Interactive ads are coming to certain video apps from Microsoft partners on Xbox Live this fall. Called “NUads,” they’ll be bought by big brands, including Toyota, Samsung, and Axe body spray.
Microsoft announced the new ads this week, saying they’ll display in video apps run by Microsoft partners, like ESPN, UFC, and NBC Today. Hulu wasn’t named in the list of services getting the ads, and that doesn’t surprise us; Hulu already has its own sophisticated digital ad platform, though the interactive features that it uses on the web are not available on the video game console apps.
Like Hulu’s web interactive ads, NUads will present you with choices when you’re viewing them. In one example given by the LA Times, Toyota will ask viewers to participate in a poll to identify other products they’d like to see “reinvented” the way Toyota has allegedly “reinvented” the car.
The theory goes that these interactive ads make a stronger impression on viewers because they require action and engagement, and Microsoft hopes they’ll work even better for captive audiences on a living room TV than they do on the distraction-laden world wide web.
Since Microsoft will charge a premium for these ads, they may prove quite lucrative. These innovative approaches to marketing may push the cause of digitization of content forward; Microsoft is clearly trying to position the Xbox 360 and an Xbox Live gold subscription as an alternative to a regular cable box. Do you think it will work for you?
Source: LA Times Image: Pop Culture Geek
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