Andre Yoskowitz
21 May 2008 18:53
Microsoft has announced that it is hoping to build an advertising network into its Zune media players, giving advertisers a direct connection to consumers.
As explained by Yahoo, "the company demonstrated the concept using a phony Doritos mockup. In the example, a user could befriend a musician through the Zune social page on a Doritos’ sponsored concert to view news and updates on the artist’s profile."
Once you are added to that list, users can email said profile to other friends and download select tracks from the website to play on the Zune. "When the recipient receives the email through Microsoft’s Hotmail service through their mobile phone, a brief ad will trigger, followed by a short game similar to Asteroids."
If the user does well playing the game, then they earn a free bag of Doritos chips, and downloadable maps to nearby stores that sell them.
Although it is still in "planning" stages, Microsoft says the program is not “something that is far in the future” and just needs some solid back-end infrastructure.