Why That Worked #31: Airbnb—The Brilliant Strategy Behind Their New Messaging Campaign (RE-RELEASE)

Summary

Marketing Made Simple: Detailed Summary of Episode #31 - Airbnb’s Brilliant Messaging Strategy

Podcast Information:

• Title: Marketing Made Simple
• Host/Author: Powered by StoryBrand
• Description: Every week on Marketing Made Simple, you'll get practical tips to make your marketing easy and make it work!
• Episode: Why That Worked #31: Airbnb—The Brilliant Strategy Behind Their New Messaging Campaign (RE-RELEASE)
• Release Date: August 6, 2025

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Introduction

In episode #31 of Marketing Made Simple, titled "Why That Worked #31: Airbnb—The Brilliant Strategy Behind Their New Messaging Campaign (RE-RELEASE)", hosts Donald Miller and Kyle Reed dive deep into Airbnb's latest messaging strategy. The discussion revolves around why Airbnb's new campaign has been effective, the importance of clear versus clever messaging, and actionable insights for small to medium-sized businesses.

Airbnb's Messaging Campaign: An Overview

The episode begins with a discussion on Airbnb's new animated commercials that have effectively captured attention. Donald Miller mentions how the commercial stood out during an unexpected moment—watching a basketball game—highlighting its immediate impact.

Notable Quote:

Donald Miller [02:06]: "Have you seen Airbnb's new kind of messaging campaign around their updated marketing? Have you seen those commercials with the animated figures?"

Old vs. New Messaging at Airbnb

Donald and Kyle compare Airbnb’s previous tagline, "Travel like a local," with their new approach. They critique the old tagline for being elusive and not clearly conveying the brand's value proposition.

Notable Quote:

Kyle Reed [05:30]: "Travel like a local makes me a little bit try to figure out what you're talking about. Yeah, it's what I call elusive messaging."

Clarity Over Cleverness

A significant portion of the conversation emphasizes the importance of clarity in marketing messages. Kyle argues that clear, straightforward messaging resonates more effectively with audiences than clever, ambiguous phrases.

Notable Quote:

Kyle Reed [14:23]: "Airbnb makes it easy for you to find a house in another city where your entire family can stay. Why do you need to add to that?"

Applying the StoryBrand Framework to Airbnb

Donald and Kyle apply the StoryBrand framework to dissect Airbnb's messaging. They outline the framework's components: character, problem, guide, plan, and call to action. They critique the combined messaging approach Airbnb uses to target both hosts and consumers, suggesting that separate brand scripts would be more effective.

Notable Quote:

Donald Miller [11:59]: "If you haven't done that, go do that. But let me."

Challenges of Messaging to Multiple Audiences

Airbnb faces the complex task of messaging to both hosts and travelers simultaneously. The hosts discuss how this dual-targeting can lead to convoluted brand scripts, reducing the clarity and effectiveness of the message.

Notable Quote:

Kyle Reed [17:08]: "We've really taken two brand scripts and tried to combine them in one, which doesn't work."

Competitor Analysis: Booking.com and VRBO

The hosts analyze how competitors like Booking.com and VRBO respond to Airbnb's strategies. They observe that these competitors are positioning themselves by highlighting different aspects such as privacy and practical deals, often reacting to Airbnb’s positioning.

Notable Quote:

Donald Miller [26:21]: "Booking.com is their core focus is practical, real time deals, event based urgency."

Cross-Platform Messaging Strategy

Airbnb’s strategy extends across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. While their Instagram showcases host homes, their TikTok leverages user-generated content and partnerships with creators. On YouTube, they promote grand, aspirational stays, which the hosts critique as potentially misaligned with Airbnb’s primary target market.

Notable Quote:

Donald Miller [30:31]: "They're trying to position Airbnb somewhat to me as the villain."

Actionable Insights for Small Businesses

Donald and Kyle distill key takeaways for listeners, especially small to medium-sized business owners:

1. Identify and Define the Problem: Clearly articulate the primary issue your customers face.
2. Clear Messaging: Avoid overly clever taglines that confuse rather than communicate.
3. Target Specific Audiences: Create separate messaging for different customer segments if necessary.
4. Utilize the StoryBrand Framework: Apply the framework to develop a coherent and effective brand script.

Notable Quote:

Kyle Reed [37:56]: "Identify the fricking problem that your customer has. Communicate it very clearly in such a way that everybody just feels it when you say it."

Conclusion

The episode wraps up with a recap of Airbnb’s strengths and areas for improvement in their messaging strategy. Donald and Kyle encourage listeners to utilize tools like StoryBrand AI to refine their own marketing messages, emphasizing the value of clarity and targeted communication.

Notable Quote:

Donald Miller [39:42]: "If you want to get more clarity on your message, on your tagline, on your brand script, we have created all this for you at StoryBrand AI."

Final Thoughts

Hosts emphasize that while Airbnb’s approach has its merits, especially in creating broad brand awareness, the key to effective marketing lies in clear, direct communication that directly addresses customer needs and differentiates the brand from competitors.

Notable Quote:

Kyle Reed [30:31]: "Be clear, not clever. Because clarity is where the money is. Clarity is where the success is. Clever is where you feel good about how smart you are and that doesn't benefit you or anybody else at all."

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Key Takeaways:

• Clarity in Messaging: Ensure your marketing messages are straightforward and easily understood.
• Targeted Communication: If your business serves multiple audiences, consider creating separate brand scripts for each.
• Problem Identification: Clearly define the primary problem your customers face and position your product or service as the solution.
• Utilize Frameworks: Tools like the StoryBrand framework and StoryBrand AI can help structure and refine your messaging effectively.

