Gojek an Indonesian ride-hailing behemoth.

But in Singapore, the story is very different. Here, Gojek is one of the many challenger brands playing catch up to the country's beloved, home-grown giant, Grab.

Along the years, Gojek has slowly built awareness and demand by proving it understands Singaporeans' interests and can meet their needs with communication efforts supported by the brand's positioning "We Got You". To do so, it often invests in tactical campaigns that address a topical affair, connecting Gojek with Singaporean's interest points.

In 2022, it saw in the country's obsession with ghost stories an opportunity, and we were tasked to create a tactical campaign that galvanised users on and around the Halloween season.

Interest for horror podcasts spikes around Halloween. People are craving scary stories and we have great storytellers: cab drivers. Often driving late into the night and to the strangest locations, our drivers have had some pretty eerie encounters.

So we invited them to share their spookiest experiences behind the wheel. We selected and packaged the 12 scariest ones into a podcast and promoted it with an integrated campaign, capturing headlines and 100000 listeners along the way.

To ensure there was a scare for everyone, each one of the 12 horror stories takes place at a different location in the country - from CBD to heartland, from coast to coast - and references different superstitions/ghosts from the country's main ethnicities: Chinese, Malay and Indian.

The idea offers riders content that's of their interest and easy to consume while championing our drivers by offering them a platform to share their stories.

Gojek, like any ride-hailing company has two core, but very distinct audiences: riders and drivers. We can't operate without either. And every communication effort we make will be consumed, and interpreted uniquely, by both. For this campaign, two insights led to the final product.

Rider Insight:

Singaporeans love ghost and horror stories. The country's top selling author, with over 1.5 million books sold, is a horror writer and the nation hosts the world's first museum dedicated to death and the after life. That interest spikes during Halloween.

Driver Insight:

Luckily, we knew just where to find good stories: often driving late into the night, Gojek drivers have seen things they can’t un-see and experienced things they can’t forget. And cab drivers love sharing their stories (even when unsolicited).

We realised that, just like in ride-hailing, what our riders wanted, our drivers could provide.

For Halloween 2022, we asked our driver community to submit their scariest encounters and experiences behind the wheel, selected 12 of the best ones, helped them edit and proofread them, and invited the drivers in to record these stories, creating the first podcast serial of a completely new horror sub-genre: ride-hailing horror.

From indelible encounters (i.e.: distorted figures in the night) to mind-bending happenings (i.e.: a dead-end road... that has no end) and unexplainable sightings (i.e.: ghost passengers), the Drivers’ Spooky Stories podcast referenced superstitions and ghosts from each one of the country's main ethnicities - Chinese, Malay and Indian - and featured different locations around the country - from CBD to heartland, from coast to coast - ensuring there was a scare for every taste. No matter how questionable.

The podcast ran on Spotify, where it was accessible to all audiences.

Throughout the first two weeks of the campaign, a OOH take over saw ads appear in over 1,000 OOH placements around the nation, driving mass interest to the podcast serial.

More than that, it was pushed through radio promotions, social media and even as in-app easter eggs, reaching over 1 million people.

PR quickly picked up the story and Drivers' Spooky Stories was covered by the nation's largest media conglomerate Mediacorp's "Today" and "8 Days"; local news outlet "Head Topic", which has over 1.5 million impressions monthly; and even trade publications such as "Marketing Interactive".

In just the first two weeks, the podcast reached over 100,000 listeners.