Trendsetters: Airbnb's Jonathan Mildenhall Wants to Create the First Community-Driven SuperBrand

Ask Jonathan Mildenhall, Chief Marketing Officer of Airbnb, about his top goals for the worldwide accommodations sensation--(now valued at $25.5 billion), and he'll probably tell you it's to "eradicate strangers through one guest in one home at a time." In fact, as a 21st century brand that's resonating well with Millennials, Airbnb views itself at the center of contemporary hospitality with a mission to open the world to cultures and humanity. And Airbnb believes it can be the first community-driven superbrand.

Speaking at the ANA's Master of Marketing Annual Conference in October, Jonathan Mildenhall outlined how the company's core marketing idea is to encourage people to open their minds to stay in the homes of others. Or, expressed more eloquently, "to open your door and create a world where anyone feels that they can belong anywhere." Perhaps a lofty goal, but Airbnb is very serious about achieving it. And they're doing so by creating their own marketing playbook.

Mildenhall, who spent a decade at Coca-Cola in Atlanta following an early career at a number of top London creative agencies, believes that a brand should "stand for something." He adds, "Millennials want brands that share their same set of human values. This requires marketing that matters as it also pushes the human race forward."

His five basic rules for marketing success include:

1. Inspire conversation.
2. Deeds mean more than messages. Be keenly aware of brand conduct and activities.
3. Mine human behavioral truths in global storytelling.
4. Consider global resonance and local relevance.
5. Measure everything.

He also told the ANA audience, "As a marketer I think it's really important that you lean into the uncomfortable truth." Mildenhall talked about how Airbnb's "uncomfortable truth" regarding concerns of staying in an unfamiliar home led to their first international TV campaign, entitled "Never a Stranger." The spot features a young, single woman who travels the world alone as she builds friendships and local knowledge through her Airbnb contacts. "We put the fears about home rentals front and center in our advertising," says Mildenhall. "Our character admits, ‘My friends thought I was crazy to travel the world this way,' but we turned potential questions and apprehensions into an advantage."

Airbnb is undeniably committed to an ethos of connecting people so that they can belong anywhere. Their #OneLessStranger social challenge is just one of the many ways the company has been inspiring a community to embrace its core principles of hospitality, belonging, and opening doors around the world.

In an effort to turn strangers into friends, Airbnb invited its global community to undertake personal and creative acts of hospitality through #OneLessStranger. The company gave $10--or the equivalent in foreign currency--to 100,000 Airbnb members worldwide, totaling $1 million. They asked that the money be used for a unique act of kindness as part of a global movement to help rid the world of strangers. Creative gestures of hospitality could range from using the funds to plant seeds or flowers in the community garden to buying items for a local senior center to purchasing ingredients for baked goods to give to those in need. Airbnb also encouraged participants to document their experience via social channels using the #OneLessStranger hashtag.

Airbnb also understands it is a local travel brand that provides unique travel experiences. At the core may be the relationship between guest and host, but Airbnb has been especially brilliant about highlighting unusual locations and properties to catch the imaginations and conversations of travelers, as well as the interests of news outlets.

Many of their attention-getting accommodations and sweepstakes like Win a Sleepover in a Place of Your Dreams are the result of working with other brands that put fans at the heart of their business model like KLM, the Boston Red Sox baseball team, IKEA, and even an elite ski resort.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines converted a retired MD-11 aircraft at Schiphol Airport into a pop-up apartment for rent on Airbnb--complete with enormous living room, master bedroom, two kids' beds, eight small bathrooms, and 116 windows.

Airbnb was able to collaborate with Fenway Park, the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball, to make it available for a once-in-a-lifetime stay hosted by Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer and World Series hero, Curt Schilling. Following a home game against the New York Yankees, a lucky guest would be the first-ever to spend a night in a private suite at the stadium, followed by breakfast on top of the iconic Green Monster, the nickname for high left field wall. Contestants just had to answer: "Is staying overnight at Fenway Park a dream of yours? Tell us why."

Three families in Sydney had a chance to stay overnight at IKEA-- without having to assemble any furniture, and could choose décor options ranging from rustic charm to inner city living to modern elegance. A spectacular prize for any ski enthusiast was a stay in a suspended gondola at Courchevel in the French Alps-- converted into a luxe bedroom for four and a promise to be first on the slopes.

Airbnb is also smart about being first, especially in regard to current events of cultural or social significance. When the Obama administration announced new policies enabling Americans to travel to Cuba, Airbnb connected with a well-regulated network of private bed and breakfasts, called casa particulares, permitted under new Cuban laws allowing entrepreneurship. Cuba is now one of Airbnb's fastest expanding markets — with more than 2,000 listings — fulfilling the company's mission that anyone can "belong anywhere." This also represented one of the most significant US business developments on the island in the last 50 years—if not the fastest.

Today, Airbnb boasts over 1,500,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 190 countries with accommodations that can literally run the gamut from treehouse to castle. With such numbers, there's little doubt that there are already less strangers in the world, no matter which lodging option they choose.

Jonathan Mildenhall started his career as a graduate trainee in 1990 at McCann-Erickson. Over the next 15 years he rose through the ranks of the London Ad industry working at some of the world's most respected creatively-driven agencies including BBH, Lowe Howard Spink, Howell Henry, TBWA and Mother. During this time he also worked on some of the world's most compelling brands including Audi, Smirnoff, Alfred Dunhill, General Motors, Guinness and Playstation.

In 2006 he joined The Coca-Cola Company as VP, Global Advertising Strategy and Creative. In 2007 Jonathan lead the introduction of Coca-Cola's global marketing platform "Open Happiness," an initiative that contributed to the company's most profitable growth period in 20 years. The "Open Happiness"' platform also became Coke's most awarded marketing platform in history. Jonathan was named the 2013 Creative Marketer Of The Year at the Cannes Lions International Festival Of Creativity.

In 2014 Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, called to ask him to dinner. A one hour dinner turned into two hours, then three hours, at which point Jonathan was sold on Brian's vision to propel Airbnb into the world's first community-driven SuperBrand.