How hopping on trends can help a brand’s social media.
Come on Barbie, let’s go party at the Airbnb of your house. In a campaign surrounding iconic houses, last year Airbnb unveiled its Barbie Dream House inspired by the film. While the house itself has nothing to do with social media, the idea of companies hopping on trends certainly does.
It’s not a far stretch for a company to join in on the fun. Plenty do it to varying degrees of success and it keeps them relevant to younger audiences on social media.
With its Airbnb Icons line, the company decided to capitalize on the online force that was Barbie’s marketing campaign. The topic trended for months leading to the film’s release and much of the promotional imagery featured Barbie Land and the striking pink houses within it. As a company focused on providing people fun travel and housing experiences, Airbnb saw an opportunity not many other companies could jump on.
They haven’t stopped there. As part of its Airbnb Icons line, the company has recently pushed the X-Men ’97 house, based on the new Disney+ show that has also been a hit on social media in recent months.
This idea of tailoring a campaign around trending topics is intriguing. It certainly could have fallen on its face with people saying the company was trying too hard or that corporatizing the trend was lame. However, so far, it seems to have been harmless to the company, giving it some presence on social media and building awareness of a new product line.
But why did this seem to work better than some other form of trend hopping?
Maybe because they tried so hard. Any company can post a tweet that shoehorns their brand into a trend it has no place in, but Airbnb is making this social media trend part of its product and using the pre-existing buzz to garner awareness and excitement.
By using names that are already trending, the company increases its odds of showing up on screens of people not in their regular audience. It gives them a reach that they may have struggled to achieve and, with a campaign like this that matches their brand, it doesn’t feel as though the company is shoving its way into the trend for the sake of doing so.
It’s a fine line to walk, but if a company centers a product or service around the trend and doesn’t just write a half-baked tweet, odds are they will have a better chance at receiving positive feedback on social media.
Sources:
https://www.phocuswire.com/airbnb-icons-reactions-str-marketing
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/x-men-97-mansion-airbnb-1235987197