System and method for advertising to telephony end-users

• US 20070116227A1
• Filed: 10/11/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Blair Wallace, Mikhael Vitenson
• Original Assignee: Blair Wallace, Mikhael Vitenson
• Inventors: Vitenson, Mikhael, Wallace, Blair
• Application Number:
  US11/248,889
• Publication Number:
  US 20070116227A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/207.20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4285 Notifying, informing or entertaining a held party while on hold, e.g. Music On Hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for advertising to telephony end-users. The ads delivered via these systems and methods can be targeted to the personal interests and/or other characteristics of the telephony end-users. Alternatively or additionally, the telephony end-users can be provided with interactive functionality with respect to the ads. The ads may be delivered, for example, during various phases of a telephone call.

Claims

1. A method of initiating advertising to end-user telephone equipment, said method comprising:

determining a status of a telephone call; and

initiating, based on said determining and by a party other than the part(ies) to said telephone call, advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during a timeframe selected from the group of timeframes consisting of a dial-tone period of said telephone call, telephone signal loss by a party to said telephone call, a ringing period of said telephone call during which said advertising is initiated to a called party as a ring tone, a call-waiting hold time of said telephone call, and three-way call setup of said telephone call.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said determining comprises determining that said end-user telephone equipment is off-hook; and

said initiating advertising comprises initiating advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during said dial-tone period.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said determining comprises determining that said party to said telephone call has experienced said telephone signal loss; and

said initiating advertising comprises initiating advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during said signal loss.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising discontinuing said advertising as a result of said party rejoining said telephone call.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said determining comprises determining that said telephone call is in said ringing period; and

said initiating advertising comprises initiating advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during said ringing period as said ring tone.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said determining comprises determining that said end-user telephone equipment has been placed on hold to allow another party to said telephone call to answer call waiting; and

said initiating advertising comprises initiating advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during said call-waiting hold time.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising discontinuing said advertising when said another party rejoins said telephone call.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

said determining comprises determining that said user telephone equipment has been placed on hold to allow another party to said telephone call to set up a three-way call; and

said initiating advertising comprises initiating advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during said three-way call setup.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising discontinuing said advertising when said another party rejoins said telephone call.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said initiating advertising to said end-user telephone equipment comprises:

causing one or more advertisements to be delivered to said end-user telephone equipment; and

causing one or more of said advertisements to be presented to said end-user telephone equipment.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said initiating advertising comprises initiating an advertisement comprising audio, text, image, video, or a combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said initiating advertising comprises selecting said advertising based on a voicestream from a telephone call involving said end-user telephone equipment.

13. Apparatus for initiating advertising to end-user telephone equipment, said apparatus comprising:

a telephone advertising application under at least the primary control of a party other than the parties to a telephone call, said telephone advertising application configured to;

determine the status of said telephone call; and

initiate, based on said determining, advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during a timeframe selected from the group of timeframes consisting of a dial-tone period of said telephone call, telephone signal loss by a party to said telephone call, a ringing period of said telephone call during which said advertising is initiated to a called party as a ring tone, a call-waiting hold time of said telephone call, and three-way call setup of said telephone call.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said telephone advertising application is configured to:

determine that said end-user telephone equipment is off-hook; and

initiate advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during said dial-tone period.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said telephone advertising application is configured to:

said determining comprises determining that said party to said telephone call has experienced said telephone signal loss; and

said initiating advertising comprises initiating advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during said signal loss.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said telephone advertising application is further configured to discontinue said advertising as a result of said party rejoining said telephone call.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said telephone advertising application is configured to:

determine that said telephone call is in said ringing period; and

initiate advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during said ringing period as said ring tone.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said telephone advertising application is configured to:

determine that said end-user telephone equipment has been placed on hold to allow another party to said telephone call to answer call waiting; and

initiate advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during said call-waiting hold time.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein said telephone advertising application is further configured to discontinue said advertising when said another party rejoins said telephone call.

20. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said telephone advertising application is configured to:

determine that said user telephone equipment has been placed on hold to allow another party to said telephone call to set up a three-way call; and

initiate advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during said three-way call setup.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein said telephone advertising application is further configured to discontinue said advertising when said another party rejoins said telephone call.

22. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said telephone advertising application is configured to:

cause one or more advertisements to be delivered to said end-user telephone equipment; and

cause one or more of said advertisements to be presented to said end-user telephone equipment.

23. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said advertising comprises an advertisement comprising audio, text, image, video, or a combination thereof.

24. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said telephone advertising application is configured to select said advertising based on a voicestream from a telephone call involving said end-user telephone equipment.

25. Apparatus for initiating advertising to end-user telephone equipment, said apparatus comprising:

means for determining a status of a telephone call; and

means for initiating, based on said determining and by a party other than the part(ies) to said telephone call, advertising to said end-user telephone equipment during a timeframe selected from the group of timeframes consisting of a dial-tone period of said telephone call, telephone signal loss by a party to said telephone call, a ringing period of said telephone call during which said advertising is initiated to a called party as a ring tone, a call-waiting hold time of said telephone call, and three-way call setup of said telephone call.

26. A method of selecting an advertisement for delivery to end-user telephone equipment, said method comprising:

selecting said advertisement for delivery to said end-user telephone equipment based on a voicestream of a telephony end-user.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising extracting said data from said voicestream by a voice recognition module.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein said extracting data comprises extracting keywords from said voicestream.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein said extracting said data comprises extracting said data from voicestreams of at least two telephony end-users while said at least two telephony end-users are party to the same telephone call.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein said selecting said advertisement comprises selecting said advertisement based on at least one additional criterion.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein said at least one additional criterion comprises a criterion from a profile.

32. The method of claim 26, wherein said advertisement comprises audio.

33. The method of claim 26, wherein said advertisement comprises at least one of an image, video, and text.

34. The method of claim 26, further comprising initiating said advertisement to said end-user telephone equipment during a timeframe.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein said initiating said advertisement during a timeframe comprises initiating said advertisement during a timeframe selected from the group of timeframes consisting of a dial tone period, a ringing period and involving a ring tone, a ringing period and involving a ringback signal, a busy signal period, a call hold time and immediately upon completion of a call.

36. The method of claim 34, wherein said initiating said advertisement during a timeframe comprises initiating said advertisement during a timeframe that is not based on the status of any telephone call.

37. The method of claim 34, further comprising providing an end-user of said end-user telephone equipment with an interactive feature with respect to said advertisement.

38. A method of selecting advertising for delivery to end-user telephone equipment, said method comprising:

determining caller information for first, second, and third parties to the telephone call; and

based on said caller information, selecting an advertisement for delivery to end-user telephone equipment of at least one of said parties.

39. A method of advertising to end-user telephone equipment, said method comprising:

causing delivery of an image advertisement to said end-user telephone equipment; and

causing said advertisement to be set as wallpaper on a display of said end-user telephone equipment.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein said causing delivery of said image advertisement comprises selecting said image advertisement based on a profile associated with said end-user telephone equipment.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein said causing said image advertisement to be set as wallpaper on said display of said end-user telephone equipment comprises causing said image advertisement to be set as wallpaper on said display automatically subsequent to said delivery.

42. The method of claim 39, wherein said causing said image advertisement to be set as wallpaper on said display of said end-user telephone equipment comprises causing a prompt to be presented to an end-user associated with said end-user telephone equipment, wherein a response to said prompt from said end-user causes said image advertisement to be set as wallpaper on said display.

43. A method of providing an end-user of end-user telephone equipment with interactive functionality with respect to an advertisement, said method comprising:

causing delivery of a first advertisement to said end-user telephone equipment; and

in response to receiving a selection of an option from said end-user, causing delivery of a second advertisement to said end-user telephone equipment, wherein said second advertisement is related to said first advertisement.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein said first advertisement and said second advertisement are the same advertisement.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein said second advertisement is an enhanced version of said first advertisement.