Computer Support Blog

As technology has improved and advanced, advertisers have worked very hard to find new ways to exploit it.  Especially with new forms of communication technology, advertisers try to integrate product placement and utilize the new mediums to reach tech users.  For those who lived through the meteoric rise of the Internet, the days of slow modems also meant a time when you could go online and not be bombarded by advertisements all over your screen.  The video game market has been one that is much tougher for advertisers to crack into.  Advertisers want to reach the demographic, as video game players spend several hours at a time focused on gameplay, when they are not interacting with any other medium upon which they could encounter advertisements.  Xbox Live is now trying to get users to “play through” advertisements from big businesses.

Xbox Live is an interactive, Internet-based service that gives Xbox users advanced content.  While there is a free service, the subscription services for Xbox Live offer premium features and access to programs and games that are exclusive.  Because the premium package Xbox Live users spend an average of 84 hours per month using the service, advertisers have begun to feel like they are missing out on a valuable market.  The advertisers are right; approximately 40,000,000 people use Xbox Live and when they do, they have been unreachable to advertisers.

Microsoft, the developer of Xbox Live, has announced that it will go the opposite direction of other premium services, like HBO and Amazon.com.  HBO is a premium cable television network built, in part, on the principle that because viewers are paying for the programing, advertisements only appear between programs (and most of those ads are for other HBO programs/events).  Similarly, Amazon.com offers the Kindle readers at an inflated price to be programmed without advertisements.  Microsoft, however, has decided to give select advertisers access to their Xbox Live clients . . . using the unique mechanics of the Xbox system!

The Xbox, and the Xbox Live online service, utilizes the Kinect interface system.  Unlike standard controllers, Xbox uses voice commands and motion to allow the user to interact with the games and controls.  Advertisers are using that as their way to try to reach the Xbox Live users.  So now, Xbox Live will feature advertisers asking users survey questions when they first log on.  Instead of simply giving multiple choice questions, advertisers will be able to collect full opinions from users, utilizing the voice-recognition software with which the Kinect system operates.  More advertisements are planned that will require users to manipulate objects on their screens in order to get by them.

Giving advertisers’ access to premium members on Xbox Live represents far less a technological innovation for how advertising is done – indeed, the current samples are droll surveys with limited social networking for the results – and more a low point for how Microsoft does business.  How subscribers respond will ultimately determine whether the program grows or dies a quick death.

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