Xbox Gaming in South Africa

Microsoft will be using Kinect's voice and gesture control abilities to allow advertisers to communicate with their audiences in a more direct and engaging way than ever before with the launch of NUads, a set of advertising tools recently revealed at the Cannes International Advertising Festival.

According to a recent blog post by Microsoft advertising exec Mark Kroese, NUads will "break down the barriers between consumers and content on the TV screen" and transform traditional linear small screen advertising into something that involves the audience directly.

"For all of its leading-edge innovation, NUads still focus on enabling proven and traditional marketing methods - tactics like trial, request for information, or location-based marketing," said Kroese, "The difference is that the audience can take part in these offerings without having to do anything that isn’t inherently natural. A simple voice command or wave of the hand is all it takes. At the end of the day, people want to interact with content with a bowl of popcorn - not a clunky keyboard or remote - in their lap. With NUads, they can."

While obviously still under construction as a concept, Kroese did give a few solid examples of the advertising tools NUads will employ to make this jump to interactive advertising. By using voice commands, viewers will be able to share information about a brand, request more information to be sent directly to them, add an advertised event to a personal calendar, and even request a retailers address and details.

Kroese is of the opinion that NUads, with Kinect as its driving force, has the potential to "unlock the incredible potential of interactive TV, and interactive TV advertising". Don't expect the advertising revolution to sweep you off your feet right away though - a report by the New York Times says that we can expect to see the fruits of this new endeavour in Autumn 2012.

For those interested to see how it works in action, check out the demonstration by Microsoft's Senior Product Planner Enrique de la Garza in the video below: