Understanding the motivational drivers behind the decision of users to engage in a sponsored User-Generated Branding program : why do you want to co-create a video (or remix) with an artist?

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Understanding the motivational drivers behind

the decision of users to engage in a sponsored

User-‐Generated Branding program

.

Why do you want to co-‐create a video (or remix) with an artist?

Master Thesis

MSc in Business Studies -‐ Marketing

Student name: Karla Flores Hurtado Student number: 10599339

Date: 15-‐07-‐2014

Supervisor: prof. dr. J.H.J.P Tettero

Second Supervisor: drs. Ing, A.C.J. Meulemans

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Introduction

Since the appearance of the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies, new trends have come to live and are changing the way that consumers behave towards the firms. Consumers are in control of their own media consumption and they are able to customize it (Daugherty, Eastin & Bright 2008) in order to create a tailored experience. Thanks to Web 2.0 technologies, it has been possible to freely publish, and share information that has the potential to reach millions of users. During the past years we have seen an increase in the creation of User-‐Generated Content (UGC). UGC is part of the shift that is occurring in the traditional market paradigm. Consumers are not anymore playing their traditional role of consumption, but are taking active participation in all the stages

of the production system. Customers are co-‐creating value along with firms. Value is created during interactions and such interactions are translated into experiences (Ramaswamy 2011). As the amount of User Generated Content

increases, (i.e. advertising of a product not involved with the firm, participation in blogs, mash-‐ups, online reviews, Q&A’s, video clips, social networks) marketers have been facing a loss of control over both the market and users. In order to gain ground back the concept of User Generated Branding appears as an attempt to control and manage UGC. (Gamble, Gilmore 2013, Arnhold 2010) It is still unclear

User-Generated Content in numbers in 2012

(source:

http://royal.pingdom.com/2013/01/16/internet-2012-in-numbers/)

• 14 million Vimeo users

• 175 million average number of tweets sent every day throughout 2012 • 2.5 million (number of hours) of

news-related video that was uploaded to YouTube.

• 300 million (number of new) photos added every day to Facebook

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what are the drivers behind the decision of users to participate in UGB programs. Due to the scarce literature focused in understanding the motivational factors behind user engagement in UGC and UGB programs it is important to pin down such drivers so UGB programs can be more effective. For this research I will conduct interviews targeted to users that have participated in sponsored UGB campaigns, and the data will be analysed. The aim of this research is to unveil the motivations behind users’ participation and explain them within a motivational theory framework.

Interaction, Experiences and Co-‐creational marketing

Prahalad & Ramwaswamy are pioneers in the field of co-‐creation. They have conducted an intensive research trying to define what does co-‐creaton is, its scope, evolution and future (2000, 2004, 2012). Prahalad & Ramwaswamy introduced the concept of co-‐creation

(2000) after a research where they found out that “customers are constantly engaging themselves in an active and explicit dialogue with manufacturers of

Examples of shifts in relationships “B2B” and “customer-firm”.

B2B the cooperation between Xerox and P&G. Xerox was given a 5-year contract to manage all of P&G print services. In order to have a fruitful partnership, both companies needed to become much more engaged in sharing their technology, processes and capabilities (Roser, DeFillippi & Samson 2013) An example of a customer-firm partnership is given by Volvo project of involving customers in the development of a new car; the car would include suggestions from the target market. (Roser, DeFillippi & Samson 2013)

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products and services” (Prahalad, Ramaswamy 2000). Many developments such as deregulations, globalization and Internet have forced a shift in B2B relationships but also the relationship customer-‐firm. The traditional market paradigm involves a passive audience, customers are presented the options given by the firms and they are expected to take the role of consumption. In the new paradigm, customers are seen as part of an enhanced network. As noted by Prahalad and & Ramaswamy, customers co-‐create and extract business value and are seen as collaborators and co-‐developers (in co-‐creating value) and competitors (in extracting economic value). The latter happens consumers’ expectations to extract value from their interactions with a firm. Customer’s influence is not only seen anymore in the point of sale but anywhere in the system. Experiences are an important part in the concept of co-‐creation and are considered by Prahalad & Ramaswamy (2004) to be the basis of value. Such experiences take place in a model that Prahalad & Ramaswamy call “experience space” which explains how the consumer defines value and experiences through interactions. In the “experience space” when an event that promotes a co-‐creation experience occurs, the involvement of the consumer determine the personal meaning derived from such interaction and that will be translated into value. The experiences take place within a network of

