Systems and Methods of Providing Collaborative Consumer-Controlled Advertising Environments

• US 20080307066A1
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Published: 12/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZAMA Innovations LLC
• Original Assignee: Qurio Holdings Incorporated
• Inventors: Amidon, Christopher, Evans, Gregory M., Walsh, Richard
• Granted Patent: US 8,560,387 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements

Abstract

Targeted or other advertising may comprise one or more advertisements presented to multiple users in a virtual world environment such that participating users can interact with one another and/or with executed advertisements. Groups of users may be invited to participate in collaborative virtual world environments based on consumer contact lists or profiles establishing matching preferences for such groups. Synchronized data may be narrowcasted or broadcasted to invited users. Such data may define one or more virtual world environments as well as traditional and/or virtual world advertisements for execution in the shared environment(s). Advertisements may be selected based on one or more consumer preferences associated with one or more of the users participating in the shared virtual world environment.

Claims

1. An advertising system associated with one or more given users comprising at least one computing device adapted to:

access one or more shared advertising environments;

determine an advertisement presentation opportunity;

render a selected shared advertising environment;

execute at least one virtual world advertisement in the selected shared advertising environments; and

synchronize execution of the at least one virtual world advertisement with at least one other user, wherein the at least one other user also has access to the selected shared advertising environment and the at least one virtual world advertisement.

2. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said at least one computing device is further adapted to invite at least one other user to participate in at least one of the one or more shared advertising environments.

3. The system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said at least one computing device is further configured to:

identify one or more potential users for participation in at least one or more shared advertising environments; and

determine if systems associated with the potential users are capable of executing a shared advertising environment and virtual world advertisement; and

wherein said inviting at least one other user comprises inviting potential users having systems capable of executing a shared advertising environment and virtual world advertisement.

4. The system as set forth in claim 3, wherein said determining system capability for potential users comprises determining if ad presentation opportunities associated with multiple respective users are capable of being synchronized.

5. The system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said inviting at least one other user comprises inviting users specified on a predetermined list of users established by a given user.

6. The system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said inviting at least one other user comprises inviting users characterized by at least one parameter matched to a profile associated with a given user.

7. The system as set forth in claim 2, wherein said at least one computing device is further configured to receive a response from invited users, wherein said response designates an acceptance or rejection of the invitation to participate in at least one of the one or more shared advertising environments.

8. The system as set forth in claim 7, wherein the at least one executed virtual world advertisement comprises an advertisement that is broadcast to all users who have accepted the invitation to participate in at least one of the one or more shared advertising environments.

9. The system as set forth in claim 7, wherein said at least one computing device is further configured to receive rescission requests from one or more invited users who previously accepted an invitation to participate.

10. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said at least one computing device is further configured to select at least one virtual world advertisement for execution, and wherein said selecting comprises choosing an advertisement that is matched to at least one parameter associated with one or more users.

11. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the rendered virtual world is configured in part on at least one preference associated with a user.

12. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said executing at least one virtual world advertisement in a selected one of the one or more shared advertising environments comprises executing an ad script.

13. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein determining an advertisement presentation opportunity comprises selecting an advertisement time slot having a predetermined length, wherein the ad time slot is associated with a programming event.

14. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said at least one computing device comprises:

at least a first computing device and at least a second computing device;

wherein said first computing device is adapted to render the shared advertising environment, generate the at least one virtual world advertisement in the shared advertising environment, and provide the at least one virtual world advertisement to the second computing device; and

wherein said second computing device is adapted to present the at least one virtual world advertisement to a user.

15. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said at least one computing device is further configured to:

negotiate with at least one advertising entity, including establishing at least one contract regarding display of a virtual world advertisement to a user; and

download a data package comprising ad definition data for the at least one virtual world advertisement.

16. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said at least one computing device is further configured to provide an invoice to the at least one advertising entity if the at least one virtual world advertisement is displayed in accordance with the at least one contract.

17. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein said at least one computing device comprises:

an advertisement queue defining an order of presenting ads; and

wherein said at least one computing device is further adapted to execute at least a first and second virtual world advertisements that are adjacent to one another in the order defined by the advertisement queue.

18. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein synchronizing execution comprises coordinating execution at substantially the same time at systems associated with the one or more given user and the at least one other user.

19. The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein synchronizing execution comprises coordinating execution whereby execution results in at least some time overlap of executed advertisements.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one computing device is further configured to switch between multiple virtual world environments.

21. A method of configuring a collaborative advertising environment, comprising:

identifying one or more potential users for participation in the collaborative advertising environment;

distributing a shared virtual world environment to selected ones of the potential users;

determining an advertisement presentation opportunity at selected systems associated with the selected users; and

executing at least one advertisement in the shared virtual world environment provided to the selected users.

22. The method as set forth in claim 21, further comprising:

determining participation capability of selected ones of the potential users.

23. The method as set forth in claim 22, wherein said determining participation capability comprises determining if advertisement presentation opportunities associated with selected ones of the potential users are capable of being synchronized.

24. The method as set forth in claim 21, wherein the one or more potential users identified for participation in the collaborative advertising environment are identified from a predetermined list of users established by a given user.

25. The method as set forth in claim 21, wherein the one or more potential users identified for participation in the collaborative advertising environment are characterized by at least one parameter matched to a profile associated with a given user.

26. The method as set forth in claim 21, wherein said executing at least one virtual world advertisement in a selected one of the one or more shared virtual world environments comprises executing an ad script.

27. The method as set forth in claim 21, wherein said determining an advertisement presentation opportunity comprises selecting an advertisement time slot having a predetermined length, the ad time slot associated with a programming event.

28. The method as set forth in claim 27, further comprising accessing consumer preference data for selected ones of the potential users such that one or more of the at least one advertisement and the shared virtual world environment are configured in accordance with a consumer preference associated with one or more selected ones of the potential users.

29. The method as set forth in claim 27, further comprising a step of continuing to render the shared virtual world environment after completing execution of the at least one advertisement.