Background

The customer journey for travellers usually begins with searching for plane tickets. In fact, data shows that air travel makes up 70% of all searches. Meanwhile, switching from plane to train is one of the single best things you can do to lower your CO2 emissions. At DSB, short for Danish Railways, we naturally want travellers to choose the sustainable alternative.

Creative idea

Airdsb is an Airbnb hack to get the climate back on track. In order to intercept the shopping cycle of travellers, we decided to advertise our international train tickets on the global accommodation platform. There was only one teeny tiny issue. They didn't allow ads on their site. But we decided to sneak our way in anyway. Yup, we simply disguised our trains as Airbnb apartments and listed them across Europe, catching travellers completely off guard, telling them to save a significant amount of carbon footprint by switching plane tickets with train tickets.

Strategy

Our target audience were travellers, both Danish and foreign. To remind them of trains as the sustainable alternative to flying, we wanted to intercept the costumer journey and derail their default shopping cycle that normally leads to buying plane tickets. We quickly identified Airbnb as the perfect platform for our message. Here, our listings stood out and caught the elusive attention of our intended target audience. Without spending a single pound on media.

Execution

The work was placed on the global accommodation site Airbnb, and was visible to everyone who searched for places to live in 12 cities across Europe, including Paris, Vienna, Brussels, Prague. After a couple of days, Airbnb found our listings and took them down. After some careful consideration, we decided to put them up again. And that's just what we do now. Again and again. Over and over. The things you do for the climate, right?

Results

Without spending a single euro on media, we snuck our way into Airbnb, intercepting traveller’s costumer journey and presenting the train as a green alternative to flying. Transforming one of the world's largest accommodation sites into our advertising platform. The work proved to be more eye-catching and effective than your average Airbnb listing, gaining 1200+ daily visits across the 12 cities. Shortly after the work ran, DSB received the highest RepTrak Reputation Score (75,9) in the history of the brand.

Different from other brand cometitors

Air travel is the default option when going abroad and is the closest competitor to DSB's international train ticket sales. In fact, data shows that air travel makes up 70% of all searches for travellers. To intercept the costumer journey, we turned one of the world's largest accommodation sites, Airbnb, into free media that could rival the air travel industry and inspire behavioural change when it comes to transportation in the future.

Cultural context

Research shows that 90% of consumers agrees that brands/companies have a responsibility to take care of the planet. 92% says they are trying to live more sustainably, while 83% will always pick the brand that has the better record of sustainability. This cultural shift gives the train a unique chance to take market share away from air travel, if positioned as the green alternative.

Social behaviour that inspired the work

Traveller's customer journey usually begins with searching for accommodation and plane tickets. In fact, data shows that air travel makes up 70% of all searches. We wanted to intercept that shopping cycle, which led us to identify the global accommodation Airbnb as the perfect platform for us to communicate our message and rival the air travel industry.

Budget

The campaign cost around 7,000€ in hours, and had a media spend of exactly zero.