System and method for policy-based advertising

• US 20070156838A1
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Synamedia Limited
• Original Assignee: Cisco Systems International SARL (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Stevenson, Brian, Kocho, Keith, Davis, Erik
• Granted Patent: US 7,925,739 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• 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 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A system and method for policy-based advertising. According to an embodiment, an advertisement server receives a request for advertising content from a user computer over a network, the advertising content associated with an advertising policy specifying one or more usage conditions to be met by a user of the user computer in connection with the advertising content in order for the user to qualify for a promotional consideration, provides to the user computer over the network, in response to the request for the advertising content, the advertising content and one or more constraints to be enforced by a content player on the user computer in accordance with the advertising policy, receives from the user computer metering data reflecting usage of the advertising content on the user computer, and determines whether the one or more advertising policy usage conditions have been met based on the received metering data.

Claims

1. A system for policy-based advertising, comprising:

an advertisement server communicatively linked to a user computer over a network; and

a database communicatively linked to the advertisement server, the database storing advertising content,

wherein the advertisement server provides the advertising content to the user computer over the network, the advertising content associated with an advertising policy specifying usage conditions to be met by a user of the user computer in connection with the advertising content in order for the user to qualify for a promotional consideration,

wherein the advertisement server provides to the user computer over the network one or more constraints to be enforced by a content player on the user computer in accordance with the advertising policy,

wherein the advertisement server receives from the user computer metering data reflecting usage of the advertising content on the user computer, and

wherein the advertisement server determines whether one or more of the advertising policy usage conditions have been met based on the received metering data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement server provides the one or more constraints to the user computer in a software license.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein if the one or more advertising policy usage conditions are determined to have been met, the advertisement server provides the promotional consideration to the user computer over the network.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising content is pushed to the user computer from the advertisement server based on stored content preference information associated with the user.

5. A method for policy-based advertising, comprising:

receiving by an advertisement server a request for advertising content from a user computer over a network, the advertising content associated with an advertising policy specifying one or more usage conditions to be met by a user of the user computer in connection with the advertising content in order for the user to qualify for a promotional consideration;

providing to the user computer over the network, in response to the request for the advertising content,

the advertising content in an encrypted form,

a key for unlocking the encrypted advertising content by a content player on the user computer, and

one or more constraints to be enforced by the content player in accordance with the advertising policy; and

receiving from the user computer metering data reflecting usage of the advertising content on the user computer; and

determining whether the one or more advertising policy usage conditions have been met based on the received metering data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the advertising content includes video content.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more usage condition includes a requirement that the user watch the video content for a predetermined amount of time or predetermined number of times.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the promotional consideration includes a coupon redeemable by an advertiser.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the promotional consideration includes a license to access free entertainment content.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the promotional consideration includes a license to access entertainment content at a reduced rate.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the advertising content is delivered to the user computer via real-time streaming.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein the advertising content is downloaded to the user computer for subsequent display to the user.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the advertising content in placed in the encrypted form by a third party digital rights management solution.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more constraints include disabling a feature of the content player that enables playback of video content to be skipped or fast forwarded.

15. The method of claim 5, wherein the key and the one or more constraints are provided together in a software license.

16. The method of claim 5, wherein if the one or more advertising policy usage conditions are determined to have been met, providing the promotional consideration to the user computer over the network.

17. The method of claim 5, wherein prior to receiving the request for advertising content from the user computer, the advertising content and the associated advertising policy are provided to the user computer via an electronic marketplace on the Internet.

18. A system for policy-based advertising, comprising:

means for receiving by an advertisement server a request for advertising content from a user computer over a network, the advertising content associated with an advertising policy specifying one or more usage conditions to be met by a user of the user computer in connection with the advertising content in order for the user to qualify for a promotional consideration;

means for providing to the user computer over the network, in response to the request for the advertising content,

the advertising content, and

one or more constraints to be enforced by a content player on the user computer in accordance with the advertising policy;

means for receiving from the user computer metering data reflecting usage of the advertising content on the user computer; and

means for determining whether the one or more advertising policy usage conditions have been met based on the received metering data.