Software program and method for providing promotions on a phone

• US 20080139224A1
• Filed: 12/08/2006
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Bevocal Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Stone, Kevin M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,160,552 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• 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

Abstract

The present invention includes a method and software application for providing a promotion to a user on a phone. The software application resides on a user'"'"'s phone and “listens” for phone numbers dialed by a user. In response to the user dialing a phone number, the software determines whether a promotion or an offer for a promotion should be provided to the user. In response to determining to play or offer to play a promotion to the user, the software application on the phone effectively “intercepts” the call and plays to the user either a promotion or an offer to hear about a promotion prior to placing an outbound voice call. The software application may retrieve the promotion from local memory or may connect with a remote server to download an applicable promotion.

Claims

1. A method for providing a promotion to a user that has dialed a phone number on a phone, the method comprising:

listening for phone numbers dialed by a user on the phone;

in response to the user dialing a phone number, performing the following;

determining whether or not to provide a promotion to the user;

in response to determining to provide a promotion to the user, providing the promotion to the user, where the promotion is provided prior to placing the call to the dialed phone number; and

placing an outbound voice call to the phone number dialed by the user.

2. The method for claim 1, wherein providing a promotion comprises providing a promotion for a business associated with the phone number dialed by the user.

3. The method for claim 2, wherein the promotion provides information about a product or service about the business.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the promotion provides information about a sale offered by the business.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion is provided in audio form on the phone by playing a voice prompt.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the promotion is also provided in visual form on the phone by displaying text describing the promotion on a user interface on the phone.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on user profile information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on user location.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on known user preferences.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on previous promotions offered the user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on previous phone numbers dialed by user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is paid for by an advertiser and wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on the advertiser that bid the most money for promotion placement.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on the dialed phone number.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to play a promotion to a user comprises determining whether the dialed phone number is associated with a promotion.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining whether the dialed phone number is associated with a promotion comprises communicating with a remote server to determine whether the dialed phone number is associated with a promotion, and, if the dialed phone number is associated with a promotion, downloading the promotion from the remote server.

16. A method for providing a promotion to a user that has dialed a phone number on a phone, the method comprising:

listening for phone numbers dialed by a user on the phone;

in response to the user dialing a phone number, providing the promotion to the user, where the promotion is provided prior to placing the call to the dialed phone number; and

placing an outbound voice call to the phone number dialed by the user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on user profile information.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on user location.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on known user preferences.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on previous promotions offered the user.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is select based at least in part on previous phone numbers dialed by user.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is paid for by an advertiser and wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected at least in part based on the advertiser that bid the most money for promotion placement.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is based at least in part on the dialed phone number.

24. A software program embodied on a computer-readable medium and comprising code that, when executed by a processor on a phone, enables the phone to perform the following method:

listening for phone numbers dialed by a user on the phone;

in response to the user dialing a phone number, performing the following;

determining whether or not to provide the user with a promotion;

in response to determining to provide the user with a promotion, providing the promotion to the user, where the promotion is provided prior to placing the call to the dialed phone number; and

placing an outbound voice call to the phone number dialed by the user.