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company capabilities (i.e. technical and social) and consumer interaction channels. (i.e. devices and employees) This model requires a nodal company that brings together “suppliers, partners and consumer communities to form an experience network” (Prahalad, Ramaswamy 2004). This network has to be dynamic because is not possible to know beforehand the customer desired experiences, so it is necessary to “accommodate a range of possible customer-‐company interactions” that have the potential to become co-‐creation experiences. Another important aspect that needs to be considered in the co-‐creation real is innovation. Innovation should be focused not only in products but also in creating experiences (that feel tailored) that the customer will translate into value.

In the realm of experiences as basis of value, Payne, Storbacka, Frow & Knox (2009) examine the co-‐creation of value within the context of a service-‐dominant logic and propose a model for comprehending the brand relationship experience in the service-‐dominant model. The model consists of four main elements: the customer’s value-‐ creating process, the supplier’s value creating process, encounters (where the interaction happens) and the impact of additional sources of brand knowledge. Payne et al, describes the four elements: the customer value-‐creating process is defined as “a series of activities through

KLM provide us with a good example of this with the feature “Meet & Seat” included in their website. Through an application that uses platforms such as Facebook or LinkedIn, customers are able to see who else is flying on the same aircraft and gives them the chance to interact and get to know each other before the flight. In the end this create a better and more enjoyable flying experience for everyone.

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which the customer aims to achieve a particular purpose”. The second element, the supplier value-‐creating process, refers to the chain of processes that facilitate co-‐ creation opportunities, for example the emotional engagement of customer, self-‐ service experiences, allowing customers to solve product related problems on their own, etc. The third element, encounters, are a “series of interactions and transactions occurring during the relationship between the customer and supplier”. (Payne et al. 2009) Such encounters can be either company-‐initiated (the company promote customer to interact with them) or customer-‐initiated (the customer takes the initiative to interact with the company). Finally the fourth element, additional sources of brand knowledge are the sources that “can affect brand perceptions” and the whole experience itself. It is important to understand that the different sources of brand knowledge may be present during interactions and they “provoke co-‐ creation processes” (Payne et al. 2009). Payne et al, also focus on the importance of the effect that experiences (that take place during the encounters) have over the customer and the way they are affected by the type of experience they are exposed to. Similar to Payne et at (2009), Ramaswamy (2011) agrees that there are four premises of value and its creation: 1) value is a function of human experiences, 2) experiences come from interactions, 3) a firm is any entity that facilitates this creation of experience-‐bases value through interactions (Engagement platforms), and 4) co-‐creation is the process by which mutual value is expanded together (Ramaswamy 2011).

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User-‐Generated Content (UGC) and User-‐Generated

Branding (UGB)

User-‐Generated Content

Web 2.0 technologies “facilitate inexpensive content creation, interaction and interoperability” (Berthon et al. 2012) these characteristics give consumers the chance to be in charge of the content that is found on Internet. Since the appearance of Web 2.0 technologies, three important changes have taken place (Berthon et al. 2012). First, more activities take place on the Web rather than in conventional spaces. (e.g. people communicate more through e-‐mails or instant messaging services than conventional mail by post) Second, a change in the traditional model of value production, from firms to consumers (e.g. consumers extract also value generating meaningful, tailored experiences). And third, the power has passed from being in the firm’s hands to be in hands of the consumers (e.g. consumers are able to influence other peers to make use of social medial tools). Some other consumers have been taking the possibility of co-‐creation beyond; they have created their own communications and brand-‐related content without any stimulation or instruction from marketers. Muñiz & Schau (2007) investigate consumer-‐generated, commercially relevant artifacts. In their 2007 article they analyse how fans of a discontinued product (the Newton) from Apple in 1998 have kept the product alive by taking full responsibility for the brand-‐sustaining experience: modifying, repairing, and innovating the product. In addition to these activities members of the community have engaged in vigilant marketing by creating brand artifacts that

