THE SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION 523than a subtle placement with an expert endorser (77.4%). However, the difference between a prominent placement
by an expert and the prominent placement by an amateur (92.3%) was not significant. An amateur endorser and a
subtle placement resulted in a brand recognition of 83.1%. UGC liking did not moderate the effect of endorser
expertise on brand recognition of Solo. However, the effect of prominence on recognition was moderated by UGC
liking. Prominent placements generated a significantly higher brand recognition than subtle placements, only for
viewers with a high UGC liking (93.3% vs 72.0%). This difference was not significant for low UGC likers (91.5% vs
88.6%). For 4 out of 5 of the non-manipulated other brands that were placed in the videos, the manipulation of the
prominence level of the Solo brand did not have an effect on the recognition of these brands. There was one inter-
esting exception, namely Tefal, a brand of frying pans. When Solo was placed prominently, the brand recognition of
Tefal (91.7%) also significantly increased compared with when Solo was placed subtly (58%), even though the
prominence level of Tefal remained constant. This could be due to the fact that Tefal is the brand most closely
associated with the manipulated Solo brand, because Solo butter is used in the Tefal frying pan. The degree
of endorser expertise did not have a significant main effect on the brand recognition of any of the five non-
manipulated placed brands. There was also no significant interaction effect between endorser expertise and Solo
prominence on the brand recognition for Tefal. The positive effect of Solo prominence on brand recognition for Tefal
was significant for both the amateur (92.3% vs 62.7%) and the expert condition (91% vs 52.8%).
Although placement prominence has consistently been found to positively influence brand recognition in
traditional media,^171 in the present study, a prominent placement only has a significant effect on recognition when
combined with an expert endorser. Endorser expertise seems to reinforce the effect of prominence on recognition. This
might be caused by an incongruency effect, caused by the appearance of a known expert in an online format usually
featuring unfamiliar amateurs. Prominence and endorser expertise also exert a reinforcing effect on purchase inten-
tion. Prominent placement causes significantly higher purchase intention than subtle placement when the brand is
used by an expert. People who are fond of UGC content have better recognition scores when the brand is promi-
nently placed, and report a greater purchase intention when the brand is used by an amateur than by an expert.
Most UGC videos are acted out by hobbyists without professional training and the appearance of a celebrity expert
disrupts this pattern. This may cause dissonant feelings on behalf of the experienced viewer, which in turn activates
persuasion knowledge. This effect is not present with less experienced users. Marketers should be cautious when
placing their brands in UGC videos featuring celebrity experts, especially when these are targeted at people who
are fond of UGC videos. These consumers prefer an amateur endorser.MySpace was launched as a social networking site with 250 million registered users in- It had enormous success during the period of 2005–8, aft er which the decline started.
Specifi c Media and Justin Timberlake bought it in June 2011. Since MySpace introduced new
ties with rival social networks Twitter and Facebook, its popularity is again rising with more
than 1 million new users within the fi rst 30 days signing up to MySpace. Th e new owner
promised to reposition the social network to focus on music. MySpace has a music catalogue
of more than 42 million songs whereas Spotify (with 10 million users)^172 has about 15 million
songs in the USA.^173
Th e largest social networking site is Facebook, launched in 2004 and with 900 million
monthly active users in May 2012. It was initially founded by Mark Zuckerberg to stay in
touch with his fellow students from Harvard University. Social networking sites are of such
high popularity, specifi cally among younger Internet users, that the term ‘Facebook addict’
is included in the Urban Dictionary ( http://www.urbandictionary.com ), a collaborative project of
the development of a slang dictionary for the English language.
In September 2011, InSites Consulting conducted an overall study of social media.
Awareness and usage of social networks are high. In Europe, 98% of people know at least one
social network and 73% are members of at least one network, mostly Facebook. Social
networkers are members of 1.9 networks on average. Current social networkers have no
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