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Last month, Clip It, Roblox’s version of TikTok, launched its first official advertising products. Now, Sia has become the first musician to activate within Clip It – and it’s already sparked an unprecedented surge in user activity within the experience.
Similar to TikTok, Clip It is a short video service housed entirely within Roblox, with users creating, sharing, and browsing videos of their game avatars dancing to music in a variety of virtual settings.
Sia’s Clip It integration, which launched on December 12 and will run until the end of 2024, gives users access to a free selection of holiday-themed songs, as well as various settings, animations and virtual items based on Sia’s wardrobe and music videos. . It’s the first time a prominent mainstream music artist has put their music and brand into Clip It, though the experience also sells its own music and animation packages, such as September’s Phunk Pack.
“With Sia, it felt right to keep things loose around the holidays, so it basically went super viral overnight and everyone was working on clips with it,” said Clip It developer Yevheniy “Genya” Shestopalko. “This sparked a huge takeover of our feed, with more players discovering the content, getting excited and creating new clips.”
The launch of Sia’s Clip It has already caused a surge in user engagement within the Roblox environment. To get an idea of the impact of the partnership, Neura Studios, the developer of Clip It, shared exclusive data with Digiday. Here are some of the key takeaways.
The average time spent in Clip It per user session peaked at 15.1 minutes during the weekend after Sia’s game launched on December 12 – the highest number since the summer of 2024. In other words, Sia’s presence in Clip It was additive; In addition to convincing users to open the experience, it actually convinced them to spend more time in it. For a game that just launched its own ad products, this longer session time makes Clip It a more valuable opportunity for all brands reaching out to their audiences — not just Sia.
“Music plays into people’s shared experiences on Roblox every day, and the platform is becoming a place to discover music. Here, artists can expand their reach, cultivate fandoms and build communities, and creators can produce richer, more engaging experiences,” said Roblox VP of Global Brand Partnerships and Advertising Stephanie Latham. “We’re thrilled that more artists are recognizing Roblox’s cultural impact, and that labels like WMG Atlantic Records are exploring new ways to connect with our unique base of users and creators that are shaping today’s digital culture.”
In the first weekend after Sia’s Clip It launched, users within the experience streamed an average of 8.4 million seconds of her music per day, according to data shared with Digiday by Neura. In contrast, Clip It’s phonk pack — which sells for 399 Robux, or about $5 — took roughly eight weeks to reach that level of engagement. Although some of the users who tuned in to Clip It for the integration were likely already Sia enthusiasts, the artist’s decision to showcase herself in the Roblox environment exposed her to a large audience of potential new fans.
Sia’s decision to launch TikTok’s version of Roblox comes at a potentially opportune time. How US lawmakers work their way to potential In TikTok in January, shutting down the platform could draw users to alternative short video apps — including Clip It.
“Clip It already has 8 million monthly active users uploading and watching content, up to 2.5 new clips every second and over 130 million views every month. And music is at the center of it all,” said Shestopalko. “The right sound or track is the difference between a good clip and a great clip. So every time we’ve added licensed music, we’ve seen it take on a life of its own and continue to grow and snowball, week after week, whether it’s free or paid.”
In addition to the 8.4 million seconds a day users listened to Sia’s music in Clip It, players actually engaged even more with the music’s accompanying content, including “emotions” (animations) and “scenes” (virtual settings). Between December 12 and 18, Clip It users spent a total of roughly 85 million watching Sia’s setup in clips and 47 million seconds watching Sia’s animations, in addition to listening to 37 million seconds of Sia’s audio.
Clip It’s virtual settings are arguably easier for users than other content such as animations and songs, since users don’t have to explicitly claim them in order to create clips with them. But the fact that Sia’s sound was actually the least engaged aspect of the musician’s take on “Clip It” shows how artists can use Roblox to connect with fans in new and unique ways.
“Content is really a form of communication,” Shestopalko said. “We see trends that pop up all the time on Clip it, where a particular song, scene or dance becomes really popular. And when that happens, a lot of people riff on it and create really incredible things.”