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resemble the advertisements originally made to promote the product, All these actions have been made order to keep a sense of union within the community. (Muñiz, Schau 2007) Muñiz & Schau discuss how consumers create their own meanings for ads that might be or not the ones originally intended by the marketer. Lately consumers can create such content and easily shared with a crowd online. As UGC evolves, more complex and innovative ways of content appear and the scope is not limited to advertisement. Krumm, Davies and Narayanaswami, propose four applications of UGC, especially when the influence is not limited to an online setting but pervade into other parts of users life. The four applications are: data gathering (i.e. the possibility that users have to add photos they have taken of places to Google maps), pattern recognition (depending on the type of UGC created it is possible to describe the patters that users have, for example during their trips), community building (fan bases of artists that create their own videos) and public art (For example, the Art Gallery of Ontario invited people to participate in a program called “Collection X” that allowed them to be the own curator of their exhibition) (Krumm, Davies & Narayanaswami 2008).

The appearance of User-‐Generated Branding concept

With so many user-‐generated content spread all over the Internet, marketers have a big task ahead of them. Not all of the content is always positive, but also negative or challenging. It is easy for users to put their voices out and express discontent or contentment. Since all of these communications are not under control of the

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understand how marketers can manage UGC, Arhold (2010) studies for the first time the User-‐generated Branding (UGB) as a new concept. In his dissertation he analyses the components of the UGB and links them to define UGB as “the strategic and operative management of brand related user generated content (UGC) to achieve brand goals. For Arnhold UGB is to be considered as a management approach that deals with all the types of user generated brand related artefacts. Such artefacts can be positive or negative some examples are: original comments, reviews, ratings and artistic work. (Arnhold 2010) To understand completely the definition of UGB is necessary not to confuse it with mass customization, word of mouth (WOM) and open source brands, and also to understand that it is not limited to eBranding. Managerially speaking Arnhold distinguishes sponsored UGB from non-‐sponsored UGB. Sponsored UGB is the management of stimulated brand related UGC created by participants on demand. While non-‐sponsored UGB is defined as the management of UGC brand-‐related that was created naturally (Arnhold 2010). Arnhold found that UGB could be used for four management purposes: become a tool of applied market research, commercialisation, for customer retention and as internal branding. In the same line as Arnhold, On his Editorial from 2010, Buurman proposes the term of User Generated Content and define it as the handling of all kinds of voluntarily created and publicly distributed brand messages undertaken by non-‐marketers. (Burmann 2010) Additionally, the concept of UGB is elated by Buurman to be used as “symbols of open brand communication, highlighting the brand transparency and responsibility principles”. Lawrence, Fournier & Brunel (2013) investigate the impact of consumer generated advertising, and noted the

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increase in the use of UGB as a regular element of the marketing communications. As part of the findings we find that the fact that using sponsored UGB increases the cognitive, personal, emotional, and behavioural engagement levels of viewers. (Lawrence, Fournier & Brunel 2013). The latter occurs due to the fact that consumers see this advertising mode as more honest because its source is an equal individual (another consumer) and not the brand itself.

As the concept of UGB is still being formed, it has been necessary to locate it within the other types of co-‐creational marketing, Gamble & Gilmore (2013) conducted a research and they found five typologies of co-‐creational marketing: viral marketing, sponsored user generated brand (UGB) marketing, user generated content (UGC) marketing, vigilante marketing and prosumer marketing. (Gamble, Gilmore 2013) Distinction among the five types of co-‐creational marketing depends on the level of control that consumers and marketers have over the content. They propose a model that shows the level of control that consumers have on each typology, viral marketing has the lowest level of control (involvement) from consumers and prosumer marketing has the highest one. On the viral marketing, a firm publishes content in hope that consumers will create “buzz” and will pass the information via online word of mouth and opposite to this we find prosumer marketing that is present when a consumer is involved in the design and production of goods and services so they are made to individual specification. (Konczal, Executive 2008). According to Gamble & Gilmore, in a sponsored UGB program, consumers and firms have each one a medium level of control over the content. Sponsored UGB is

