Airbnb’s ‘outside in’ house.Airbnb has made the first move to promote its new ‘Trips service’ in London as it talks up the experiences available when booking through its service, not just the accommodation. It has launched an ‘outside-in’ house in collaboration with colour brand Pantone that transforms a home in Clerkenwell in London with features including an indoor greenhouse and garden bedroom. The move comes after Airbnb introduced its Trips service in 12 cities, including London, late last year. The plan is to roll it out to 51 cities in total in 2017. And with the political surprises of 2016, with Brexit and Donald Trump winning the US election, Airbnb believes it is more important than ever for customers to embrace travel and “come together” through its trips service. “Now is a time when the openness travel can bring is really important. It helps to broaden horizons and can make the world a smaller place when it feels so distant,” James McClure, general manager for northern Europe, told Marketing Week at an Airbnb press event today (24 January). READ MORE: Airbnb wants ownership of the whole travel experience[1] The Trips platform now offers 500 experiences to travellers who want to experience local living in the city they are visiting. As well as the inside-out house, guests can book experiences such as Tai Chi and tea and making gin from scratch. Now is a time when the openness travel can bring is really important. It helps to broaden horizons and can make the world a smaller place when it feels so distant. James McClure, Airbnb Despite the fact more of its travel competitors, including TUI, are adopting Airbnb’s business models to suit the micro-adventurer as they push for end-to-end ownership, Airbnb believes the type of customer it attracts and the novelty…

Zero-based budgeting becomes the new normal Several trends have coalesced to make zero-based budgeting an imperative for marketing teams in 2017. The practice requires marketers to justify spending on all new activity, rather than having set budgets based on revenues or the previous year’s spend. This carefully costed approach reflects the economically uncertain and austere conditions under which many marketers now operate. The latest IPA Bellwether report forecasts that ad spend in 2017 is set to decline by 0.7% as business investment is pared back in line with the continuing uncertainty over Brexit. Moves to consolidate agency services, payment-by-performance agency models and increased scrutiny of digital metrics will also lead more companies to adopt zero-based budgeting as a way of keeping a closer check on their spend. The motivations are not just financial, though, and are also driven by the need to work in a more focused and targeted way. Charles Ireland, Diageo’s new general manager for GB, Ireland and France, recently told Marketing Week that the drinks group adopted zero-based budgeting earlier this year[1] as “a requisite of being a world-class organisation”. The company wants “to get the same services but more efficiently”, he said. READ MORE: Russell Parsons – Prepare for zero-bullshit pitching[2] Marketers will face a series of challenges as zero-based budgeting becomes the normal way of doing business in 2017. Agency relationships will have to be renegotiated as tighter cost controls and targets increase the burden on both sides. Marketing Week columnist Mark Ritson has already suggested that clients should consider paying a pitching fee to agencies[3] to account for a more onerous and complex pitch process. Internally, marketing teams will require people who are both financially-minded and effective planners. They will also need to keep creative marketers happy and create working environments that do not…

A still from Thomson’s ‘Moment’s campaign’.Thomson is launching its last marketing campaign of 2016, as it looks to position itself as a modern travel company ahead of its rebrand to TUI next year. The ad shows a young girl walking to her father at one of the company’s resorts in Crete. Moments are ‘frozen in time’ around her, showing a game of bat and ball and a couple sharing wine over lunch. The ad promotes TUI’s smile logo and is Thomson’s final yearly sign off before it becomes TUI. We caught up with Thomson’s Jeremy Ellis to find out more. How does the campaign relate to your rebrand to TUI? The campaign comes prior to our migration to TUI next year but is all about continuing to build the trust and reliability the Thomson brand is about. We wanted to make sure Thomson stays consistent as a brand but that we continued with the migration, so we put TUI’s smile at the heart of it. Over the past four to five years we have been trying to take Thomson from a traditional package holidays company to one that is more modern and will become TUI. We have done this through emotive storytelling rather than the sales advertising that was apparent 10 years ago. READ MORE: TUI’s CEO compares Thomson rebranding to ‘renovating a house’ as it repositions business[1] The ad is also about reinforcing quality time and we continue to build on the emotional stories seen in past campaigns, about how important quality time is with the people you love. Mid December seems quite early for a travel ad, what made you launch it now? We like to get ahead of the game before Christmas, just as Christmas advertising starts to die down mid December. At this time people are…