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Caspian Studios loves to shake things up.
Take the Murder in HR podcast.
Many agencies listen to clients' needs and then develop a program accordingly. But Caspian took the opposite approach: he first developed an interesting idea and then presented it to potential customers.
Another unexpected element undermined expectations for B2B content. Instead of featuring the experts of a brand or industry, Caspian presented a serial fictional audio story with the voices of top actors, capitalizing on the trend of true crime podcasts.
This unexpected strategy led to Caspian's Murder in HR Podcast winning Best Podcast/Audio Series at the Content Marketing Awards. It also earned Ian Faison, CEO of Caspian Studios, a nomination as a 2024 Content Marketer of the Year finalist.
Here's the story of the twists and turns involved in bringing this unconventional B2B marketing strategy to life.
Fiction for B2B podcasts? Really?
Yes. And Murder in HR, which debuted in 2023 with 12 episodes, wasn't even Caspian's first B2B fiction series.
The studio also created “The Hacker Chronicles,” a story about a woman who turned to the dark web and hacked into a massive food company (featuring the voices of well-known actors Michael C. Hall and Chloe Taylor). Tenable, a cybersecurity company, released 22 podcast episodes in 2022 and 2023.
“I really believe in this idea of fiction for B2B,” says Ian. “No one does it, and the reason is because it’s really hard.”
But the effort can be worth it. The second season of Murder in HR started at the end of September. Work on seasons 3 and 4 is already underway.
The true crime story centers on a brilliant 30-year-old woman who has quit every job she's ever had and ends up choosing to work in human resources at a technology company.
When a murder occurs, she tries to solve it. Along the way, she finds out that the company is a front company for an assassin business and she will be killed if she leaves. This detail explains her commitment to the job and ensures Caspian's ability to tell the story across multiple seasons.
“It’s an interesting story with this really crazy twist,” says Ian.
The first season of the podcast was voiced by star actors Kate Mara and Brett Gelman and published by Gympass (now Wellhub). Season 2 was released by Wellhub and Bamboo HR.
Caspian's third B2B serial fiction podcast, Scam Hunters, debuted this fall. The “business thriller” follows a disgraced Chief Information Security Officer (voiced by Greg Kinnear) who receives a call from a Miami journalist (voiced by Erin Moriarty) who needs help investigating scams targeting terminally ill patients . Thoropass, an information security compliance platform, publishes this podcast.
Development of a surprising B2B content idea
CEO Ian Faison, Caspian Studios 2024 Content Marketer of the Year finalist
The Caspian Studios team starts with the idea, not the customer. The idea, Ian explains, is: “Let’s create something amazing. Let’s make something consumer-grade that people can listen to.”
The Caspian team brainstorms possibilities and then whittles a list of about 50 ideas down to a handful. From there, it shares the concepts with potential partners. With Murder in HR, the request went to Chief Marketing Officers and other marketing managers in the HR area.
The pitch was something like, “Hey, we’re thinking about doing this podcast – a fictional crime story set in an HR department.”
Caspian received several responses that went something like, “You’re crazy. Good luck with stuff like that.”
However, Ryan Bonnici, former CMO of Wellhub, reacted in the opposite way. “The team at Wellhub loved the idea of the story and the crazy twist,” says Ian.
Ryan liked the idea of this “very big deal” aimed at the audience that buys Wellhub products.
Wellhub is a brand that's all about employee well-being, and Murder in HR is set in the most toxic company possible. Luckily, the hero of the story is an HR professional who transforms the environment into a non-toxic one.
The story also reflects how the fictional characters use Gympass services, such as access to the Calm app and fitness classes.
Chief People Officers reviewed the scripts for accuracy. “It's the same thing HR deals with in real life – well, hopefully not the assassin part,” Ian explains.
Deliver big marketing results
About 20 Caspian team members worked on Mord in HR along with about 10 people from the Wellhub side.
The fictional podcast series proved remarkably successful. Although Caspian and Wellhub only targeted 50,000 listeners with their marketing campaign, the first season received over 1.1 million downloads in the first six months.
Murder in HR ranked #1 for Fiction on Apple Podcasts for one week, peaked at #1 in New & Noteworthy, and #39 on Apple Podcasts. This increased Wellhub's awareness among audiences and highlighted the company's versatile and flexible platform.
Wellhub may incorporate new ads and messages into episodes to keep the news relevant. Wellhub also promoted the story in various areas, from marketing and media to webinars and sales pitches.
What did the listeners think? “We got tons of feedback from people saying, 'We love this.' “It's a very cool story. “We even had a group tell us they wanted to host an event for the season two premiere,” says Ian.
Tell stories that executives will buy
A fictional story as a podcast may seem like a risk in the B2B space, where marketers and executives typically prefer to showcase their expertise to educate their audience.
The business case for Murder in HR is a hit show for and about an audience that has traditionally been the butt of jokes in the workplace (think Toby from TV show The Office). And it tells stories about things these professionals can't talk about publicly.
For Ian, this type of storytelling isn't risky. “Brand risk is talking about politics on LinkedIn – the idea of alienating people,” he says. “Telling a crime story that’s supposed to be funny and interesting involves pretty little risk.”
Caspian plans to take the concept to the next level. The studio is working to create what Ian calls the “Murderverse,” a series of interconnected stories that could attract many brand partners. The formats can range from podcasts to feature films.
“We have all sorts of crazy ideas,” says Ian.
B2B target groups are people too
Some executives believe that these fictional stories appeal to the masses and are not suitable for their brand's niche audience.
However, Ian argues that a podcast with consumer appeal can work. On the one hand, it appeals to the target group with inside jokes and Easter eggs. And it works for a wider audience too.
A chief people officer told him: “I heard it on a road trip with my daughter and it was so much fun. “We were trying to figure out who the killer was together and I was talking to my daughter about work.”
And that's the point, says Ian. Most B2B content doesn't require the listener to pay attention to an entire episode, let alone finish the entire season. “The whole premise of Murder in HR was to try to change that.”
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
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