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important for marketers because “control is initially maintained by the structured specification through which consumers are encouraged to participate in the marketing process” (Gamble, Gilmore 2013). UGC (and its eventual branding) can take several forms: text (reviews, comments), photographs (Instagram or Pinterest), music (mash ups and remixes, own music) and video and film (YouTube or Vine) (Arnhold 2010). For the purpose of this paper I will focus on sponsored UGB and the factors that motivate users to engage in an UGB program in the music industry. The music industry will be the target of this research due to several reasons. First, the music industry across the years have demonstrated its ability to adapt and adopt new trends, for example the change from vinyl records to CD’s and then to the MP3 format (Lam, Tan 2001). Second,

the music industry owns a natural high level of consumer interaction (Gamble, Gilmore 2013), Third the amount of available data and resources. And fourth, my personal interest in the music industry. Buurman

(2010) points the direction for future research and among the issues that need to be addressed he mentions the need to understand the motivational drivers for UGB program participation.

LexusInstafilm

In 2013, Lexus invited Instagram users and cars enthusiasts to participate in a project to create a stop-motion short film for Lexus new car. Each participant was asked to take a photo with Instagram from a different angle. Each picture was digitally sequenced to complete the short film. This was the first collaboration of this kind. The final

result can be seen on YouTube:

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Co-‐creation in the music industry

Choi & Burnes (2013) study the specific case of the co-‐creation trend in the music industry. They do not call the co-‐creation elicited by music firms as sponsored UGB but only refer to it as co-‐creation. In their study, Choi & Burnes (2013), also agree that a change is taking place in the traditional customer-‐firms locus, they highlight the case of the news media, where the users are also contributors that co-‐create value instead of being “ passive recipients”. They have two other new contributions. First, they analysed some of the motivations behind the reasons that ordinary people were able to publish and share UGC that was meaningful for them and second, they find significant examples of the way that the internet is enabling everyone involved in the music industry (fans, artists, small record labels) to create innovative approaches that generate win-‐win-‐win situations. This means that each party gains value in an economic and symbolic way, breaking this way the normal paradigm of seeing the consumers (fans) as enemies when they create their own content (Choi, Burnes 2013). The authors propose the idea (that they call as daring) to stop seeing piracy as a bad thing but incorporate it and work along the users instead of declaring a war on them. (Choi, Burnes 2013). The main limitation of Choi & Burnes study is that the findings are solely based on the literature review made and no experiment or data was analysed to bring a consistent and strong proof.

Salo (2012), analyse how online communities could be useful for marketers when they are used as a tool for consumer experience management (CEM). He focuses on online communities because they are based on UGC, because they allow customers

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to post comments, pictures, videos, music, etc. UGC allows the interaction between users and it is key for the success of such interaction. On his study, first, Salo distinguishes between customers’ level of involvement in experience creation, they can have either an active or a passive role that may require a low or a high level of effort from the customer to participate. For example when an individual is watching a movie their involvement is high but the level of effort required is low. Salo also studies different record companies, all of them are different among each other (size, geographical scope, budget, etc.), but the unique constant was the use of an online community to support and make promotion of concert dates and make promotion to the uploaded videos of the artist on YouTube. Other similarities are: asking to join a community (to make it grow), advertising upcoming releases and selling promotional merchandise. Salo proposes the idea of firms giving customers the right tools to create their own content around a brand (artist).

UGC and UGB in the music industry

Since the appearance of Internet, the music industry has faced two important transformations, the way it is distributed and how it is marketed. Along with these two issues the music industry has confronted problems such as piracy and illegal distribution. There is no doubt how Internet had been influencing the way that the music industry is shaped, record companies now make use of the Internet as a mean of communication internally and externally. The whole structure of the Internet has been modified into a more dynamic and flexible one. (Graham et al. 2004). Within this paradigm change we can locate the use of UGC as a way to empower users to

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create sponsored content, breaking the old role of the users as only observers and transforming them into an active part in the music industry supply chain. Sponsored UGB gives users a voice.

