Nuance is known worldwide as a provider of speech recognition and language technology. The company announced Monday the launch of its new software "Voice Ads" that allows advertisers to create advertisements for mobiles that actually chat with the user.
"We power lots of voice interactions from ones on smartphones to TVs to cars. It is a natural extension to bring that into the advertising world," Peter Mahoney, Nuance's chief marketing officer, said to ABC News.
According to a news report by Yahoo, the new software will allow users to ask a Yes or No question. Nuance released a demo video that showed a man asking a magic eight ball whether he should buy a ring for his girlfriend. The ball responds by saying yes and also suggests to the man to buy Alpha (a fake deodorant) before deciding whether to buy the ring or not.
The main objective of this newly built software is to make advertisements more compelling and interactive for users.
"People have taken the standard desktop metaphor and strung it down to a mobile device," Mahoney said. "And that doesn't work as well as people would like. The idea is to create a level of engagement with the consumer and with the brand."
Nuance says that ads won't just start interrupting your Temple Run game or the email you are reading.
"The consumer has to push a button to say 'I am okay talking to this thing.' You want them to be able to ignore it," Mahoney said
New advertisements that have used this software will be released in another two or three months, the company announced.
