Driving Results at Airbnb

In December 2020, after nearly a year of disruption and uncertainty caused by the pandemic, the vacation rental industry was poised to take advantage of a worldwide resurgence in travel. Nancy King, vice president of marketing at Airbnb, needed to draw customers back and rebuild Airbnb's revenue stream. Yet during the pandemic, CEO Brian Chesky had slashed the company's marketing budget by more than half. Most of the cuts had been to performance marketing--that is, digital marketing that a brand paid for only when a lead, click, or sale was generated. King knew Airbnb's competitors would be pouring money into marketing efforts--most likely focused on performance marketing--aimed at the wave of consumers eager to get back to traveling. Should King recommend that Airbnb also return to performance marketing, which yielded immediate, clear, and trackable results and could be used to balance supply and demand in different markets? Or should King reaffirm Chesky's decision to funnel most of the company's marketing budget into advertising the Airbnb brand broadly, focusing on growing awareness and positive associations in the long term?