Airbnb Launches Trips On Facebook Live

To celebrate the launch of Experiences as part of its new Trips platform, Airbnb is inviting people around the world to participate via a one-day Facebook Live feed named WE ARE HERE.  

For the duration of the 24-hour launch period, people can surf in LA, learn about authentic Venezuelan cooking in Miami, take part in performance art in Paris, experience live street dance in Seoul, transform themselves in Tokyo, and save the ocean in Cape Town – all transported via Facebook Live.

“As Airbnb launches a range of products that enables unique experiences around the world, it’s important that we lead change and re-invent the way we approach experiential marketing,” says Jonathan Mildenhall, Chief Marketing Officer Airbnb. “We are creating unique experiences that are lived by a few, shared by millions and encourage participation from around the globe.”

Created with Facebook Creative Shop and Radical Media, the immersive experiences are presented in helmet-mounted first person perspective. The videographer is YOU, the Airbnb guest. The 3-5 minute pre-rolls are pre-recorded, with the experience itself filmed live at each of the six locations. Paris went live Thursday at 11.00 PST / 19:00 GMT, with Miami at 13:00 PST / 21:00 GMT, Cape Town at 21:00 PST / 05:00 GMT, Tokyo at 03:00 PST / 11:00 GMT, followed by Seoul at 05:00 PST / 13:00 GMT, and finishing with LA at 07:00 PST / 15:00 GMT Friday.

WE ARE HERE also introduces Inferred Participation as a new method of engagement. Instead of explicitly asking for audience contributions, Airbnb is weaving natural participation into the narrative. For the first experience hosted in Paris, performance artist Anne Marie took viewers through the process of writing emotions they want to release onto paper butterflies, with moderators encouraging the audience to share the feelings they’d like to let go of as well. Eventually, the group participated in a “butterfly liberation” where they release all of their feelings into the Parisian air above the gust of a metro grate. As the onscreen guest watch their emotions liberate, people participating around the world get the same experience.

Kelly Stonelake, Creative Director, Facebook Creative Shop: "Facebook Live and We Are Here enable a platform for the audience to participate – and see that reflected in the story playing out in front of them. This is a new creative frontier.”

Please see below a list of the videos:

Paris: 11:15am PST 

RSVP/Watch:  https://www.facebook.com/airbnb/videos/10154738417987458/

Miami: 1:00pm PST 

RSVP/Watch: https://www.facebook.com/airbnb/videos/10154738423717458/

Cape Town: 9:00pm PST 

RSVP/Watch: https://www.facebook.com/airbnb/videos/10154738429962458/

Tokyo: 3:00am PST 

RSVP/Watch: https://www.facebook.com/airbnb/videos/10154738436017458/

Seoul: 5:00am PST

RSVP/Watch: https://www.facebook.com/airbnb/videos/10154738442622458/

Los Angeles: 7:00am PST 

RSVP/Watch LA: https://www.facebook.com/airbnb/videos/10154738446607458/