Watch it, Repeat, Share it — Music Video and Social Networking Sites as Behavior Influencers

In this chapter, Boris Chapoton shows that if we consider the growing presence of images in people's lives and particularly among the younger generations, the first music video played on the first musical television channel MTV in 1981 "Video killed the radio star" could be interpreted as a prophetic song. Among the entertainment media, music is the most used by teenagers and watching music video is their first online practice ahead of watching series and movies. For Chapoton, the link between the music video's popularity among the younger generation and the spending power of these young consumers has been easily made by marketers and producers. Chapoton gives a synoptic view of the combination of music videos and advertising. Used primarily as a way to promote and maximize the sales of a single, video clips could be defined nowadays as a mix of advertising and art that could be sometimes confusing. In 2014, for the Football World Cup, the video clip "La La La" performed by the singer Shakira became the most shared advertisement because of its collaboration with the Activia yoghurt company, Danone. The music video/advertisement spot was viewed more than 430 million times on YouTube and generated more than 5.8 million shares for this same year on social networks. As Chapoton then notes, the digital era that has emerged with the Internet and the social networking sites then created new opportunities for marketers: not only can they advertise their products directly on people's screens, but people can become a media in return to promote products towards their peers as well by sharing or talking about the products they use. Because of these new practices, a new way of making money has emerged for those who became "social influencers." The same as for music videos, either these influencers are paid to promote a product, or they receive gifts from companies; some reportedly do not need any incentive from companies, adding a kind of "realness" to their videos. The professional influencers earn money from the views they get for their videos (e.g. $1 per 1,000 views) but apparently, they mainly earn money from the product placement they agree to include in their video. Chapoton then goes on to study the effects of these developments. Because of the possible influence that could be in place within these new types of marketing practice and product placement, new regulations are considered. For example, when money is received by someone to advertise a product, recommendations edited by the advertisement companies advise to mention any sponsorship in a transparent way. In like manner, in entertainment contents like movies and music videos, some products like tobacco and alcohol are forbidden especially when dedicated to minors. However, Chapoton shows, online practices differ from one country to the next and lines are still blurred when it comes to regulation.