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Creativity chains and playing in the crossre on the video-sharing site YouTube
` le Boulaire and Guillaume Hervet Christe
Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business and Administration, University Laval, Quebec, Canada, and

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Received October 2009 Revised January 2010 Accepted January 2010

Raoul Graf
Department of Marketing, School of Management, Quebec University at Montreal, Montreal, Canada
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse how individual creativity of internet users is expressed in the production of online music videos and how the creative dynamic among amateur internet video producers can be characterized. Design/methodology/approach The researchers became readers and authors in the aim of providing the academic community with a scholarly narrative of creative YouTube video production. To develop their narrative, they explored the narrative woods that have grown up on the other side of the monitor screen in the form of videos inspired by one song. Findings The collective creative force is shown not to be expressed merely through the semantic and non-semantic montages that make internet users into postmodern tinkerers, but also through such mechanisms as imitation, diversication and ornamentation. This force and these mechanisms give rise to chains that link and connect individual minds, imaginations, interests, enthusiasms, talents, abilities and skills. Practical implications As part of a relationship, or even a conversation to be initiated, sustained, and maintained on behalf of an industry organization, or brand with its consumers, the authors believe that the way to deal with digital participatory culture and the creative force manifested in innovation communities is to capitalize on these creative chains as judiciously as possible. Originality/value The authors suggest that this process should be part of a high-impact interactive marketing strategy likely to promote (self-) enchantment and foster loyalty among community members through (self-) enchantment, particularly via the coproduction of a story, with community members creating the scripts. Keywords Video, Internet, Marketing strategy Paper type Research paper

Introduction Recent internet developments, particularly the development of web 2.0 technology (OReilly and Batelle, 2005), have led to the emergence of numerous phenomena and new practices linked to their usage and appropriation on both the corporate and private level. One such phenomenon is the appearance of a new kind of participatory digital culture. For Jenkins (1992), who studied fan communities, participatory culture reects
` le Boulaire and Raoul Graf This paper was supported in the form of project grants to Christe (as co-researcher) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing Vol. 4 No. 2, 2010 pp. 111-141 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2040-7122 DOI 10.1108/17505931011051669

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a community spirit in which there are few barriers to artistic participation and engagement. Such culture is also characterized by strong encouragements to create and share personal creations, giving participants a sense that their contribution is meaningful. Finally, it is a culture where members pool their knowledge, help each other, and form social relationships. This is the culture that predominates in these new spaces proliferating on the internet known as innovation-oriented online consumer communities (Kozinets et al., 2008). Through these communities, the concept of user-generated content (OECD, 2007) and crowdsourcing (Howe, 2006a, b), to which we will return, have been made practicable, and the idea that collective consumer action supported by web 2.0 technology represents a vital and signicant force on the market is not merely promoted but applied (Kozinets et al., 2008). A collective creative force to be reckoned with, this new consumer power can also provoke major transformations in certain areas. The music industry is one of the areas that have been the most affected by these technological developments. The creative and acquisitive behaviour they have fostered among individuals has plunged the industry into a full-blown crisis (Giesler, 2008). The scale of this content creation phenomenon has upset the precarious equilibrium achieved by the music industry in the mid-2000s (Giesler, 2008). Today, record companies have understood the necessity of occupying these new internet spaces by making their artists music videos available to users. The online video-sharing site YouTube, created in 2005, is recognized today among music industry professionals as the markets leading platform for this purpose (IFPI, 2009). This site allows any internet user to watch video clips put on line by other users, be they individuals or businesses. It represents a sophisticated visual form of public intimacy, providing everyone a chance to have their own personal internet space and the possibility of providing others with a window onto their space, and thus onto their lives (Pace, 2008). Music is the content category with the greatest supply, the repeat consumption of which encourages internet users to return to the site (IFPI, 2009). While the overall nancial effectiveness of this strategy remains to be shown, it has been observed that the ofcial music videos of a number of artists are among the videos most viewed by users. However, alongside these ofcial creations, an alternative supply of the same songs has emerged in which the original clip is revisited by users (Burgess, 2008). While a record company might provide at best a dozen or two video versions of a single song, there may be thousands of revisited versions shared by vy, 1997). In addition to YouTube users through network technology (Benkler, 2006; Le ensuring a large diversity of supply to web 2.0 users (Anderson, 2006), this proliferation of video creations is also part of a movement to radically democratize the cultural content industry through new forms of accessibility. This sharing among members generates additional motivation through mutual enchantment, a phenomenon observed in fan communities (Boulaire et al., 2008). The question of the original creation (by the artist) certainly poses real problems for record companies, who claim to be pillaged by internet users downloading their work illegally. From a research standpoint, however, it seems particularly interesting to gain insight into the dynamics of this collective creative force as a new societal phenomenon, an expression of the appropriation of new technology by internet users, and a marker of a new type of culture that needs to be understood. Not to ght it but to deal with it, as judiciously as possible, as part of the relationship that an industry, organization or brand has

 ller et al., 2007; Kozinets, to establish, support and maintain with its consumers (Fu 1999) this will be the managerial challenge associated with our research problem. As a place for lively expression of collective creative power and the ever-accelerating spread of creations, as a vast community of online, innovation-oriented consumers sustained by a vibrant participatory digital culture, and as a form of new media and a channel of communication for cutting-edge interactive marketing, the YouTube video-sharing site constitutes the ideal environment for studying these phenomena. In fact, every minute, 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube Blog (2009), this is what we chose it for. American internet users who watch online videos spend close to ten hours per month on this type of platform, YouTube alone receives over 125 million visitors per month in the USA (Comscore, 2009), and 80 per cent of active internet users report having watched a music video online in 2008, compared with less than a third (31 per cent) in 2006 (IFPI, 2009). Research questions In light of the observations above, this study will seek answers to the following questions: RQ1. In what forms is the individual creativity of internet users expressed in the production of online music videos on the YouTube video-sharing site? RQ2. How can we characterize the creative dynamic among amateur internet video producers? Put another way, how is their collective creative force manifested? To answer these questions, we will rst try to dene the concepts of creativity and of collective creativity on the internet. This will lead to an examination of internet technology and its link to creativity. Second, we will introduce a preliminary conceptual framework to clarify and guide our research. Third, we will explain our research approach and present our analysis and interpretation of our data. And Finally, we will make some suggestions for managers, concluding with some observations on the limits of our study and suggestions for new avenues of research. 1. Individual and collective creativity a. The concept of creativity The term creativity is generally associated with the act of producing something new. Creativity is distinguished from innovation in that creativity involves the conceptualization of ideas, while innovation involves the translation of these ideas into new and useful objects (Hunter et al., 2007). From the standpoint of creating new objects, the term creativity is often considered to be synonymous with inventiveness. Osborn (1988) believes that the creation of an idea is possible through the individual imagination. For him, there are three different types of imagination to consider: anticipative imagination, which is the mental projection of ones future actions; constructive imagination, which is oriented toward tangible accomplishments such as problem solving and creative imagination, which creates something new. Although creative imagination has become synonymous with the word creativity and has been the subject of studies in business brainstorming techniques, constructive imagination has also been the focus of much marketing research, notably on the role of creativity in product improvement (Goldenberg and Mazursky, 2002).

