WorkDavid Guetta — Dangerous
David Guetta — Dangerous
The video plays on the computer, the phone extends the screen: scan a code at the start of the video, and both screens move together until the end of the track.
The context
Universal was preparing the release of Dangerous, David Guetta’s new single. The idea: not just to publish a music video, but to turn it into an experience lived on two screens at once. At the time, nothing like it existed on YouTube. And the schedule was that of a single release: five weeks, approvals included.
My role
I managed the project and the relationship with Universal: scoping, schedule, trade-offs and the approval loop. My job was to hold a five-week build without losing the thread between the technical team and the label — a schedule where every day of approval counted.
What it changed
Dangerous was the first synchronised double screen on YouTube, and the project won FWA of the Year. For Universal, releasing a single became an interactive event rather than a simple upload — within a timeframe that allowed no mistakes. The project showed that a genuinely new technical idea could be delivered within the timeframe of a music campaign, without compromising on quality.
What was delivered
An interactive music video on YouTube, a code to scan at the start of the video, and real-time WebSocket synchronisation between the video and the phone, which takes over at key moments to extend the picture. Development wrapped in five weeks, approvals included.
What remains
A very short deadline is not the enemy of innovation, as long as you attempt only one new thing and get it exactly right. Here, everything rested on synchronisation: if it slipped, the experience lost its meaning. So everything else had to stay simple.