The Xbox 360 video game console might be getting on in its years, but that does not mean that it already has one foot in the grave. No sir, there is still life in the old horse just yet, and it does set to continue for years to come. Microsoft announced that their Xbox 360 console will be introducing interactive ads on TV from this fall onwards as part of a bid to snag more business away from TV networks. To date, Toyota, Unilever and Samsung Mobile have signed up with Microsoft’s offering known as NUads. NUads will be debuting later this fall, and those who watch video on the Xbox 360 via apps from Microsoft partners such as ESPN, TMZ, NBC News and the UFC will be privy to these new ad formats.
At first, the NUads will allow users to vote accordingly based on the questions which were asked in the ads. For example, Toyota’s spots will make enquiries on the kind of devices that viewers would want to see “reinvented”, and I am quite sure that the humble wheel is not one of them to be listed. Votes are placed through a simply click of a button on a controller, or through speech and gestures thanks to the Kinect peripheral.
NUads might just be the start of an era where we actually look forward to ads instead of turning a blind eye to them.