There is still few literature related to the impact of UGC content in the music industry. Some of the existing literature focuses on the impact of UGC in sales performances. Dhar & Chang (2009), analyse the influence of the amount of UGC (in the form of consumer reviews and ratings) in music blogs and on MySpace profiles in digital music sales. Dhar & Change research brings no definite conclusion if there is a direct link between the amount of UGC and the sales performance but the findings points out that UGC is a good predictor of future sales, but other factors (support from a major label, the fame of the artist, etc.) should not be ignored because they do play an important role in the sales performance. By noticing that UGC do plays a role in the sales performance, it is a starting point for marketers to develop more strategies to leverage the power that relies on consumers.

In the motivation realm behind the creation of UGC in the music industry context Lingel & Naaman (2012a) perform a qualitative analysis to understand why concert attendees record the artist performance and upload the videos to YouTube. They interviewed 10 participants that have uploaded videos to YouTube; 5 attended an indie rock concert the other 5 attended a concert of a mainstream band. The results of their research show three main ideas. First, the production of UGC as a form of attendance management, attendees expect to have “future gains by creating a lasting

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documentation of the event” (Lingel, Naaman 2012a). Second, such videos are “valued for their ability to replicate a

sense of attending the show” (Lingel, Naaman 2012a). And third, the videos become a form of contact between the users, fan bases and (sometimes, especially in the case of the indie music) the bands. Lingel & Naaman refer to Paasonen work (Lingel, Naaman 2012b, Paasonen 2010) where she argues that amateurs “are

willing to forgo monetary compensation for the creation of content because they find the work innately rewarding”. Another explanation for the disposition to create UGB is the complex needs that users have. Chandra & Lenders, (2012), noted the importance of users as trendsetters. These users’ desire to satisfy their needs results in an active search for a solution. Therefore users are seen as a remarkable source of innovation for companies. The Internet becomes a facilitator tool to reach out such valuable source, and make it possible for companies to capitalize it (Chandra, Leenders 2012).

Motivational Drivers

Still little research has been done to understand what drives people to take part in such activities but some concepts and findings by previous research are valuable to

HP connects on-stage with Ellie Goulding

HP partnered with Universal Music to promote their new music platform. In this occasion they launched a campaign, where few of their users could attend Ellie Goulding’s exclusive

concert, additionally to this HP launched a complementary campaign. Photographers were invited to submit an “artistic and

energetic shot” from another concert; the best shot was selected to be the photographer of Ellie Goulding’s exclusive concert for HP.

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come closer to the understanding of this matter. Since the literature on the UGB and especially on the motivational drivers is scarce, it is necessary to look back on the research made on similar topics, for instance, the factors behind hackers’ activities (Lakhani, Wolf 2003), how interactivity affects engagement (van Noort, Voorveld & van Reijmersdal 2012) and why users create UGC (Daugherty, Eastin & Bright 2008, Yang, Lai 2010).

Lakhani and Wolf (2003) conducted a research to understand why hackers engaged in activities such as hacking, developing software’s, etc. The results pointed that the main reasons for hackers were: enjoyment-‐related intrinsic motivations (code for project in intellectually stimulating to write, like working with this development team), extrinsic motivations (improve programming skills, work need only, enhance professional status, payment) and obligation/community-‐related intrinsic motivations (believe that source code should be open, feel personal obligation to contribute, dislike proprietary software and want to defeat them, enhance reputation within community) (Lakhani, Wolf 2003). The participation in UGB programs require a high level of interactivity of the website or app that the marketer decides to use. Interactivity is used as a medium to encourage users to participate thus, creating a better experience for them. Van Noort et al, (2012) investigated how interactivity of a website affects the “online flow” of the consumers. Online flow is the users’ complete immersion (and engagement) in an online activity (van Noort, Voorveld & van Reijmersdal 2012). Their study is based in Hoffman and Novak conceptual model that suggest that flow mediates the effects

