FRAMEWORK FOR CROSS-ECOSYSTEM AFFILIATE, VIRAL, AND WORD-OF-MOUTH ADVERTISING

• US 20090003355A1
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jain, Kamal, Russell, James, Sacheti, Arun K., Ward, Bradley W.
• Application Number:
  US11/768,580
• Publication Number:
  US 20090003355A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/400
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Systems and/or methods are presented that can employ an ad object comprising a data packet(s) to facilitate providing an advertising platform that is ecosystem independent and can support various advertising models, such as affiliate, viral, and/or word-of-mouth (WOM) advertising. The data packet can be associated with an advertisement for a product(s) and/or service(s) and can include a mechanism(s) that facilitates enabling users to reproduce the data packet and associated advertisement in different sites, such as user sites. As the data packet propagates through a community network, the data packet can receive and accumulate data, such as data relating to purchases, comments, or ratings, storing such data in the data packet and displaying a portion of such data with the advertisement to facilitate WOM advertising. The data packet facilitates providing incentives to users who perform desired actions (e.g., purchases, syndication) related to the advertisement.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates promotion of products or services, comprising:

a data packet that receives and accumulates data associated with at least one advertisement associated with at least one of a product or a service, or a combination thereof, as the data packet propagates through a community network, to facilitate at least one of a promotion of the product or the service, an accumulation of data associated with at least one user that interacts with the at least one advertisement, an analysis of received data to learn about the at least one user, or a determination relating to an incentive to be awarded to the at least one user, or a combination thereof.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a central service component that is associated with the data packet and receives the data associated with the at least one advertisement, analyzes the received data, compares the received data to a subset of incentive criteria, and makes a determination regarding at least one of a type or an amount of incentive to be awarded to the at least one user based on the incentive criteria.

3. The system of claim 1, the data packet is associated with an ad object that can facilitate displaying data contained within the data packet.

4. The system of claim 3, the data packet receives and accumulates data associated with ad object metadata comprising at least one of a referral chain associated with the data packet, a lifespan of the data packet, or an incentive associated with the at least one advertisement, or a combination thereof.

5. The system of claim 1, the data packet is comprised of a piece of code.

6. The system of claim 1, the data packet receives and accumulates data comprising community metadata that is associated with at least one of a reputation, a rating, a review, a comment, or a tag, or a combination thereof, associated with the at least one advertisement.

7. The system of claim 1, the at least one advertisement comprising content associated with the at least one of a product or a service, or a combination thereof, the content comprising at least one of a viral agent, promotional content, or community metadata, or a combination thereof.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data store that can store data associated with the at least one advertisement.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a common identity service component that identifies and verifies the identification of the at least one user.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a community network that is associated with the data packet or the central service component, or a combination thereof, the community network provides information to the data packet or the central service component, or a combination thereof.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising an intelligent component that makes an inference as to at least one of whether an action has been performed by the at least one user, a rating, a reputation, a type of incentive, an amount of incentive, a status of a data packet with regard to a referral chain, or a status of a data packet with regard to lifespan, or a combination thereof.

12. The system of claim 1, the at least one advertisement and the data packet are contained in at least one of a web site, a web page, a webfeed, a blog, an e-mail, an instant message, a short message service, a multimedia messaging service, an enhanced messaging service, or a combination thereof.

13. At least one computer that comprises the central service component of claim 2.

14. A method that facilitates marketing products or services, comprising:

receiving a subset of information associated with at least one advertisement marketing at least one of a product or service, or a combination thereof;

storing the subset of information in at least one data packet; and

propagating the at least one data packet across a community network.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

analyzing the subset of information; and

determining at least one of a type or an amount of incentive to award to a user based on incentive criteria and the subset of information.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving information associated with a manipulation of a control, the control is at least one of a primary-action control, a community control, or a syndication control;

reproducing the at least one data packet in an online location associated with a user when a syndication control is manipulated by the user;

processing a primary action when a primary-action control is manipulated by a user; and

receiving community metadata when a community control is manipulated by a user.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving content, the content comprising at least one of a viral agent, promotional content, or community metadata, or a combination thereof, the content is associated with the at least one of a product or service, or a combination thereof; and

displaying the content as part of the at least one advertisement.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

accumulating data in the at least one data packet as the at least one data packet propagates across a community network; and

communicating the accumulated data to a central service component.

19. A system that facilitates promotion of products or services, comprising:

means for receiving information in a data packet, the information is associated with at least one advertisement related to at least one product or service, or a combination thereof;

means for propagating the data packet across one or more disparate ecosystems associated with at least one network; and

means for accumulating the information within the data packet as the data packet is propagated to facilitate at least one of processing at least one action associated with at least one user with regard to the at least one advertisement, gaining knowledge regarding the at least one user, or providing an incentive to the at least one user, or a combination thereof, the at least one action comprising at least one of a primary action, a community action, or a syndication action.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

means for identifying at least one user;

means for displaying the at least one advertisement in a site;

means for processing at least one action associated with the at least one user;

means for enabling the at least one user to reproduce the data packet in a disparate site;

means for enabling the at least one user to provide community metadata associated with the at least one advertisement;

means for determining at least one of a type or an amount of incentive, or a combination thereof; and

means for distributing the incentive to an account associated with the user.