It may still be without a permanent chief marketing officer but Airbnb has promoted Geoff Seeley to the role of global marketing director and enlisted ex-Apple and Ford marketer Musa Tariq as head of marketing for experiences.

Over the past 12 months, Seeley has been the one constant in Airbnb’s senior marketing team.

He was hired by former chief marketing officer Jonathan Mildenhall to the “critical” role of media director before the latter left last year. As per his LinkedIn, Seeley has been leading the brand’s global marketing efforts since September – filling the shoes of Alexandra Dimiziani, who departed at the start of 2018.

Tariq, meanwhile, was most recently chief brand officer at Ford. He departed the business in May just over a year into the job.

Prior to Ford, Tariq was global marketing and communications director at Apple’s retail division for three years. Before that, he was global senior director of social media and community marketing for Nike. He’s also worked at Burberry and J Walter Thompson.

The Drum understands the marketing experiences position is a new role for Airbnb and that Tariq will oversee the marketing of products like Airbnb Trips.

It reached out to the company to clarify this and find out more about Seeley’s and Tariq’s new roles, but at the time of writing the business had yet to respond. It looks like both marketers will be based out of the brand’s San Francisco base.

Tariq has since commented on his appointment, saying: “Experiences are the undercurrent of culture and there is no company better positioned than Airbnb to build an experiences-focused business that transforms the way people see and interact with the world around them – just as they did with Homes.

“I have always admired the company’s mission to belong anywhere and this exciting part of the business unlocks a completely new opportunity to continue to deliver on that promise.

“I am excited to join the rapidly growing experiences business and help more and more hosts turn their passions into unique guided activities, that create enduring magical memories for our guests.”

A year of change for Airbnb

The appointments come after a year of change in the brand’s marketing department, which has seen a number of departures and hires over the past 12 months.

Following the surprise exit of marketing boss Mildenhall last year, chief executive officer Brian Chesky has taken on the role in the interim.

While Mildenhall was open that he was leaving to start his own creative consultancy Twenty First Century Brand, The Drum revealed last month that he has working behind the scenes with his former colleague Dimiziani on its launch.

While Airbnb has yet to fill its top marketing seat, it has been bulking up the team.

In September, it appointed former Amazon and Groupon exec Vinayak Hedge to lead its global growth marketing and traffic platforms. Hedge has also been tasked with handling marketing activities for its Homes division.

The company also recently announced that former eBay exec Laura Chambers had joined as head of Airbnb’s Homes Host category, where she will work on providing a better experience for people who rent their properties on the platform.