Microsoft details interactive Kinect ads

As rumoured earlier this month, Microsoft is about to give marketers a new set of tools to create Kinect-friendly interactive advertisements.

According to The New York Times, the features, dubbed NUads, are due to be formally unveiled today at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Should you feel the need, you'll be able to post messages about an ad to your Twitter feed by bellowing "Xbox Tweet" at your Kinect unit.

If you want to find out more about a product being thrust in your face, shout "Xbox More" and you'll duly receive an email filled with product info.

If it's a TV show being promoted, you can yell "Xbox Schedule" and you'll receive a text message reminding you when the programme airs. Or if it's a specific product, saying "Xbox Near Me" will give you a map showing the nearest store to your location that the item is being sold.

Finally, advertisers will be able to ask users to vote in polls by asking you to wave your hands in front of the Kinect camera to select, say, your favorite pizza topping.

You'll apparently be seeing all this stuff on your 360 from Spring 2012.

"When you have highly interactive people and a passive medium, they are interacting with their phone or their laptop while watching TV," explained Microsoft ad boss Mark Kroese. NUads, he argued, "create a natural way for the user to engage with the TV."

Potential clients seem impressed. Saatchi & Saatchi communications director commented, "The new ad units really epitomized the level of engagement that everyone is working towards. You can text, you can tweet, you can vote. That's phenomenal."

First person to post a link to that Bill Hicks bit wins a cookie.