SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING

• US 20090186635A1
• Filed: 09/09/2008
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Riccardo Vieri
• Original Assignee: Braintexter Incorporated
• Inventors: Vieri, Riccardo
• Granted Patent: US 8,156,005 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

A system of contextual advertising is disclosed. The system includes a message receiving module to receive a message from a sender and determine a recipient of the message. The system further includes an advertisement selection module to select an advertisement. The advertisement is selected based on at least one of a characteristic of the recipient, a characteristic of the sender, and a characteristic of the message. The system further includes a message delivery module to send the message to the recipient and an advertisement delivery module to send the advertisement to the sender.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a message receiving module to;

receive a message from a sender; and

determine a recipient of the message;

an advertisement selection module to select an advertisement, wherein the advertisement is selected based on at least one of a characteristic of the recipient, a characteristic of the sender, and a characteristic of the message;

a message delivery module to send the message to the recipient; and

an advertisement delivery module to send the advertisement to the sender.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a voice recognition module responsive to the message receiving module.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic of the sender is determined based on information received from a service provider or information received from a sender device.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one characteristic of the sender includes at least one of a name, a location, an interest, a time zone, a climatic condition associated with the location, a type of network connection, a gender, a content of a visited website, and a social class.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic of the recipient is determined based on information received from a service provider or information received from a recipient device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the at least one characteristic of the recipient includes at least one of a name, a location, an interest, a time zone, a climatic condition associated with the location, a type of network connection, a gender, a content of a visited website, and a social class.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic of the message includes at least one of text data, audio data, and video data.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic of the message includes at least one of an Internet Protocol (IP) location, a time zone, and a connection type.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the message receiving module is adapted to communicate via at least one of a short message service (SMS) network, an Internet Protocol (IP) network, a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and a multimedia messaging service (MMS) network.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement selection module selects a pre-recorded advertisement.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement selection module selects the advertisement according to a template, wherein the template is populated with data including at least one of text data, audio data, and video data provided by an advertiser.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the template includes one or more avatars, wherein each of the one or more avatars comprises a graphical representation of a character that is adapted to present the advertisement to the sender.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement selection module selects the advertisement based on a number of SMS messages sent by the sender.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement selection module selects the advertisement based on a number of website visits by the sender.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising an advertisement feedback module to receive feedback information related to interaction of the sender with the advertisement.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a text-to-speech (TTS) module adapted to convert the message received from the sender to a voice message; and

wherein the message delivery module is adapted to deliver the voice message to a recipient.

17. A method, comprising:

receiving a short message service (SMS) message at a server;

determining a recipient of the SMS message;

identifying data associated with an advertisement campaign, wherein the data includes at least one of a characteristic of the recipient, a characteristic of the sender, and a characteristic of the message;

generating an advertisement based on the identified data and at least a portion of the SMS message;

sending the advertisement from the server to a sender of the SMS message; and

sending the SMS message from the server to the recipient.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the advertisement comprises at least an audio portion.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the audio portion is generated by a text-to-speech (TTS) module.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the TTS module identifies a language associated with the SMS message and generates the audio portion based on the identified language.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the identified language is one of a plurality of languages, and the TTS module uses a distinct voice to generate speech for each of the plurality of languages.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the advertisement further comprises at least one of a video portion and a text portion.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein sending the advertisement from the server to the sender comprises sending the advertisement after the sender performs an action.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the action comprises a mouse movement.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein sending the advertisement from the server to the sender and sending the SMS message to the recipient occur at substantially the same time.

26. The method of claim 17, wherein sending the advertisement from the server to the sender occurs after sending the SMS message to the recipient.

27. The method of claim 17, wherein sending the advertisement from the server to the sender occurs after receiving a delivery confirmation message confirming delivery of the SMS message to the recipient.

28. The method of claim 17, further comprising parsing the SMS message to determine if the SMS message includes text that matches at least one word displayed on a web page, wherein the web page is adapted to display the advertisement upon the sender mousing over the at least one word.

29. The method of claim 17, further comprising assigning credits based on at least one of sending the SMS message, sending the advertisement, and interacting with the advertisement, wherein the credits represent at least one of money and benefits.

30. The method of claim 17, further comprising adding the sender to an autoresponder cycle, wherein the autoresponder cycle results in presentation of a sequence of other advertisements to the sender.

31. The method of claim 17, wherein a format of the SMS message is one of an executable, flash, ppt, pdf, text or other format that allows the SMS message to be sent by an Internet Protocol (IP) network.

32. The method of claim 17, further comprising receiving feedback information related to interaction of the sender with the advertisement.

33. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

upon receiving the SMS message at the server, generating a send confirmation query and an associated send confirmation advertisement; and

sending the send confirmation query and the associated send confirmation advertisement from the server to the sender.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

upon receiving an affirmative response from the sender to the send confirmation query, sending the advertisement from the server to the sender and sending the SMS message from the server to the recipient.

35. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

converting the SMS message to a voice message using a text-to-speech (TTS) module; and

sending the voice message from the server to the recipient.

36. A device, comprising:

a graphical user interface module adapted to;

receive short message service (SMS) message data via a first graphical user interface, wherein the SMS message data is associated with a text message;

receive recipient data via the first graphical user interface, wherein the recipient data is associated with one or more recipients of the text message; and

present a video advertisement, wherein the video advertisement is associated with the text message; and

an audio module adapted to;

present an audio advertisement, wherein the audio advertisement is associated with the text message; and

a message delivery module adapted to send the text message via a server.

37. The device of claim 36, wherein the audio module is adapted to present the audio advertisement without prior installation of a text-to-speech (TTS) module.

38. The device of claim 36, wherein the graphical user interface module, the audio module, and the message delivery module are distributable via a downloadable software package.

39. The device of claim 36, wherein the first graphical user interface is operable to receive message data via a touch screen display.

40. The device of claim 36, wherein the first graphical user interface is operable to receive message data via a browser.

41. A user interface adapted to transmit a short message service (SMS) message and to receive an associated advertisement, the user interface comprising:

an area to receive a destination telephone number;

an area to receive information to be sent by the SMS message;

an area to receive Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) characters; and

an area to receive the associated advertisement.

42. The user interface of claim 41, further comprising at least one of an area to insert a sender of the SMS message;

an area to receive a date and time to transmit the SMS message;

an area to specify a message type of the SMS message; and

an area to specify conversion of the SMS message to a voice message using a text-to-speech (TTS) module.