By dissecting Airbnb's messaging strategy, hosts Donald Miller and Kyle Reed provide valuable lessons on crafting effective marketing messages that resonate with audiences and drive business success.

Transcript

[Bobby Richards]

Hey, hero makers, it's podcast producer Bobby Richards. I'm jumping in to share with you a new episode of our brand new podcast, why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI with Donald Miller back in the host seat. Now, since we launched Marketing Made simple, we've been so grateful to have everybody tune in each week to learn how to make your marketing easy and make it work. Which is exactly why we're sharing new episodes of the why that Worked podcast here. In the old Marketing Made simple feedback, but only for a limited time. Each episode of the new show is gonna deliver actionable insights and key takeaways that are all designed so you can implement them to help make whatever you're working on work. Now, here's the deal. Like I said, this is only for a limited time. If you wanna catch new episodes early, you can watch or listen every Monday. To watch the show, just go subscribe to the StoryBrand YouTube channel. And to listen, go follow why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI wherever you enjoy your podcasts. All right, that's it for me. So grateful you're here. And enjoy this week's episode of why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI. You're listening to the why that Work podcast, presented by StoryBrand AI. If you've ever wondered why certain brands, trends, or cultural phenomena find success while others don't, you're in the right place. Every week we unpack why something worked, then give you actionable insights that you can use in your own life. Now let's dive in with your hosts, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed.

[Donald Miller]

Welcome back to the why that Worked podcast, where we discuss messaging campaigns that worked, why they worked, and how you can apply those ideas to your business. And today we're talking about Airbnb's latest messaging campaign. Don. This grabbed my attention on a random moment I was watching probably a sports game because that's the only time I watch a sports game, sports game, basketball game in particular. And this commercial grabbed my attention and I thought, what better place to talk about why it grabbed my attention on the one time I actually watched a commercial. Have you seen Airbnb's new kind of messaging campaign around their updated marketing? Have you seen those commercials with the animated figures?

[Kyle Reed]

Only because I've heard you talk about this, so I paid attention a little bit. Actually, no, that's not true. I saw them on TV and I thought, something's going on here. That's interesting, but I don't know that I analyzed it very well.

[Donald Miller]

Interesting.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Well, how about this? Maybe to set the table for this conversation. What if we played one so the audience could hear what we're kind of referencing?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

And then we can react to it. What do you think about that?

[Kyle Reed]

Okay. Yep.

[Donald Miller]

All right, let me do that. When your hotel room is your bedroom and your living room and your dining room, maybe you need more than a hotel room.

[Kyle Reed]

Get an Airbnb and get more space. They identified space as the problem.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay. So this is interesting as it relates to messaging. What you're looking for is to identify a problem that the broadest number of people understand very, very quickly, have experienced and. And go ick to, or have a negative connotation to. So this makes me think of the many times I've gone to New York City, paid $600 for a hotel room because it's half the price of a normal hotel room at $600. And you can't get your suitcase between you and the bed. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

They have a space issue.

[Kyle Reed]

Chelsea Hotel.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Now I'm probably gonna get people who are like, wait, Chelsea Hotel. It's, you know, it's. That's where Sid and Nancy like killed each other or whatever. All the ghosts at the Chelsea Hotel. And there's squatters there. And I was like, who gives a crap? I can't get my suitcase between me and the wall. Right. And then you're there. You know, God forbid you bring your wife. God God forbid you bring a child.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

You're all going to be standing on the bed having a conversation.

[Donald Miller]

Yes. Yeah. And sleeping in the same bed. Sleeping in the same bed.

[Kyle Reed]

So big time. And look, hotel rooms are small.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

You know, the best hotels are like Holiday Inn Express. I mean, give me a break.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. And you have like that side room.

[Kyle Reed]

Desk and all that kind of stuff.

[Donald Miller]

Has a fold out bed.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. They're kind of roomy.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

So that's interesting.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. So go back. I think you brought up an interesting point defining that problem. How do you do that, as you mentioned, to try to go as broad as possible to capture that audience.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, here's. Yeah, here's. Yeah, you gotta have as many people go, been there. Yeah, been there. And that sucks. Yeah, been there and that sucks. Now think about the. Also the brilliance of what they're doing. Here you are about to pay money, arguably, maybe a little more, a little less, I don't know. But pay money to go stay in somebody else's home. That is such a massive mystery. It's a black box investment. I don't know what I'm getting. Right. What if the home is cheap what if there's like hair clogging up the drain in the shower? You know, somebody's half used soap is there. They had a cat. They didn't tell us they had a cat. And now I got a cat dander in my nostrils. All of the mysteries of the negative things that could go wrong if I rent somebody else's house for a few days are replaced when they define the negative.

[Donald Miller]

Ah, I see. Okay.

[Kyle Reed]

That's one of the reasons that. Listen, in these messaging campaigns I do, I always say you've got to define the negative, because if you define it, there's no room for anybody else to redefine it. If you define it strongly enough, it's all we're talking about.

[Donald Miller]

Interesting.

[Kyle Reed]

Does that make sense?

[Donald Miller]

100%. Well, what's interesting is their old messaging. Before COVID kind of like 2018 was travel like a local. That was their big kind of gap.

[Kyle Reed]

Can I tell you why I don't love that?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, go for it.

