Starting in 2011, with aggressive overseas acquisitions and offices opening around the world, Airbnb kicked off its international expansion. Fast-forward to 2018, and the company now operates in 15 countries and has enlisted more than 4 million 1 people to host strangers in their homes.
So many American companies have previously failed to translate their success overseas. Thereâs a variety of reasons why brands fail to expand successfully, whether its failure to compete with local companies, an inability to tailor products for a new audience, or simply not doing the necessary up-front market research.
How did Airbnb do it? The right balance of global strategy and local implementation. Critical to success was the companyâs use of Local Influencers (individuals who can influence the actions/decisions of a loyal group of local online followers with regard to their particular area of expertise), to drive brand awareness through a series of cleverly designed campaigns. Some of the most memorable include:
âLocal Lens Seriesâ ParisIn early 2015, Airbnb launched an influencer content series featuring various thought leaders, creatives and experts in key cities sharing their views on must-see/must-try local experiences. 2 For example, in Paris, Airbnb worked with local bilingual food and travel writer Clotilde Dusoulier to author a âLocal Lensâ blog post on â10 Perfect Food Experiences in Paris,â offering recommendations for âwhere to splurge on dreamy pastriesâ and âParisâ best baguette.ââNight Atâ South KoreaIn late 2015, as part of its âNight atâ campaign and to support its expansion plans into South Korea, Airbnb worked with K-Pop sensation G-Dragon, 3 holding a contest where lucky winners could spend two nights in his recording studio in the heart of Seoul. This led to a flurry of social media and traditional media attention, as well as a spike in Korean Airbnb user registrations.âDonât Go There, Live Thereâ LondonIn 2016, Airbnbâs London team designed an exclusive experience townhouse in London, where visitors could come and experience local food and music. The purpose was to show travelers âthe real Londonâ not found in guidebooks. It enlisted 25 Local Influencers to amplify the event on social mediaâwhile 1400 guests visited the townhouse over four days, several millions learned about it online as a result of the influencer engagement. 4
These Local Influencersâboth celebrities and online personalitiesâopened the door for Airbnb in market after market across the globe. Why should Airbnb directly tell customers how great their service is? Better to leave it to Local Influencers who can speak with authenticity and authority.
Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, explains, âBy early 2011, we were primarily an American company. But it became very clear that international is really important. Weâre a travel company. Us not being international is like your phone not having email⌠So it became very clear that we had to be international â we had to be a GLOBAL travel network.â 5
For Airbnb, Local Influencers made a foreign brand a local one. Thatâs the difference.
***
My day job is as an international marketing strategist at Frontier Strategy Group, where I help senior executives from many of the worldâs largest brands. Part of my job is to pay attention to major global trends, and every now and then I am captivated by something I am seeing in the marketplace and decide to write a book like this one. I dive deep, obsess over a million details, and attempt to synthesize what I have learned into actionable, executive-level findings.
If I have done my job, I will keep readers like you a step (or two) ahead of the next big thing. That was the point of my last book, China Goes West , which tells the story of Chinese brands expanding beyond Chinaâs borders to take on Western multinationals.
When I set out to write Digital Influence, I intended to tell a story that was primarily an international one, like the experience of Airbnb that begins this introduction. I thought the story would be about brands that found international growth by using Local Influencers to jump-start their expansion.
When I started research, however, I discovered the international side of influencer marketing is only a small part of a much bigger story that demanded to be told. And when I started interviewing âinfluencer marketing insidersâ like marketing executives, agencies, and influencers, things started to get messyâŚ
Influencer marketing is young and unsettled. I found I needed to address many fundamental questions before I could consider introducing the international story.
What types of questions you may ask?
Take the most basic term, âinfluencer.â It is highly disputed within the industryâin Peterâs foreword, for example, he reveals that not even influencers like to actually be given that name. Instead, alternative terms get thrown around like âcontent creator,â âtalent,â âKOL,â âYouTuber,â âbloggerâ⌠if you can read Chinese, there is even âç˝çş˘â.
Beyond a lack of standard terminology, there is also a lack of industry best practices across each phase of working with influencers:
- How do you identify the right influencers for your brand?
- What does it take to get an influencer to respond positively to your outreach?
- Which forms of brandâinfluencer collaborations are most effective?
- How do you measure Return On Investment (ROI) and also make sure you can trust the data youâre using for measurement?
One of the major points I make in the book is influencer marketing is a global phenomenon that is developing rapidly, and companies can tap into Local Influencers to advance their international strategy. But that is far from the only aspect of what you are about to learn.
In fact, you are about to get an in-depth look into a topic that is generally only written about at a surface level, with clickbait headlines about âHow Many Thousands of Dollars Brand X Paid Influencer Y for a Postâ or âThe Top 10 Steps to Getting Instagrammers to Promote Your Brand.â
I am going to take you from the basics, to the practice, to the global relevance. And ultimately, I will give you a peek at where we are headed.
You are not just learning from me. You will hear from more than 100 individuals I interviewed during the writing of this book, ranging from Fortune 500 executives to high-growth start-up founders to agency leads to influencer software vendors to influencers from around the world.
There is a lot packed in here. I hope you find the insights valuableâboth today when you think about how these case studies, frameworks, and methods can be applied to your business, and later on, when you use it as an ongoing resource to build (or rebuild) your companyâs approach to influencer marketing.
A few final words before we begin our journey together:
Definitions for terms like âi...