Microsoft has officially unveiled Nuads, the Kinect-powered interactive advertising platform on which we first reported last week.
As Microsoft's trademark filing suggested, Nuads - shorthand for Natural User-Interface Advertising - is a platform that will see interactive advertisements on the Xbox 360, a move which Microsoft's Mark Kroese says in a blog post "will change television as we know it - forever."
Kroese showed off Nuads at the Cannes International Advertising Festival yesterday, and he claims the feature is based on existing and proven marketing methods - the key difference being that these advertisements can be simply, quickly interacted with, requiring no more of the user than a short phrase or a flick of the hand.
His demonstration contained five suggestions for how advertisers can make use of the technology: social advocacy, in which an advert can be shared by the user simply saying "Xbox tweet"; request for information, where saying "Xbox more" will result in further details or discount codes being emailed to the user; near me, which will send a text message with directions to a nearest retailer when prompted with "Xbox near"; calendar reminders in response to "Xbox schedule"; and gesture-controlled voting. Kroese notes, however, that "the possibilities for advertisers are almost endless."
"I often focus on the future of television, and the possibilities that future holds for advertising," Kroese writes. "Today is a big day. I believe that the Kinect platform, and Nuads, will unlock the incredible potential of interactive TV, and interactive TV advertising."
Microsoft intends to roll out Nuads next Spring, though Kroese declines to specify how frequently Xbox 360 owners will be faced with interactive advertising. Paid-up members of the Xbox Live service are already dissatisfied at the presence of advertising on the Xbox 360 dashboard, and players of Skate or Burnout Paradise will recall their experiences of in-game advertising with no little antipathy.
However, it is clear Microsoft is looking further than gamers this year: before E3 it detailed its entertainment strategy, buoyed by research showing 40 per cent of all Xbox activity is spent on things other than gaming, saying users will "see Xbox marketed more as an entertainment brand" in future.
Then came the E3 press conference, with the announcement of native YouTube integration, and cross-media, voice-controlled search using Microsoft's Bing engine. Kinect, too, is now officially supported on Windows, and the Xbox 360 offers streamed content from Hulu, Netflix, Sky and ESPN. Microsoft's reach - and Xbox 360's appeal to advertisers - now goes far beyond the odd inappropriate billboard on a Paradise City roadside.
Source: Microsoft
Comments
17For fucks sake... The only people who want this on the Xbox are Microsoft themselves. Its like all the good work they did to develop the Xbox userbase is being completely thrown away in their obsession to use Kinect for everything that no-one wants.
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Nobody wants advertising - it just happens. You pay for a magazine, you get advertising. You pay to fly, travel on the bus and you're still faced with advertising. Microsoft are still releasing sequels to all the games that everyone seems to like on the 360 (that don't necessarily require Kinect controls) so to say all the work they've put into the userbase is being thrown away seems a bit extreme.
It was an over-reaction I admit, but do you not think that their insistance on Kinect which seems to be unpopular may end up alienating the very users they worked so hard to get?
In the UK we don't have advertising on the BBC as we pay for it through a license fee. If you pay for a game should you have advertising? I think for free games there may be a place, but I don't think this is the way to do it.
But you pay for your bus ride and have to put up with advertising down the ailses.
I don't think they are alienating fans. Despite how depressing I find the high-numbered sequels, Microsoft are providing their hardcore audience with the kind of games they want (Halo 4, Fable 4, Forza 4 - even Halo 1). Kinect, as I understand it, is the fastest selling electronics device ever and a piece of brand-new hardware that they actually make a profit on, so I completely understand that they are a) focussing on it, and b) trying to make more money through advertising. This is Microsoft, after all.
That's a really stupid annology.
Yeah I agree...more like the bus driver stopping to show you an ad, you flicking him in the back of the head, then the bus continues.
Ok, you pay to go see a football match and there are advertisements coming from the local radio station on the tannoy - or having to look at electronic advertising boards around the pitch. Or when purchasing Sky TV there are still adverts between shows. My point being that just because you've paid for something doesn't mean you're not going to have to put up with advertising - Microsoft aren't alienating their fans by implementing advertising into Kinect.
So you speak for everyone do you?
Not at all. I'm simply stating my opinion that Microsoft are not alienating their fans by doing something that a lot of other companies have been doing for years - and considering that the games announced recently are the kind to cater for the average (admittedly stereotypical) 360 owner, it appears that quite the opposite is true.
admit it, you like it up the bum (nothing wrong with that) which is why you enjoy the xbox 360 because MS has excelled at bending over its customers.
Xbox 360 £160
Kinect £80
Gold Live memebrship £40
Being advertised at, priceless
Shake your fist in a fit of impotent rage at the screen to skip ad.
Kinect really is the device of the future. Now I can excitedly cry "Give me more ads, Xbox!" when I want to consume more of Microsoft's amazing and revenue generating advertising content. Pressing buttons is so 2010! Steve Ballmer will never stop masturbating.
and Kinect will recognise the gesture and send him more information on Razzle.
If these ads only work with Kinect, I foresee a lot of people disconnecting (diskinecting?) theirs except when they're playing kinect games.
Essentially, plugging in your Kinect will be equivalent to disabling adblock in firefox?
Yep... Just unplug it if it becomes a nusance.
The ire I think is directed toward the idea that companies put out. They say that the ads "support the company," and "lower costs to the consumer," this is disengenouos in that XBOX users see neither happening. The price of the games and Kinect hardware is still the same. MS is pocketing the ad money and giving consumers something they don't want.