[Kyle Reed]

Travel like a local. Makes me a little bit try to figure out what you're talking about. Yeah, it's what I call elusive messaging. Elusive message or a slippery bowling ball. Every time you hand somebody a message, you're handing them a bowling ball. And I use that to say you can't hand them too many. You know, people can handle about two, preferably one. You hand them three, and it's over. They'll drop them all. A slippery bowling ball is wrapping it in Vaseline and handing it to somebody. Right. Coating it in Vaseline, handing it to somebody. Now I can't hardly get purchase on it. So travel like a local. I sort of get what you mean, but let me just point out some obvious flaws to this. Do locals travel to the place they live? No. So now you're causing me to actually go, well, something sounds wrong about that, but I can't figure out what sounds wrong about it. Also, what are the benefits? Like, if you just say, stay in a bigger space for cheaper. I don't have to do any math or do any thinking to try to understand what the benefit is there to me. But travel like a local. That's one of those mantras that those taglines that really, really expensive ad agencies give you, and then you end up doing less business because they gave it to you. And let me tell you how old. Travel like a local. Let me tell you how old the person was who wrote that. They were 26.

[Donald Miller]

Okay.

[Kyle Reed]

Why 26 is you don't know these rules yet and you're looking for something that sounds Clever rather than sounds clear, because it's really more about me, the messenger looking smart, than it is actually me conveying a very understandable idea.

[Donald Miller]

Clever was the first word that came to mind was they were kind of breaking. You talk about the line. They were trying to be clever with what they were doing, and then it drove all their strategy and it moved them in a way that. You're right.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. How much did Airbnb pay for that? Millions.

[Donald Miller]

Millions. Well, so their new tagline. So I actually, I saw an interview with the CMO where he basically said, you know, pre pandemic, they were. They were kind of differentiated enough. Once Covid hit, they were obviously Covid, you know, limited travel. Coming out of COVID 2022, they launched a new campaign that they were working on. They delegated $700 million, by the way.

[Kyle Reed]

Holy mackerel.

[Donald Miller]

$700 million.

[Kyle Reed]

I'll do it for 100 million.

[Donald Miller]

I know. But the new campaign was Belong Anywhere.

[Kyle Reed]

God. What?

[Donald Miller]

That's the frickin Boy Scouts belong.

[Kyle Reed]

That's the church down the street. That is awful.

[Donald Miller]

Why?

[Kyle Reed]

Why? Because, first of all, I don't know what that is. So if I said if I stopped yesterday, I have a business and our tagline is Belong Anywhere, what do you think we do belong? You know where Airbnb is gonna come in on that list? 733,000 guests.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

So it's. If I said something like rent somebody else's house for half the price of a hotel room is our tagline, everybody would go, well, it sounds like you do something where you rent somebody else's house, they would get really close to Airbnb. Meaning, I understand what you offer much, much quicker. So what happens is, now Belong Anywhere can work, but it can only work if the name of your business and the concept, most importantly your business is household. Is household name.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

Everybody already understands it. You know, we can market Coke Zero with might taste even better than Coke. Or they actually do the best tasting Coke. You know why that works? Because people know what Coke tastes like.

[Donald Miller]

It reminds me of a video you made. We put it out on our Instagram, where you were reacting to a video where they were talking about, Nike sells this. You know, Apple sells this. And you talked about there's only six to eight brands in the world who can market, you know, kind of that.

[Kyle Reed]

Who sort of have that. I mean, there's a lot more than six, but, you know, we could probably all name six that everybody understands. And so at that point, you can do kind of like ethereal branding. And what happens is these smaller businesses try to do this sort of elusive, ethereal, artistic, clever branding, but nobody actually. They've never done marketing. And marketing is where you just explain to somebody what the value is so that they can buy it. I think it's that till at least 500 million. At least 500 million. And if everybody you're talking to is not already familiar with the value that you offer and the product that you sell, you can't do it.

[Donald Miller]

Here's an interesting move they've made, though, with some new kind of commercial stuff. Is one of the taglines they're using in this is why get four hotel rooms when you can stay together for less?

[Kyle Reed]

Come on. That's good.

[Donald Miller]

That's good, that's good, that's strong.

[Kyle Reed]

That. Yeah, that's a story. Brand idea. The idea is clear. Clear, clear, clear, clear explanation of value, you know, and you don't have to think about that. Okay, so let me just explain this to any listeners who haven't heard me ever, because I think this is all I ever say. The brain actually burns calories trying to process information. It burns calories trying to figure out a puzzle. It only wants to do puzzles, figure things out about what will help it survive. Therefore, if you don't have short sound bites that describe your product, and if those sound bites aren't associated with my survival, I am not going to burn very many calories trying to understand what you're saying. Right. So if you give me the elusive tagline, it's gonna go in one ear and out the other, and it's wasted money. You have to be super, super clear. Kids love aquariums. Tagline I gave to a company. They dominate the fish food aquarium market and pet stores. Kids love aquariums. Put on everything. They were having trouble getting families to buy aquariums. They were. A lot of hobbyists were buying aquariums. 99% increase in sales. Why? Because the parent doesn't have to think about what to buy to get something their kid loves. And even these giant brands who are household names and everybody else, they would still benefit from knocking all this clever garbage out. Just stop that. Stop trying to make yourself sound smart and try to start communicating with your customer.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, and I want to pause on that because I think there's an actionable item here right away. We've already introduced. I actually took their kind of business through the story brand framework, and one of the things I think is Airbnb. Yeah. An actual item for people is to put their company. I mean, we preach this all the Time. Put your company through the story brand framework.

[Kyle Reed]

Meaning. Meaning filter your offer your company, your whatever through the storybrand framework and come out with seven sound bites you can use to populate all your marketing. That's what you mean when you put it through the filter.

