#UntilWeAllBelong

The Challenge
In 2017, Australia was the last western country to legalise same sex marriage, despite 75% of citizens in Australia supporting it. With Airbnb’s global mantra of fostering acceptance and belonging for all people everywhere, Airbnb wanted to create a campaign that further drove this mantra, as well as putting marriage equality back on the political agenda in Australia.

The Idea
With a limited paid media budget (under $50,000) we wanted to go beyond just a short term consideration spike, we wanted to create a movement that would not rest until same-sex marriage becomes law. To do this, we needed a symbol that could be immediately recognisable, allow people to show their support and spark the volume of conversation and societal pressure that would be required to help create change. We took one of the oldest symbols of marriage – the wedding ring – and turned it into a unique media channel, a symbol for marriage inequality, the Acceptance Ring. The matte black metal ring is an incomplete circle with the gap serving as a physical representation of the gap in same-sex marriage in Australia, designed with support from world-renowned designer Marc Newson. It turned the hands of hundreds of thousands of Australians into a media channel supporting gay marriage.

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The core execution was the ring itself and the ambient media that was created by having hundreds of thousands of Australians wearing it. With its distinctive look, and the huge levels of conversation around it across Australia, it became an always on media channel of support for gay marriage. On top of this, all that ordered the ring were encouraged to take the pledge in social media to continue to fight for equality until everyone could belong. In these posts, the ring continued to be front center, driving our earned media reach. Supporting this was a huge influencer outreach effort who were targeted with the first Acceptance Rings, all with the CTA to share #untilweallbelong. As more corporations rallied to our cause, we were able to bring our message to life in increasingly unique ways – for example, across the back of all Qantas boarding cards.

The Results

Within 3 days of our campaign launching, Airbnb became the most mentioned brand in both Australian and global conversations around same-sex marriage. We rallied other major corporates to our cause, including ANZ, Qantas, eBay, PWC, Foxtel, Fairfax Media, Marie Claire, ARN (Australian Radio Network). Our initial allocation was sold out within the first 24 hours. So far, 200,000 rings have been sold and are continuing to be ordered at a rate of 1,700/day. From sports stars, to supermodels, to digital influencers, to politicians, to every day Australians – the Acceptance Ring is permeating all tiers of Australian culture. We propelled the same-sex marriage conversation back into the forefront of public consciousness with over 2,000,000 shares of same-sex marriage articles in the 2 months since launch alone. Despite the inherently divisive nature of this subject conversation around Airbnb’s initiative has been almost universally positive, with a sentiment score of 98% positive.

This campaign set out with a singular, powerful goal – to reignite the same-sex marriage debate in Australia at a time when it had dropped off the political radar. Through our subversion of the most universal symbols of marriage – the wedding ring – we engaged the majority of Australians that are supportive of same-sex marriage, at the same time promoting the core foundations of the Airbnb brand; the desire that everyone should be met with tolerance and acceptance where ever they go. Through 100,000’s of rings delivered and pledges of support taken, we thrust the same-sex marriage conversation back to the top of the agenda.

The Awards

  • Cannes Lion in Product Design (2017)

  • Cannes Lion in Integrated Media (2017)

  • Bronze Spike in Use of Ambient Media: Small Scale (2017)

  • D&AD Wooden Pencil for Integrated Campaigns (2018)

  • Webby for Corporate Social Responsibility (2018)

  • Clio for Integrated Campaign (2018)

  • Clio for Partnerships & Collaborations (2018)

  • One Show Merit in Cross Platform (2018)

The Role I Played
I drove the social and influencer strategy, including paid media strategy, as well as created the social content and accompanying copy. I worked with the client directly, as well we their in-house PR team in regards to content and the influencer flighting plan.