Metaverse Music Strategy Breakdown – Dua Lipa, Levitating Remix

Dua Lipa brought DaBaby in for a new remix to her hit "Levitating", and they collaborated on a music video with TikTok. Expectedly, it's visually immaculate (courtesy of director Warren Fu).

And you know what? I'm disappointed that this awesome release has ZERO interactive media components for fans to engage with.

The lack of interactive/experiential media supporting this release is a wasted opportunity for every camp involved – a missed opportunity that could still drive a lot of earned reach if executed quickly.

Below I've briefly critiqued this video drop and specifically broken down several examples of 360° web experiences and Augmented Reality filters that could still bring this release to life online in mind-blowing ways.

Here's the video for reference:

First, why critique a predictably successful music release from a pop star?

Producing this video, coming up with a marketing plan for it, and prepping for the drop is an expectedly large financial undertaking.

But even with a relatively open checkbook, the minds behind this campaign didn't include a single piece of interactive or immersive content to accompany the video/song and further engage fans.

Interactive media is a supercharger for fan engagement – something I’ve seen across dozens of immersive music marketing projects as I’ve worked to figure out what performs best as part of a larger campaign.

When used to expand the universe of a story, these campaigns become powered by discovery & curiosity, and they use a sense of space to tell a story instead of just a flat screen.

I really like the track, but for now I'm frustrated by how CLOSE they are to nailing the interactive media component of this campaign... while still missing the mark.

Marketing Pop Artists with Augmented Reality

Every piece of flat media presents an opportunity to ask: can we make this more interactive and immersive for fans?

At the time of posting this article, neither Dua Lipa nor DaBaby had an Instagram filter that matched the Levitating video, and there are no unique filters or effects available on TikTok for it either.

Nonetheless, I've broken down a variety of AR/360 opportunities that would work well for this very campaign.

AR Portals

The "Levitating" music video starts with Dua Lipa stepping into a portal.

This is one of the most common & obvious use cases for AR filters. You place the portal on the ground, and then you walk into the scene. The image below shows how easily this concept works on social media today. (Source: CreatorUp)

The image below is from the Dua Lipa / DaBaby music video. It's easy to see how this idea might come to life with this campaign. Fans could put that portal on the ground and walk right into Dua Lipa's dance floor.

AR Face Filters: Beauty Effects

The color grading & visual effects on the video could easily become an AR filter as well for fans that want to access the aesthetic of the video.

Here is an example of Dua Lipa's makeup that could easily become a beauty effect filter on her Instagram profile.

AR Face Filters: Color-changing filters / LUTs

Here is an example of the unique lighting & coloring in this video. A color-changing filter would be a fun way to allow fans to bring this video aesthetic into their own feed.

Both of these filter types are some of the most common filters on Instagram, and it's easy to see how these ideas could potentially create a lot of earned reach for an artist.

Immersive Websites For Higher Levels of Fan Engagement

This video is advertised on TikTok with Dua Lipa explaining how "a gravitational centrifge will pull you to a 360 dance floor" as part of the hype for the video's dance challenge.

Unfortunately, there's no 360° content for a fan to experience even though the set looks amazing and all it would have taken is one single 360° photo to share with fans.

Web 360 / Web 3D Experience: Go Stand On The Dance Floor

Here is one example that could have been executed with a single 360° photo of the dance floor. Turn that 360° photo into a web-accessible concept and fans could swipe up on an Instagram Story and appear in the center of the dance floor with the artists.

Here is a rough example of this idea in action for Kooley High, from Raleigh NC, using a 360° photo.

Additionally, the image below is a 360° space that would take a little more design work but would ultimately be more captivating for a fan to experience.

Dua Lipa is floating on that same dance floor, except this time she's in deep space surrounded by 100s of fans dancing on a glowing Mobius Strip. 

Below is an example of a 360° website I created for Malik.

If you click around the website, you can start to see how this concept would work well for the above screenshot.

Beyond that example, the artists involved in this remix could simply create a fun 360° web experience for fans using media they already have available. Below is an example of a concept called Portal Of Pop I made earlier this year that actually features both Dua Lipa and DaBaby.

And here is that same graphic as the 360° space that fans could play with online.

Every music video & music release needs this kind of content to stand out in the post-COVID world.

In the absence of a real experience with an artist, these virtual and digital experiences are the main ways artists can continue engaging fans from home.

"Levitating" is an awesome track, and the music video is a lot of fun. I think fans want more, though, even if they don't know how to articulate that.

These new storytelling ideas are an open doorway to more engaging campaigns for artists. Campaigns where fans can actually experience what it's like to be immersed in the artist's world.

Artists have an amazing opportunity to build their own aesthetic universe in the realms of extended reality (XR). I'm fascinated with exploring how they can do that authentically and strategically.

Cheers folks.