Microsoft noticed that pop singer Jasmine Villegas has more than a million Twitter followers, many of which discovered her when she opened for Justin Bieber, and a Klout score of 88. This high social media profile led to Microsoft approaching her to create a new kind of music video, one that Microsoft could use to show off the capabilities of Internet Explorer with HTLM5.
Interactive producers Digital Kitchen created an interactive music video that is different for every person who watches it – assuming they first log in to Facebook.
Based on each person’s Facebook data, the interactive video for “Just a Friend” is designed to make viewers feel part of Jasmine’s life at a bowling alley, dancing at a friend’s party, and even share her suspicions about a cheating boyfriend. Fans can also influence the story, play games, and receive a VoIP phone call that seems to be from Jasmine and which changes depending on what they did during the video.
The song is already a hit, but this video features all new footage and a new version as remixed by Netherlands-based DJ Chuckie.
For those who are more interested in HTML5 than pop beats, Microsoft has posted a lot of background information regarding how the interactive video was made. It offers a technical teardown and a download of the asset studio JavaScript used to handle the pre-caching of audio, video and images through a configurable queued system.
“All of the online experiences we are creating are designed to challenge conventional thinking about what’s possible on the Web, whether it’s for online gaming, movies or now music,” said Ryan Gavin, general manager for the Internet Explorer team. “In this case, we wanted to show a dramatically different take on a music video that puts the focus on the fans and the music. As part of this, we also continued our focus on using to ensure the best possible experience for everyone.”
Related links:
“Just a Friend” – interactive video
“Just a Friend” – how it was made, technology perspective
Microsoft – Exploring IE blog
Digital Kitchen – official site
Jasmine – official site
I’m not surprised that Jasmine Villegas has more than 1 million twitter followers . I’m also her follower and think her music is pretty awesome. Apart from that she is very open minded and soon to be a bigger hit than young Bieber.