Project Information

Airbnb Live Aloha

Challenge

Airbnb continues to establish itself in more countries and cities throughout the world. However, research showed that a large part of their growth audience was viewing the brand only as a resource for urban vacations as opposed to leisurely tropical destinations.

With the launch of Virgin America’s first route to Honolulu, Airbnb saw an opportunity to expand their brand’s perception to be considered an all-encompassing travel experience provider.

Solution

The word “Aloha” is a potent expression that embodies the Airbnb community spirit: a belief in kindness, unity and love.

By building on those principles, we developed the ‘Live Aloha’ campaign — welcoming and representing people from all walks of life, and from around the globe.

We created the design system using illustrations and colorful sketches Matt Luckhurst had drawn while on vacation in Hawaii, which depict the lifestyle and community on the islands. To bring the system to life at scale, we built fruit stands found along the roadsides in Hawaii. We served up smoothies, Airbnb tips and travel merchandise.

Results

The campaign expresses the Aloha lifestyle across a series of depictions, mediums and a physical airport activation. We reached our core travel audience instantly, and advanced a new way of thinking about the Airbnb experience.

Team

  • Matt Luckhurst
  • Christian Widlic
  • Christy Silva
  • Claudia de Almeida
  • Joanna Hobson
  • Agnes Lee
  • Dark Igloo
  • Airbnb Team

What we did