Airbnb’s global director of online marketing and media, Paul Jeszenszky, tells M&M Global why agencies should expect plenty of ‘craziness’ when working with start-ups.

All across the world, international advertisers find themselves studiously examining what it is that makes disruptive firms like Airbnb and Uber such a success. Well, now it turns out that Airbnb is looking to more seasoned marketers for a word or two of advice as well.

Paul Jeszenszky, Airbnb’s global director of online marketing and media, flew out to the Festival of Media Global 2016 in Rome to deliver a talk with Lisa Donohue, Starcom’s newly-promoted global president. Straight after coming off-stage, the duo joined M&M Global for a discussion about a product-led business can become more of a marketing-led brand.

The business has been looking to establish a more rigorous marketing approach since the appointment of former Coke creative Jonathan Mildenhall in 2014. While Airbnb is determined to continue to experiment and innovate, Jeszenszky admits it helps introducing a little more structure.

“We like to think of ourselves as moving from being an infant to reaching our awkward teenage years”

“When you’re in a business like ours, it changes really rapidly. We’re pushing a lot of boundaries, and we want to continue to be provocative. The key thing is being flexible and agile,” he says.

“We’re an eight year-old company, and we’ve been doing brand marketing now for two years. We like to think of ourselves as moving from being an infant to reaching our awkward teenage years now, so we need to have some people around us who can help us to grow and understand the rules of the game once in a while.”

Donohue agrees, commenting that part of Starcom’s role – it has held Airbnb’s global since September 2014 – is to “bring discipline and process” to the company, and to find a balance between “being able to run with them hard, but also make them think”.

Bringing the brand to life

As Airbnb takes a more comprehensive approach to marketing, Jeszenszky argues that media should bring the brand to life.

“We don’t see media separate from the creative or product. It has to all work really seamlessly and cohesively. And when we do that right we are very proud. That is our goal,” he says. “It’s not just about, ‘Can we get a better price?’ It’s how we can bring the experience of Airbnb out to the world.”

He compares the Airbnb community to Nike’s superstar athlete ambassadors, and claims that they are the aspirational “heroes” to help it convince new consumers to join its near-2.5 million listings, tackling the “stranger danger” that prevents some people from signing up.

“The first thing we think about is authenticity, and making sure our community feels good”

“When you think about it, this community is a really powerful force. So, as marketers, what we are really doing is curating that, trying to pull out the stories to share them with the world. We do that, and then we stand out of the way,” says Jeszenszky.

“The first thing we think about is authenticity, and making sure our community feels good. If we do something they don’t like, then they will react. We’re a people-powered business.”

That people-power counts for the marketing team and agency support, as well. Starcom employees have found themselves embedded into Airbnb’s operations, and on-call at all hours, attempting to maintain the brand’s rapid ascent.

“The teams work as one team. When you look at tech companies, they pull from all over the company and form new smaller teams to work on projects. We do the same with Starcom,” he says.

“They spent a lot of time in our office, especially when we first started, they were a part of our creative agency review [when it appointed TBWA]. We make them work the hours we work, and deal with the same kind of craziness that we deal with.

“Working at a start-up is an intense experience,” he adds.