In their constant bid to try and earn more advertising dollars for Xbox Live, Microsoft is introducing Kinect-enabled advertisements.
According to the company, this new method of advertising largely revolves around voice-activated commands that can be used while watching a specific advertisement. They include “Xbox More” for those who want more info; “Xbox Near” for those who want to know which locations are nearby, and “Xbox Schedule” for those to be pinged via their mobile phone when a television show is starting.
The new functionality seems to be mostly hidden within banner advertisements on the dashboard. Analysts like eMarketer’s Paul Verna are touting it as a new level of interactivity in advertising, but will users actually want to interact with the marketing? If the legions of people who fast-forward through television advertisements everyday using TiVo are any indication, then the answer is, “No.”
If Microsoft’s advertisers are able to put out entertaining ads along the lines of Sony’s Kevin Butler spots though? That may be something else entirely.
