Confirmation of Advertisement Viewing

• US 20090249388A1
• Filed: 04/01/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Neufeld, Nadav M., Seidel, Joseph J., Rao, Pradhan S.
• Application Number:
  US12/060,839
• Publication Number:
  US 20090249388A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4227 Providing Remote input by a user located remotely from the client device, e.g. at work
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

Techniques to confirm advertisement viewing are described. In an implementation, an advertisement is displayed on a remote control device having functionality to initiate one or more control functions to control a display of content by a client. A user is confirmed to have viewed an advertisement output by the client through interaction with the advertisement displayed on the remote control device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

displaying an advertisement on a remote control device having functionality to initiate one or more control functions to control a display of content by a client; and

confirming that a user has viewed an advertisement output by the client through interaction with the advertisement displayed on the remote control device.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the display of the advertisement on the remote control device is performed concurrently with the output of the advertisement by the client.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the advertisement output by the client corresponds to the advertisement displayed on the remote control device.

4. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the advertisement displayed on the remote control device is a static image.

5. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the displaying of the advertisement on the remote control is performed such that the display of the advertisement replaces a display of a representation of at least one said control function on the remote control device.

6. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the advertisement output by the remote control device includes a query, to be viewed by the user, which requests that the user confirm that the advertisement output by the client has been viewed.

7. A method as described in claim 6, wherein the confirming further includes receiving an input via a user interface output by the remote control device that confirms that the user has viewed the advertisement output by the client.

8. A method as described in claim 1, wherein the confirming includes providing an incentive to the user to perform the confirming.

9. A method as described in claim 8, wherein the incentive:

is stored locally on the remote control device; and

is retrievable locally by an entity that applies the incentive.

10. A method as described in claim 8, wherein the incentive is a coupon that is related to a product or service that is a subject of the advertisement output by the client and the advertisement output by the remote control device.

11. A method as described in claim 8, wherein the incentive:

is communicated using the simple message service (SMS); and

includes a validation code that is verifiable by a provider of the incentive.

12. A method comprising:

providing a service to display advertisements on a remote control device that is configured to initiate one or more control functions related to output of content by a client; and

collecting revenue from one or more advertisers that provide respective said advertisements based on monitored interaction with the advertisements.

13. A method as described in claim 12, wherein the service is a web service that includes an interface that is accessible by the one or more advertisers via a network.

14. A method as described in claim 12, wherein the advertisements are to be displayed on the remote control device concurrently with an output of a corresponding advertisement by the client.

15. A method as described in claim 12, wherein at least one said advertisement to be displayed on the remote control device is a static image for a brand that corresponds to an advertisement that is concurrently output by the client.

16. A method as described in claim 12, wherein the service is accessible over a network to provide opportunities to the one or more advertisers to provide respective said bids for specific points in time in relation to an output of the content by the client.

17. A method as described in claim 16, wherein at least one said bid pertains to a particular geographic location that is to receive a respective said advertisement.

18. One or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that are executable to:

determine a number of times an advertisement has been selected when displayed on one or more remote control devices that are each configured to initiate one or more control functions related to an output of content by a respective client; and

calculate a fee to be charged to an advertiser that provided the advertisement based at least in part on the determined number of times the advertisement was selected.

19. One or more computer-readable media as described in claim 18, wherein the determination of the number of times is based at least in part on a number of times an incentive was requested that confirms that the advertisement was viewed.

20. One or more computer-readable media as described in claim 18, wherein the fee is calculated at least in part on a number of times the advertisement was displayed.