Methods and apparatus to determine impressions using distributed demographic information

• US 10,504,157 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2017
• Issued: 12/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Heffernan, Ronan, Geraghty, Kevin, Kalus, Mark, Mazumdar, Mainak, Paparo, Ari, Splaine, Steven John
• Primary Examiner(s): Dalencourt, Yves
• Application Number:
  US15/424,594
• Publication Number:
  US 20170148066A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,040 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to determine media impressions using distributed demographic information are disclosed. An example method to monitor media exposure involves receiving a first request from a client device at an intermediary serving a first sub-domain of a first internet domain, the first request to be indicative of access to media at the client device; transmitting, from the intermediary, first data associated with the first request to a data collection server of an audience measurement entity and second data about the first request to an entity of the first internet domain; and in response to determining that the first request does not include a user identifier associated with the first internet domain, sending a first response from the intermediary to the client device, the first response to instruct the client device to send a second request to a second intermediary associated with a second sub-domain of a second internet domain, the second request indicative of the access to the media at the client device.

Claims

1. A method to monitor media exposure, the method comprising:

receiving a first request from a client device at an intermediary serving a first sub-domain of a first internet domain, the first request to be indicative of access to media at the client device;

transmitting, from the intermediary, first data associated with the first request to a data collection server of an audience measurement entity and second data about the first request to an entity of the first internet domain; and

in response to determining that the first request does not include a user identifier associated with the first internet domain, sending a first response from the intermediary to the client device, the first response to instruct the client device to send a second request to a second intermediary associated with a second sub-domain of a second internet domain, the second request indicative of the access to the media at the client device.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the user identifier is a cookie.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, further including transmitting, from the second intermediary, third data associated with the second request to the data collection server of the audience measurement entity and fourth data associated with the second request to an entity of the second internet domain.

4. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein the third data includes a status of a second user identifier associated with the entity of the second internet domain.

5. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein the fourth data includes an identifier corresponding to the media, and a second user identifier associated with the second internet domain.

6. The method as defined in claim 5, wherein the identifier is a campaign identifier to identify an advertisement in the media.

7. The method as defined in claim 5, wherein the identifier is encrypted to prevent the entity of the second internet domain from recognizing the identifier.

8. A system to monitor media exposure, the system comprising:

an intermediary to;

receive a first request from a client device at an intermediary serving a first sub-domain of a first internet domain, the first request to be indicative of access to media at the client device;

transmit, from the intermediary, first data associated with the first request to a data collection server of an audience measurement entity and second data about the first request to an entity of the first internet domain; and

in response to determining that the first request does not include a user identifier associated with the first internet domain, send a first response from the intermediary to the client device, the first response to instruct the client device to send a second request to a second intermediary associated with a second sub-domain of a second internet domain, the second request indicative of the access to the media at the client device.

9. The system as defined in claim 8, wherein the user identifier is a cookie.

10. The system as defined in claim 8, wherein the second intermediary is to transmit third data associated with the second request to the data collection server of the audience measurement entity and fourth data associated with the second request to an entity of the second internet domain.

11. The system as defined in claim 10, wherein the third data includes a status of a second user identifier associated with the entity of the second internet domain.

12. The system as defined in claim 10, wherein the fourth data includes an identifier corresponding to the media, and a second user identifier associated with the second internet domain.

13. The system as defined in claim 12, wherein the identifier is a campaign identifier to identify an advertisement in the media.

14. The system as defined in claim 12, wherein the identifier is encrypted to prevent the entity of the second internet domain from recognizing the identifier.

15. A tangible computer readable storage disc or storage device comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to at least:

receive a first request from a client device at an intermediary serving a first sub-domain of a first internet domain, the first request to be indicative of access to media at the client device;

transmit, from the intermediary, first data associated with the first request to a data collection server of an audience measurement entity and second data about the first request to an entity of the first internet domain; and

in response to determining that the first request does not include a user identifier associated with the first internet domain, send a first response from the intermediary to the client device, the first response to instruct the client device to send a second request to a second intermediary associated with a second sub-domain of a second internet domain, the second request indicative of the access to the media at the client device.

16. The tangible computer readable storage disc or storage device as defined in claim 15, wherein the user identifier is a cookie.

17. The tangible computer readable storage disc or storage device as defined in claim 15, where the instructions, when executed, cause the processor to transmit, from the second intermediary, third data associated with the second request to the data collection server of the audience measurement entity and fourth data associated with the second request to an entity of the second internet domain.

18. The tangible computer readable storage disc or storage device as defined in claim 17, wherein the third data includes a status of a second user identifier associated with the entity of the second internet domain.

19. The tangible computer readable storage disc or storage device as defined in claim 17, wherein the fourth data includes an identifier corresponding to the media, and a second user identifier associated with the second internet domain.

20. The tangible computer readable storage disc or storage device as defined in claim 19, wherein the identifier is a campaign identifier to identify an advertisement in the media.

21. The tangible computer readable storage disc or storage device as defined in claim 19, wherein the identifier is encrypted to prevent the entity of the second internet domain from recognizing the identifier.