[Donald Miller]

So I think an actual item here for people listening to this is, if you haven't done that, go do that. But let me.

[Kyle Reed]

StoryBrand AI.

[Donald Miller]

StoryBrand AI for free. So let me read it to you really quick. What I think Airbnb, when you put them through the framework.

[Kyle Reed]

So they've not done this. This is us doing this.

[Donald Miller]

This is us doing for them.

[Kyle Reed]

For free.

[Donald Miller]

For free.

[Kyle Reed]

You don't owe us anything. Now. Let me go for it. Let me translate this. The story of a framework starts with what is the character of the story, the hero of the story want? You have to define what they want. Like, Benji wants to get back home. Bridget Jones wants to marry her boss. A story starts with a character who wants something. So you need to define one thing that your customer wants for Airbnb.

[Donald Miller]

So I would say the character is looking for somewhere to stay. In particular, they're looking to stay with their family. Would be a.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay, you chose. You chose.

[Donald Miller]

Yes. I kind of kept diving in on that. The problem that they're facing. So the next step in the framework is what is the problem that the.

[Kyle Reed]

Character is arguably the most important talking point.

[Donald Miller]

This is what the brain said. Hotels are cramped, impersonal and expensive. You can ensure that you have a great place to stay provided by an Airbnb host.

[Kyle Reed]

So they chose cramped and personal. Expensive. That's. I mean, all three of those make sense.

[Donald Miller]

Yep. The guide comes along, which is the Airbnb.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

So business.

[Kyle Reed]

If you don't know the framework, the guide is your business. Who helps the hero win? Never position yourself as a hero. Always position yourself as a guide. Read my book if you want to know more. But the guide and the guide needs an empathetic statement and also a statement of competency.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

To position themselves as the guide. Okay.

[Donald Miller]

Here's what it said. Airbnb offers ease, trust and connection, helping both travelers and host succeed.

[Kyle Reed]

Oh, that's a tough one. I mean, I would say storybrand AI did okay.

[Donald Miller]

Okay.

[Kyle Reed]

First of all, think of the challenge. You have two different customers, the one putting their home up, and we're asking artificial intelligence to actually position ourselves as the guide for both. I would rather have two brand scripts. It would have done a better job with two different brand scripts, but we did it for both. So read it to me again.

[Donald Miller]

Airbnb offers ease, trust and connection, helping both travelers and hosts succeed.

[Kyle Reed]

I don't like it. I don't like ease. Well, I like ease and I would have stopped there. I think ease is stronger than ease, trust and connection. First of all, connection is elusive. Trust is a little elusive. I don't know why I need that. But Airbnb makes it easy for you to find a house in another city where your entire family can stay. Yeah. Why do you need to add to that?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. And almost you can apply a little bit to your point earlier, talking about wondering what the experience is going to be like. Ease kind of has trust built into it. Ease kind of does the heavy lifting. So let's just say Airbnb offers ease. And then the next step of the framework is they offer a plan. So the business comes in or the guide in this particular offer a three step plan. Three step plan, which is book a space that feels like home. List your Airbnb, earn income effortlessly. Now, some of the reasons convoluted because.

[Kyle Reed]

You got two different.

[Donald Miller]

Some of the reasons why is probably because the angle that I was taking with this was the challenge. And we'll. I think we should get into this later.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Is the challenge that Airbnb faces in their messaging. So stick around because I think we should talk about this is they have two people they're trying to message to.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

They're trying to message to host and consumers.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

And that's very tough to do. So the plan is book. Book a home that feels like your space. And then some of the other thing. And then they give a call to action, which is the.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, let's go back. Plan. Let's give them a plan. Let's give.

[Donald Miller]

That's more for consumers.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Just for the listeners. Let's give them one that's more for consumers. So book a home in another city. I would actually preempt some concern. So I would say get easy access to the home. Because the concern is where it's in somebody's neighborhood, they hit a key under a rock. Like, let's just prevent that.

[Donald Miller]

Use the ease again.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Get ease of access to home and then enjoy your stay without the inconvenience of a hotel. I would just do those three steps. And. And that needs to be though. That needs to be on your website, in your lead generators, in your emails, those sorts of things.

[Donald Miller]

Call to action is book with Airbnb.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Call to action is the next sound.

[Donald Miller]

But they actually even added another one. They verbed it out airbnb it. So that. Yep, That's. To that.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. You're making people look. You have to burn like 4 calories, which is not many, but let's get to everything where you burn zero. And the other thing is, I don't know that I would say what was theirs? The one that AI gave you.

[Donald Miller]

Book an Airbnb.

[Kyle Reed]

Book an Airbnb. Yeah. I mean, that's not bad. I would actually just say book your Airbnb now.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. More clear.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, it's a little bit more clear. It's also a command. Do this now.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, that's true.

[Kyle Reed]

And those are very powerful.

[Donald Miller]

My favorite part of the framework is where you paint the negative and positive or the success and failure of your. If they do this or don't do this.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. So there's two more sound bites. What's your life going to look like if you buy the product? And what is your life going to look like if you don't?

[Donald Miller]

So if you buy the product, it's you experience the local life, stay together, make money while you're away. So again, kind of playing up the two audiences.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay, gotcha. Yeah, that. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

And then the. The failure is you stay stuck in a cramp hotel.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay. Yeah. Obviously we're getting a convoluted brand script because we've. We really took two brand scripts and tried to combine them in one, which doesn't work. What you would do is you would take StoryBrand AI and you would make two different brands.