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To better grasp the concept of creativity, we turned toward the denitions underlying various scales used to measure it. They contain such terms and expressions as thinking outside ordinary frameworks, which generally includes notions of exibility, facility, originality, elaboration, imagination, fantasy, boundary-breaking, new perspectives, unconventionality, nonstereotypical use of fragments or gures, independence, perseverance, humour, adventurousness, playfulness, risk-taking, curiosity and being comfortable with complexity (Urban and Jellen, 1996). From the standpoint of problem solving, we might add the ability to understand the nature of a problem and generate an ingenious and original solution that can be put in place using a combination of known mechanisms and principles applied in such a way as to permit the emergence of a new and unique solution to previously unsolved problem (Owens, 1960). In addition, the fruits of creativity tend to provoke surprise (Goldenberg et al., 1999; Hayes, 1978). The surprise experienced can be a source of enchantment (Vanhamme, 2001). To build a brand image (Cramphorn, 2006), stand out from the crowd in the advertising market (Goldenberg et al., 1999; Pieters et al., 2002), help during the designing new products (Dahl et al., 1999), conduct market testing (Im and Workman, 2004), or seek ways to improve products or advertising campaigns (White and Smith, 2001), marketing professionals make extensive use of creativity (OQuinn and Besemer, 2006). In the classical view of creativity in marketing, the consumer has only a limited role, which the terms coproducer, prosumer and consumer-made have since expanded upon. Recently, consumers may not only be the evaluators of a (potential) product but also its creators. The study of brand communities has also demonstrated the key role played by brand enthusiasts (Cova and Pace, 2006; McAlexander et al., 2002; Muniz and OGuinn, 2001). Creativity is the result of personal factors like individual motivation and personality (Prabhu et al., 2008) as well as environmental factors such as collaboration (Bullinger et al., 2004) or inter-group work within a company (West, 2002). With the internet and web 2.0 technology, creativity may now be practised within quite large groups. Online, innovation-oriented consumer communities and open-source brand communities, which we will return to later, require a concept that supplements the notion of individual creativity. This is collective creativity. b. Collective creativity on the internet In recent years, the concept of collective creativity has been the subject of special attention, particularly given the growing awareness of the creative potential offered by the multitude of individuals linked through the internet. Hargadon and Bechky (2006) dene the concept of consumers collective creativity as a new interpretation or discovery unleashed by social interactions, the results of which could not have been achieved by an individual thinking alone. This collective creativity is part of what vy, 1997). certain authors see as a global collective intelligence project (Gruber, 2008; Le Kozinets et al. (2008) point out that the collective creativity of consumers, backed by networking technologies, is in the process of transforming the nature of consumption and society, as well as marketing. The crowdsourcing phenomenon (Howe, 2006a; Lebraty, 2007) is one of the potential ways businesses can make use of collective creativity. Dened as the outsourcing of an activity by an organization via the internet to a large number of individuals whose identity is generally unknown (Lebraty, 2007, our translation), crowdsourcing draws on the creative power of the crowd to nd a solution to a problem,

whether that of an individual entrepreneur or a multinational looking for feedback on an R&D project (Brabham, 2008; Libert and Spector, 2007; Howe, 2006b). The creativity of internet users should not however be seen solely as a means of solving problems. This creativity can certainly be channelled to utilitarian ends, whether commercial or otherwise, but also to ludic and social ones. This is what is happening on web sites whose content is generated by users. These sites have taken on an ever-increasing role in the daily lives of consumers and are among the most visited on the web (EIAA, 2008; www. alexa.com). They include Wikipedia, YouTube, Blogger, Myspace and Facebook. The diversity and dimensions of collective creativity are reected in the four types of innovation-oriented online consumer communities suggested by Kozinets et al. (2008): play communities with large numbers of participants (swarms), or few participants (mobs); and goal-oriented communities with many members (crowds), or fewer contributors (hives). For our purposes, a site like YouTube is considered a swarm, that is, an innovation community with numerous members who demonstrate creativity in pursuit of entertainment associated with the production and consumption of music. Originally associated with computer programming and open-code software, the idea of open sourcing is now associated with products, but also with ideas and the notion that creators contributions are not proprietary. In this way, Wikipedia, with its user-generated content, can be considered open content (open to whoever wishes to participate in developing this encyclopedia). As pointed out by Pitt et al. (2006), there are many sources of openness. From the brand management perspective, the open-source phenomenon can be envisaged for the four dimensions of a brand, namely physical, textual, meaning and experience, implicitly representing the consumer as prosumer. YouTube can thus also be considered an open source, open to collective creativity. 2. Creativity and technologies a. The accessibility of the creative experience Long the preserve of professionals, video making and sharing is now readily accessible to the general public, as witnessed by the abundance of videos on the internet that were recorded using cellular phones, digital cameras, webcams, computers or camcorders. Anyone with a computer can now edit videos using free software capable of adding soundtracks and special effects or producing complex montages with a few clicks of a mouse. Internet users can also freely access content databases made available to them on the internet by individuals and corporations (e.g. Getty Images, Google Images, Google Videos, Dailymotion and YouTube) and use these materials as they see t. Assisted by this technology, consumers can easily and quickly create the videos of their choice. The evolution of technology has opened up a brave new world of possibilities to, for, and by them. The internet allows everyone to experience the play of creation, providing a variety of experiential frameworks to suit various levels of creativity and computer skills. Playful creativity can take the form of montages or tinkerings of varying degrees of complexity. The construction materials used in these creations may be relatively basic, or may be products and kits that are more or less plug and play, ready to be creatively used, dismantled, assembled, reassembled, reinvented and revisited as users see t. b. Consumer production of creative tools Technology has made creative tools available to individuals, but we have also seen the development of new tools by internet users themselves in recent years. These tools

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are often collectively known as applications, or apps. Should an internet user not nd a desired function on his or her computer or mobile device a voice-recorder function, for example he or she can create an application and share it with the whole community. As precursors of this trend for mobile devices, the companies Apple and Google have created their own online stores for these applications with the highly successful App Store and Android Market. In the rst quarter of 2009, Apple announced that in less than a year of existence, over a billion such applications had been downloaded from the App Store (Apple, 2009). Once made available, the new applications become ready to consume by all other users of the device. This groundswell trend on the mobile device market also applies to social networks like Facebook, which allows members to create and share applications. The phenomenon is not unlike the one associated with free and open-source software, which appeared on the computer software market over a decade ago. It pushes software-owning companies to continually correct, improve, and update their products a situation exemplied in the expression perpetual beta software. c. Shared creativity Technology not only facilitates creation, it also plays a major role in the collective dimension creativity plays on the internet. The web 2.0 concept is based on network technologies and draws extensively on the principles of collaboration and content sharing among internet users. While the act of posting content online was the preserve of specialists only a few years ago, it is now possible to broadcast a video on YouTube by simply clicking a mouse. Network technologies are also designed to be multiplatform (computer, cell phone, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.). This means that that the scope of distribution for creations (i.e. videos) is expanded to every platform. A further characteristic of these technologies is their ability to signicantly accelerate processes (Gauvin, 2009), including the distribution and broadcast of new videos. d. Ordering structures within the creations One of the consequences of technologys facilitating role has been the explosion of user-generated internet content. Multiple versions of video clips have come to constitute a narrative woods (Boulaire and Cova, 2008) in which internet users can quickly become lost, overwhelmed by the number of available videos and the numerous possible pathways to follow. To alleviate this problem somewhat, YouTube has developed a search engine to guide visitors in their meanderings, particularly by categorizing and sorting videos by keyword. Keywords are attached to each video. When users type in a request for a video, the YouTube search engine supplies a list of results based on the words entered in the search. The indexation of content provides a structure among available versions, a set of signposts. As Gruber (2008) noted, however, the technology currently in use on the internet makes it possible to reference the intelligence collected, without necessarily providing a higher level of understanding that constitutes collective intelligence. 3. Preliminary conceptual framework New technology and web 2.0 play a key role in user generated content development. We showed that they help to sustain, share and enrich web sites such as YouTube. However, these technologies do not stand alone; human participation is necessary to invigorate this new kind of community. In this section, we suggest a preliminary

conceptual framework in which users imagination and creativity are two major forces in this type of spaces. a. Experimental theatre and games The theater metaphor is long established in the marketing literature (Goffman, 1959), particularly for the services sector (Grove et al., 2000). Audience, script, role, actors or script are some expressions generally used in the literature to describe a service (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2004) or the management of word reference performance (Deighton, 1992). Recently, Boulaire and Cova (2008) enriched this metaphor for ludic production-consumption experiences. They have studied the phenomenon of geocaching: a collective game played by thousands of enthusiasts around the world that can be described in simple terms as a modern treasure hunt combining global positioning system and internet uses. Their conceptualization of creativity manifestations supported by new technology for this game highlights that geocaching enthusiasts produce and consume it together, leading to an open, expandable, interactive and persistent game (Jaulin and Weil, 2003). We will use some of their results in our study of the manifestations of creativity in the production of online music. Like the geocaching community, YouTube, in which content (music videos) is generated by users, can be considered as an experimental macrotheatre (Boulaire and Cova, 2008). Beyond the theatrical dimension of putting ones self and the work of the artists on display, the term experimental applied to the theatre evokes a dimension of creative play. Amateur video producers and consumers come together to the online theater (YouTube), the former to display their creations, the latter to watch them, in a synergistic communitarian spirit of sharing and discovering artistic works, with the various anticipated individual and collective benets that this involved (Boulaire et al., 2008). Besides, there is no doubt that the nature of the game that is played and playable on YouTube, like the experience of creating new videos, is inuenced by the characteristics of the new technology that stimulates, supports, and facilitates the creation and sharing of the works produced. b. Creative strategies Imaginative strategies. Since YouTube is a large online creative consumer community (Kozinets et al., 2008), we suggest that imagination play a key role for its development. Each video opens up possibilities that the anticipative imagination of the player his/her ability to image video creation in this case will nd, reveal and magnify. Martin (2004) drew attention to the various imaginative strategies used by players of the trading card game Magic: The Gathering to enhance their experience of consuming the game, such as immersion in the fantastic world opened by the visual depictions on the cards (literal embodiment); augmenting the imaginary by imagining details not displayed on the cards (embellishing strategies), lling in missing elements (extrapolation) or imagining minor details (ornamentation); attributing an historical context to characters depicted on the cards (historicization) and having the characters meet each other (character interaction). Martin (2004) introduces also imaginary expansion strategies, such as replication of a character type (multiplicative strategies) and the creation of characters subordinate to the main ones (complementary addition). Finally, players also get rid of cards they nd aesthetically unappealing and replace them with something that appeals more to their imaginations (replacement). Unlike the trading card game Magic: The Gathering, where players imagination goes

