Airbnb in the Attention Economy

​

Airbnb’s success as the vanguard provider of ‘shared-accommodation’ can partly be attributed to its capitalisation of the ‘attention economy.’ Having forgone many traditional marketing avenues in favour of ‘attention’ maximisation, Airbnb has showcased the marketing potential of economic efficiency in this domain.

​

While functioning under the framework of traditional economics, attention economics demands that new approaches be taken to cultivate ‘attention efficiency,’ and Airbnb’s use of both the ‘celebrity’ and user propagation highlights the dynamism of this new economic arena.

​

Airbnb’s success in the ‘shared-accommodation’ market derives partly from its efficiency within the attention economy.

 

​

The Attention Economy

​

The attention economy is the conceptualisation of ‘attention’ as a scarce resource (Goldhaber, 1997) that permits the application of traditional economic models to the study of web communications (Terranova, 2012). If attention – understood here as the ability to hold one “enthralled” (Goldhaber, 1997) – can be understood to exist within a digital society in a finite quantity disseminated across the full spectrum of media (Crogan & Kinsley, 2012), then it might first be treated as a commodity (Crogan & Kinsley, 2012), and then subsequently as “scarce economic resource” (Berman & McClellan, 2002).

​

Being limited as such a way, attention itself sets limits upon productive outputs in the manner of traditional resource scarcity (Goldhaber in Terranova, 2012). Or, perhaps more simply put, in the age of internet information abundance, audience prioritization of media consumption "sets [their] ability to attend to that information as a scarcity" (Crogan & Kinsley, 2012), and economic efficiency, therefore, flows to only those who capitalise on the digital audience's attention.

 

​

‘New Marketing’

​

As a distinction between traditional economics and attention economics, clarity must be sought regarding the manner of marketing within, and the monetisation of, the new attention economy.

Firstly, the accumulation of attention should not be treated in the vein of financial wealth accumulation, but rather through the more abstract concept "esteem" (Crogan & Kinsley, 2012). Fundamentally, it is understood that any marketing attempt to capitalise more attention will generally succeed in proportion to the amount of attention initially held (Goldhaber, 1997).

​

Secondly, rather than demanding a traditional marketing push from supplier to consumer, the attention economy necessitates a successful marketing strategy developed upon a cyclical strategy involving the participation of the consumer (Berman & McClellan, 2002).

​

It might, therefore, be understood that any attempt to monetise the attention economy must (1) establish the initial amount of attention, and (2) incorporate the consumer into the propagation of that attention.

 

​

Airbnb use of Celebrities

 

Airbnb's success in the first instance of attention accumulation (the establishment of an initial amount of attention) is demonstrated through its skilful use of celebrity participation. Within the attention economy, attention inherently flows to the individual rather than the organisation (Goldhaber, 1997), and as such celebrities possess a ready ‘stock' of care that can be drawn upon by a firm to more easily garner attention for themselves (Guo, 2015).

​

While celebrity endorsements have been a staple of marketing campaigns since the very era of the celebrity, a distinction regarding their employment within the attention economy can be found in the words of Airbnb’s CMO Jonathan Mildenhall:

​

“I don’t work with celebrities from an advertising perspective at all… If a celebrity wants to go to a place like Hawaii, we’ll give them a great home, but we never pay for a celebrity endorsement. They can provide a social media comment on the experience they are having. And if they don’t, that’s okay” (Mildenhall, J. in Liffreing, 2016).

​

Unlike the use of traditional celebrity marketing endorsements, with an expected profit return on costly advertising investments, Airbnb approaches the use of celebrities for the singular purpose of procuring attention in that single instance.

​

Examples of Airbnb’s successful applications of this method are plentiful; Mariah Carey’s 2015 stay at an Airbnb mansion in Malibu (Mediakix, 2017), Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show stay at a (USD)10,000 per night Airbnb in Houston, Texas, and Maroon 5’s 2016 performance at Airbnb’s Los Angeles Spotlight event (Airbnb, 2016) to name but a few. On occasions such as these, it notable that Airbnb’s provision of free accommodation was reciprocated by the prominent featuring of Airbnb on the celebrity’s social media profile.

​

Airbnb's approach to utilising celebrity figures can be understood as the successful establishment of an initial amount of attention within the attention economy from which further consideration may be propagated.

 

​

User Generated Marketing

​

If celebrities are utilised in the first instance to draw initial attention to Airbnb, then the promise of living this celebrity lifestyle – and the opportunity to share these experiences through social media – motivates the effect as mentioned above of compounding attention in the second instance of attention accumulation (Goldhaber, 1997).

​

Advertising favourite travel experiences in the vein of blockbuster summer movie promotions directly through the Airbnb platform (Davis, 2016), Airbnb's marketing campaigns endeavour to allure its customers to the idea of broadcasting their own ‘Hollywood' travel adventure through their social media accounts (Mildenhall, J. in Liffreing, 2016).

​

Airbnb's use of user-generated attention is further exemplified through the performative approach taken to some of its major marketing events, particularly so during the London ‘Airbnb House' campaign. For three months in 2015, Airbnb floated a house upon the Tames and offered it to its customers as a rentable lodging on the Airbnb platform (Davis, 2016). Having been successful and reaching over 19 million social media accounts by the end of the campaign, this unique use of user propagated marketing differentiates itself from traditional advertising. Rather the mono-directional supplier-to-customer advertising approach, Airbnb aimed to utilise the customers themselves in an effective customer-to-customer marketing strategy (Berman & McClellan, 2002).