[Donald Miller]

Which. Side note on that, for those using Story Brand, if you've seen that, we actually introd a new tool where you can actually create separate brand scripts inside of your company, which I think is a really cool new feature.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, you create as many brand scripts as you want inside of storybrand AI, but you can also create different campaigns.

[Donald Miller]

Correct.

[Kyle Reed]

So like Airbnb, the brand script is foundational for your lead generators.

[Donald Miller]

Your email, which I think is a really cool kind of feature we just added in.

[Kyle Reed]

It sounds like we're knocking storybrand AI. First of all, let me point out some things before I knock my own product. One is nobody will ever be a better writer than me. I'm never going to admit that that's the first thing. The second thing is storybrand AI got that initial messaging that some of which I've poo pooed better than almost anybody listening to this would have done in an hour, and it did it in three minutes. And also then the third thing is this. It's a rough draft. You've got to sit there and look at it and go, use your mind to say, okay, will that really connect with my customers? If not, why not? And then tell the AI why it won't. And then regenerate it to give you a better sound bite there.

[Donald Miller]

It also is a massive jumping off point. Right. You take a super broad, like, how do we run a marketing campaign or messaging campaign for Airbnb? It gives you a good jumping off point. And then, you know, kind of you do the thing where the expert comes in, the guide comes into the room and goes, well, let's tweak this a little bit. Yeah, Actually a really cool thing I.

[Kyle Reed]

Would do for a tagline for those guys, I would actually say, why book a hotel when you could book a house? You know, or something like that? And again, very strong family. Because some people would go, well, I'll book a hotel because, you know, it's one room. I don't need a whole house. I don't, you know, mysteries of that. But, you know, something along those lines might. Might be something that they should explore, especially when it comes to families. And by the way, you can create a story, brand, brand script an entire campaign for Airbnb, to families, to bachelorette parties, to business travelers, to, you know, to executive leadership teams who need to get together at some resort and don't want to stay at a resort. They want to stay in a really nice home, to youth groups, to, you know, whatever you want. All those things can be completely different campaigns. And they're going to have slightly different messaging on each of those, if you wanted to do that.

[Donald Miller]

And I think this is a good jumping off point because what I find fascinating about these conversations is when. When you nail that tagline. So we talked earlier about the, you know, the initial. They're kind of their new brand. You kind of are like, I don't like that to belong anywhere. Nailing the tagline, though, where you said book, why book a hotel when you could book a home? What I find fascinating is when you nail that, it's such an amazing jumping off point for all your other marketing.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, right.

[Donald Miller]

Because it would have been a great.

[Kyle Reed]

Out of the gate tagline when people didn't know what Airbnb was.

[Donald Miller]

Yes. Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

You know, that would have been, why book a hotel when you could book somebody's home? That explains the entire concept in one short sentence. And everybody listening to this podcast is in that position. Almost nobody listening to this has a household name brand. You're all small businesses sub $5 million usually. You cannot afford to confuse people right? And so you need something that's that clear. You know, why book a hotel room when you could book somebody's home? And I like somebody's home because it actually explains, oh, this is somebody's renting out their home, you know, for a week or whatever. So, you know, the bottom line is, I think the controlling idea of the conversation so far, and I realize we're not done, is be clear, not clever. Because clarity is where the money is. Clarity is where the success is. Clever is where you feel good about how smart you are and that doesn't benefit you or anybody else at all.

[Donald Miller]

Loses you money.

[Kyle Reed]

Loses you money.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Your cleverness is losing you money.

[Donald Miller]

Well, and if you think about it, it's like that whole, you know, if you just get a little off track, you go so far over. So if you, if you try to be clever, all your other marketing campaigns.

[Kyle Reed]

That come behind that foundation, we call it the controlling idea.

[Donald Miller]

And it's so strong because I think what it does is when you nail that, when you identify the problem, when you give them a solution and you nail that talking point, the amount of creativity that then comes behind that in mess. That's why that ad we played earlier, so strong.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Because they nailed it.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Why, why stay in the same room? Why, when you put your kids down at 7 o' clock at night, what do you do? You're stuck. You know what I mean?

[Kyle Reed]

Like, I've been there, I've been there.

[Donald Miller]

And so it's like they, they realize.

[Kyle Reed]

That that was, your wife is slipping out for an hour and then you're, she's coming back in and you're slipping out for an hour.

[Donald Miller]

But I love that idea of even talking about where you can create separate messaging campaigns, which I think if you go to like kind of the social media side, all your content, your ads, when you run them through those same target audiences, why book a hotel room?

[Kyle Reed]

You could build somebody's house, for instance, this guy's house, and then show a picture of the house on social media. For instance, this lady's house, for instance, this family's house, for instance, this house with a hot tub, for instance, this house where you, you know, whatever. So, you know, once you get clear, you iterate on clarity, iterate on clever.

[Donald Miller]

And making a 15 second spot is really hard to do. Yeah, that is really hard to do. But when you're clear on it, it actually becomes easy.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Because you know the idea that you're trying to reinforce in 15 seconds.

[Donald Miller]

Correct. Yep. That's so strong. I think Another jumping off point for us, too. So just to recap there, going through the branch, getting clarity, getting a controlling idea for your business is just. It's foundational to what?

[Kyle Reed]

Right.

[Donald Miller]

What? Anybody?

[Kyle Reed]

Those seven sound bites, 100%.