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no further than a mental process level, YouTube users concretize their idea by creating and then uploading their video to the platform. Thus, thanks to the technology, the strategies for enriching the imagination identied by Martin (2004) can move beyond the stage of fantasy and waking dream to become instantiated through action, thereby having a direct, rapid and effective inuence on the evolution of the music videos game. Ludic agency strategies. Peoples desire to entertain themselves individually and collectively through their creative abilities can be captured by the concept of ludic agency (Sherry et al., 2007; Kozinets et al., 2004). The concept rst refers to the resources and skills used by consumers to participate with others in community type play activities. This concept is in turn derived from the notion of consumer agency (Kozinets et al., 2004), that is, the ability of consumers to take advantage of the freedom and leeway they enjoy to manipulate what the market initially supplies. Boulaire and Cova (2008) identify different ludic agency strategies, such as collage, semantic and non-semantic tinkering, semantic and non-semantic hijacking, material assembly and human chaining, invention and reinvention which take the form of various types of creative montage developed by geocaching enthusiasts, using ideas and various materials scavenged from multiple sites and areas. They see these types of montage as deriving from a postmodern vision of society in which individuals unhesitatingly bring together the old and the new, the archaic and new technology (Maffesoli, 2000, 2007), and so on, creating mix of genres. These types of ludic agency strategies may serve to distinguish creatives strategies used by YouTube members, since the ofcial music video could be easily identied as the initial offer which could be manipulated in a ludic game and since the numerous versions of a song generated from an ofcial music clip seems to conjure up various ludic arrangements joyful tinkerings born of users creativity. c. Ludic autotely and the re of play Each creative version can affect the collectivity, the life of the community. The large number of versions of a single song that appear over time is a sign of YouTubes creative effervescence. This phenomenon can be understood through the notions of ludic autotely and re developed by Sherry et al. (2007) to encompass the participation and creative strength of members. For instance, Boulaire and Cova (2008) depict the ways geocachers maintain their re by studying the creative dynamic among the community. Since YouTube users respond to each others creations in a never-ending evolution of content, to answer our RQ2, we need to better understand how the re on YouTube is fed and its effects on creativity and on the macro-experimental theatre. The re of play could stimulate individual and collective imagination and creative strategies, each strategy potentially tied to a previous one, in a manner to discover. As such, it seems particularly adapted to introduce the notions of ludic autotely and re in our preliminary framework. Given the size and the nature of the community, direct personal interactions between producers are most likely weak and often transience. Thus, by response to each others creation, we mean the creation of music clip deriving from a potential Eureka-triggering an ideas generator (Kozinets et al., 2008), activated by another video available on YouTube. It will be therefore not surprising that an original production in the form of a music video on YouTube (as is an initial ofcial music video) could spark the creation of a host of alternative

versions, under the re of play and the internautes desire to maintain it. The re of play could stimulate individual and collective imagination and creative strategies, each strategy potentially tied to a previous one, in a manner to discover. Amateur production on the video-sharing site are thus incorporated into the notions of individual and collective creativity, creative strategies (imaginative and ludic agency ones), ludic autotely and re of play. These phenomena, as well as web 2.0 technology can have an effect on the creation of videos as they undergo an initial mental conceptualization of the ideas development before the video-editing stage per se. Moreover, each created object can have an impact on the communitys other amateur video producers, who may use or take inspiration from the new content to produce their own new videos. The inuence of the technology is not limited to facilitating the production of a montage, but sustains the entire experimental theatre, whether for posting or sharing videos. We will therefore apply this theoretical framework shown in Figure 1 to address our research questions. 4. Methodology a. Narrative approach to the creative production of music videos on YouTube The creative production of YouTube music videos studied here will be treated as a polysemic textual discourse whose authors are principally the amateur video producers. This prolic, constantly evolving discourse is accessible to the general public via the internet at YouTubes web site address. The sites search engine makes it easy to label and nd creations. The readers of this text also include the amateur producers, who are inspired by the creations of other members of the innovation community. The text of YouTube video productions resonates differently in each of them and gives rise to individual interpretations, despite the reading conventions they themselves have helped establish in the online production community through their use of video-labeling technologies to create a common or consensual basis for understanding the videos. For this study, the three researchers became readers and authors in the aim of providing the academic community with a scholarly narrative of creative YouTube video production. To develop their narrative, they explored the narrative woods (Boulaire and Cova, 2008) that have grown up on the other side of the monitor screen

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Individual/collective creativity (Urban and Jellen/Kozinets et al.)

Creative strategies New technologies (Gruber and OReilly) Ludic agency strategies (Boulaire and Cova) Imaginative strategies (Martin)

Ludic autotely/ fire of play (Sherry et al./ Boulaire and Cova)

Creative production Experimental theatre of music videos game on youtube

Figure 1. Preliminary conceptual framework

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in the form of videos inspired by one song. The narrative woods metaphor is inspired by Ecos (1998) metaphor of the ctional woods. They were equipped for but also constrained in their exploration by their previous cognitive baggage and a conceptual framework (explained earlier), and guided but also limited by their choices of research paradigm, problem, and research questions, as well as by the characteristics of internet and YouTube technology. All along the trail they blazed, they sought to develop an understanding of the phenomenon of creativity within the innovation community ` and Nyeck, 1992), within a under study by adopting a logic of discovery (Bergadaa ` , 2006a, b; Denzin and Lincoln, 2000). This allowed constructivist approach (Bergadaa them to be sensitive to emerging themes beyond those developed a priori in the conceptual framework and to micro-events taking place within the narrative woods. They stopped many times along the way to deconstruct videos, to induce, identify and name creative strategies underlined in their elaboration, to unravel individual narratives in order to better weave them back into a collective story of collective creation. Our approach thus retains the power of narrative to produce a reading of any behaviour (Shankar and Goulding, 2001; Shankar et al., 2001), including both consumption and production. It borrows from reader response theory (McQuarrie and Mick, 1999; Scott, 1994; Stern, 1993; Mick and Buhl, 1992) and its vision of text interpretation as the product of an encounter between the text and a reader with various skills and reading strategies. In a reading experience, an indirect dialogue takes place between an author (in the case of YouTube, the authors are very numerous) and a reader through the author text (in our study, the text is a video). Both authors and readers are historically, culturally, and socially situated, motivated in various ways by this encounter, and animated by an intention. There are multiple possible interpretations of a text. The ontological position we are defending is therefore that there exist multiple constructed realities (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000; Lincoln and Guba, 1985). The interpretations are not however all idiosyncratic because the reader, as the member of a community of interpretation, may privilege certain reading strategies that are in fact similar to the collective conventions established by his or her community (Scott, 1994). In the case of the three researchers, the conceptual framework chosen provided the preliminary conventions in the form of an interpretation grid. These conventions were negotiable, however, and were renegotiated as we wandered the narrative woods, enriching our understanding of the creative phenomenon under study and allowing us to induce the following results. b. Details on methodology Once we had selected YouTube, for the reasons explained in the introduction, we had to zoom in more closely given the multitude of available YouTube videos, limiting ourselves to videos based on one song, and indirectly, to the innovation community linked to them. This was our point of entry into the world of online video sharing as well as the more specialized world of music videos. To choose the song, we used a variety of criteria, including the popularity of the song and an associated video. Inspired by Kozinets (2002), we also selected a criterion of absolute effervescence provoked by the song, reected in the tremendous number of creative versions of the video and the commentary they generated. The fact that one of the researchers had been a devoted YouTube user for over three years facilitated our song selection based

