Contact history for promotion management

• US 20080126146A1
• Filed: 07/24/2006
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Benveniste, Mike, Lee, Yuchun, Cheung, David F., Martin, Patrick, Kennedy, Ruby
• Granted Patent: US 8,473,344 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure

Abstract

A computer implemented method for producing a contact history for a marketing campaign is described. The method includes producing a promotion version history table for the marketing campaign, with the promotion version history table recording promotion attribute values for each promotion version at runtime, producing a treatment history table for the marketing campaign, with the treatment history table representing promotion instances given to a group, producing a contact history table for the marketing campaign, the contact history table recording which contact entities were in which groups at runtime, linking the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table, wherein the linking preserves referential integrity between the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table, and producing the contact history from the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for producing a contact history for a marketing campaign comprises:

producing a promotion version history table for the marketing campaign, with the promotion version history table recording promotion attribute values for each promotion version at runtime;

producing a treatment history table for the marketing campaign, with the treatment history table representing promotion instances given to a group;

producing a contact history table for the marketing campaign, the contact history table recording which contact entities were in which groups at runtime;

linking the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table, wherein the linking preserves referential integrity between the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table; and

producing the contact history from the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the contact history comprises:

one or more contact records, each of the contact records comprising;

one or more audience fields corresponding to a contact entity of the marketing campaign;

a groupID field corresponding to a group of the marketing campaign, wherein the contact entity is associated with the group;

an update time field corresponding to the date and the time of an execution of the marketing campaign; and

a packagelD field representing the number of interruptions to the contact entity made by the marketing campaign.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the one or more base contact records comprise:

a first contact record comprising a first packageID; and

a second contact record comprising a second packageID;

wherein if the first packagelD is identical to the second packagelD, the first packagelD and the second packagelD correspond to contact entities of the same contact style process box of the marketing campaign.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprises:

updating the update time to correspond to the date and the time of a change to the contact record.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the promotion version history comprises:

one or more promotion version records corresponding to one or more promotion versions, the one or more promotion version records assigned to one or more groups of the marketing campaign, each of the one or more promotion version records comprising;

one or more data fields corresponding to one or more values of static promotion attributes of the one or more promotion versions.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the treatment history comprises:

one or more treatment records each comprising;

a promotion version field corresponding to a promotion version of the marketing campaign;

a groupID field corresponding to a group of the marketing campaign, wherein the promotion version is assigned to the group;

a run date and time field corresponding to at least one of a date and a time of an execution of the marketing campaign; and

a treatment code field corresponding to the promotion version, the group, and the date and the time of the execution of the marketing campaign.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein updating comprises updating the update time to correspond to the date and the time of a change to a contact status the contact record.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the contact status comprises one or more of a proposed status, a suppressed status, a served status, a contact initiated status, a dropped status, a confirmed contact status, an unconfirmed delivery status, or an undelivered status.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the contact status corresponds to a hierarchy of plural contact statuses, the hierarchy identifying one or more traversable paths through the contact statuses.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the one or more traversable paths are unidirectional.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein producing the treatment history, producing the promotion version history, and producing the contact history occur simultaneously.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the contact history table has one row for each contact entity for each group the contact entity belongs in.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the group is a control group.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the contact history table comprises:

a detailed contact history table corresponding to contact entities assigned to groups and with the contact entities receiving promotion versions, the promotion versions comprising;

one or more data personalized promotion versions;

one or more contact fatigue rule optimized promotion versions; and

real-time promotion versions.

15. The method of claim 2 further comprises:

updating a first contact record, wherein updating comprises;

appending a second contact record to the contact history table corresponding to the updated first contact record.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the promotion version history comprises:

one or more promotion version records corresponding to one or more promotion versions, the one or more promotion version records assigned to one or more groups of the marketing campaign, each of the one or more promotion version records comprising;

one or more data fields corresponding to one or more values of parameterized promotion attributes of the one or more promotion versions.

17. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium for producing a contact history for a marketing campaign, comprises instructions for causing a computer to:

produce a promotion version history table for the marketing campaign, with the promotion version history table recording promotion attribute values for each promotion version at runtime;

produce a treatment history table for the marketing campaign, with the treatment history table representing promotion instances given to a group;

produce a contact history table for the marketing campaign, the contact history table recording which contact entities were in which groups at runtime;

link the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table, wherein the linking preserves referential integrity between the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table; and

produce the contact history from the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the contact history comprises:

one or more contact records, each of the contact records comprising;

one or more audience fields corresponding to a contact entity of the marketing campaign;

a groupID field corresponding to a group of the marketing campaign, wherein the contact entity is associated with the group;

an update time field corresponding to the date and the time of an execution of the marketing campaign; and

a packagelD field representing the number of interruptions to the contact entity made by the marketing campaign.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the one or more base contact records comprise:

a first contact record comprising a first packageID; and

a second contact record comprising a second packageID;

wherein if the first packageID is identical to the second packageld, the first packageID and the second packageID correspond to contact entities of the same contact style process box of the marketing campaign.

20. The computer program product of claim 18 further comprises instructions for causing a computer to:

update the update time to correspond to the date and the time of a change to the contact record.

21. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the promotion version history comprises:

one or more promotion version records corresponding to one or more promotion versions, the one or more promotion version records assigned to one or more groups of the marketing campaign, each of the one or more promotion version records comprising;

one or more data fields corresponding to one or more values of static promotion attributes of the one or more promotion versions.

22. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the treatment history comprises:

one or more treatment records each comprising;

a promotion version field corresponding to a promotion version of the marketing campaign;

a groupID field corresponding to a group of the marketing campaign, wherein the promotion version is assigned to the group;

a run date and time field corresponding to at least one of a date and a time of an execution of the marketing campaign; and

a treatment code field corresponding to the promotion version, the group, and the date and the time of the execution of the marketing campaign.

23. The computer program product of claim 20 wherein instructions that update further comprise instructions that cause a computer to:

update the update time to correspond to the date and the time of a change to a contact status the contact record.

24. The computer program product of claim 23 wherein the contact status comprises one or more of a proposed status, a suppressed status, a served status, a contact initiated status, a dropped status, a confirmed contact status, an unconfirmed delivery status, or an undelivered status.

25. The computer program product of claim 23 wherein the contact status corresponds to a hierarchy of plural contact statuses, the hierarchy identifying one or more traversable paths through the contact statuses.

26. The computer program product of claim 25 wherein the one or more traversable paths are unidirectional.

27. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein instructions that produce the treatment history, instructions that produce the promotion version history, and instructions that produce the contact history are executed simultaneously.

28. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the contact history table has one row for each contact entity for each group the contact entity belongs in.

29. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the group is a control group.

30. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the contact history table comprises:

a detailed contact history table corresponding to contact entities assigned to groups and with the contact entities receiving promotion versions, the promotion versions comprising;

one or more data personalized promotion versions;

one or more contact fatigue rule optimized promotion versions; and

real-time promotion versions.

31. The computer program product of claim 18 further comprises instructions that cause a computer to:

update a first contact record, wherein updating comprises;

append a second contact record to the contact history table corresponding to the updated first contact record.

32. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the promotion version history comprises:

one or more promotion version records corresponding to one or more promotion versions, the one or more promotion version records assigned to one or more groups of the marketing campaign, each of the one or more promotion version records comprising;

one or more data fields corresponding to one or more values of parameterized promotion attributes of the one or more promotion versions.

33. An apparatus comprises:

a processor;

memory executing a computer program product for producing a contact history for a marketing campaign, the computer program product comprising instructions for causing the processor to;

produce a promotion version history table for the marketing campaign, with the promotion version history table recording promotion attribute values for each promotion version at runtime;

produce a treatment history table for the marketing campaign, with the treatment history table representing promotion instances given to a group;

produce a contact history table for the marketing campaign, the contact history table recording which contact entities were in which groups at runtime;

link the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table, wherein the linking preserves referential integrity between the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table; and

produce the contact history from the promotion version history table, the treatment history table, and the contact history table.