[Donald Miller]

The next step, though, I think, is there's probably people listening to this who might be in that struggle of selling to two different target markets. And I think that's Airbnb's biggest challenge.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, even A.I. you read the A.I. brand script that we created, or A.I. created for us, it couldn't even really do it. Well, five of those talking points were good, two of them weren't. And the two that weren't good were because it was trying to create two brand scripts in one. You've got to actually narrow it down and create one for the consumer, one for, you know, one for the host, one for the customer, one for the B and B market, one for the B2C market. So sometimes, like, if, let's say I'm selling a bottle of shampoo through Walgreens, I gotta have two brand scripts. One is the buyer at Walgreens who's interested in stuff moving off of their shelf. They don't care about the shampoo. They want a product they can sell for eight bucks. Moving fast. Then I've got to create a brand script for the actual person who's looking at the bottle of shampoo, wondering why they should buy it. And, you know, this is for frizzy hair. This is for oily hair. This is for if you don't have any hair. This is, you know, whatever it is, you know, those brand scripts have to be created separately. And then the messaging on each of those has to be put in separate.

[Donald Miller]

Places, and it drives strategy from there.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

That was one of my favorite things when we were working on the radio drama. So we released. For those listening don't know about this, we released a radio drama of the storybrand book itself. And in that story, I won't ruin all of it.

[Kyle Reed]

It is a fictional story about two brothers trying to pitch.

[Donald Miller]

Two brothers try to go pitch a product, but they pitch it in the wrong way because they didn't know who they were pitching it to.

[Kyle Reed]

They pitched the. The retail brand script to the wholesale buyer and they failed. Now we're giving away the whole story. Well, it's called Pete and Joe Save Their Mother's Company. You can find it on audible, audible, YouTube everywhere.

[Donald Miller]

So go check that out if you have not listened to that yet. It's a great walkthrough of just the framework. We did, just did. But I think that's another kind of like just pause moment for people listening to this as well. And even for myself, as I think about our marketing is who are we.

[Kyle Reed]

Talking to, who are you talking to and what's the problem? They will very, very quickly identify and feel.

[Donald Miller]

Yep.

[Kyle Reed]

You know, checking into a hotel room that's disappointingly small, by the way, Airbnb, steal those words. Disappointingly small is something everybody has experienced.

[Bobby Richards]

If you don't communicate clearly, all your emails, your website, social media posts, everything you're communicating will be ignored. Storybrand AI is like the world's best communication expert writing it for you. Imagine having the world's best communicator writing your tagline. Just type in the name of your company, answer a few prompts.

[Kyle Reed]

And voila.

[Bobby Richards]

Hey, that's a good one. Use it to write your social media posts, website, wireframe emails, lead generating PDF, product or service descriptions, anything you need for your business. What would happen to your revenue if every word that left your business was crystal clear and worth paying attention to? StoryBrand AI is your competitive advantage. So you'll know, you'll say it clearly. Try it right now and let us write your custom tagline for free at storybrand AI. And now back to the show.

[Donald Miller]

Other companies do kind of the same thing that Airbnb does. There's a couple bookings.com or booking.com.

[Kyle Reed]

Oh, booking you can. I thought that was just hotel rooms. Is that now houses and stuff?

[Donald Miller]

Houses too.

[Kyle Reed]

They.

[Donald Miller]

And then vrbo.

[Kyle Reed]

Vrbo.

[Donald Miller]

Okay, so I again use the brain to kind of help me work through this.

[Kyle Reed]

We talk about the brain. It's the story brand brain. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

So what the brain gave me back was said, hey, contrast these other brands with Airbnb and then what are their focuses? So Airbnb had said they provide unique spaces, emotional belongings, experiences and long term game. Booking.com is their core focus is practical, real time deals, event based urgency. So that's what they focus on for their marketing. VRBO is privacy, traditional vacation rentals or whole home stays. I bring.

[Kyle Reed]

These are real focuses for each of these. But so AI just went and found the real. It didn't. It didn't. Wasn't being creative.

[Donald Miller]

Well, yes, and what I find fascinating about this is I feel like vrbo and booking.com are reacting to Airbnb in their marketing. So they're trying to position.

[Kyle Reed]

They're trying to find a little corner of the market that differentiates.

[Donald Miller]

They're trying to position Airbnb somewhat to me as the villain. So if you look at their marketing messages online, I don't think that's a good idea. I don't either. And I think that they're. They're. They're. Even if you watch in hotels, are actually starting to do this, too. Interesting enough is they're trying to play on the negatives of what Airbnb is to get you to come stay with them. And I was curious, what are your thoughts on that?

[Kyle Reed]

Two different things. One is, I know that you're frustrated with your competition, and I know that you know that you're better than them. And I know that you know you love the customer more than they do. Your customer doesn't care, and they don't even really know it. All you need to do is invite your customer into a better story than them. And let me just also point this out. If you start talking about them, you're giving them some attention, and now they're going to do a little due diligence as to which one of these two to choose from when you really should have just ignored them. Politicians deal with this all the time. Do we go negative? Well, if we go negative, we're actually talking about the competition, and we're probably making their fans even more evangelists about them, because now we're pushing on the. You go out and you talk negatively about Taylor Swift and see if the number of Taylor Swift fans decrease or whether or not you're gonna get hung. Right. And I just wouldn't do it. Now, as it relates to hotels, you can do this very subtly. Right? You can say, we know you have a choice between a hotel or whatever an Airbnb is, whatever that industry is, then I would actually just say, let me just ask you one question. Does Airbnb have a spa? Let me just ask you one question. Does Airbnb have a restaurant? Right.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

And then just say, let me just ask you a question. Who's going to make the bed at your Airbnb while you're away? That's it? Yeah, just. That's it. That's all you have to do, because then you're going, oh, okay, I get it. Yeah. The value is very clear.