on the complementary criteria of relative effervescence, that is, effervescence compared with other songs, and the variety or diversity of the created versions. In other words, we sought to ensure a high degree of variance in the way innovation community members expressed their creativity, as revealed by the search for a music video on YouTube and by considering linked clips suggested by the sites own technology. Based on these criteria, we chose the song Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by the French electronic music group Daft Punk (Appendix 1). We entered several types of queries on the YouTube search engine (a system similar to that of traditional search engines such as Yahoo! and Google, for example) in order to best identify aspects of the population of videos relating to the song. Queries were made using the groups name, the title of the song, and combinations of both (use of Booleans, quotation marks, etc.). It should be noted that the number of hits listed by the YouTube site varied from under 5,000-65,000 videos, which testies to the size of the population under study as well as the fuzziness of the contours of the narrative woods we were interested in. We wandered those woods and immersed ourselves in the world of videos associated with the song for months, viewing numerous clips in light of our two research questions. In order to better grasp what our narrative woods could teach us, we lingered over several versions created by amateur producers. These more closely studied versions were chosen according to their popularity and performance (number of views, comments and average ratings by other users, recognition within the community, names of other web sites that featured them, number of people who added the video to their favourites) as well as to the date they were posted. Above all, the videos were chosen as particularly signicant for study on the basis of their creative expression (in the title of the video or montage created). The fact that one of the researchers is an expert on the group Daft Punk was particularly useful for this purpose. In order to answer our RQ1, each version was subjected to a more in-depth analysis, using the ludic agency strategies highlighted by Boulaire and Cova (2008) as the initial grid. However, we remained open to going beyond that grid and allowing other forms of creativity to emerge and be accounted for, to allow room for surprise. In so doing, we each developed, in parallel to our meanderings in the narrative woods, a sense and understanding of the phenomenon of creativity using an iterative cognitive spiralling process that took us back and forth between each individual video and our overall understanding of the phenomenon for the various selected videos, and involved continually comparing the forms of creativity identied in these videos (Glaser and Strauss, 1970). We also regularly exchanged views among ourselves, sharing and discussing our opinions and developing an increasingly in-depth intersubjective conceptualization framework. We pursued our path through the narrative woods (with stops to view additional videos) and our associated cognitive path until we attained a saturation of creative strategies based on Boulaire and Covas (2008) grid, as well as emergent ones. However, parallel to our wanderings in the narrative woods, we tried to understand the creative dynamic at work among amateur producers, thus situating each video we watched in relation to those previously examined, working out genealogies, and seeking to capture all the links among videos in a holistic vision of the phenomenon of collective creativity. The posting date of videos proved useful for this part of the study. User proles automatically created by YouTube as a personal chain under the users registration are continually updated whenever a user comments on a video or posts

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a new one, allowing us to better understand the relationships between the various creations. In the Appendix 2, Table AI, we present a summary table of the videos on which our analysis and interpretation was based. 5. Analysis and interpretation To answer our RQ1, we start our analysis by focusing on the creative strategies induced after the investigation of our music videos sample. a. Individual creative strategies Amateur producers have drawn upon their creative capacities, both artistic and technological, to produce, post and share numerous videos based on Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger in order to take part in their own way in a form of community avoured entertainment. The song chosen for study and the production of associated videos appear as an open-ended ludic game, a free space where members of an implicit game-based experimental theatre can express their imaginations. Imagination is the driving force behind their innovation community as depicted in the preliminary conceptual framework (Figure 1). The result is numerous creative assemblages that can be initially classied according to the principal gure around which they are constructed. Principal gures retained constitute various games axes chosen by the different creators and also the implicit experimental microtheatre in which each of them is inserted. Selection and staging of the principal gure. The notion of gure comes from a principle of Gestalt theory, that of gure/ground, which distinguishes between the object of interest (the gure) and secondary (the ground), foregrounding (the gure) and backgrounding (the ground). Although the various creative assemblages identied all bear hallmarks of the Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger universe, the nature of these marks reveals the main gure featured in the clip, i.e. the object of interest that seduced the videos producer. This may be the song or its words, a reinterpretation, or again, as we shall see, a manga, a videogame or the amateur producer him or herself. It may also be a concentrated version of the gure, such as a reinterpretation of the song on the piano, or the lyrics presented on a classic support slides, for example or less classic one, as we shall see. The selected gure channels and directs the imagination of amateur producers and allows them to express or highlight their interests, passions, and skills, or a part of themselves, a persona and so forth. Also implicit in the creative assemblages produced is the process of storymaking, with various staging possibilities or scripts involving the main gure selected. These may involve staging the song lyrics, as in videos nos 6, 7 and 47, or a persona, as in the case of videos nos 27, 45 and 48. The dimensions of theatre and experimental theatre associated with the innovation community are particularly well represented. One such staging (video no. 3), one of the most successful clips in the overall YouTube community so far, has been viewed over 30 million times. This is the video Daft Hands, to which we will return further on. Although the visual aspect of perception remains the primary prism for reading the gure foregrounded in the video, other complementary readings are also possible. Let us now take a more detailed look at the types of montage produced (Boulaire and Cova, 2008) and at the other creative strategies behind them. Semantic collage. In the world under study, amateur producers create semantic collages to give a name to their creation, provide the community with clues about

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its nature and the main gure developed therein, inform members and awaken their curiosity. In our investigation of retooled versions of Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, we came across a number of semantic montages taking the rst part, Daft, of the groups name, Daft Punk, and joining it to another term referring to the videos content. Examples include Daft Lego, a video of the song involving Lego, and Daft Hands and Daft Bodies, videos in which the protagonists lm their hands or bodies with the words of the song written on them. We also encountered semantic collages in which the rst word referred to the creative content of the video and the second to the groups name, as in the case of Dwarfed Punk in which images were taken from the cartoon Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. While they supply information to community members, such titles are also used by the referencing system of YouTubes search engine and recognized as referring to two distinct semantic elds: that of the group Daft Punk and something else. They are then categorized by the system in these two elds. This means that when users watch a video with a name referring to a semantic collage, YouTube suggests a list of related videos based on the two elds implied by the video name. When they watch Dwarfed Punk, users see a list of videos referring to Daft Punk songs as well as creative montages created out of images from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. They are thus steered toward various implicit experimental theatres. We also encountered other types of assemblage involving the juxtaposition of various terms referring to the song or the group with another term referring primarily to a central element of the video. These semantic assemblages are certainly less creative than the previously discussed type, but are very common. Some examples are Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger iPhone Drummer (no. 16) and Daft Punk Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Piano (no. 20). Non-semantic collage. Non-semantic collage is created through video montage in which amateur producers employ the song as a background by simply juxtaposing images upon it. In these montages, producers use images from a different world than that of the ofcial video to constitute the videos main gure. These images are unconnected to the ofcial world except via this perceptual relationship of gure/ground, providing the amateur producer with a great deal of freedom in the choice of images to put in. The most common examples of this type of montage are anime music videos containing the acronym AMV in their titles (in another instance of semantic collage). The amateur producers of these videos generate non-semantic collages by drawing on videos from the world of fantasy, such as mangas (e.g. Hellsing manga, no. 35; Eureka Seven manga, no. 38), video games (e.g. nos 33, 34 and 37 using the Resident Evil or The Sims games) or cartoons (e.g. no. 31 with ThunderCats). Although the main gures of these montages may come from the world of the fantastic, they can also refer to other worlds, in the form of a person dancing (no. 48) for example, or a slide show of personal photographs and lms (no. 49) with the song as background. Hijacking. Hijacking describes a video montage in which the amateur producer uses ctional images and characters from a different world than that of the ofcial video, synchronizing these new images so that they match the song and thus connecting the images to the world of the ofcial video. As in non-semantic collages, the song is not the principal gure. But it does play a major role by giving meaning to the hijacked images. It is not simply a background, unlike non-semantic collages that could easily use another song for a background without compromising the meaning of the video. We found hijackings of characters from the fantastic (cartoons and video games).