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of interactivity while navigating across web sites (Hoffman, Novak 1996). Van Noort et al, conducted two studies on which they found out that online flow do mediates the effects of web site interactivity on affective responses. Moreover, the results confirmed that perceived interactivity increases online flow while also increasing the magnitude of cognitive responses and equally increases positive evaluations. (Hoffman, Novak 1996, van Noort, Voorveld & van Reijmersdal 2012). Coming closer to the drivers behind the creation of UGB, Daugherty et al, (2008) analyse the factors behind the motivations of users to create UGC and as they stated, “the introduction of Web 2.0 technologies has enabled the efficient creation and distribution of user-‐generated content (UGC)” (Daugherty, Eastin & Bright 2008) and it is needed to understand the sources of motivation of users to create UGC. On their study, a survey was made among 325 participants, the results show that ego defensive and social functions sources are significant contributors of the creation of UGC. The study shows that most of the UGC created is focused on humour and entertaining topics. The most unexpected finding in this study is the difference between UGC creation and consumption behaviour, the results show that people who is more prone to create content is less likely to consume UGC, while those who only engage in UGC consumption are more likely to use this content as a traditional source and adapting a passive approach. These differences between consumption and creation of UGB suggest different motivations related to specific behaviours. UGC creators attempt to show self-‐expression by making use of activities that allows them to put their voices or thoughts out (e.g., forums, blogs, websites, etc.).

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Daugherty et al, propose a deeper analysis “to provide a more thorough understanding” (Daugherty, Eastin & Bright 2008).

The motivations behind one of the most forms of UGC was analysed by Yang & Lai (2010), they studied the motivations behind Wikipedia content creators. They collected their data only from the English version of the website using an online survey. Their findings show that in the case of Wikipedia, the biggest free online encyclopedia written with the help of users, most of the content-‐creators decided to create content in a way to demonstrate themselves their knowledge, capabilities and influence on others while sharing it publicly. The authors discard the possibility of the creators being motivated by money or prize due to the volunteer scheme used by Wikipedia and noted that contributing for pleasure might be the initial driver but is not the dominant one.

Continuing with his research in the music industry, Salo makes another contribution along with Lankinen & Mäntymäky, (2013). In their study they investigate the motivations of people to use social media and how this is related to music consumption. They visualize social media as a two-‐way communication channel between record labels, artists and consumers. In their theoretical framework motivations are: reinforcement of social identity, sense of affinity, participation and two-‐way interaction. (Salo, Lankinen & Mäntymäki 2013). Surprisingly, individual that participated in their research, do not use social media as a method to reinforce their social identity, equally sense of affinity scored low in the motivations of the

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users. Is interesting to note that in this study is when it comes to the music business, consumers use social media to guarantee their access to content. This motivation (access to content) was not taken in consideration in first place, but the results showed that users look for ways to stay in touch with the artist, being informed about the latest news and have first hand information. On the record label side, the authors find that bringing quality content is indispensable for artist marketing. Salo et al., focus mainly on the user’s motivations to make use of social media as a way to gather information about artists and their activities such as concerts, new releases, presentations, etc. But this study brings an insight on how record labels can make use of these platforms (i.e. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Spotify, etc.) as strategies to reach users and promote their artists. Record labels can use social media platforms to target group segmentation, communicate with fans communities, encourage interaction, create relevant content, evaluate marketing programs and as a performance measurement tool (Salo, Lankinen & Mäntymäki 2013).

My study and research question

In this study, I will focus on the motivational drivers of users to engage in a sponsored UGB program within the music industry. The music industry has naturally a high level of consumer interaction (Gamble, Gilmore 2013). The artist himself is considered a brand manager that is constantly “developing, nurturing and promoting” their own image as they would do it for a product (Schroeder 2005). In the music industry, several actors have used sponsored UGB for example music

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firms, music channels and artists. One of the most active record firms in the UGB realm has been Universal Music; several of their artists’ marketing campaigns have used some type of UGB (i.e. video creation, pictures, etc.) On an interview for the newspaper “The Star”, Francis Keeling, global head of digital business for Universal Music Group talked about the importance of UGC and how in recent times UGC has helped the records industry to generate more money than from official music videos. In words of Keeling: “ It’s a massive growth area. We’re very excited about the creativity of consumers using our repertoire and creating their own versions of our videos”. (Eastwood 2014) It is clear that the main players in the industry are aware of the benefits and potential that UGC holds. This is congruent with the previously discussed work of Choi & Burnes (2013), users are not longer threats or enemies by creating their own content, on the contrary, consumers have become an active part of the value chain. As for this matter, the inevitable monetising of the UGC is taking place, this means that record companies and right holders are earning money thanks to the UGC uploaded in platforms such as YouTube. This phenomenon has been pushed up by changes in the way that UGC is being managed, for example the inclusion of commercial ad’s before a video starts or the licensing of UGC that prevents it from being removed and instead it brings revenue to the right holders. (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry 2014).

