The Results Are In: Xbox NUads Makes Traditional TV Advertising More Engaging

- New interactive TV ad format captivates consumers beyond the 30-second spot.

REDMOND, Washington, Jan. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced the double-digit engagement results of the first NUads experience, interactive polling, which it rolled out earlier in the fall of 2012 on Xbox LIVE in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

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The first wave of NUads was provided by a lineup of top advertisers, including SUBWAY® Restaurants and Toyota, which on average saw the following results with their ads on Xbox LIVE:

• Thirty-seven percent of viewers engaged with NUads when prompted with the option to vote.
• Out of which seventy-one percent voted in the poll.
• Ninety-seven percent of those participants saw their vote included in the final tally of votes from the consumers who responded.(1)

"When we launched NUads, we redefined the 30-second spot," said Ross Honey, general manager of Xbox LIVE Entertainment and Advertising. "These results show that NUads is a real breakthrough in TV advertising, and you can expect more investment from us when it comes to this new ad format and video advertising in general."

Although TV has evolved over time, the traditional 30-second TV spot has largely stayed the same since the 1930s. NUads transforms TV advertising, delivering what is most scarce to advertisers today — consumer engagement.

This new ad format was built with the consumer and advertiser in mind. For consumers, through the power of Kinect for Xbox 360, NUads enable natural interactivity using the simplicity of a spoken word or the wave of a hand. For advertisers, implementation is easy. All they need is a standard TV spot, a question in mind and a few creative responses, and they can reach active Xbox LIVE members with their message in participating markets. In addition, the aggregated poll results provide insights that can help inform future product developments or ad campaigns.

As part of the initial group of NUads advertisers SUBWAY® Restaurants and Toyota had this to say about the results:

"Consumers want a relevant and engaging experience when watching TV," said Dionne Colvin, national media manager, Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. "NUads was a new format for our advertising, but we saw an opportunity to try something new, and the results exceeded our expectations."

"We're thrilled with the results of our first NUads experience," said Kathleen Bell, director of Marketing, SUBWAY^® Restaurants in Canada. "We're always looking for new ways to engage with our fans and deliver a customized experience to them. Taking part in this exciting program has given us the ability to further target our audience and get real-time feedback from them through a new and interactive platform."

More information about how to advertise on Xbox LIVE is available at http://advertising.microsoft.com/gaming/xbox-live.

About Xbox
Xbox is Microsoft's premier entertainment service for the TV, phone, PC and tablet. It's home to the best and broadest games, as well as one of the world's largest libraries of music, movies, TV and sports. With Kinect, Xbox 360 transformed gaming and entertainment in the living room with a whole new way to play games and find entertainment — no controller required. More information about Xbox can be found online at http://www.xbox.com.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

(1)Results based on average of campaigns that ran during beta period of Sept. 1–Nov. 15, 2012, Microsoft Internal Research

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.