[Donald Miller]

Is it the distinctions that make you different? Is that kind of.

[Kyle Reed]

It's not necessarily the distinctions. It's the things you want to. Everything is about what you're going to point a spotlight at. Now, if you're Airbnb, you want your messaging to point a spotlight at the benefits that you offer that nobody else can offer. If you're a hotel, you want to point the spotlight at the benefits that you offer that Airbnb can offer. The picture is all the same. It's just where are you bringing somebody's attention? The reality is you do get a bigger space at an Airbnb, but a much bigger, probably better experience for your family. But how do you know if the bathrobe has been cleaned or if there's going to be a bathrobe at all? How do. Nobody's going to come in and change the bed sheets in the middle of the afternoon while you're away. There's no room service that you can call and get a burger in the middle of the night. There's no, you know. You see what I'm saying?

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

So what you need to do as a, as a business owner is stop worrying about the ways the competition is better than you and start thinking about the way you are better than the competition and just shine a spotlight at that and then let people choose. Let people pick which one they want and you're going to be fine if you do that. And so be really careful about internalizing too much of the competition and what they're doing in the market and just think about serving your customer.

[Donald Miller]

Yep, that's good. I think that's really practical advice that I think a lot of business owners or brands struggle with figuring out the direction there. One other thing I want to get into, I'm very interested in the way that they've taken their messaging and kind of tried to share that across all platforms. I think the commercials are doing great. The commercials will grab your attention. They're quick, they're really good. If you actually go to the YouTube, they're their top videos on their YouTube. That's.

[Kyle Reed]

Now that says.

[Donald Miller]

Which is saying something. Yeah, that's in the. Upwards of 40 million views.

[Kyle Reed]

People don't like watching commercials and, and that's. That's kind of amazing.

[Donald Miller]

Even thinking about it too. Just did not go down this rabbit hole. But a 15 second ad that's strong that runs as a pre roll on a YouTube video is so powerful.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

But one of the things I want to get into this with you on was the way that they're taking their mission and message out right now across social media is, is I find fascinating and I kind of did a little bit of a deep dive on their three kind of main platforms they focus on and that is Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. So looking at their content, if you go on their Instagram, most of their content centers around people who host, who have host Homes, taking pictures of their spaces.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay.

[Donald Miller]

But if I just take a picture of my home, that's not very interesting. So they're pulling out these grand.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

You know, in Fiji and the Coliseum and like these just amazing, like places.

[Kyle Reed]

That you can rent.

[Donald Miller]

Yes. TikTok is all user generated content. So they're partnering with creators on TikTok on the platform, which they're actually doing a good job of utilizing the platform.

[Kyle Reed]

So Airbnb's TikTok is all user generated.

[Donald Miller]

Correct. But they're also partnering with big creators to get them to spread their message. Okay. So that's their kind of big campaign to get attention on YouTube. They're doing a little bit more of value for host. So they're kind of talking about some strategies, but they're also partnering with big YouTubers to go and stay at these crazy places. So, like, for instance, someone built a Shrek model home and they had a big YouTuber who went and stayed there. And that was kind of their sponsored video.

[Kyle Reed]

Very cool.

[Donald Miller]

I find it interesting that they're creating this kind of I ideal, like, romantic situation where you want to go, oh, that would be amazing to stay in that incredible cabin, you know, in the, in the foothills of whatever, you know, town. But yet most people going after an airbnb are looking for a spot that they can take their wife.

[Kyle Reed]

So you would say this is not a good.

[Donald Miller]

I just, I think it's. I think it's doing some of the. Here's what I would say. I think it's doing some of the work. But they're going after vanity metrics. They're going after the quick clips.

[Kyle Reed]

Somebody watching a. You can rent the Coliseum may or may not be a target market, and they're missing an opportunity to actually pitch their real product to correct market.

[Donald Miller]

And one could argue that, hey, they're getting attention and then it makes you think of Airbnb in your head and then you go, well, I should go book them for my next trip. I just think they're missing the mark because they're creating this idea of what could be, but it's never a reality and you kind of just skip over it. So they're chasing these quick likes. He's quick.

[Kyle Reed]

I hear you. And I agree. I think what I like about it, to push back, because you're making very, very fair points. To push back. I would say they're already covering those bases. And they're already covering those bases even in their television ads.

[Donald Miller]

Okay. Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

YouTube is about being provocative. It's about watching something that's interesting. It's an entertainment medium in itself. It's a bit of an edutainment thing. I would say that when Airbnb comes out and says you can rent the Coliseum.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

You know, which they have. That's. Which is kind of amazing. That's a great one. It's very hard these days to get attention and so you're creating a ton of brand awareness. But also it's similar to the reason that like Ford, Mercedes, Ferrari, BMW lose enormous amounts of money creating Formula one cars. They're losing money on all that. But what they're doing is they're associating a supercar with the Ford that you can go down and buy at the local whatever. And that to me is not. That's not necessarily a bad idea. There's. They're associating a Ford Raptor truck with this formula. Actually, I don't think they're in Formula One, but they would be NASCAR, maybe IndyCar, I don't know. But with something that's just really fricking sexy and interesting and entertaining. But I think it's pretty smart for them to do that. So I think it's a similar play. Now, again, not something that Acme Plumbing is going to benefit from.