Next to the record labels, music channels such as MTV, have been including UGC routinely. MTV is a pioneer when it comes to the use of UGC, they have used it from ad’s, passing through people’s votes in their annual music awards and to including

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UGC content in their regular programs. As noted by van Dijck (2009), after the appearance of UGC sites (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), firms’ efforts and interests have moved from seeing individuals only as consumers to see them as producers and empowering them to create content that add value to the business. (van Dijck 2009).

According to Gamble (2013) sponsored UGB in the music industry can take several forms: focus groups discussions, SMS music video selection, collaborative playlists, collaborative artwork, channel partner behaviour and live event photos/videos. These are just some examples, UGB can take different forms and it is constantly The Swedish DJ and producer, Avicii, gives one of the latest examples of sponsored UGB. The DJ is launching a new project of his own called “TrueTube”. The project objective is to give fans the chance to make their own music videos by mashing up the songs taken from Avicii (Anonymous) album and video footage from YouTube. After the users have selected their preference “TrueTube” will merge the video and music. The users also have the chance to submit their creations for a competition. The intention of this project is to create a “new and personalized experience to enjoy the music”. This example has all the elements of a sponsored UGB campaign. First the artist (brand) is providing the platform where fans (users) can generate content with the elements provided (music from Avicii and video footage from YouTube). The artist himself is asking for the collaboration of his fans and rewarding the best contributions that are submitted to the competition. Avicci has been recently known for his previous projects, Avicii x you and Gravity, in the first one the DJ recruited fans from around the world to collaborate with the creation of a track and the second one is an interactive video game enhanced by Avicii tracks that vary from user to user according their own performances.

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evolving and innovating according with the platforms that users have. The aim of this study is to contribute with scientific knowledge about the motivational factors that make users to engage in a sponsored UGB campaign within the music industry. The aim of this thesis is to answer the next question:

What are the drivers behind the motivation of users to engage in a sponsored UGB program? Are those motivations intrinsic or extrinsic to the users?

It is important to remark that such factors (motivations) might be not only applicable to music industry examples but to a broad type of industries. So the contribution of this thesis will not only be useful for the music industry but for any other industry that has a fan base and decides to engage in sponsored UGB programs. In the next chapters I am going to give the theoretical framework and develop hypothesis based on motivational theories in order to understand why people engage in sponsored UGB programs.

Theoretical framework and Methodology

To fully understand the motivations of users, we need to take in account motivational theories for our framework. For the purpose of this thesis I will use the motivational inventory proposed by Barbuto (1998). On his article, Barbuto develops an integrative inventory of motivational sources based on the five motivational sources proposed by Leonard, Beauvais & Scholl (1999). Leonard et al, integrate relevant motivational theories that explain motivation at work. User’s

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contribution can be considered a no-‐paid job, because it helps brands to create material (videos, ad’s) that is used in favour of the pursuit of economical goals, this is the reason why such inventory is used.

The five categories that Leonard et al, (1999)propose are: intrinsic process, extrinsic/instrumental rewards, external self-‐concept, internal self-‐concept and goal internalization. For a better understanding I will explain each category and apply it within the realm of sponsored UGB.

Intrinsic Process

When people engage in certain kind of work and is motivated for the mere fun of it, the intrinsic process takes place (Barbuto, Scholl 1998). Work, itself, is the incentive in this category as workers find pleasant to do their activities. When a person decides to participate in a sponsored UGB in the music industry, they do it because they enjoy performing the activity requested by the firm, for example, creating a video, making pictures, writing, etc. The users have fun participating in the program; no tangible reward is expected but only enjoying themselves.

