Apparatus, system and method for a brand affinity engine using positive and negative mentions and indexing

• US 10,223,705 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2013
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritone Media
• Original Assignee: Veritone Media
• Inventors: Steelberg, Ryan, Steelberg, Chad
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Nga B
• Application Number:
  US14/043,397
• Publication Number:
  US 20140058791A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,981 Days
• Field of Search: 705 7, 705 10, 705 35, 705 36 R
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0245 Surveys
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

An apparatus, system and method of implementing a computerized brand affinity engine. The apparatus, system and method include at least a plurality of computerized access points having accessible thereto a plurality of sites mentioning at least one sponsor, a categorized, hierarchical database of keywords, wherein at least the keywords falling in at least one category of the hierarchy correspond to a sponsor category of the at least one sponsor, and a tracker, wherein the tracker tracks positive ones of the mentions of the at least one sponsor on ones of the plurality of sites and negative ones of the mentions of the at least one sponsor on ones of the plurality of sites, in accordance with positive and negative keywords of the categorized, hierarchical database in the sponsor category, and wherein the tracker issues an rating with regard to the at least one sponsor in accordance with the positive ones and the negative ones of the mentions. An assessment of optimal sponsors for particular markets and/or in particular geographies that additionally increases sponsorship opportunities in particular markets and/or in particular geographies is thereby provided.

Claims

1. A data mining system for use in rating endorsers, comprising:

a data storage unit;

a server computer having a tangible computing processor, the processor in data communication with the data storage unit and a non-transitory computer memory that stores instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the computer to implement;

a search engine configured to search a web accessible content comprising data in online publication accessible through one or more webpages for mentions of an identified endorser in conjunction with one or more keywords in the data, wherein the endorser comprises one of an affinity brand, a marketing partner, and a sponsor, the search engine configured to send the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords to the data storage unit;

a ratings engine configured to process the mentions in at least a portion of the web accessible content based on a subset of a categorical keyword hierarchy and a number of words in the web accessible content between the endorser and the corresponding keywords, wherein positive mentions and negative mentions are tracked by a tracker and combined by the ratings engine into an overall rating, wherein a first number of occurrences of each of the positive and negative mentions has a first rating multiplier and a second number of occurrences of each of the positive and negative mentions has a second rating multiplier for calculating the overall rating;

an information engine configured to obtain information regarding a number of viewings of the rated mentions in the web accessible content;

a data miner communicatively connected to the search engine and the ratings engine, the data miner operative to generate a consumer opinion index of the endorser based on the keywords and a correlation of the overall rating and the number of viewings, the data miner configured to download the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords to, and to send the consumer opinion index to, the data storage unit;

wherein the data storage unit stores the consumer opinion index and the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords via map reduction indexing;

the system further comprising;

a display window coupled to the server computer configured to display a heat map of endorsers and corresponding keywords based on the consumer opinion index stored in the data storage unit via the map reduction indexing;

wherein the web accessible content, the mentions of the subject in conjunction with the keywords, and the consumer opinion index are searchable using the map reduction indexing without storing of the one or more webpages.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said search engine searches at least daily.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one subject includes a surname.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one subject includes a brand name.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one subject includes an adjective.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one subject includes a noun.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one subject includes a phrase.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the consumer opinion index is displayed in relation to a location of the mention.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the information feeds are limited to a predefined geographic scope.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the information feeds are limited to a predefined event.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said ratings engine comprises a manual one of the ratings.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said ratings engine comprises an automatically issued one of the ratings.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one search engine comprises a web crawler.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the number of viewings comprises information provided by a provider of the information feed.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the data storage unit comprises at least one relational database.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the mention is used to recommend a prospective endorser for an endorsed advertisement.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the mention comprises a press release.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the search engine performs a second search for web accessible content for mentions of the identified endorser in conjunction with the same keywords during a second time interval, wherein positive and negative mentions of the second search tracked are combined by the ratings engine into a second rating, wherein the overall rating is based on the overall rating and the second ratings.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the second search is performed on a different day.

18. A computer-implemented data mining system for use in rating endorsers, comprising:

a data storage unit;

a server computer having a tangible computing processor, the processor in data communication with the data storage unit and a non-transitory computer memory that stores instructions which, when executed on the processor, cause the computer to implement;

a categorized, hierarchical database input configured to provide access to keywords via map reduction indexing, the keywords comprising at least one of words or phrases having an identification type as being at least one of positive, negative and neutral;

a search engine configured to search web accessible content comprising data in online publication accessible through one or more webpages for mentions of an identified endorser in conjunction with the keywords in the data, wherein the endorser is one of an affinity brand, a marketing partner, and a sponsor, the search engine configured to send the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords to the data storage unit;

a ratings engine configured to track the mentions from at least a portion of the web accessible content, and correlating the mentions to the keywords, keyword identification type and a frequency of each keyword to calculate an overall rating, wherein a first number of occurrences of the mentions has a first rating multiplier and a second number of occurrences of the mentions has a second rating multiplier for use in calculating the overall rating;

an information engine configured to obtain information regarding a number of viewings of the rated mentions in the web accessible content; and

a data miner communicatively connected to the search engine and the ratings engine, the data miner operative to generate a consumer opinion index of the endorser based on the keywords and a correlation of the overall rating and the number of viewings, the data miner configured to download the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords to, and to send the consumer opinion index to, the data storage unit;

wherein the data storage unit stores the consumer opinion index and the searched web accessible content including the mentions of the endorser and the one or more keywords via the map reduction indexing; and

wherein the web accessible content, the mentions in conjunction with the keywords, and the consumer opinion index are searchable using the map reduction indexing without storing of the one or more webpages;

the system further comprising;

a display window coupled to the server computer to display a heat map of mentions and corresponding keywords based on the consumer opinion index stored in the data storage unit via the map reduction indexing.