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In these clips, videos are edited to make the characters dance during the instrumental sections of the song and sing during vocal sections (examples include the characters Ed, Edd, and Eddy from the eponymous cartoon, in video no. 28, those of Dwarfed Punk in video no. 26, those of World of Warcraft in video no. 39, those of Pangya in video no. 30, or those of Megaman in no. 45). In nos 25 and 42, the world of Lego is pressed into service hijacked. Covers, reperformances. In many cases, we found videos in which the song was performed instrumentally, vocally or in dance, either by the amateur producer alone or using various tools. These videos depict staged performances by the new performer. We observed numerous instrumental versions for the piano (nos 20 and 21), guitar (no. 22), and bass (no. 23). The video game universe is also present in these cover montages. Indeed, the number of music videogames and music game fans is increasing. Certain of these montages provide a particular interpretation of the song Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, in which the performer has used a musical videogame and posted the results on YouTube (no. 24 using Audiosurf, no. 50 using DDR, no. 51 using Mungyo Dance 3 and no. 55 using Guitar Hero). To arrive at new interpretations of the song, amateur producers do not hesitate to use technology to create new kinds of instruments. Some have created applications on mobile devices (e.g. iPhone in no. 16, iTouch in no. 17). In one specic case, the iDaft application available for Apple iPhones, users can listen to the instrumental version of the song Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger and press phone keys in rhythm to produce the words and phrases from the song. In no. 56, for example, the performer was videoed using this application and the results posted to allow the YouTube community to witness his performance. To close our analysis of covers, note that we also encountered a cappella versions of the song (e.g. no. 36) and numerous videos in which individuals lmed themselves dancing to it (e.g. no. 25 and no. 27). Unlike what takes place in non-semantic montages (no. 48), these involve a real character dancing in time to the music. After examining various expressions of individual creativity within the community, we considered the individual creativity collective creativity dynamic to answer our RQ2. We thus looked at the way in which the re generated by the song is maintained and spread within the implicit experimental theatre associated with it on YouTube, but also, as we discovered, outside its bounds. We also induce different types of links between our sample of music videos. b. Collective creation and play re in the innovation community Multiplication by similarity and diversication. At this stage of our study, one of the strategies identied by Martin (2004) seems particularly useful to our interpretation: the strategy of expansion by multiplication. We have revisited and enriched this strategy by also bringing in categorization theory and exemplar-based categorization models (Mervis and Rosch, 1981; McGarty, 1999). In relation to any new version of a video, amateur producers can restart the cycle by taking the new video as the reference point or exemplar of a new category dened by its principal gure. Amateur producers can then decide to copy the new video and develop similar versions, in other words to undertake multiplication through similarity. To illustrate, a video with a piano arrangement of the song as its main gure (such as no. 20, which appeared in December 2007) might be taken by amateur producers as an interesting exemplar of a category dened by this new main gure, with the result that they then create their

own piano versions (as in nos 21 and 54 from March 2008 to September 2008). This leads to a multiplication of examples of this category. There are now close to 100 piano versions of the song on YouTube. Amateur producers may then elect to multiply the number of categories on one level through horizontal diversication, in other words by multiplication through diversication. For example, inspired by the piano version of the song, they might produce a guitar or bass guitar version, which is, in its turn, susceptible to being copied in a new multiplication of versions by similarity (e.g. no. 22 for guitar, with close to 60 new versions on YouTube and no. 23 for bass, with close to 50 versions). Strategies of multiplication through similarity or diversication are found in all types of montage and not merely in covers (e.g. multiplication of versions by similarity to the manga main gure Naruto, no. 67, with nos 71 and 72 referring to it, and the multiplication of versions by diversication into fantastic worlds based on cartoons and videogames). Multiplication by ornamentation. Amateur producers may also multiply the production of new videos through a strategy of ornamenting a gure, i.e. multiplication through ornamentation. At this stage of our study, we bring in the ornamentation strategy presented by Martin (2004), which is linked to the notion of augmentation. However, we have adapted it to the context of the gure and also recognize it as an expression of creativity in the form of development through embellishment. Amateur producers thus add an ornament (a quality) to a gure in order to dene it more precisely. This is another way for them to channel their creative production and express their imagination, interests and selves through their choice of ornament, but also to create the space to do so. Video no. 3 thus makes use of the song lyrics as a choreographed ornamentation. In it, an amateur producer has choreographed a series of hand movements to present the words to the song in an original way. The words are written on the ngers of two hands and are uncovered to the rhythm of the song. The video is now known as Daft Hands, a reference to the musical group and the body part used. It has been subject to numerous successive ornaments and remakes (over 1,000) by the community. We were able to nd ornamentations consisting of sped-up versions of the routine (e.g. nos 9, 6 and 10), one-handed versions (e.g. nos 8 and 57), computerized versions (no. 7), and versions in which the routine was modied (no. 14). As the exemplar of its category, Daft Hands also engendered multiple versions through similarity and diversication. Among these diversication strategies, we saw the appearance of videos in which the body parts used were no longer limited to the hands, thus extended to the whole body. The title of such videos thus contains the phrase Daft Bodies (e.g. nos 4 and 13). Subsequent ornamentation signicantly contributed to expanding the content in the community through this main gure, which could be described as choreographing the words on the body. As for Daft Hands (both the one- and two-handed versions), one of the ornaments for Daft Bodies was centred on the number of supports used for presenting words. We observed videos with a single individual (e.g. no. 19), or a group (e.g. nos 11 and 12). As with Daft Hands, computerized versions of the routine were created (e.g. no. 15). Other ornaments were, however, exclusive to Daft Bodies, with versions involving men (e.g. nos 5 and 19) or women (nos 4, 11 and 13). Videos whose title contained the words daft girls (e.g. nos 58, 59 and 60) were a development of the main Daft Bodies gure and one of its ornaments. It is possible that an ornament brought into augment a gure might be successful enough to become the main gure, pushing the previous gure connecting the work to the song into the background and unleashing a new round of play based on the new

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gure, in a new implicit experimental theatre. Successive ornaments embellishing this new gure may then cause that gure to break down into other microtheatres, and the new play into other micro-plays. The popularity of the choreographed routine ornamentation seen above was such that the choreographed words gure was transformed into word choreography and a multiplication of ornaments of the new gure then took place. Thus, to conclude this section, we can afrm that each multiplying operation, whether brought about through similarity, diversication or ornamentation, can give rise to a new game a micro-game supported by a new implicit experimental microtheatre (Figure 2). c. Crossing res in the innovation community Community crossre. We have looked at the way the play re started in the innovation community by the song Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger is maintained and spreads. But it is also maintained and grows because other res lit in other already-established communities meet and feed it. The re around the song is thus fed by the crossre from the Naruto manga (e.g. nos 67-72), the SpongeBob Squarepants cartoons (e.g. nos 73-75) and Lego (e.g. nos 25, 42 and 43). Videos from these res may contaminate the re consecrated to the song, as well as that of other songs. Lego and SpongeBob Squarepants fans have fed the re around Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger as well as that burning around other songs, for example, a song by the group Queen (e.g. no. 76 for Lego and no. 77 for SpongeBob Squarepants). The title of Crossed video clips often reects the link between the different res by a semantic collage (e.g. Daft Lego: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger no. 43). This crossing of community res can take place for various reasons, such as an interest in or passion for the worlds involved, or the desire to be seen as original within ones community of origin, or perhaps a wish to show off ones video editing skills. This will lead us to our next point. In the meantime, however, Figure 3 shows a diagram of these community crossres.

6 August 2007 Daft hands accelerated version (clip 6)

23 October 2007 Apparition of Daft Bodies video (clip 4)

20 February 2008 Daft bodies male version (clip 5)

13 April 2008 Daft hands one hand version (clip 8)

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6 June 2007 Apparition of Daft hands video (clip 3)

31 August 2007 Daft hands used for another song of the group (clip 55)

10 February 2008 Daft hands computerized version (clip 7)

3 March2008 Daft used for another song of another singer (clip 65)

1 November 2008 Apparition of the video clip Daft the vote (clip 68)

Figure 2. Multiplication of the Daft Hands video clip over time

Legend : Multiplication of the versions inside the innovation community of the song harder, better, faster, stronger Multiplication of the versions outside the innovation community of the song harder, better, faster, stronger

EX: Song 1 harder, better, faster, stronger Lateral fire Example A: Manga naruto Lateral fire Example B: Lego game Lateral fire Example C: The spongeBob squarepants cartoon New crossed videoclips Floating figure Video clip Daft hands Other lateral fire New crossed videoclips New crossed videoclips

