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Business Insider
a day ago
- Business
- Business Insider
'Slow down' and 'deeply observe' the company culture when starting a new job, says ex-Apple director
When job-hopping, make sure not to accidentally bring your old company's culture along for the ride, said Bob Baxley, a former director of design at Apple. "I think my own particular mistake, and I've seen this with some other Apple executives as well, is we went directly from Apple — I left Apple on a Friday and I started Pinterest on a Monday," Baxley said on a recent episode of Lenny's Podcast. "And I didn't give myself time to recalibrate to the Pinterest culture." After leaving Apple in 2014, Baxley went on to work as the head of product design at Pinterest, where he said he "bounced off" the culture, given that he was still acting as he had in his previous role. "I came in thinking I was supposed to behave the way I behaved at Apple, which is very direct, fighting hard. It's very — everybody cares about each other, it's never insulting, but it's intense," he said. "That's not really where Pinterest was at the time." It's not just Apple's working environment that has a way of sticking with you, Baxley added — most major tech companies have " really powerful cultures." "You get kind of indoctrinated into all those standards and it's really deep. It infuses all of your behavior and how you conduct yourself in the company, away from the company," he said. "And so, I think it's pretty hard to immigrate successfully from one of those environments to another." Baxley said that other former Apple employees have smoother transitions, purely by virtue of taking time off before taking up a new position. Baxley cites Hiroki Asai as a prime example — as Apple's former Vice President of Global Marketing, Asai took years off for "re-wirement" prior to joining AirBnB, according to his LinkedIn. "It also should be noted that he had — it was a multi-year gap between the time he left Apple and the time he started Airbnb," Baxley said. Asai and Apple did not respond to a request for comment by Business Insider prior to publication. "At Apple, I think it was Tim or Steve, used to talk about the Apple car wash," he added. "That when you started Apple, they kind of had to take you through the car wash and get off all that stuff that you'd accumulated at other places. It turns out there's a car wash you need to go through when you leave Apple as well." Though eschewing old habits as you move into a new role is important, that doesn't mean you should forget the lessons your old job taught you, Baxley said. "The thing I took away from Apple, and I think this is true for anybody changing from one major culture to another, is most likely, the new place hires you because of the values of the organization you left, but not the behaviors," he said. As you move on, it's worth asking how you can best incorporate the best aspects of your old company's culture in your new workplace, Baxley added. "And so I think it's important to recalibrate and say, well, I want to hold onto these values," he said. "So at Apple, attention to detail, product excellence, doing everything you can for the customer and the user — so, try to hold onto those values but then think, 'Okay, how are those values best expressed in this culture?'" Still, Baxley told Business Insider, it won't always be possible to pause between roles — particularly in the tech sphere, where companies usually want new hires to onboard right away. Even if you have to start immediately, it could be helpful to go in while expecting a period of adjustment. "My biggest point on this topic is that when you go into a new culture you really need to slow down, deeply observe, don't judge or compare, and then when you have a reasonable handle on things, reflect on the best ways to express the values from the old place with behaviors that are appropriate to the new," he told BI.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Airbnb booked a social-first campaign for its experiences relaunch
This story was originally published on Marketing Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Marketing Dive newsletter. Airbnb today (May 13) introduced new services, reimagined experiences and a refreshed app that offer travelers more than just a place to stay, per details shared with Marketing Dive. To educate consumers about the new features, the booking platform has revealed a new ad and a social-first marketing strategy. Founded in 2008 as a marketplace for short-term rentals, the company has revolutionized travel — and faced its share of controversy — but notched more than $11 billion in revenue in 2024. The new launches recognize that consumers' travel needs often extend beyond an apartment or vacation home. Airbnb Services look to replicate or build on the offerings of traditional hotels, including spa treatments; hair, makeup and nails; photography; and catering, prepared meals and on-site chefs. Airbnb Experiences is a relaunch of a current product that looks to meet travelers on the ground, and is at the heart of the company's latest marketing efforts. 'Airbnb has always been about connecting people to the authentic version of communities and places,' said Hiroki Asai, global head of marketing for the company. 'The way we've executed experiences is actually more a representation of the brand than even just homes are, and so the combination of the two really delivers on the promise of the original brand.' At the heart of Airbnb's latest marketing push is a 60-second spot, 'The Grand Adventure,' that unravels an animated storybook about travel, from the carriage rides, steam locomotives and grand ocean liners of the past to the hallmarks of contemporary travel that feel like 'less of an adventure [and] more of a checklist.' The ad positions Airbnb Experiences as a gateway to a 'world full of wonder' where travelers can cook ramen with master chefs, explore with anthropologists and listen to jazz with musicians. The spot will air on TV, streaming and online in the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, China and Korea throughout the summer. 'The illustration style we used was a great way for positioning us as an alternative to hotels, because it is a little bit of a conceptual argument. Trading in that fanciful way is a great way to deliver it without sounding like a pedantic school teacher,' Asai said. 'We wanted to reveal this magical world that's out there, outside of the beaten path.' The animation style shares a look and feel with 'Get an Airbnb,' a 2023 campaign that brought the platform's value propositions to life with animated miniatures. While that campaign was crafted by Buck Animation, 'The Grand Adventure' was created by Airbnb's in-house team. All advertising, marketing, design and product work on the new launch was created concurrently by teams working 'shoulder to shoulder,' Asai said. 'I'm a firm believer that you need to develop the supply and the product experience while you're working on the customer communication, because if you can't explain it… you can't advertise it in 30 seconds,' the exec said. While Airbnb Experiences can be personalized and customized, they are designed for the way consumers research, plan and share travel experiences on social media; many of the experience hosts have their own social followings, as well. In kind, the marketing of the feature, beyond the 60-second spot, was built with a social-first strategy that anticipates travel searches on social eclipsing those on Google. 'We [can] tailor the type of experiences that we show to what you're searching for, to who you are, and we can even make sure that what we show you has availability, with the diversity of supply that we have and the variability of it, and the uniqueness of it all,' Asai said. Airbnb has created more than a dozen social-only videos that highlight Airbnb Experiences in top travel destinations including Florence, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Miami, Milan, Paris, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Tokyo and Venice, with more to come. Searches for those cities on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube will deliver the videos with a call-to-action that delivers them directly to the booking page for those experiences. 'All of the work that we've done in the past has led up to this, from a technology perspective, the product perspective, the marketing, the operations, being able to work with celebrities… That's all been leading up to this idea of really going deep into a community and finding the local icons, the local creatives, the most interesting people within those communities, and putting them on the platform,' Asai explained. Airbnb Experiences will also feature Airbnb Originals, which builds on last year's launch of Icons that were hosted by major names in pop culture and opened up famous places in IP, from the emotional headquarters of 'Inside Out 2' to the X-Mansion in 'X-Men '97.' Megan Thee Stallion, Sabrina Carpenter and Patrick Mahomes have been tapped for Originals experiences. 'This is the first time in the history of the company where you can Airbnb more than an Airbnb,' Asai said. ''Airbnb something' has become colloquial, and now the concept… is stretching beyond homes and into experiences, services and who knows what after that.' Sign in to access your portfolio
