About Sixteen By Nine
Every Line Has a Source.
Podcast Campaign
When The West Australian launched Behind The White Line – a six-episode investigative podcast into Operation Beech and WA’s cocaine trade – we identified a strategic opportunity and negotiated the naming sponsorship on behalf of Crime Stoppers WA. Then we built the entire campaign around the podcast’s world.
Client
Crime Stoppers Western Australia
Partner agency
WA Police Force
Sector
Government / Public Safety
Services delivered
Market
Perth & Western Australia
─ The brief ─
The challenge —
and why it mattered
Behind the White Line was The West Australian's most ambitious investigative podcast series to date — a six-episode deep dive into Operation Beech, the joint WA Police and DEA taskforce that targeted the state's cocaine supply network. WA Police participated directly in the series, lending the production credibility and access few local podcasts could claim.
We identified the sponsorship opportunity early and brought it to the Crime Stoppers WA board with a clear recommendation: this wasn't just a media buy. The show's audience — engaged, analytically minded, self-selecting into a story about drug supply in their own community — was exactly the population most likely to hold information Crime Stoppers WA needed. People who already knew something.
The brief wasn't simply to put the Crime Stoppers WA name on a popular podcast. It was to build a campaign that earned its place inside the content — one that felt native to the series, spoke in the same register as its audience, and lowered the single biggest barrier to reporting: the fear of being identified.
How do you sponsor an investigative journalism series without sounding like a generic public service announcement dropped into an otherwise credible editorial environment?
How do you write copy that speaks to an audience actively learning about the drug trade — in their own language — without being preachy or disconnected from what they just heard?
How do you maximise a fixed six-week sponsorship by shifting creative direction mid-flight to serve both contextual reporting and longer-term brand positioning?
How do you leverage a podcast sponsorship across editorial, organic social, and paid display to extend reach well beyond the media buy itself?
─ What we delivered ─
The work
Identified the opportunity, presented the strategic case to the Crime Stoppers WA board, and negotiated an NFP rate — securing the naming sponsorship at $6,000 ex GST against a standard market rate of $10,500 ex GST.
Full copy suite across both creative directions: 10" intro and outro credit lines, 15" mid-show live read scripts, and digital display banner copy — each precisely calibrated to tone, timing, and placement context.
Scripts written for host-read and produced formats, with tone notes and timing guidance. Direction 1: hard-edged and contextually anchored. Direction 2: empowering and brand-led. Distinct registers for distinct moments in the listening arc.
100% Share of Voice across the podcast landing page. Billboard, MREC, Leaderboard, Mobile Banner, and Half Page — with copy and visual direction for both campaign directions. High-contrast aesthetic matched to the podcast's own identity.
Dedicated campaign landing page on the Crime Stoppers WA website supporting the broadcast and digital campaign. Organic social content plan to extend reach beyond the paid schedule across CSWA's own channels.
Identification of editorial opportunities — including a potential story on the role Crime Stoppers reporting played in operations like Beech — to generate earned media running alongside the paid sponsorship flight.
─ The creative idea ─
Someone knows
the supply chain.
Every investigative podcast about the drug trade starts with the same premise: someone, somewhere, knew how it worked. The stories in Behind the White Line exist because people had information. Crime Stoppers WA is the mechanism that turns that information into action.
The central line — Every line has a source. Help us find it. — worked on two levels simultaneously. In the literal sense of the podcast's subject matter. And as an invitation: you might be one of the people who knows.
"You don't need to be brave. Just anonymous."
Direction 1 was contextually anchored — hard-edged, direct, written for an audience who'd just spent 20 minutes learning about cocaine supply chains. It met them where they were.
Direction 2 shifted to brand positioning — empowering, inclusive, designed to cement Crime Stoppers WA's core identity as the series concluded and recall was at its peak.
The hybrid schedule was deliberate: Direction 1 capitalised on peak audience engagement as the series built. Direction 2 landed the brand message at the highest recall moment — series conclusion.
─ Campaign executions ─
Two directions.
One campaign.
The hybrid schedule was structured to make the most of the audience arc across six episodes. The first three episodes deployed Direction 1 — anchored directly to the drug supply content the audience was consuming. The final three deployed Direction 2 — a brand-led message that worked independently of the episode content, producing assets repurposable well beyond this campaign flight.
728×90 Leaderboard · Direction 1 — Every Line Has a Source
970×250 Billboard · Direction 1 — Every Line Has a Source
300×250 MREC · Direction 1 — Every Line Has a Source
The copy — in their own register.
Direction 1 — Every Line Has a Source"The stories in this series started with someone knowing something. If you know about drug supply in your community — you don't need to be brave, just anonymous. Crime Stoppers WA protects your identity completely. Search Crime Stoppers WA."
"If you know something about crime in your community, Crime Stoppers WA want to hear from you. It's what you know, not who you are that matters. Your name never comes into it. Report anonymously today — search Crime Stoppers WA."
─ Media value & reach ─
Beyond the
media buy.
The sponsorship was structured to deliver well beyond a straightforward podcast placement. The West Australian's promotion of Behind the White Line across Channel 7, The West in print and online, and digital channels meant Crime Stoppers WA's brand appeared in an editorial environment that money alone couldn't build — associated with one of WA's highest-profile investigative journalism projects.
─ The results ─
The numbers
speak for themselves.
Behind the White Line didn't just deliver a sponsorship placement — it delivered an audience. The series became one of the biggest podcast stories of the year, and Crime Stoppers WA's message reached deep into exactly the community it was built to find.
Podcast performance
Best Series of the Year So Far
Spotify
#1 in Documentaries
Apple Podcasts
#1 in True Crime
Display performance
Mobile Banner and MREC — the two formats built for the campaign's mobile-first audience — accounted for 91% of total impressions and returned a standout 1.17% CTR. June alone delivered 54% of total impressions, as reach peaked alongside the series' final episodes.
"When the opportunity came to sponsor Behind the White Line, it wasn't just a media buy. It was a brief. The podcast's audience was self-selecting into a story about drug supply in their own community — exactly the people most likely to hold information Crime Stoppers WA needed. We built the entire campaign to meet them there."
Jarrod Greenwood, Founder & Director — Sixteen By Nine─ Got a project like this? ─
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