EX: Song 2 Other song

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New crossed videoclips

New crossed videoclips

New crossed videoclips

Figure 3. Crossre inside and outside the innovation community

Individual crossres. Community crossres are the result of individual res. Users may sow seeds in other communities as they browse by scattering creations reecting their particular enthusiasms behind them. Here, the analysis of amateur producer proles proved very useful. For example, after having encountered an instrumental version of the song performed on the piano (no. 20), we were able to establish that all the videos posted by the user in question were piano arrangements of songs. Certain users may also focus on an ornament and transform it into a gure (as seen earlier), then develop that gure. This is the case for user pecarii 1988, who rst produced a performance of the words to the song with his hands (a version with Daft Hands, described above) in a speeded-up version (no. 6). This same user then extended his ornamentation of the routine by posting a new version of Daft Hands a few days later with a new style of routine (no. 52). A few weeks later, the user applied Daft Hands ornamentation to another song, still by the group Daft Punk (no. 53), expanding the playing eld to create his own experimental theatre. Similarly, the prole of video no. 76s creator indicates that he also posted several clips of this type for various singers. Crossre outside the innovation community. Fire that begins inside the studied innovation community can also spread to other innovation communities. A gures popularity can transform it into a oating gure, carrying its play re laterally to feed other worlds and other res. The play re of choreographed routines born in the Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger song world spread to other songs from Daft Punks repertoire (e.g. nos 64 and 65) as well to that of other artists (e.g. nos 61-63). Now main gures, Daft Hands and Daft Bodies were even used by a communications rm to encourage American voters to vote during the 2008 presidential campaign (no. 66). Figure 2 shows the evolution of Daft

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Hands and Daft Bodies ornaments into main gures and oating gures, using the dates videos were posted in the YouTube community. Creative chains, tree structures and constant mutations of the video object. By presenting a new video that arouses the interest of community members and can be used by them as exemplars of a main gure for the purposes of copying, diversifying or ornamenting, amateur producers collectively build creative chains, each adding a new link. These multiple chains form tree structures of video versions as well as implicit experimental microtheatres, each supporting micro-games around the main video gures. Figure 4 shows this phenomenon as observed in the studied videos. This creative dynamic within the innovation community, made possible by the technology discussed above, results in an open-ended structure of video versions and
Part 1 Video clip harder, faster, better, stronger

Videoclip made with the song as background

Synchronization with the song imagesand characters from

Physical world

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Figure 4. Creativity chains and arborescence of the video clip used in the study

-Amateur(s) -Etc

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-Idaft/I-Phone -I-touch -Musical video games --Etc

-Man -Woman -Animal -Etc

-Slide -Photos -Karaoke -Etc..

-Standard version -Accelerated version -Computerized version -Other choreography -Etc..

-Woman -Man -Computerized version -Etc..

community through, once again, the medium of technology. Whatever level or position it occupies within a tree structure, the video object can transform into a creative ludic space sparked by the play re that lights up the innovation community, a space that will engender other creations and thus other objects (videos), which themselves can become ludic creation spaces in a series without end. This process is shown in Figure 5. 6. Lessons learned Lesson 1 Within innovation communities on internet and social media like YouTube, which are driven by user generated content production and participatory digital culture, we again notice that in these new spaces open to every internet users, imagination does not stand alone and cannot be exercised to all at once. On and ofine, creativity relies for one thing on users perceptions which are inuenced by his/her interests, abilities, motivation and intention. Indeed, an amateur producer generally takes inspiration from existing object which is often used as a template. He chooses an aspect of the template, for which he has a particular interest, and start to work with it in a creative manner. Here, is the importance to identify the principal gure which conveys this type of focalization. Here, is the importance of categorization theories and the notion of categorys prototype which is used as the initial object. Here, is the importance for marketing managers to propose an offer (product, service, etc.) to an innovation community with a high stimulation power by giving multiple opportunities and aspects that community users could develop. Here, is the importance to make efforts in order to correctly position an initial offer and its following version, thanks to technology. These marketing efforts appears to be more and more necessary since amateurs productions number increases exponentially on web sites like YouTube creating narrative woods where internet users can easily get lost.
Object zero initial video clip

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New version of object zero and new video clip object

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Figure 5. Fire of play and creativity chains

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Lesson 2 In the context of what can be considered as open, expandable, interactive and persistent game (Jaulin and Weil, 2003) offered to an innovation community, creatives strategies (ludic agency and imaginative ones) are operated by internet users which adapt them to the game context (in our case, the music video sector). Amateur productions are classied, structured by the technologies allowing users to retrieve videos thanks to keywords associated with each creation. Gruber (2008) refers to this structure as collected intelligence generated by users. Even if this structure makes sense to internet users and enables them to nd what they want, it does not provide an intelligible framework to develop marketing strategies. Content categorization according to creative strategies offers a new understanding of YouTube users behaviours and their manifestation such as semantic collage (a creative content which can be categorized thanks to its title). Lesson 3 The re of play results in music videos creations which echo back to each other conducting to a multiplication of games versions and the experimental microtheatres which can be linked to each of these versions. Thus, the initial games characteristics (i.e. the ones of the initial object) have to be analyzed in details in order to determine their potential to stimulate amateur producers creativity. For instance, the fact that a game could be endless is one of these characteristics. Besides, several res coexist at the same time. This opportunity of cross res has to be collected in order to start new games or to establish a new prototype. 7. Managerial implications YouTube is often presented as a social media site where users actively participate to determine what is popular (AMA, 2010). On a managerial perspective, this type of space represents multiple challenges, in particular because marketers have little control on what happens in it since consumers have the power. For the music industry, YouTube has become an important media since more and more internet users consume (and even produce) music videos. As the group director of worldwide interactive marketing for Coca Cola, Michael Donnely recently explained social media is where consumers are at the moment (eMarketer, 2009). The question is how integrate an innovation community and its members but also how capitalize on collective creativity as judiciously as possible? As developed in the previous section, several leads are possible and, for instance, an industry, organization or brand could propose an offer as an object that can be opened (as in the open-source phenomenon described earlier). This object can become a creative ludic space or a game and be made available as such. Every object, and each dimension of that object, can be offered as a play space or game to the consumer or innovation community, either in the form of an existing object on the web to be appropriated and transformed, or as a yet nonexistent object to be created through experimental theatres. Besides, such an object could trigger chains of creativity, which represent a form of link that connects and reconnects rather than inhibits minds, imaginations, interests, abilities and individuals. Each user may participate at his or her own level and according to his or her skills. For instance, after years of conicts (Giesler, 2008), it seems that the music industry has nally started to adapt its offer with a spirit closed to the position we described in the previous section. To illustrate this point, we introduce the online music video web site Vevo owned by several major companies of the music industry (Sony, Universal Music,

EMI, etc.) launched in December 2009. In simple words, Vevo gathers every ofcial music video of these companies and the content is hosted by YouTube. This platform gives the opportunity to Vevo users to create and share their own playlist from the material available on the channel. Several music videos can be included in a playlist and it is interesting to notice that Vevo users creativity appears to work similarly as YouTube users creativity. For example, a Vevo user named shawn creates and shares playlist about country music. He entitled the playlists: Country Royalties, Country Girl Power, Rockin Country and Country Ballads. These titles reect a creative strategy identied during the analysis (semantic collage). Thus, by including a playlist game in its offer, Vevo lets its members expressed their imagination and creativity. By contributing to this game, users help to develop and/or maintain the re of play and community life. Besides, because of the mandatory subscription to participate to the playlist game, Vevo can create a link with them. To deal with the digital participatory culture, we believe that more and more organizations or brands will initiate, sustain, and maintain this kind of link to construct relationship and even conversation with their customers. This process will be part of a high-impact interactive marketing strategy likely to promote (self-) enchantment and foster loyalty among community members through (self-) enchantment, particularly via the coproduction of a story, with community members creating the scripts. For instance, in two months the Vevo channel on YouTube already counts more than 24,500 subscribers. Another potential managerial implication is the use of amateur producers creativity as a generator idea for an organization or a brand offer. We have underlined that an innovation community could turn a popular gure (e.g. Daft Hands no. 3) into a oating gure which will feed other theatres, games and res. Such gures have a great potential for marketing managers who could integrate them to enrich their offer. For instance, Vevo has decided to insert lyrics on the ofcial music video. Thanks to a button, a user can activate the lyrics which are superimposed on the video clip. This example shows us how users creativity have inuence the music industry to rethink its offer on internet. By satisfying this need, Vevo have the opportunity to attract people interested by the prototype lyrics version and, as a consequence, generate trafc on its web site. Therefore, if organizations and brands have to inspire amateur producers by providing opened objects, they also can be inspired by their actual or future customers. Obviously, these two initiatives taken by Vevo highlight a rst change in this music industry sector. Nevertheless, we strongly believe that more have to be done by the industry, particularly by providing more and more opened objects, stimulating collective creativity and so letting more freedom to the customers in this type of communities. Conclusion We have examined manifestations of the collective creative force that, on YouTube, drives the innovation community to produce videos based on hit songs. This force is not expressed merely through the semantic and non-semantic montages that make internet users into postmodern tinkerers, but also through such mechanisms as imitation, diversication and ornamentation. This force and these mechanisms give rise to chains that link and connect individual minds, imaginations, interests, enthusiasms, talents, abilities and skills. From a managerial and effective marketing strategy standpoint, piggybacking on this force is a question of hijacking, occupying, calling forth, and encouraging creativity chains by turning the product, brand, advertisement or other

