Airbnb Design Digital
Positioning Airbnb as a global thought leader on digital channels.
Background
Since its inception, Airbnb has been recognized by Silicon Valley insiders as a company that authentically values great design because of its RISD-educated co-founders, product and unique office spaces. Most of the company’s creative credibility was forged from press coverage of these foundational elements. However, outside of the tech bubble, knowledge of its talented design team or creative identity was almost non-existent despite the significant amount of creatives that were using Airbnb’s platform to host or travel.
In 2015 I identified the opportunity to build and lead a multi-disciplinary brand team that could forge the company’s creative identity externally. We accomplished this by extending its internal design culture outside its walls, building the reputation of the design team, and actively investing in the global creative community. This initiative eventually evolved into a vehicle that provided additional entry points for creatives to engage with the main brand and positioned Airbnb as 1) a beacon for diverse talent, and 2) a global champion of creativity and design. This initiative began when the team was comprised of less than 15 employees—today the team is 600+ multi-disciplinary creatives. I am currently responsible for managing our design digital channels, experiential, programs, partnerships and press. This case study gives an overview of a few of our digital channels; I develop the overarching content strategy for each one.
Airbnb.Design
Providing access to education is one of the most powerful avenues for inclusion (Airbnb’s core mission) so I structured the site’s content strategy around this. Two redesigns later Airbnb.Design is a global platform to learn about design, culture, and travel through the perspective of its Design team and community. (Rather than solely focus on Airbnb’s perspective, we use our digital real estate to celebrate emerging creatives from our community to differentiate ourselves.) The digital hub creates access to design education by sharing knowledge, resources, open source tools, and events. Millions of page views later, the site has been a launching pad for hundreds of case studies, community profiles, event announcements and open source launches. The content on the site has led to a significant demand in design speaker requests, press features, and community collaborations over the last four years. Airbnb.Design has also played a significant role in influencing the Design organization’s unusually high Design hiring acceptance rate.
Airbnb Design Instagram
The team’s Instagram account offers its audience a backstage pass into Airbnb’s design forward offices, events, and quirky moments of team culture. The tone of this channel is relaxed and playful and the content is intentionally not overly designed to heighten its authenticity. When I relaunched the channel in 2015 it had 800 followers. Today, the community has organically grown to 38k+ Instagram followers (4,000%+ growth with high engagement rates) without a social manager.
Airbnb Design Twitter
Airbnb Design Twitter is the platform for intentional discourse about the creative team’s work. This channel is educational, more buttoned up than its parallel Instagram account, and the tone is conversational. When I took over the account in 2015 it had 3,500 Twitter followers, in the last four years the platform has grown to 40k+ Twitter followers (900%+ growth) organically.
Core Team /
Meredith Schomburg (designer), Ben Wilkins (Designer), Brian Harrison (Engineer) and 100+s of internal and external writers and contributors.
My Role /
Project lead, editorial strategist, art director, writer, and Editor-in-Chief. (Over the years, I’ve played different roles).Today, I focus on narrative development when needed, approve all content, and occasionally contribute to the site.