Microsoft's NUads on Xbox Live ‘motions’ boring TV commercials forward
The traditional television commercials that play between programs on a TV set are long overdue for an upgrade, which Microsoft is more than happy to provide. — The technology giant announced today …
Context & Ripple Effects
NUads is the latest step in a long-running Microsoft experiment with advertising formats that predate the console era: back in January 2006 it pitched click-on ads as a way to cash in on web video, and by April 2008 it was commissioning its own web series slate to build an audience brands could buy into. The 2012 twist is Kinect — instead of clicking, viewers 'motion' past or engage with TV commercials running over Xbox Live.
The announcement also lands inside a wider one-week ad offensive: the day before, Microsoft confirmed that Skype would start showing 'conversation ads' during one-to-one audio calls for users without credit or subscriptions, while the My Xbox Live app spread from iOS to Android. The pickup list — LA Times, Adweek, Mashable, PC Magazine, AllThingsD among others — shows the story traveled well beyond gaming press into mainstream and advertising trade coverage.
First-order effects
- Advertisers buying Xbox Live inventory gain a gesture-based engagement signal Kinect can measure directly, giving Microsoft a differentiated pitch against plain TV spot buys.
- Xbox Live subscribers watching televised content now interact with commercials rather than passively sitting through them, changing what an 'ad break' means on the platform.
Second-order effects
- TV networks and media buyers get a live comparison point: if gesture-response data proves out, standard 30-second spot pricing faces pressure from interactive formats with measurable engagement.
- Rival living-room platforms — Sony's console business and the nascent smart-TV ecosystem — are pushed to answer with their own interactive ad layers or cede the connected-TV ad narrative to Microsoft.
Third-order effects
- If gesture-based response becomes a standard metric, the living room consolidates as an addressable advertising medium where consoles, not broadcasters, own the measurement layer — shifting power in the TV ad supply chain toward platform holders.
The trend: Console makers are converting the living room from a passive TV endpoint into an interactive, measurable advertising platform, with Microsoft's Kinect-based NUads as an early template.