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Worldwide: Airbnb has released its first-ever specialised advert for the festive season, in which it shows a frantic Santa Claus experience a ‘Santastrophe’ navigating a hotel to deliver presents, in comparison with a much smoother experience at a short-term rental Airbnb listing.
Created by the company’s in-house creative team, the short animated advert is narrated in the rhyming style of the poem ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’, while simultaneously highlighting the challenges associated with staying at hotels in a humorous way.
Airbnb has run a number of adverts or films across different media as part of its ‘Get an Airbnb’ campaign, however this is the first produced by the brand to feature its own narrative. The global campaign was first unveiled back in August 2023.
The advert begins with Father Christmas and his sleigh landing “somewhere atop a hotel”, before he encounters various obstacles and problems, ranging from getting stuck in the door to finding long queues of people, struggling to get in a lift, operating a key card, navigating a confusing hotel layout and getting locked out of a room – all in his quest to deliver presents.
Instead, there is a direct juxtaposition between Santa’s experience in a hotel and when he travels to an Airbnb “home”, which has significantly more space and its own “fully functioning chimney” – making his job much easier.
The tagline for the advert is “Some trips are merrier in an Airbnb”, further reinforcing the company’s overall message.
A spokesperson for Airbnb said: “With many families preparing to travel this holiday, this newest ad in our ‘Get an Airbnb’ campaign shows how staying on Airbnb is Santa friendly, with many homes featuring room for a tree or a fully functioning chimney. This spot was developed by our in-house creative team, playfully bringing to life how Airbnb makes holidays even more merry.”
The advert is due to run across social media, TV and in cinemas from today [28 November] in the UK, United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Mexico and Germany.
