METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR USING POLL RESULTS TO TARGET AND/OR SELECT ADVERTISEMENTS

• US 20080059308A1
• Filed: 08/31/2007
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Tribune Interactive Incorporated (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Tribune Interactive Incorporated (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: GERKEN, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US11/849,219
• Publication Number:
  US 20080059308A1
• 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 30/0245 Surveys
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for using information relating to answers to polling questions to select an advertisement and/or a link to an advertisement to be provided to a corresponding user or computer system are described. The selection process may use information obtained from soliciting, tracking, aggregating and/or reporting popular and group-specific opinion via the Internet.

Claims

1. A method of targeting advertisements, the method comprising:

storing information relating to answers to polling questions, said answers corresponding to one of a user and a computer system; and

using the stored information relating to answers to polling questions to select at least one of;

i) an advertisement and ii) a link to an advertisement to be provided to the corresponding one of said user and said computer system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using the stored information relating to answers to polling questions includes:

analyzing a set of answers to polling questions corresponding to the user or computer system relative to answers provided by different groups of users; and

selecting an advertisement to be presented to the user or computer system as a function of said analysis.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting an advertisement includes selecting an advertisement known to have been of interest to members of a group of users having a similar voting history to said user or computer system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein at least some of said groups of users are groups defined by user characteristics at least some of which are non-voting history characteristics.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein collaborative filtering is used in at least one of said analyzing and selecting steps.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisements are selected as a function of information corresponding to a web site being visited in addition to answers to previous polls.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the method also includes:

using information on a collection of polling results being displayed to select an advertisement or link to an advertisement.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

tracking the display of advertisements; and

billing advertisement sponsors based on the display of advertisements.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

selling polling result information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said polling result information is sold to advertisers for use by said advertisers in selecting advertisements to be displayed.

11. A system for targeting advertisements, the system comprising:

memory for storing information relating to answers to polling questions, said answers corresponding to one of a user and a computer system; and

a selection module for selecting at least one of;

i) an advertisement and ii) a link to an advertisement to be provided to the corresponding one of said user and said computer system based on the stored information relating to answers to polling questions.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said selection module includes:

an analysis module for analyzing a set of answers to polling questions corresponding to said one of the user and computer system relative to answers provided by different groups of users; and

an advertisement selection module for selecting an advertisement to be presented to the user or computer system as a function of said analysis.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

stored voting history information for a plurality of users;

information indicating advertisements known to have been of interest to members of a group of users having a similar voting history to the one of said user and said computer system; and

wherein said advertisement selection module uses said stored information indicating advertisements known to have been of interest to members of the group of users having a similar voting history to the one of said user and said computer system to select an advertisement.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said stored voting history information includes information for at least some groups of users defined by user characteristics at least some of which are non-voting history characteristics, said stored voting history information including at least some non-voting history characteristic information corresponding to users for which voting history information is stored.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein one of said analysis module and selection module includes a collaborative filter.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein said selection module selects an advertisement as a function of information corresponding to a web site being visited in addition to answers to previous polls.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a tracking module for tracking the display of advertisements; and

a billing module for billing advertisement sponsors based on the display of advertisements.