branded Content — “Love is Welcome Here” Pride Film

AIRBNB REBRAND : CONTENT STRATEGY & SOCIAL COPY

Joining just after the rebrand meant that the biggest content need was in figuring out how this new brand shows up across all channels. Figuring out a playbook for this new community-led voice became Priority #1. I wrote all of our social content on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and our editorial blog. Our aim was to highlight what is unique to Airbnb – the imperfect perfection of images that feel human, real, and highly authentic, elevating the ordinary as much as we celebrate the extraordinary magic of travel. Keeping community at the heart of our strategy, more than 75% of the photos we utilized were shared with us by our community.

Instagram — our most popular channel — resulted in 341% increase in followers YoY, and won us a handful of awards, including Shorty Awards’ Best Instagram Presence 2015 and 2016.

AWARDS:

SHORTY AWARDS: BEST INSTAGRAM PRESENCE for 2015 and 2016

SKIFTY AWARDS: Most Effective Brand on Social Media

AIRBNB PRIDE: CREATIVE LEAD

The year was 2016. The Supreme Court had just legalized marriage equality and the mood was justifiably electric. Airbnb was a brand built on belonging — which meant meeting this moment felt more like a responsibility than a marketing opportunity. The campaign we made felt like that: localized out-of-home ‘love letters’ written from the voice of our local hosts, spread across San Francisco, signed with rainbow fingerprints pressed into hearts. Our long-form documentary film explored how the pride of one rippled into the strength of many. It landed. And it felt, genuinely, like the right thing to say at exactly the right moment. Another career highlight that felt like a deeply personal win.

PRESS & AWARDS

TRAVEL + LEISURE 'MUST WATCH' - "LOVE IS WELCOME HERE"  

ADWEEK 'AD OF THE DAY' 2015

CREATIVITY ONLINE - "LET'S ALL HOST WITH PRIDE"

inSTYLE MAGAZINE -  "TRY NOT TO CRY WHILE WATCHING AIRBNB'S POWERFUL FILM ABOUT PRIDE" 

SHORTY AWARDS — BEST INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN est Integrated Campaign — Let’s All Host With Pride