System for direct placement of commercial advertising, public service announcements and other content on electronic billboard displays

• US 20020165776A1
• Filed: 04/29/2002
• Published: 11/07/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/1999
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Novus Partners LLC
• Original Assignee: Novus Partners LLC
• Inventors: Hunter, Charles Eric
• Application Number:
  US10/133,343
• Publication Number:
  US 20020165776A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41415 involving a public display, viewable by several users in a public space outside their home, e.g. movie theatre, information kiosk
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Commercial advertisers, such as consumer product companies and the advertising agents that represent them, directly access a network of thousands of large, high resolution electronic displays located in high traffic areas and directly send their own advertisements electronically to the network to be displayed at locations and times selected by the advertisers.

Claims

1. A system permitting commercial advertisers to directly place video or still image advertisements at selected times and locations on a network of multiple electronic displays, said system comprising:

a network including a plurality of electronic displays located in high traffic areas such as areas of high vehicular traffic, indoor and outdoor areas with high pedestrian traffic, movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas and casinos;

at least one central information processing station including;

means permitting commercial advertising customers of the system to review a schedule of times and electronic display locations that are available for placement of advertisements and permitting customers to purchase available times at desired electronic display locations for placement of their advertising content;

means for receiving customer transmitted video or still image advertising content;

means for transmitting the advertising content received from the customer to the customer-selected electronic display location; and

means for driving each selected electronic display to display the customer'"'"'s advertising content at the customer-selected time.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein at least a substantial number of electronic displays are LED displays.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein each electronic display has its own dedicated server that receives advertising content information from the central information processing station and drives its respective electronic display to display the customer'"'"'s advertising content at the customer-selected time.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the mode of transmission for said means for transmitting the advertising content to the customer-selected electronic display is selected from the group consisting of high speed cable, satellite, dedicated phone, high speed line (e.g., ISDN), cellular, Internet, radio/radio pulse transmission and high speed optical fiber.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said central information processing system includes a customer interface web server permitting public Internet access to the system.

6. The system of claim 1 including means for permitting review of customer advertising content before the content is transmitted to the customer-selected electronic display.

7. The system of claim 1 including means for generating a bill for the advertising time.

8. The system of claim 1 including means for generating a report to be sent to the customer confirming that an advertisement has run as ordered.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said means for generating a report serves to generate demographic or market analysis.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein at least a substantial number of said electronic displays have associated cameras.

11. A system providing video or still image advertisements at selected times and locations on a network of multiple electronic displays, said system comprising:

a network including a plurality of electronic displays located in high traffic areas such as areas of high vehicular traffic, indoor and outdoor areas with high pedestrian traffic, movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas and casinos;

at least one central information processing station including;

means permitting advertising customers of the system to purchase time slots at selected electronic display locations for display of their advertising content;

means for transmitting customer advertising content to the selected electronic display locations; and

means for driving the electronic display at each selected location to display the customer'"'"'s advertising content at the selected time.

12. A method of providing video or still image advertisements at selected times and locations on a network of multiple electronic displays that are located in high traffic areas such as areas of high vehicular traffic, indoor and outdoor areas with high pedestrian traffic, movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas and casinos;

permitting advertising customers of the system to purchase time slots at selected electronic display locations for display of their advertising content;

transmitting customer advertising content to the selected electronic display locations; and

driving the electronic display at each selected location to display the customer'"'"'s advertising content at the selected time.