“Voiced by inDrive” was created to strengthen the cultural image of Astana and bring renewed attention to contemporary poetry as a living, emotional art form.
Astana has a reputation as a city of ambition, money and opportunity, but not always inspiration or creative energy. inDrive wanted to challenge this perception by showing another side of the city: one capable of inspiring young artists, powerful words and cultural pride.
At the same time, poetry often struggles for attention in modern digital life. Reading culture in Kazakhstan, as in many markets, is under pressure: a 2023 survey found that only 26.5% of respondents had read at least one book in the previous year. For poetry, which is often seen as more niche or distant from everyday media habits, the challenge is even sharper: how can it reach people beyond traditional literary spaces?
The campaign set out to achieve three connected goals: reframe Astana as a source of creative inspiration; support and amplify young Kazakh poets by giving their work a wider platform; and create a cultural project that could live beyond a temporary campaign.
The objective was not simply to promote a city or a brand, but to help preserve and share a piece of contemporary Kazakh culture. By connecting local pride, young artistic voices and modern listening behavior, “Voiced by inDrive” aimed to make poetry feel closer, more accessible and more relevant to people’s everyday lives.
The strategy behind “Voiced by inDrive” was to make people experience Astana not only as a place to move through, but as a place to feel, hear and reinterpret.
The campaign started with a local tension: Astana is often seen as practical, ambitious and business-focused, but not necessarily inspiring. At the same time, poetry — one of the most emotional forms of cultural expression — needed a new way to reach people in a digital, audio-first world.
So inDrive turned to voices that could challenge both perceptions: five young poets from Kazakhstan. Each was invited to find inspiration in Astana and dedicate their poetry to the city. Instead of simply using poetry as written copy, the campaign gave each poet their own voice. They recorded a collection of their works, transforming the project from a temporary communication campaign into a cultural audio archive.
Audio became the key executional choice. If people were not always reading poetry, the campaign could bring poetry to them in a format already part of everyday behavior: listening. And because inDrive owns a very specific listening space — the ride — the campaign turned branded cars into media. Passengers could listen to the poems during their trips, making the city’s own traffic and movement part of the cultural experience.
Beyond the ride, the recordings were released across major platforms including Apple Music, Spotify, VK Music, YouTube Music and Yandex Music, allowing people to access the poems like they would music, podcasts or any other audio content.
The campaign also brought the poets and their verses into public-facing brand channels, digital platforms and social content, turning Astana itself into the source of the story. The message was simple: the city can inspire, and poetry can still be heard — if it is given the right form, space and platform.
The biggest challenge was to avoid making poetry feel like a decorative cultural reference. The work had to respect the poets as artists, not use them as campaign props. That is why the execution centered on their own words, their own voices and their own interpretation of Astana. inDrive’s role was not to speak over them, but to create the platform.
What made “Voiced by inDrive” unique was its lasting cultural output. The campaign did not only promote arts and culture; it created and preserved a new piece of it. For the first time in modern Kazakhstan’s history, a collection of contemporary poetry — recorded in the poets’ own voices and inspired by Astana — was released across major music platforms as a unique slice of national culture.
Inspired by Astana. Voiced by inDrive.
“Voiced by inDrive” succeeded because it made contemporary poetry visible, listenable and relevant in the place that inspired it.
The campaign reached 20 million total views and generated 16,500 interactions, showing that a project built around poetry could still capture attention at scale when adapted to modern media behavior. By bringing poems into branded cars, social content and major music platforms, inDrive helped poetry move beyond traditional literary spaces and into the everyday rhythm of the city.
The project also created a lasting cultural output. Five young poets recorded original works inspired by Astana, making the campaign more than a temporary message. It became a modern audio collection that preserved their voices and their interpretation of the city, available across Apple Music, Spotify, VK Music, YouTube Music and Yandex Music.
This met the campaign’s objectives on several levels: it reframed Astana as a source of creative inspiration, amplified young Kazakh artists, and used audio as a meaningful format for cultural preservation and discovery.
The campaign also delivered measurable business impact, showing that cultural relevance can strengthen brand performance. During the campaign period, orders increased by 31% and rides increased by 34%.
We consider “Voiced by inDrive” a success because it proved that a local brand campaign can do more than borrow from culture. It can create, record and distribute culture — giving young artists a platform, giving the city a new voice, and giving people a new way to experience poetry in everyday life.
