How Skepta drove fan activity and playlist placements with Sonikit

Case StudiesApril 16, 2024

⚡ Introduction: Turning Streaming Into a Global Moment

In the modern music industry, cutting through the noise requires more than just dropping a link. For the release of Ignorance Is Bliss, Skepta’s team set out to create an experience that transformed a digital album drop into a global fan moment.

Working with Wayward Creative, Sony Music, and The Orchard, Skepta’s team launched a cutting-edge interactive website powered by Sonikit. The site featured a real-time, 3D heat map of global streaming activity, letting fans visually explore the impact of the record — and heat up their city by listening to the album live.

Here’s how the campaign combined streaming data, interactivity, and Sonikit’s pre-save and SMS tools to create one of the most immersive album launches of the year.

🌐 Campaign Concept: Stream. Explore. Activate.

The core idea of the campaign was simple but powerful:

Visualize the world’s reaction to Skepta’s new music in real time.

Fans who visited the site were greeted with a dynamic 3D globe, glowing with streaming activity pulled from Spotify and Apple Music APIs. Key features included:

Live streaming heat map showing top cities by listen count
Fan location interaction — users could “heat up” their own location by streaming the album
Search locations to see which songs were trending in different regions
Embedded streaming so fans could listen without ever leaving the site

This approach not only captured attention — it kept fans on-site longer, encouraged sharing, and drove measurable conversions.

🔧 Sonikit’s Role: The Engine Behind the Engagement

While the visuals pulled fans in, it was Sonikit that made the campaign perform behind the scenes. Skepta’s team used a fully custom Sonikit pre-save embed integrated into the site — giving them total control over the experience from start to finish.

💡 Pre-Save Integration Highlights:

✅ On-Site Pre-Save, No Redirections

Fans could pre-save the album to Spotify or Apple Music directly on the site. No third-party landing pages, no friction. This meant:

Higher completion rates
Lower bounce rates
A more immersive fan journey

✅ Total Design Control

With Sonikit, the pre-save embed could be styled to match the site’s futuristic, globe-spanning visual identity. That consistency built trust — and kept the branding sharp.

✅ Fan Data Collection Built-In

Each pre-save captured phone numbers from fans who opted in, allowing Skepta’s team to:

Send SMS updates about the album release
Promote tour dates and merch drops
Build a direct-to-fan marketing channel

✅ Ad Attribution + Retargeting

Because fans never left the site, all paid ad traffic stayed contained, meaning:

Cleaner attribution
Stronger audience segmentation
Smarter retargeting on platforms like Meta, TikTok, and Google

✅ Advanced Analytics & Insights

Sonikit delivered real-time fan insights to the team, including:

Pre-save conversion rates by platform
SMS opt-in percentages
Geo-location breakdowns
Streaming platform preferences

This data helped the team optimize spend and creative mid-campaign, which isn’t always possible with standard DSP pre-save tools.

📊 Results at a Glance

Thousands of pre-saves collected directly from the site
High SMS opt-in rate, creating a new first-party marketing list
Fans from over 40 countries interacted with the heat map
Average session time more than 3x industry benchmarks, due to the immersive design
Full control over data and attribution, making the campaign measurable from top to bottom

🎧 What This Means for Indie Artists and Labels

This campaign proves that interactive doesn’t have to mean complicated — and that tools like Sonikit make high-impact campaigns accessible even for smaller teams.

Here’s what music marketers and independent artists can take away:

Embed your pre-saves into any campaign site or microsite with Sonikit — and keep fans where you want them.
Capture phone numbers and build SMS lists early in your funnel, not after the release.
Track everything from top streaming services to fan geo data in one place.
Deliver an experience, not just a link.