Assumption 1: Users engage in a sponsored UGB program because they will have feelings related to: fun, pleasure, excitement or happiness

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Instrumental motivation

This type of motivation is present when the individuals have the idea that their behaviour will have extrinsic tangible consequences in the form of awards, payment, prizes, etc(Barbuto, Scholl 1998). When a consumer engages in a sponsored UGB in the music industry they expect that after displaying their skills and creativity they will receive more than recognition but a tangible reward. If a prize for the best submissions is being offered, the participants engage in this program to get such prize.

Assumption 2: Individuals are willing to engage to a sponsored UGB program when a tangible reward is being offered because this causes feelings of: superiority, excellence, proudness and importance.

External Self-‐concept-‐based Motivation

This motivational source is based in external factors that give the individual self-‐ reinsurance. The individual would seek “affirmation of traits, competencies and values”, hence the behaviour will try to satisfy the member of certain reference group. The initial intention of the individual behaviour is to be accepted and later to gain status(Barbuto, Scholl 1998). In a sponsored UGB program in the music industry scenario, the user that engage in such activity is willing to prove himself to the community (for purpose of this thesis to the fan base of an artist) as a “big fan” that is willing to dedicate time, effort and sometimes resources to collaborate with

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Assumption 3: Individuals that participate in a sponsored UGB program do it, to show off their creations to the other members of the fan community in order to have feelings related to recognition, status and admiration.

Internal Self-‐concept-‐based Motivation

This motivational source refers to the “standards of traits, competencies and values” that form part of the individual’s image of ideal self and elates an engaging behaviour that reinforce such perceptions and allow them to become more competent (Barbuto, Scholl 1998). In a sponsored UGB program in the music industry, when a user participates, they do it to reinsure the image they have of themselves and make use of their skills and at the same time improve them. Once their skills are improved (editing videos, making photography’s, writing, etc.), the reinsurance takes place. Thru this source of motivation the users are able to express themselves.

Assumption 4. Users that engage in a sponsored UGB campaign do it for the feelings of self-‐reinsurance, accomplishment and realization of their ideal self.

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Goal Internalization Motivation

In this motivational source the individual engage in certain attitudes and behaviours because the idea fits their personal value system. The individual’s identification with the cause motivates them to work towards a common goal (Barbuto, Scholl 1998). In a sponsored UGB program in the music industry, when an individual decides to participate in a campaign, they do it because they 1) form part of the artist’s fan base, 2) believe in the artist and 3) want to help the artist out. Since the users are part of a fan-‐base they share their values, ideals and passions with other individuals similar to them.

Assumption 5. Users that engage in sponsored UGB programs to have feelings of being helpful toward the good of the majority, importance, and a feeling of “saving and protecting the cause”

Theoretical framework

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Methodology

Qualitative research was selected for this study because it has been successful to deepen the understanding of social matters and their dynamics (Attride-‐Stirling 2001). In order to answer the research question of this thesis, an exploratory research will be conducted in order to create a theory on the motivational sources of individuals that are involved in sponsored UGB. This thesis’ methodology can also be referred as grounded theory because my aim is to develop some theory not previously done (Engward 2013) and I am approaching to the UGB phenomena with still scarce sources despite the high amount of UGC created nowadays.

The method of this research is a semi-‐structured interview. A semi-‐structured interview was chosen as the best way to approach respondents because it helps to explore the opinions of respondents and due the difference between each participant (contest, age, nationality and background) a standardized interview was not suitable(Louise Barriball, While 1994). The respondents were contacted first to inform them about the research. After the first contact was made, a second email was sent with a cover letter where full anonymity is guaranteed and a link to the online questionnaire. Respondents answered 11 questions that were adapted from the Motivational Source Inventory questionnaire proposed by Barbuto(1998). Using such questions (See Appendix 1) permitted that the collected data followed the categories proposed by Baurbuto and also by making use of a semi-‐structured interview helped the research to bring possible motivations not considered by

Understanding the motivational drivers behind the decision of users to engage in a sponsored User-Generated Branding program : why do you want to co-create a video (or remix) with an artist?