Synergy in Music Videos

Synergy: the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. In media this term is used to describe a situation where different entities cooperate advantageously for a final outcome. With this definition, synergy in music videos can be seen as the offspring of another project, or vice versa. 

Left to right: the poster for the movie and the album cover.

For example, the album iLL Manors (by musician Plan B) saw it's songs used as themes in the movie sharing the same name. Both these products helped promote one another in time for their release. The movie itself was produced by Film London Microwave, BBC Films & Aimimage on a budget of $100,000, making back $453, 570 at the box office. In addition it received critical acclaim, scoring 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 different reviews. The album itself received a score of 83/100 on Metacritic, as well as achieving the No.1 spot on the Official UK Album Charts upon release in July 2012.

Here above is a clip from YouTube, the music video featuring scenes from the movie, thus promoting both products. The movie released on 6th of June, with the album being released on the 23rd of July 2012.

Left to right: movie poster and song cover.

Another prominent example is the use of Sam Smith's song "Writing's on the Wall" as part of the promotion of the most recent James Bond movie, Spectre. The song reached No.1 in various charts, including the UK Singles chart. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 88th AcademyAwards. The movie itself, being produced under Eon Productions (a subsidiary of the conglomerate Danjaq, LCC), had a budget $250 million, while drawing $880.7 million at the box office. The movie received a 65% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 307 sampled reviews. 

Here above is the music video, released on the SamSmithWorldVevo YouTube account, published October 4th 2015, released before the movie itself (being released in the UK on October 26th and in the U.S. on 6th November).