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object into a play space or a game likely to induce (self-) enchantment and loyalty through (self-) enchantment. Providing surprising creative montages that can serve as exemplars to copy, diversify or ornament is one possible way to foster the formation of such chains. This force is also a ame that feeds a re, the re of collective creativity. This re crosses with other res, further increasing their collective creative power. The re of play, the creative spark that is developed and shared, then becomes the new managerial state of mind to aspire to and maintain, substituting conversation for relationships by furnishing consumers with experimental theatres or moving into those they already visit. Could these experimental theatres then become a new meeting grounds for their members and a commercial entity (e.g. an organization, a brand) as well as the stage for collectively constructed stories built around such entities? Our study is not without its limitations. First, we focus on a type of creativity which promotes the initial objects. However, users creativity can be used to criticize or blame a brand, a product, a service or a politician, for instance by posting a caricatural version of an ofcial advertising. This limitation will constitute another research project. Besides, the richness of content obtained by observing amateur productions restricted us to this type of collection (music videos), forcing us to exclude for the moment the complementary activity of video consumption. To validate our suggestions regarding (self-) enchantment and its usefulness in fostering loyalty, as well as our managerial proposals, and to fully understand collective creativity, its mechanisms, and its ery dynamic of collective creation, we will need to consider this complementary, synergistic aspect in another study.

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West, M.A. (2002), Sparkling fountains or stagnant ponds: an integrative model of creativity and innovation implementation in work groups, Applied Psychology: An International Review, Vol. 51 No. 3, pp. 355-87. White, A. and Smith, B.L. (2001), Assessing advertising creativity using the creative product semantic scale, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 41 No. 6, pp. 27-34. YouTube Blog (2009), YouTube fact sheet, available at: www.youtube.com/t/fact_sheet (accessed 13 December 2009). Further reading White, A.R. (1990), The Language of Imagination, Blackwell, New York, NY. Corresponding author ` le Boulaire can be contacted at: Christele.Boulaire@mrk.ulaval.ca Christe Appendix 1. Daft Punk and the title Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger A commercial hit Included for the rst time in 2001 on the album Discovery, the song Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger was a major hit both in Europe and the USA (Allmusic, 2009). A remix of the song appeared in 2007 on the groups album Alive 2007, which won the Electronic Music category at the 2008 Grammy Awards. Videos The rst video of the song, released in 2001, was created entirely using images from the world of mangas (video no. 1). In 2003, Daft Punk teamed up with the renowned Japanese artist who created the Captain Harlock series and included their music video in a musical DVD entitled Interstella 5555, reprising all the videos from the album Discovery. The video of the 2007 version comes from a concert recorded that year in France (no. 2). YouTube presence Since September 20007, Daft Punk has maintained a YouTube presence through an ofcial channel www.YouTube.com/user/daftpunkalive; which numbers more than 50,000 subscribers (one of the top 100 musical channels on YouTube in terms of number of subscribers[1]). The two videos of the song under study have logged over 18 million views. However, the song has been posted on YouTube by various users since the end of 2005. A YouTube hit The video Daft Hands (no. 3) has become one of the most popular videos on YouTube worldwide. It is one of the 100 most viewed videos (over 31 million views) and one of the 50 most commented on (over 1,05,000 comments). It is also one of the 30 most responded to videos (over 300 new clips generated in response), and among the 15 most favourited videos (over 2,65,000 times)[2]. Notes 1. As of June 5, 2009, continuously updated by YouTube. 2. As of May 16, 2009, continuously updated by YouTube.

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Clip Video title on YouTube 84,15,000

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11 September 2007 30 October 2007 6 June 2007

Daft Punk Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Daft Punk Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Alive 2007) Daft Hands Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Daft Bodies Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Daft Punk Harder Bodies (Male Version) Harder Better Faster Daft Hands Double Speed (Faster, Better) Daft Hands Interactive Demonstration www.YouTube.com/user/logisticxx

www.YouTube.com/user/ daftpunkalive www.YouTube.com/user/ daftpunkalive www.YouTube.com/user/ FrEckleStudios www.YouTube.com/user/ imalibubarbiei www.YouTube.com/user/ jKingJulien www.YouTube.com/user/ pecari1988 www.YouTube.com/user/PJJMDCC

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www.YouTube.com/user/ pinguin256 www.YouTube.com/user/jmbretter

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www.YouTube.com/user/ duhitsjuliet www.YouTube.com/user/ lovelampsox3 www.YouTube.com/user/ocelle38

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www.YouTube.com/ watch?v DgBgnoEY4iM 1,02,48,000 www.YouTube.com/ watch?v oGECJP3phyY 3,14,92,000 www.YouTube.com/ watch?v K2cYWfqNw 23 October 88,29,000 www.YouTube.com/watch?v lLYD_2007 A_X5E 20 February 26,79,000 www.YouTube.com/ 2008 watch?v 6EUupnF02vo 6 August 2007 20,00,000 www.YouTube.com/ watch?v alqM0IYeH54 10 February 1,07,000 www.YouTube.com/watch?v fg6zr2008 XL6pc&NR 1 Daft Hands One-handed: Harder Better 13 April 2008 19,700 www.YouTube.com/ Faster Stronger watch?v JDPS0DeRQNo Daft Hands Speed X 6 27 October 35,000 www.YouTube.com/ 2007 watch?v vy0LykQboic Daft Hands x3 30 September 1,44,000 www.YouTube.com/ 2007 watch?v aDetOrfojuU Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger! 26 November 2,47,000 www.YouTube.com/ 2007 watch?v KwJWGnNxD8c Daft Punk 28 December 1,02,000 www.YouTube.com/ 2007 watch?v xFInq79vwOM Daft Bodies Summer 4 August 2008 10,700 www.YouTube.com/ watch?v db0By6CofG8 Daft Hands With My Style 2 September 2,49,000 www.YouTube.com/ 2007 watch?v CZji5PJA5Eg Daft Bodies Hands Simpsons Harder 4 April 2008 9,14,000 www.YouTube.com/ Better Faster Stronger watch?v RMBri0jXnzg Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger iPhone 1 March 2008 3,57,000 www.YouTube.com/watch?v Drummer B-w8UyoyRpQ Daft Punk Harder, Better, Faster, 29 March 47,000 www.YouTube.com/watch?v 09gStronger on Apple iTouch 2009 KdcF8mE www.YouTube.com/user/ bgirlpretzel www.YouTube.com/user/ mangomics www.YouTube.com/user/ seanwesmusic www.YouTube.com/user/ ieatsushieveryday (continued )

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Clip Video title on YouTube 4,15,000 3,11,000 3,19,000 74,400 18,900 3,600 3,03,000 2,28,000 2,15,000 1,99,000 1,88,000 1,91,000 1,44,000 16,000 8,000 3,600 7,500

Table AI.
Release date Viewsa Video available at User prole available at 6 November 2007 7 April 2008 4 December 2007 29 March 2008 23 May 2008 www.YouTube.com/user/ daftpunkalive www.YouTube.com/user/ jKingJulien www.YouTube.com/user/ ModistOne www.YouTube.com/user/ thepianobros www.YouTube.com/user/BuildingC www.YouTube.com/user/ Gustavoveg02 www.YouTube.com/user/zamb0nio www.YouTube.com/user/ crzyhippo7 www.YouTube.com/user/ FlashAndSlogan www.YouTube.com/user/ lsh1004732 www.YouTube.com/user/nmantor www.YouTube.com/user/ copea2007 www.YouTube.com/user/Razcz www.youtube.com/user/ TheBloodshotZombie www.youtube.com/user/ GunstarHeroes777 www.youtube.com/user/chaos2311 24 February 2006 10 December 2007 www.youtube.com/user/ jeffreychanffx (continued ) www.YouTube.com/ watch?v KhZ2iMMq578 www.YouTube.com/watch?v D2AVaJM87I www.YouTube.com/ watch?v 466DOrtd6es www.YouTube.com/ watch?v FXAjUMEzPVA www.YouTube.com/ watch?v 0xriw9N-L2 s www.YouTube.com/ watch?v thXSEoFPYnU www.YouTube.com/watch?v -N_9unbk24 www.YouTube.com/ watch?v PDrBZl3xRvk www.YouTube.com/ watch?v PaDAiv0cYU4 www.YouTube.com/ watch?v 84z66u4M1kk www.YouTube.com/ watch?v 9vBXAS-58vY www.YouTube.com/ watch?v jzV2s58P1rU www.YouTube.com/watch?v guJd3ApSX0 www.youtube.com/ watch?v YpoU35tvRag www.youtube.com/ watch?v 5LIO8auaxGo www.youtube.com/ watch?v WDnDJaVX590 www.youtube.com/ watch?v BSSYN9tjvMk

