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It’s called NUad or Natural User-Interface Advertising if you’re the long winded type. It’s being touted by Microsoft as the platform that will “change television as we know it forever”. I’m a bit more skeptical, but let’s get to the details first. Using the Kinect, Microsoft intends to change the passive viewing of advertisments into an interactive sport; you know, like trying to close a pop-up ad.
The Apple-style hyperbole comes from Mark Kroese, General Manager of the Advertising Business Group within Microsoft’s E&D Division. Mark points out five formats with Kinect that enable advertisers to create an “interactive experience”. From what I saw, I will give them credit; the technology works. Other than interacting with Kinect and voting for say, your favorite color; you can also talk to your TV and say things like “Xbox Tweet” which sends a tweet telling everyone you fell for it. Saying “Xbox More” will send you an email detailing the product further and Microsoft also says users can use this feature to receive digital coupons as well, “Xbox Near Me” sends a text message to your phone locating the nearest retailer, and “Xbox Schedule” will send a calendar reminder about upcoming shows.
With Microsoft promising to revolutionize how we interact with ads on our Xboxes, it’s not too early to predict that Kinect will probably come bundled and/or built into the next Xbox console.
Right now they’re leveraging their 10 million Kinects out there, which brings back not-so-fond memories of the Trojan Horse worries of the original Xbox when it was first released. Rightfully so, as many gamers will tell you while the Xbox brand became more popular over the years, our Xbox dashboards have gotten more cluttered with irritating ads.
It shouldn’t be a shock to anyone that Microsoft is trying to reinvent TV ads; after all, the TV is still the biggest screen in the house and as phones and computers have become more prevalent, TV ads have become more irrelevant. Microsoft is trying to get a jump start in the new/old space and they believe Kinect being the new hot thing will help them to do so.
I will say this about Microsoft – they may misstep with a lot of products and services but when they really want to, they can penetrate a market very quickly. I have no doubt that NUad could be big but we’re going to have to endure some downright awful attempts from advertisers before someone hits the sweet spot.