• by Karl Greenberg , June 22, 2010

Wrap your mind around this: Chevrolet and Microsoft Advertising is using The 2010 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival to show off a new multi-screen game platform, the new Volt electric car, and a multi-screen ad campaign for the latter that uses the former.

Central to the Volt ad campaign, which launches this summer, is the new Kinect for Xbox 360. The Kinect for Xbox platform, which also launches this fall, allows for controller-free games and entertainment. The game's launch will include game module featuring a virtual Volt, "Kinect Joy Ride," the first controller-free racing game from Microsoft Game Studios. Consumers can play the game after viewing a video advertisement in-dash on Xbox LIVE or on the Web. That lets them unlock the Chevrolet Volt in "Kinect Joy Ride" to virtually drive the car in a game.

Microsoft says Kinect for Xbox 360's controller-free platform uses a motion sensor recognizes players and responds to their movements and gestures. Kinect can also take pictures during gameplay, which players will be able to upload.

At Cannes, the companies are also showing how the campaign is screen agnostic, with applications for PC, mobile and TV. Chevrolet says it will be the first auto marketer to incorporate a branded advertising experience for the new Windows Phone 7.

Said Jim Campbell, VP, Chevrolet marketing, in a statement, "Kinect allows us to bring the excitement of the showroom to the living rooms of our customers. It's a way for us to replicate the experience of physically engaging with a product that is essential to the customer's purchasing decision." The campaign also uses Microsoft's Pivot technology a GUI organizer that uses Microsoft Silverlight to shuffle items in high resolution, "Allowing consumers to zoom in and out of content on the screen," per Microsoft.

The companies said they are also mulling putting Kinect kiosks running the "Kinect Joy Ride" at Chevrolet's promotional events and showrooms. They may also put Microsoft Surface tables with Volt content at the events.

The first Volt elements of the campaign, via Starcom through Microsoft Advertising, will run across MSN and MSN Autos, Xbox LIVE and a custom Chevrolet advertising microsite followed by the mobile and Surface integrations, per the companies.