System and method for distributing advertisements

• US 20030208560A1
• Filed: 03/19/2001
• Published: 11/06/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Inoue, Masahiro, Haruhara, Kazuyoshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,188,137 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

There is provided a system for selecting advertisement contents which are suitable or ad-user attributes, and for distributing the advertisement contents data and its corresponding advertisement attribute information through a computer communications network. Of a plurality of advertisements provided by an advertisement provider, a server computer selects a suitable advertisement for each advertisement user, in accordance with advertisement providing condition based on advertisement attribute information and advertisement user condition based on ad-user attributes of each ad user. The server computer transmits the selected advertisement data to each ad user through the communications network. Upon reception of the advertisement data form the server computer, the advertisement user print and issues the received advertisement on a receipt which is to be given to customer after each business transaction.

Claims

1. An advertisement distribution system which receives advertisement contents from at least one advertisement provider through a communications network, and provides at least one advertisement user with the received advertisement contents through the communications network, said system comprising:

an advertisement information storage unit which stores advertisement contents received from the at least one advertisement provider in association with advertisement provider information for controlling providing of an advertisement and corresponding to the received advertisement contents;

an advertisement-user information storage unit which stores advertisement usage information, for specifying a desired advertisement, of the at least one advertisement user;

an advertisement extraction unit which extracts advertisement contents corresponding to advertisement provider information in association with the stored advertisement usage information; and

a transmission unit which transmits the advertisement contents extracted by said advertisement extraction unit to the at least one advertisement user having requested the advertisement contents.

2. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 1, wherein:

the advertisement provider information includes an advertisement providing condition which is to be specified by the at least one advertisement provider for predetermined advertisement contents;

the advertisement user information includes an advertisement-specification condition which is to be specified by the at least one advertisement user; and

the advertisement extraction unit searches an advertisement providing condition conforming to the input advertisement-specification condition, and retrieves advertisement contents corresponding to the advertisement provider information including the searched advertisement providing condition.

3. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 2, wherein

said advertisement extraction unit includes an advertisement selection unit which selects, when more than a predetermined number of items of advertisement provider information including the searched advertisement providing condition are retrieved, a predetermined number of items of advertisement provider information included in the retrieved items of advertisement provider information.

4. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 3, wherein said advertisement selection unit generates, when more than a predetermined number of items of the advertisement provider information are retrieved, a predetermined number of random numbers which corresponds to the number of the retrieved items of advertisement provider information, and selects a predetermined number of items of advertisement provider information corresponding to the generated random numbers.

5. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 2, wherein said advertisement extraction unit includes a changing unit, which changes an item parameter included in the advertisement specification condition when a number of items of advertisement provider information including the advertisement providing condition does not reach a predetermined number, so as to search the advertisement providing condition conforming to the changed item parameter included in the advertisement specification condition.

6. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 5, wherein said changing unit repeatedly changes a corresponding item parameter included in the advertisement specification condition, until the number of items of advertisement provider information extracted by said advertisement extraction unit reaches the predetermined number.

7. A store terminal device which receives advertisement contents to be sent by an advertisement provider from an advertisement server connected to said store terminal device through a communications network, said device comprising:

an advertisement content storage unit which receives a predetermined number of advertisement contents, which are selected and transmitted in accordance with store attribute information of a store having sent the store attribute information from said advertisement server, and advertisement attribute information corresponding to the advertisement contents, and sequentially store the received advertisement contents and advertisement attribute information;

an advertisement content specification unit which specifies at least one advertisement content included in the predetermined number of advertisement contents stored in said advertisement content storage unit, when to use an advertisement;

an advertisement outputting unit which outputs the advertisement content specified by said advertisement content specification unit;

an advertisement-usage-context management unit which updates and retains, every time the advertisement content output by said advertisement outputting unit, advertisement usage context corresponding to the output advertisement content; and

a sending unit which sends the advertisement usage context retained by said advertisement-usage-context management unit to said advertisement server at predetermined intervals.

8. The store terminal device according to claim 7, wherein said advertisement specification unit specifies the advertisement content stored in said advertisement content storage unit sequentially in storage order.

9. The store terminal device according to claim 7, wherein:

said advertisement attribute information includes an advertisement providing condition for an advertisement content corresponding to the advertisement attribute information; and

said advertisement content specification unit specifies, when an advertisement specification condition is input by an advertisement user, an advertisement content corresponding to the advertisement providing condition conforming to the input advertisement specification condition.

10. The store terminal device according to claim 7, further comprising:

a transaction registration processor which registers and calculates sales data for each business transaction, at each business transaction with a customer;

a receipt issuing unit which issues a receipt based on the calculation done by said transaction registration processor; and

a printing unit which prints the advertisement content output by said advertisement outputting unit together with the sales data on a receipt to be issued by said receipt issuing unit.

11. A method for receiving advertisement contents sent form an advertisement provider using an advertisement provider terminal through a communications network, and sending the received advertisement contents to at least one advertisement user from an advertisement server, said method comprising the steps of:

storing the advertisement content sent from the advertisement provider using the advertisement provider terminal and advertisement attribute information in association with each other;

storing advertisement user information sent form the at least one advertisement user using the sent advertisement contents;

retrieving advertisement attribute information conforming to the stored advertisement user information, and extracting advertisement contents corresponding to the retrieved advertisement attribute information;

sending the extracted advertisement contents to the at least one advertisement user;

receiving predetermined advertisement contents sent from said advertisement server to the at least one advertisement user and advertisement attribute information corresponding to the predetermined advertisement contents, and storing the received advertisement contents and the advertisement attribute information sequentially in received order;

outputting and specifying one advertisement content included in the stored advertisement contents, when using an advertisement; and

outputting the advertisement content specified by said outputting step.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

updating and retaining, every time the advertisement content is output by said outputting step, advertisement-usage-context management information corresponding to the advertisement content;

sending the advertisement-usage-context management information retained by said updating and retaining step to said advertisement server at predetermined intervals;

obtaining a number of output advertisement contents included in the advertisement-usage-context management information sent to said advertisement server from said at least one advertisement user in said sending step;

determining whether the obtained number of output advertisement contents exceeds a maximum number of to-be-provided advertisement included in the stored advertisement attribute information; and

when determined that the obtained number of output advertisement contents has exceeded the maximum number of to-be-provided advertisements, removing the advertisement content from target advertisement contents to be extracted by said extracting step.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

calculating an amount of money which is changed for advertisement charges toward the advertisement provider, based on the obtained number of output advertisement contents which is obtained by said calculating step; and

issuing a bill representing the amount of money which is calculated by said calculating step, to said advertisement provider.

14. The method according to claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

calculating a payment amount to be paid to the advertisement user, based on the obtained number of output advertisement contents obtained by said obtaining step; and

issuing a payment statement representing the payment amount to be paid which is calculated by said calculating step.

15. A computer readable recording medium which records a program for controlling a computer function as:

an advertisement information storage unit which stores advertisement contents received from at least one advertisement provider in association with advertisement provider information for controlling of providing an advertisement;

an advertisement usage information storage unit which stores advertisement usage information representing usage of an advertisement user;

an advertisement extraction unit which extracts advertisement contents corresponding to the advertisement provider information corresponding to the advertisement usage information; and

a sending unit which sends the advertisement contents extracted by said advertisement extraction unit to the advertisement user.