Kid dances with Rihanna at Microsoft Store [video]

Sometimes the most brilliant moments in marketing are the simplest ideas. In the video above, a youngster dance, dance, dances before Xbox 360. Microsoft smartly uses Kinect to connect with customers. The action takes place at Microsoft Store Bellevue, Wash.

I've seen the same kind of youngster dancing here in San Diego at Microsoft Store Fashion Valley. The tikes, middle schoolers or tweens will sometimes draw sizable crowds of gawkers. The store here opened one year ago this month, and it was the first where the public could play with Kinect, nearly five months before its official release. Microsoft placed the Xbox 360-Kinect setup right in the front window, where anyone walking by can see the action.

I've got to wonder how many Kinect game controllers the nearly dozen stores have sold just because people are dancing or game-playing hands-free in the front window. With Kinect, you are the controller.

Microsoft has embarked on an interesting, and surprisingly different, approach to retail display windows. It's coveted space usually given to dummies wearing clothes or displaying something else inanimate. At Microsoft Store you are the window display.

C`mon, do people respond more to dummies or to other people?

It's a simple concept, putting people on display, but trend-setting and brilliant. I should have blogged about the approach long ago.

By the way, that's Kinect-enabled "Dance Central" in the video. Its sequel releases later this year.