First Off!
I must apologise it took this long to tell you all about our 2023 discoveries and industry/market discernment; the hip-hop industry specifically. You’ve been by our side since the journey started, and somehow, I got lost in moving the needle whilst neglecting our first loves; YOU.
A thousand apologies.
Forward March
If our activities, milestones, and experiences in 2023 were an album title, it’d be tagged The Come Up by J. Cole.
Where do I start from? The stats? The meetings? The opportunities? I guess I’ll have to start from somewhere and the entire gist will build itself as you go further into this piece.
The Industry
For the first time in about a decade, the only breakout acts were hip-hop artistes. It was a great year for Big Kala (Odumodublvck) and the Pluto Presido (Shallipopi).
Odumodublvck held it down for hip-hop with his ridiculously addictive feature verses–Ndi Ike, Cast, and a well-produced LP, Eziokwu. Shallipopi also enjoyed mainstream success with his unique singles, Planet Pluto EP, and Presido La Pluto LP. Let’s not forget their collaboration, Cast, that went on to rile up netizens over its “morality and condescending tone.”
My opinion? Another day.
To be honest, the entire industry received a breath of life in 2023 as a lot of artistes veterans, rookies, and those in their prime all had their (individual) shine; from going viral on social media (freestyles, covers, open verses, and visualisers), penning unbelievable verses on features with the primes and veterans, releasing dope projects (shout out to Reminisce, Rebelwav etc.), and lastly, the OGs putting more playas on and dropping gems via interviews.
I view this as a good thing for hip-hop in Nigeria, and they (Odumodublvck and Shallipopi) are the forerunners or John the Baptist for the next run of hip-hop in the music industry. They penetrated a polyethnic and multicultural community (which is hip-hop) by blending hip-hop with local sounds, and their unique touch.
Opportunities
For some context, we officially launched in 2021. Our first revenue was in September of 2023. A social media awareness campaign for Reminisce‘s ATSG. This covered the pre-release, release, and release periods of the album.
From that point on, we’ve been involved in 12 projects with 4 brands and independent artistes. The most interesting bit is that all of these were walk-ins. Thankfully, they showed us our value even before we realised it.
2023 Stats
As for the growth department–a hooge W.
First, an Editor-in-Chief and 4 freelance writers to the team. We also switched strategies with our sister brand, the Nigerian Barz Association, from independent to interdependent. This made Sauver Media the largest organically grown hip-hop ecosystem in Nigeria.
Of course, we have data to back this claim.
Rhyme & Reason®
The blog experienced a 575% YOY growth, with views per visitor ratio of 2 (currently 2.8 for 2024). 52% of our visitors were in the diaspora (88 countries). 78% of our visitors were also between the ages of 18-34 years. Lastly, 68% of our audience are male.
X (Twitter)
Limited resources determined we redirected our efforts into actively growing on X community and the results were fantastic.
The R&R® handle experienced over 300% growth in followers, while the NBA handle gained over 200% new followers. Both accounts pulled in almost 50 million impressions last year, with average engagement rates of 5.7% for R&R and 6% for NBA
New Year, New Offerings
“Come and buy what we’re selling”
Exhausted Entrepreneur.
We now offer varying marketing and promotional services for different funnel marketing goals–Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, and Loyalty–using integrated marketing, experiential marketing, and brand entertainment marketing. These services are available to individuals and businesses in all fields; it is only a matter of translation with the proper cultural cues.
With the help of data and hip-hop psychographics, we help clients find the right cultural cues to reach their desired audiences and attain their marketing goals.
1. Social Media Marketing
We help clients with awareness strategies on social media for their products, music, or services, thus, creating top-of-mind effects and engagements in our community. We all know the hip-hop community is always about “putting people on to the new cool thing,” which can be your brand.
2. PR Placements
We can now get press releases, announcements, and sponsored posts on local and international platforms (through our partners). Special placements on platforms such as Billboard, New York Times, Forbes, Forbes India, Radar, Bloomberg, Market Watch etc., and blasts on platforms like Benzinga, Daily Herald, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, etc.
This helps brand improve their SEO reach and also increases (current and potential) customer trust and loyalty. We know this because we were able to achieve over 500% YOY with a single press blast in Q1 2023
3. Playlist/Airplay Placements
Through our global partners, you can get airplay for your music in over 30 countries and 40k radio stations. All of which can be tracked for publishing royalties purposes.
4. Brand Entertainment Consultancy
We develop long-term strategies that include awareness, brand, integrated, and experiential marketing for brands to become culturally cool as well as household names.
Other services include roll-out/launch strategies (pre-release, release, and post-release), publishing, music distribution, and synchronisation license all at very affordable rates.
Check out our Brochure [PDF] for more information.
See our Basic Rate Card [PDF].
Still To Come
In 2024, we are working towards taking the brand to our offline communities through events. You can also expect music projects (via collaboration), podcasts, video series, newsletters and 100x of our 2023 Stats.
Remember, it’s all about the #LongerTables. Thus, shoot for the stars and you might just land on the moon if you miss. The moon is still a long way up from the ground.
See you in Q2. I remain your Favourite Local Man.