[Donald Miller]

Well, that's what I was going to ask you. What's the difference? If I'm a business owner, how do I decide? Do I go after this aspirational identity that I want to create or do I go after a very practical, resource driven.

[Kyle Reed]

It's practical resource all fricking day long with the occasional attention getting thing? And the attention getting thing can be left out. Once everybody knows who you are, what you do, and there's no more sort of cognitive dissonance about the value you offer and how I engage that value, I think you can start playing with high level branding and attention getting and there's no question it will benefit. You'll benefit from it. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. It's been a fun conversation. I think it's fun.

[Kyle Reed]

I think it's been super, super helpful. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

To beat around at a tagline every bag.

[Kyle Reed]

Would you give him like on a scale of. On A plus to F minus, I.

[Donald Miller]

Would give him a strong B plus.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, me too.

[Donald Miller]

And the reason, maybe even a minus, because I think we talked about the belong somewhere kind of idea. I agree with you. It's a little vague. I think the way they've.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Belong somewhere. That's. That's hurting you're. Hurting you. In my opinion, the way they've rolled, that's why I give you a B. I'm not going to give you an A because it belongs. Give me a break.

[Donald Miller]

The way they've rolled it out, I think has been very clever. I think it's really strong. I think they've eliminated a lot of negatives about their, you know, they've kind of moved away from some of the negatives that people might have. I think they've nailed it on their messaging around. Why take a family trip if you don't stay together and you know, a hotel room?

[Kyle Reed]

The most important thing that you do in a messaging campaign is identify the problem and communicate it very, very clearly. What would you say for most of our small to medium sized business owners that they can take from what Airbnb is doing? I've got one. I mean, that we've already said many times, identify the fricking problem that your customer has. Communicate it very clearly in such a way that everybody just feels it when you say it, no matter what you do. There is some kind of problem now here. I can already feel the business owners going, well, you know, it's a problem, but they don't know they have the problem. I have to explain it. Sorry, you've got to come up with some other way of communicating you got to come up with or some other problem that you, that you help them solve and the one that they really benefit from because it requires so much explanation, you're just not going to be able to talk about that one. You could talk about it later, but you can't talk about it at top as far as top of funnel messaging. So identify a problem is the, is the really, really big one.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, that was one I was going to tack on and I think to add a little bit more with you on that because I 100% agree. That's what I was thinking was, was if you're struggling to get attention, if you're struggling to get sales, if you're struggling to grow, it might be time to go back to that problem and figure out are you talking about the thing? And it seems to me the thing that's locking in my brain is it's almost like you have to spend 4x the amount of time identifying the right problem. And then once you establish that boundary, you know, that's a big thing of mine, is when you can get boundaries in your marketing messaging. It's kind of like a highway. You know, if there's lanes that you can follow, it's really easy to drive. There's no lanes. If you're all over the place, it's very hard to drive. So identifying the problem, starting with that boundary, the amount of creativity that comes from that, is endless.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Because then you can run and every marketing messaging campaign you've ever wanted to do.

[Kyle Reed]

It's an analogy. Would be you've got. You're shooting a gun and you've got nine blanks and one actual real bullet. And they all look the same. You're gonna. You're gonna fire. You look at the target. There's no hole. That was a blank, blank, blank. Bam, there's a hole. That's our. That's our message.

[Donald Miller]

And let's go.

[Kyle Reed]

And let's go. We're. Now, we're gonna keep shooting that bullet. Obviously, the analogy breaks down, but we're gonna keep shooting that one over and over and over until it stops working. There's another question real quick. People go, how long do we do it till it stops working?

[Donald Miller]

Until it starts working.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. It's 20 years. It's 20 years. Just keep using it. Well, we're tired of it. We've been using it. It's time for a refresh. Is it working? Then it's not time for a refresh. So anyway, you're looking for the bullet that actually works, and that's the problem that people identify with.

[Donald Miller]

Yep, agreed. Love that. And if you want to get more clarity on your message, on your tagline, on your brand script, we have created all this for you at StoryBrand AI. The great news about this StoryBrand AI.

[Kyle Reed]

Bullets that work.

[Donald Miller]

Bullets that work.

[Kyle Reed]

No, that's. That's a. I don't think that's gonna.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, maybe we should. Maybe we should run that through the tagline today.

[Kyle Reed]

We probably should.

[Donald Miller]

But go to storybrand AI. You can do all this for free. There's amazing resources there for you to use if you need to kind of figure out what your problem is. Go try out storybrand AI. And if you wanna learn more about the storybrand framework, check out Don's new book. We just released the 2.0 versions.

[Kyle Reed]

Don't.

[Donald Miller]

Building a Story brand out in January. It's been out a couple months, doing really well. So go check that out.

[Kyle Reed]

Than it has ever sold before.

[Donald Miller]

Amazing.

[Kyle Reed]

It is amazing.

[Donald Miller]

Thanks for listening. And we want to hear your feedback on Airbnb. What do you think of their messaging campaign? Leave us a comment. We'd love to read it for now. Thanks for joining us. Always help us out by hitting subscribe. Leaving us a review helps us tremendously. And we will see you next week for another great conversation about what messaging works and why those ideas are great for your business. Thanks for listening.

[Kyle Reed]

Thanks everybody.

[Bobby Richards]

Thanks for listening to the why that Worked podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you like the show, follow wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're Enjoying this on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and leave a comment letting us know what you think and what you want the guys to talk about in a future episode. Curious about how StoryBrand AI can help you create clear, effective messages? Well, you can try it out right now and create a free customized tagline for your business. Just go to storybrand AI. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.

[Donald Miller]

SA.