Challenges and Objectives

Oetinger is a publisher with heritage, but maintains a spirit of constant innovation. Nevertheless, it faces a lot of challenges common to publishers nowadays, such as:

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  Driving digital innovation and transformation through new digital-first business model

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  Engaging with young readers safely across all the platforms they use, such as print, digital and audio - and winning the battle for their attention.

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  Using innovative formats and tech - like AI - to engage new audiences.

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  Balancing the time and resources to be creative with the reality of monetization.

But as a fiction publisher, they also have a final responsibility that isn’t considered as typically commercial, but absolutely is: to be the stewards of the characters under their umbrella.

You don’t need us to tell you that fictional characters can occupy a big place in our hearts and minds. So, for characters like Erhard Dietl’s Die Olchis to keep delighting readers for generations, publishers have to find creative ways to tell new stories featuring beloved characters. And that’s where Giggly comes in.

Solutions

Leveraging the power of the personal connections that audiences build with characters, Oetinger aimed to launch a new, interactive platform for parents to create personalized birthday messages from Die Olchis for their little ones.

Of course, when personalized audio is needed at scale and on-demand, it’s a perfect case for AI Audio.

But far from replacing the creativity of the process (the message contains original material from Die Olchis’ creator) the platform automated and amplified it.

With just a name, age and hobbies, Giggly can create a fun, personalized birthday message, paired with an original song by the Die Olchis family, in less than a minute. So, why did Oetinger partner with AudioStack to do it?

Firstly, because AudioStack’s AI-powered production API could seamlessly generate the audio that made all of these elements come together: script, voice, production and playback.

But more so than the technology, they needed a partner who could make the platform engaging… and navigate the potential pitfalls of the process. This meant that AudioStack worked to:

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  Provide the AI Audio scalability and personalization infrastructure that enables this automation via dynamic audio templating.

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  Provide its production & mastering engine to produce broadcast-quality audio and songs through advanced mastering and voice synthesis.

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  Integrate seamlessly into the Oetinger tech ecosystem via AudioStack’s developer-friendly API.

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  Enable voice synthesis with a recognizable voice & narrator, which provided tailored, personalized messages for each customer at scale.

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  Develop a joint success plan for the project to manage implementation.

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  Co-operate with Oetinger to navigate licensing, protecting the author’s characters and creative rights in this novel use case.

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  Create the format of the conversational platform to input data, making the Giggly platform engaging for users.

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  Ensure that users could hear the song they had generated, but gate downloads behind a paywall to monetize the platform.

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  Secure the backend of the platform to ensure the assets created are of a consistently high quality, whilst preventing misuse and ensuring user data is handled in a GDPR-compliant way.

With AudioStack, Oetinger could focus on the creativity — while the tech ensured every song was fast, flawless, and fun. And together, the partnership turned an ambitious idea into a working product — one that connects stories to children in a joyful, fresh way.

Results

As of April 2025, Giggly is now generating fully-automated, hyper-personalized songs that kids and parents love, daily - for less than the cost of a birthday card. The songs are delighting children and creating new fans of Die Olchis: and press outlets in the publishing and music industries have already taken notice.

But it was the speed of the project that was truly astounding: the project went from concept to completion in just 6 months. It was only possible with an existing, market-proven technology stack, AI, and an expert partnership that could deftly blend the technical, creative and legal knowledge needed to make it happen.

For a publisher with deep storytelling roots, the magic of Giggly lies in combining narrative charm with cutting-edge tech. AudioStack offered: A robust infrastructure built for scale and reliability. A team with deep experience in audio personalization and creative automation. The flexibility to handle licensed voices, musical elements, and complex data inputs. A shared vision: to make audio content more dynamic, accessible, and emotionally resonant.

Now, Oetinger have a springboard from which to iterate soul-filled AI-enabled audio content featuring other beloved characters to delight new and familiar audiences. Try creating a song for yourself or your child on giggly.kids!