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Daft Bodies Harder Better Faster Stronger Daft-Punk-Harder-Bodies-Single-MaleVersion-By-KSquare Daft Punk Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Piano) Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk (Piano Cover 1 by Richie) Harder Better Faster Stronger Cover

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Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Bass 15 May 2008 Cover Daft Punk Audiosurf Hader, Better, Faster, Stronger 14 January 2008 Battle Droid Band 11 August 2007 Dwarfed Punk 27 October 2008 Korean Little boy Poppin Dance (Harder 18 July 2007 Better Faster[. . . ]) Ed Edd Eddy Music Video 2-Daft Punk 15 March 2007 DAFT PUNK Harder, Better, Faster, 31 May 2008 Stronger Lyrics Harder Better Faster Stronger WoW 5 October Machinima 2007 Thundercats Meet Daft Punk 12 February 2006 Video Game Music Video 4 March 2006

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Resident Evil 4 Daft Punk

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Resident Evil Harder Better Faster Stronger

Clip Video title on YouTube 9 April 2006 1 June 2006 6 June 2006 14 June 2006 27 June 2006 30 June 2006 3 May 2007 8,700 500 40,00,000 5,200 2,000 80,900 2,66,000 900 1,400 54,900 5,700 21,500 9,600 2,300 42,29,000 14,900 www.youtube.com/user/SonjaBlue

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Hellsing OVA Trailer Daft Punk AMV

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Daft Punk Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (A Cappella!?) Hey Look My Sims Are Dancing!

www.youtube.com/user/ bassnowbrdr www.youtube.com/user/Sims189 www.youtube.com/user/JoshIsEvil

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Eureka Seven Harder Better Faster Stronger Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

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www.youtube.com/user/ MysticRains www.youtube.com/user/ kishuskitten www.youtube.com/user/ mariquetabep www.youtube.com/user/siethon www.youtube.com/user/Foyro79

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Harder, Better Faster, Stronger Daft Punk AMV Daft Punk-Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger [. . .] Lego Style Daft Lego: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Groovy Dancing Girl

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www.youtube.com/user/ BandyToaster www.youtube.com/user/ PlkiacatcherSurvives www.youtube.com/user/Larknight www.youtube.com/user/alpoiz www.youtube.com/user/uiyoltan www.youtube.com/user/S0rincha www.youtube.com/user/onanieo (continued )

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25 September 2007 5 November 2008 17 February 2007 Daft Megaman Harder Better Faster 13 November Stronger 2007 Harder, Better, Faster, 30 October Daft Punk Karaoke Stronger 2007 Daft Punk Hands and Bodies Harder 24 November Better Faster Stronger 2007 Expression Crew 26 November 2005 Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, Forever. 21 August 2006 DDR Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger 21 January by Daft Punk 2008

www.youtube.com/ watch?v tnxs9Zv9DbU www.youtube.com/ watch?v wQVEPFzkhaM www.youtube.com/ watch?v hU8k3hzARI8 www.youtube.com/ watch?v 1M9Qh0lgHPI www.youtube.com/ watch?v SQF9rruSrqA www.youtube.com/ watch?v pbVXSIb3dtw www.youtube.com/ watch?v URNkIyGgtWI www.youtube.com/ watch?v KEGXpobP9bw www.youtube.com/ watch?v xqTqEE7d1zg www.youtube.com/ watch?v Sr2JneittqQ www.youtube.com/ watch?v xAFni712BFg www.youtube.com/watch?v Y1ctYMc1a4 www.youtube.com/ watch?v YtOOnIUh518 www.youtube.com/ watch?v Xj4v4ZebFsA www.youtube.com/ watch?v hbxRRLDrlTM www.youtube.com/ watch?v dsArnjpe1qM

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Clip Video title on YouTube 500 84,900 46,11,000 5,900 60,800 5,500 www.youtube.com/ watch?v XxMFKYnkwAY

Table AI.
Release date Viewsa Video available at User prole available at www.youtube.com/user/onanieo www.youtube.com/user/pecari1988 www.youtube.com/user/pecari1988 8 August 2008 2,200 500 20,800 1,34,200 400 400 www.youtube.com/user/ mixter654321 www.youtube.com/user/ BroncoBoy89 www.youtube.com/user/ AGProducktions www.youtube.com/user/ hawaiianboii7714 www.youtube.com/user/ilyxlalax2 www.youtube.com/user/ barozinskyd www.youtube.com/user/ barozinskyd www.youtube.com/user/Midimalzi www.youtube.com/user/yoring159 18 August 2008 24 February 2008 24 March 2008 11 November 2008 3 March 2008 3 March 2008 600 5,54,000 21,600 2,60,000 www.youtube.com/user/ minizaide64 www.youtube.com/user/ PyrosharkGIA www.youtube.com/user/Jax4ever www.youtube.com/user/Election08 (continued ) 17 November 2008 12 December 2008 1 November 2008 www.youtube.com/ watch?v FNF7jC7m 5g www.youtube.com/ watch?v SyIC3Munnyw www.youtube.com/ watch?v qpcfhuNrMLY www.youtube.com/ watch?v r5YChC9aq58 www.YouTube.com/ watch?v gvDWxmjS5xo www.youtube.com/ watch?v 4aw8YV3yRH8 www.youtube.com/ watch?v aWrecVI4g28 www.youtube.com/watch?v o-bOd3nvmo www.youtube.com/ watch?v 9AgjbhydooQ www.youtube.com/ watch?v aIdVorQP2FM www.youtube.com/ watch?v fggfbQ86ZjM www.youtube.com/watch?v 3WZpq2BJN4 www.youtube.com/watch?v P3a6tj_ N0Ao www.youtube.com/watch?v I9EwJRMj9c www.youtube.com/ watch?v KPZzFXxofbg

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Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Daft 8 December Punk (Heavy C725) AA 7 Greats 08 531 Max Combo (FC) Daft Hands Switch (Harder, Stronger) 14 August 2007 Daft Hands Technologic 31 August 2007 Tutorial of Harder Better Faster Stronger 28 September Piano 2008 Daft Punk Harder, Better, Faster, 27 February Stronger (Guitar Hero 3) 2008 Harder Better Faster Stronger iDaft 27 April 2009

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Daft Hands One Handed Harder Better Faster Stronger Daft Girls

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Daft Girls

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Daft Girls 2

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Daft Hands Gorillaz Clint Eastwood

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Love Dont Let Me Go Hands

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Daft Hands Moby Hands

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Daft Hands One More Time

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Daft Hands Around the World

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Daft the Vote

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Daft Punk Harder Better Faster 2 December Stronger Naruto AMV 2006 Naruto Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger 23 August 2006 Naruto Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger 19 January 2007 Naruto: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger 21 June 2006

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Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Naruto

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Naruto: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

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www.youtube.com/user/ ZDragon012 www.youtube.com/user/ smariemama www.youtube.com/user/ DayWalkerChild www.youtube.com/user/ NaraShikamaruChunin www.youtube.com/user/ asitaka7270 www.youtube.com/user/ specialgenin www.youtube.com/user/wikiman3

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DaftBob PunkPants: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Daft Punk Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger SpongeFunk DaftPants Harder, Better, Faster, Spongebob! We Will Rock You (in Lego!!!!)

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Spongebob We Will Rock You

3 January 2008 6 December 2008 5 January 2009 15 November 2007 1 August 2007

www.youtube.com/ watch?v PAWszrk0I6M www.youtube.com/ watch?v 2lQm0d8tTjA www.youtube.com/ watch?v 8LC6BlsqwCY www.youtube.com/ watch?v GNdzeFVhVpY www.youtube.com/ watch?v WswYn0dXB_k www.youtube.com/ watch?v xgOo7200544 www.youtube.com/watch?v cRaACXBfjI www.youtube.com/ watch?v sBiZ1E8eMNc www.youtube.com/ watch?v ZZr7Fin9ho0 www.youtube.com/ watch?v bzgbVy8Js0k www.youtube.com/ watch?v OkrMnu9k4-A

www.youtube.com/user/ redbearproductions www.youtube.com/user/ SuperSocialAdrenalin www.youtube.com/user/ Chadwookiee www.youtube.com/user/ rozsomak15

Source: aAccessed 10 June 2009

Creativity chains and playing

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