TBWA and Airbnb have won a number of headlines since beginning their partnership just over one year ago. The client’s biggest press came from this summer’s “Is Mankind?” campaign, which attracted an equal share of praise and scorn including at least one successful attempt to beg for press attention.
But the more interesting work (in our humble opinions about which no one gives a shit) has come out of TBWA’s international offices. TBWA\London, for example, floated a house down the Thames in an unavoidable PR stunt while the agency’s Singapore office created a miniature world of sorts for a spot that was shot in one take without the assistance of any form of computer-generated imagery.
This week another ad in that vein arrived from Singapore, and in this case the theme is more specific: a different version of Paris as presented by Airbnb, TBWA, Photoplay Films and Yippee Ki-Yay, which is not a Bruce Willis fan site but an Australian company “specialising in models, miniatures, sets, effects and events.”
Here’s “A Different Paris,” complete with the same Australian narrator from the earlier ad.
So…an Airbnb is a rental, NOT “a home I can call my own.” And we highly doubt that most hosts have any interest in showing their guests a more intimate side of the cities in which they live–especially since most of them are not around when they’re subletting their own apartments. No one can instantly transform you into a local anywhere, because vacations don’t work that way.
But the ad was visually impressive.
…and here’s how they made it, as told with a very limited dose of infuriating jargon!
Again, the zoetrope is pretty cool–and the video above leaves little doubt that the creation of this campaign was a painstaking, time-consuming process.
Regarding the overall success of the work, we turned to the most reliable source: YouTube commenters.
Sure, you’re probably more likely to hear house music or Taylor Swift in Paris than a bunch of guys playing accordions. But Jean (if that is even a real person) isn’t a member of the target audience, is he?
Credits
Client: Airbnb
Head of Marketing APAC: Matthias Schuecking
Agency: TBWA\Singapore
Creative Director: Gary Steele
Senior Copywriter: Elrid Carvalho
Senior Art Director: Uni Lee
Group Account Director: Mandy Wong
Account Director: Joyce Wong
Agency Producer – Haydn Evans / Six Toes
Airbnb Producer – Allison Gay
Production Company – Photoplay Films / Six Toes
Director – Norman Yeend
Live Action Director – Scott Otto-Anderson
Executive Producer – Oliver Lawrance & Haydn Evans
Producer – Emma Thompson
Director of Photography – Jonathan Rossiter
Production Designer – Annie Beauchamp
Model Makers – Simon Ingerson / Yippeekiyay
Post Production – Cutting Edge
Post Producer – James Rose
Editor – Simon Njoo
Media Agency – Starcom