System and/or methods for distributing advertisements from a central advertisement network to a peripheral device via a local advertisement server

• US 20090265734A1
• Filed: 01/09/2009
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TouchTunes Music Corporation (The Octave Music Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: TouchTunes Music Corporation (The Octave Music Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tooker, Michael, Guy, Francois, Dion, Dominque, Khenfir, Mounir
• Granted Patent: US 8,332,887 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/103 Transmitter-side switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2143 located in a single building, e.g. hotel, hospital or museum arrangements specially adapted for plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63; adaptations for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution in television systems H04N7/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Certain exemplary embodiments disclosed herein relate to systems and/or methods for distributing advertisements from a central advertisement network to one or more peripheral devices at a location via a local advertisement server. In certain exemplary embodiments, the local advertisement server within a location receives advertisements from the central advertisement network and rebroadcasts them to peripheral devices within that location. Advertising information may be tracked and reported, e.g., for accounting, revenue-sharing, and/or other purposes in certain exemplary embodiments. Thus, in certain exemplary embodiments, the distribution of advertisements is provided to peripherals via a non-web- and non-PC-dependent network. Moreover, in certain exemplary embodiments, reporting and advertising related communications are substantially bi-directional regardless of device type. Certain exemplary embodiments provide revenue sharing among some or all of the central advertising network provider, the proprietors of locations, operators tasked with maintaining the local ad server and/or the peripheral devices, etc.

Claims

1. A local advertisement server, comprising:

a network connection to a central advertising network located remote from the local advertisement server;

a storage location configured to store an advertisement database, the advertisement database including advertisements received from the central advertising network via the network connection along with content control data associated with each said advertisement;

a local connection to one or more peripheral devices located in the same location as the local advertisement server; and

a display controller configured to cause the one or more peripheral devices connected to the local advertisement server via the local connection to display at least some of the advertisements received from the central advertising network in dependence on the content control data associated with the advertisements.

2. The local advertisement server of claim 1, wherein each said advertisement is one of a leader board, banner, or media clip.

3. The local advertisement server of claim 2, wherein the content control data for each advertisement comprises indications of how and when the associated advertisement should be displayed.

4. The local advertisement server of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of log files, a first log file comprising information regarding the distribution of advertisements from the central advertising network to the local advertisement server, and a second log file comprising information regarding the distribution of advertisements from the local advertisement server to the one or more peripheral devices.

5. The local advertisement server of claim 1, further comprising a media source connection configured to receive media from an external media source,

wherein the display controller is further configured to combine, in a predetermined format, the advertisements with the media received from the external media source via the media source connection to create a combined signal, the combined signal being sent to the one or more peripheral devices for display.

6. The local advertisement server of claim 1, further comprising an advertisement queue, the display controller being further configured to cause the one or more peripheral devices connected to the local advertisement server via the local connection to display at least some of the advertisements received from the central advertising network in dependence on the content control data associated with the advertisements and the advertisement queue.

7. The local advertisement server of claim 1, further comprising an advertisement queue for each said peripheral device or each peripheral device type, the display controller being further configured to cause the one or more peripheral devices connected to the local advertisement server via the local connection to display at-least some of the advertisements received from the central advertising network in dependence on the content control data associated with the advertisements and the associated advertisement queue.

8. The local advertisement server of claim 3, wherein the local advertisement server is built into a digital jukebox device.

9. The local advertisement server of claim 8, wherein the local advertisement server and the digital jukebox device share a common processor and/or storage location.

10. The local advertisement server of claim 9, wherein the digital jukebox device is configured to retrieve instances of media for playback via a central audiovisual network, the central audiovisual network being the same network as the central advertising network.

11. The local advertisement server of claim 1, wherein the display controller is further configured to change or modify the advertisements being displayed in response to input provided, directly or indirectly, by a person to whom the advertisement is targeted.

12. The local advertisement server of claim 1, further comprising an advertiser interface configured to allow advertisers to define or redefine an advertising campaign by creating at least one rule specifying how and where an advertisement should be run, said advertiser interface being accessible via the central advertising network.

13. An advertisement system comprising a plurality of the local advertisement servers of claim 1, each said local advertisement server being located at a different location.

14. An advertising method for providing a plurality of electronic advertisements to peripheral display devices distributed across a plurality of locations, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of local advertisement servers, each said local advertisement server being located at a different location;

providing a central advertising network located remote from the local advertisement servers;

distributing at least some electronic advertisements from the central advertising network to the local advertisement servers via network connections provided to the respective local advertisement servers;

storing, via storage locations provided to the respective local advertisement servers, advertisement databases, the advertisement databases including electronic advertisements received from the central advertising network via the respective network connection along with content control data associated with each said electronic advertisement;

maintaining, at each said local advertisement server, at least one advertisement queue;

wherein each said local server further comprises a display controller configured to cause any peripheral display devices connected thereto to display at least some of the electronic advertisements received from the central advertising network in dependence on the content control data associated with the electronic advertisements and the respective at least one advertisement queue,

wherein each said electronic advertisement is one of a leader board, banner, or media clip, and

wherein the content control data for each electronic advertisement comprises indications of how and when the associated electronic advertisement should be displayed.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising, at each said local advertisement server:

receiving media from an external media source;

combining, in a predetermined format, via the respective display controllers, the electronic advertisements with the media received from the external media source to create a combined signal;

sending the combined signal to any peripheral display devices connected to the local advertisement server for display on the respective peripheral display device.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein each said local advertisement server is built into a digital jukebox device provided at the same location as the respective local advertisement server.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein each said local advertisement server shares a common processor and/or storage location with the associated digital jukebox device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein each said the digital jukebox device is configured to retrieve instances of media for playback via a central audiovisual network, the central audiovisual network being the same network as the central advertising network.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising, at each said location, changing or modifying the electronic advertisements being displayed in response to input provided, directly or indirectly, by a person to whom the electronic advertisements is targeted.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving input, via an advertiser interface, configured to allow advertisers to define or redefine an advertising campaign by creating at least one rule specifying how and where an electronic advertisement should be run, said advertiser interface being accessible via the central advertising network.