Royel Otis Murder On The Dance Floor

Creating high-energy, creator-led moments across TikTok and Reels to supercharge sound awareness for Murder on the Dancefloor and Linger

Creations

0M+

Views

0k+

UGC

What We Did

Royel Otis’ viral momentum has been one of the standout indie success stories of the year and we were thrilled to support two key releases across TikTok and Instagram Reels.

With Murder on the Dancefloor exploding across socials and their Linger cover generating huge fan attention, we built tailored strategies for each track to maximise visibility, drive sustained UGC and keep both songs circulating across platforms.

Across both campaigns, we activated creator-led content, challenged audiences to engage creatively, and used reactive learnings to shape each phase. Here's how the rollout unfolded.

Zebr Challenge

Our Challenge feature is a fast-paced, exciting way to generate a volume of creative content!

Creators submit posts based on a creative brief.
Encourages participation only in challenges they connect with, ensuring quality content.
Payouts tied to view check-points: secures posts while protecting budget until view milestones are reached.

Track one

Filter one

Track one

Royel Otis - Murder On The Dancefloor

Following the viral success of Murder on the Dancefloor and its wave of remixes across TikTok, we took the momentum over to Instagram Reels to expand reach even further. Our aim was to fuel a second surge of UGC by activating creators around content that truly reflected the track - feel-good lifestyle posts, vibey fashion, playful POVs and anything that matched the upbeat energy of the song.

Creators embraced the sound immediately, producing standout, high-engagement videos that amplified the track across Reels. The single challenge alone generated 65+ posts and over 25M views, while UGC skyrocketed from 5,000 videos to more than 45,000 on the sound.

Track two

Royel Otis - Linger

With the momentum from Murder on the Dancefloor carrying across platforms, we shifted back to TikTok for the band’s SiriusXM session release of Linger. Knowing how strongly fans were responding to the cover, we built a music-first brief designed to spotlight the performance itself.

We encouraged creators to explore content that naturally synced with the emotional tone of the track: aesthetic travel edits, “falling for you” lyric cuts, hype posts for the cover, and any open-style content that felt authentic to the song’s mood. The flexibility of the brief helped us maximise creative output while ensuring everything tied directly back to Royel Otis’ identity and the feel of the sound.

Creators loved this track, and we quickly saw reactive trends take off - sports edits, relationship-led narratives, creative transitions and more. Using early learnings, we activated further challenges to double down on the styles that were performing best, resulting in hundreds of strong-performing posts across the campaign.

In total, Linger delivered 360+ posts, 23M+ views, and one of our biggest UGC lifts to date. The sound grew from just over 2,000 videos to more than 269,000 - an enormous jump that cemented the track as a core TikTok trend.

And the Results?

Videos

157M+

Streams

When Indie Cool Meets TikTok’s Viral Engine

When TikTok Meets a Holiday Classic

Across both releases, Royel Otis delivered two massive moments - and TikTok and Reels took them even further. Their energetic Murder on the Dancefloor activation filled Reels with upbeat, aesthetic content, while Linger transformed into a full-scale TikTok trend, stacking hundreds of thousands of organic videos and introducing the band to a global audience.

Each campaign built upon the last, turning indie buzz into viral reach and viral reach into long-term streaming momentum. The songs were already strong - but this strategy took them to an entirely new level.