Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s Vice President of Marketing and Strategy outlined how the Xbox One could literally be a game changer for advertisers come November 22, when the platform launches in many markets around the world. At the Association of National Advertisers Masters of Marketing Conference, Mehdi said he thinks the platform has potential to up the ante for marketers by furthering the “gamification” of advertising, and spur people to look for high production values just like the Xbox One will offer.

“We are trying to bridge some of the world between online and offline. That’s a little bit of a holy grail in terms of how you understand the consumer in that 360 degrees of their life. We have a pretty unique position at Microsoft because of what we do with digital, as well as more and more with television because of Xbox. It’s early days, but we’re starting to put that together in more of a unifying way, and hopefully at some point we can start to offer that to advertisers broadly,” said Mehdi.

After the speech, marketers in the audience had some misconceptions about what information the Xbox One could possibly provide advertisers, mainly with the Xbox One’s Kinect functionality. An advanced motion sensor, the Kinect could ostensibly be used to track the biometric responses of users and to determine whether or not they are paying attention to the ads. The new Kinect will be able to recognize up to 6 voices in a room, detect skeletal movement, respond to voice commands and track heart rates.

Microsoft’s Larry Hryb was quick to clear up this speculation over Twitter {link no longer active} in saying that Microsoft will not collect information to share or sell.

“You are fully in control of your personal data. Your privacy is important to us,” Hryb posted.

If the Kinect could ever be used to collect data on users who are compliant, the device would be a huge boon for marketers who would no doubt want access. The Xbox One could also spur users to ask more of their advertising as an experience that could bring mobile, TV and gaming together.

Source: AdAge  {link no longer active}