Monitoring advertisement impressions

• US 10,046,239 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2013
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Van Datta, Glen, Zalewski, Gary
• Primary Examiner(s): Sittner, Matthew T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Reinhardt, Richard G
• Application Number:
  US13/857,080
• Publication Number:
  US 20130232000A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,958 Days
• Field of Search: 705 1458, 705 1469
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/50 Controlling the output signals based on the game progress
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/61 using advertising information
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5506 using advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6684 by dynamically adapting its position to keep a game object in its viewing frustrum, e.g. for tracking a character or a ball
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure

Abstract

A targeted in-game advertising system is provided where advertising content may be delivered to a video game network environment. Advertisements may be delivered through the tagging of advertising assets in the video game environment according to one or more characteristics including user geographical location, personal preferences, a personal profile, video game preferences or video game genre. Methodologies for tracking advertising impressions are also provided based on monitoring the video game environment to determine the quality of impression to which the user is exposed in the video game environment.

Claims

1. A method for measuring an impact of a targeted advertising campaign, the method comprising:

maintaining, at an advertising server, a user profile in memory, the user profile concerning a user of an end-user device for playing one or more electronic games;

receiving, by the advertising server via a video game network, geographic location information of the end-user device;

monitoring, by the advertising server, gameplay of electronic games by the user, wherein the monitored gameplay indicates repetitive elements in the electronic games played by the user; and

executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor;

identifies that the repetitive elements are associated with a demographic or a preference,

updates the user profile with the demographic or the preference,

identifies one or more advertisements for insertion into a game environment, the identification of the one or more advertisements based on the updated user profile,

records a number of impressions for each of the identified one or more advertisements, wherein an impression is recorded when the user views the respective advertisement within the game environment and the updated user profile of the user matches parameters specified by an associated advertiser of the respective advertisement, and

counts a recorded impression against a total ad buy when geographic location information in the updated user profile matches an advertiser-specified geographic region, wherein a total number of recorded impressions for each of the identified one or more advertisements is different than a total number of recorded impressions counted against the total ad buy.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the repetitive elements include selections made by the user concerning one or more role-playing game characters.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more role-playing game characters are associated with a team or defined group.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the repetitive elements include content or metadata indicative of the demographic or the preference.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the user profile based on registration information associated with the end-user device or the electronic games.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a plurality of advertisements for delivery, wherein each advertisement is associated with an advertiser and parameters specified by the advertiser for recording impressions.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the advertiser specifies an affinity for a product and wherein an impression is recorded for each advertisement when like/dislike information in the updated user profile indicates affinity for the product.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the advertiser further specifies a distance range of a game character from each advertisement and wherein an impression is recorded for each advertisement when a game character associated with the user is located within the specified distance range from each advertisement.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the advertiser further specifies an amount of viewing time and wherein an impression is recorded for each advertisement when a game character associated with the user is oriented toward each advertisement and has an unbroken line-of-sight for the specified amount of viewing time.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the advertiser further specifies a viewing angle relative to a surface of each advertisement and wherein an impression is recorded for each advertisement when a game character associated with the user has an unbroken line-of-sight within the specified viewing angle.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the advertiser further specifies a minimum portion and wherein an impression is partially recorded for each advertisement when a game character associated with the user has a view of at least the specified minimum portion of each advertisement but less than a full advertisement.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the advertiser further specifies an advertising portion of a video and wherein an impression is at least partially recorded for each advertisement when the user views the advertising portion of the video.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of impressions corresponding to a plurality of other end-user devices are recorded, and a user of each of the plurality of other end-user devices views the respective advertisement within the game environment, and an updated user profile of each of the users of the plurality of other end-user devices matches parameters specified by the associated advertiser of the respective advertisement.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a recorded impression is counted against a total ad buy when geographic location information in the updated user profile matches an advertiser-specified geographic region.

15. A system for measuring an impact of a targeted advertising campaign, the system comprising:

a memory for maintaining a user profile concerning a user of an end-user device for playing one or more electronic games;

a communications interface for receiving geographic location information of the end-user device and data regarding gameplay of electronic games by the user via a video game network, wherein the gameplay data indicates repetitive elements in the electronic games played by the user; and

a processor for executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor;

identifies that the repetitive elements are associated with a demographic or a preference,

updates the user profile with the demographic or the preference,

identifies one or more advertisements for insertion into a game environment, the identification of the one or more advertisements based on the updated user profile, and

records a number of impressions for each of the identified one or more advertisements, wherein an impression is recorded when the user views the respective advertisement within the game environment and the updated user profile of the user matches parameters specified by an associated advertiser of the respective advertisement, and

counts a recorded impression against a total ad buy when geographic location information in the updated user profile matches an advertiser-specified geographic region, wherein a total number of recorded impressions for each of the identified one or more advertisements is different than a total number of recorded impressions counted against the total ad buy.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a content server for distributing the one or more electronic games, wherein the game environment is associated with a selected game from the one or more electronic games.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising an advertising server for maintaining a plurality of advertisements for delivery, wherein each advertisement is associated with an advertiser and parameters specified by the advertiser for recording impressions.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the advertising server includes an interface for communicating with one or more advertisers.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor for performing a method for measuring an impact of a targeted advertising campaign, the method comprising:

maintaining a user profile in memory, the user profile concerning a user of an end-user device for playing one or more electronic games;

receiving, via a video game network geographic location information of the end-user device;

monitoring gameplay of electronic games by the user, wherein the monitored gameplay indicates repetitive elements in the electronic games played by the user;

identifying that the repetitive elements are associated with a demographic or a preference;

updating the user profile with the demographic or the preference;

identifying one or more advertisements for insertion into a game environment, the identification of the one or more advertisements based on the updated user profile;

recording a number of impressions for each of the identified one or more advertisements, wherein an impression is recorded when the user views the respective advertisement within the game environment and the updated user profile of the user matches parameters specified by an associated advertiser of the respective advertisement; and

counting a recorded impression against a total ad buy when geographic location information in the updated user profile matches an advertiser-specified geographic region, wherein a total number of recorded impressions for each of the identified one or more advertisements is different than a total number of recorded impressions counted against the total ad buy.