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Using 360° spatial audio, we turned headphones into a sonic GPS that guided users through Cape Town to a secret Daliwonga concert. We won two Clio's for our work: Innovative Use of Music and Immersive Realities.
Turning headphones into a sonic GPS
A recent study showed 73% of people wear headphones to avoid social interaction. So, we used the same headphones to create a social movement: Schweppes' Social Sound. We partnered with Amapiano star Daliwonga to create a one-day-only a secret live show. The catch: It was held at a secret location accessible through sound. We transformed headphones into a 360° sonic GPS using spatial audio and layered stems from Daliwonga’s unreleased track. As fans moved through the city, each step brought them closer to the music.
How It Worked
Binaural spatialization
Shaping sound to create a feeling of standing inside a real 3D space.
Real-time convolution
A fancy way to say the music instantly updates as you move, so the audio feels like it’s reacting to surroundings in real-time. The closer to the secret location, the louder and fuller the music.
Custom impulse response system
As listeners approached the location, the music got both louder and started to sound more like the room they were heading toward.
Results
The Social Sound became one of Schweppes’ most talked-about brand moments. 🥇 Two Clio Awards for Innovative Use of Music and Immersive/New Realities 🏅 Caples Award for Live Event, Experimental Audio and drove a 5,805% spike in nationwide conversation, generating 10,500% more mentions than the category leader. #Schweppes trended on X for six consecutive days, while the one-day activation reached over 1.8M people on social. The hidden venue hit full capacity, with participants spending an average of nearly 19 minutes inside the spatial audio journey. The campaign gained significant earned media of over 25M viewers from TV features and broad radio pickup nationwide.