Microsoft Silverlight is currently a programmable web browser plugin that enables features such as animation, vector graphics and audio-video playback which characterize rich Internet applications. Microsoft plan to bring rich media technologies, including Silverlight to Xbox Live within the year as a strategy to enable companies to build interactive advertising campaigns.

Sean Alexander, director at Microsoft’s Advertising Business Group has stated:

Advertisers and creative designers will soon have more artistic freedom to turn campaigns on Xbox Live into interactive and interconnected experiences reaching far beyond technology for television. The vision is for agencies to spend less time repurposing creative pieces for multiple platforms, so campaigns can cut across all screens…We are just starting to scratch the surface of what’s possible. As a marketer, your job is to build an emotional connection with the brand, no matter the platform.

Silverlight-powered media on Xbox will have the same appearance as ads seen on a Web browser. Think technology that competes with Flash, only supported by 6 million Silverlight developers worldwide who now have the option to tap a variety of Microsoft tools and technologies and develop marketing campaigns for Xbox.

Silverlight helps pop campaigns to bring advertising concepts to life in video ads, rich media, microsites and animation.

Today, movie trailers are available in a high-definition (HD) format, but Silverlight will deliver 1080p HD and 5.1 surround sound without discs directly into the Xbox, Alexander says. “You can use that same creative asset on Web sites,” he says. “It also makes it easy to integrate with other applications, such as online movie ticketing. For studios, it’s all about selling tickets.”

Agencies can now focus on creative expression rather than the underpinnings of technology, Alexander says. The biggest challenge is to develop the tools and “jump start resources,” using Silverlight and other rich media platforms to make the best of them when building campaigns for the Xbox.

Source: MediaPost