Believing in the power of entertainment, the 14 episodes of Tell Me What Happened broke free from the monotony of traditional advertising. They captivated listeners with engaging real-life stories highlighting the importance of OnStar's safety services. The stories kept listeners on edge.

With an 89% completion rate and a Lifestyle category ranking of #2 in Canada and #7 in the U.S., the formula of real-life scenarios, organic product placement and immersive 3D audio resulted in increased brand awareness. By partnering with renowned experts and institutions, OnStar brought credibility to the content — entertaining audiences while simultaneously promoting its safety services.

OnStar, a General Motors brand, has been a leader in the automotive safety industry for years. However, as the brand expanded beyond the vehicle by developing a new app, it recognized the need to increase awareness of its services.

To achieve this, OnStar sought to engage its target audience entertainingly and engagingly that would demonstrate its safety leadership and inspire people to take proactive measures to ensure their health in life-threatening circumstances—creating a podcast provided the brand with an unexpected opportunity to connect with its audience and promote its authority in the safety space.

The stories within the podcast showcased the value of a human connection in an emergency, an essential attribute of OnStar's services, while the inclusion of an expert in each episode offered proactive measures for listeners to protect their own health in similar situations.

Our target audience for Tell Me What Happened is podcast listeners, ages 25-54, who listen to a podcast at least once a month and are interested in hearing personal stories or documentary-style programs. Our target demographic is slightly more female (55%) and includes people of color as well as urban and rural residents. We seek to introduce them to the brand in an engaging and entertaining way, while also emphasizing key brand attributes such as safety leadership, human connection, and innovation.

Our secondary target is existing OnStar Members, who we reached through brand social and CRM channels. Our goal here is to reinforce their opinion of the brand and build an ongoing relationship with them that leads to higher retention rates.

In addition, the OnStar podcast appeals to those Individuals who seek an active lifestyle and outdoor adventures since the episodes feature emergency situations in various weather conditions.

Our idea was to use the power of human connection and storytelling to transform real-life stories of rescues into compelling OnStar brand content that can save lives. This helped listeners understand the value and the critical role of what OnStar delivers every day – saving lives and helping those in need – without it specifically serving as a commercial for the brand.

Formatted into 14 3D audio episodes, each about 25 minutes long, we used spatial immersive audio to tell compelling stories about how even a stranger can be critical in life-threatening or emergency situations.

OnStar invited a CBC Radio One journalist Torah Kachur to create a podcast featuring real-life stories of emergency response.

The original branded content features interviews with 10 renowned institutions, such as The American Red Cross and Seattle Mountain Rescue, and an extensive and meticulous casting, including 68 pre-interviews and 32 hours of formal guest interviews to bring real lifesaving stories to life, produced on a minimalistic budget. Pacific Content, a production company, used immersive 3D spatial audio to enhance the listener experience while staying true to the brand message.

The team worked for four months to craft each episode, incorporating music beds and ambient sound effects to transport the audience into diverse emergency situations.

The podcast succeeded on various streaming platforms to reach a broad audience interested in technology, automotive safety, and human connection during crises. The final product showcases OnStar's critical role in emergencies and highlights its service's importance.

We have 146K downloads and 77,382 unique listeners who have spent 50,109.8 hours listening. More than 5,700 listeners have subscribed, and the podcast has a rating of 4.9 (out of 5). Our completion rate averages 89% across all our episodes.

87% of listeners agreed they 'learned something new', and 84% said they appreciated the 'helpful tips on personal safety and security.'

Apple selected the podcast for promotion in its New & Noteworthy section in the US and Canada. We have charted in the Relationships category in the US and Canada, reaching #7 in the US and #2 in Canada.

Podcast listeners had significantly higher awareness of OnStar (+6 points) and a higher consideration rate (+16 points) than a control group. They also rated OnStar higher for crucial brand attributes, such as: providing human assistance (+12 points), being relevant for today's times (+11 points), and being innovative (+8 points).

The past two years have seen record-busting natural disasters as climate change increases the impact of hurricanes, wildfires and flooding. Both in numbers and severity, dramatic storms and related disasters are striking with a ferocity not seen in recent history.

Life is getting and feeling more dangerous, which has increased residents’ anxiety about the safety of their property – and their own personal safety.

Tell Me What Happened is addressing that anxiety by offering listeners to proactive measures they can take to safeguard their personal safety while also offering insights from experts that inspire them with actionable steps that can save them in emergencies.