METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISTRIBUTING MERCHANT ADVERTISEMENTS

• US 20100076848A1
• Filed: 09/22/2008
• Published: 03/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tan, Tuck Seng, Bradley, Charles Patrick, Chang, E-Lee, Stefanik, John R., Khandelwal, Madhur, Clayton, Darnell
• Granted Patent: US 9,294,730 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.580
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• 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

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) system having a controller to present a merchant a graphical user interface (GUI) for entering advertisement information, receive from the merchant advertisement information, generate an advertisement GUI for presenting the received advertisement information, identify a plurality of users of the IPTV system that demographically correlate to the advertisement information, and direct the advertisement GUI to one or more set-top boxes of the identified plurality of users. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. An Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) system, comprising a controller to:

present a merchant a graphical user interface (GUI) for entering advertisement information;

receive from the merchant advertisement information;

generate an advertisement GUI for presenting the received advertisement information;

identify a plurality of users of the IPTV system that demographically correlate to the advertisement information; and

direct the advertisement GUI to one or more set-top boxes (STBs) of the identified plurality of users.

2. The IPTV system of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to notify at least a portion of the plurality of users of the generated advertisement GUI.

3. The IPTV system of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to:

present an offer to the merchant to demographically target users of the IPTV system with the advertisement information; and

notify a billing system responsive to detecting an affirmative acceptance of the offer by the merchant.

4. The IPTV system of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to:

present the plurality of users an auctioning process for submitting bids for purchasing a good or a service presented in the advertisement GUI;

receive one or more bids from at least a portion of the plurality of users; and

present the one or more bids.

5. The IPTV system of claim 4, wherein the controller is adapted to present the one or more bids to the merchant.

6. The IPTV system of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to identify at least a portion of the plurality of users of the IPTV according to psychographic profiles of said portion of users that correlate to the advertisement information.

7. The IPTV system of claim 6, wherein the controller is adapted to monitor a consumption behavior of each of its users and determine therefrom a demographic or psychographic profile of its users.

8. The IPTV system of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to:

detect a demographic pattern in the advertisement information; and

identify the plurality of users of IPTV system according to the detected demographic pattern.

9. The IPTV system of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to:

detect one or more selections of the advertisement GUI by at least one of the plurality of users; and

notify a billing system responsive to detecting the one or more selections of the advertisement GUI.

10. The IPTV system of claim 9, wherein the billing system generates a fee directed to the merchant according to the detected one or more selections of the advertisement GUI.

11. The IPTV system of claim 7, wherein the demographic profile for each user is determined from at least one of age, gender, income, size of household, occupation, education, value of residential property, location of residential property, and fees paid for services rendered by the IPTV system.

12. The IPTV system of claim 7, wherein the psychographic profile for each user comprises at least one of user traits, user attitudes, user interests, and user lifestyle determined from the consumption behavior.

13. A network element of a media communication system, comprising a controller to:

present a merchant a user interface (UI) for entering advertisement information;

receive from the merchant the advertisement information;

generate an advertisement UI for presenting the advertisement information;

identify a plurality of users of the media communication system each having a profile that correlates to the advertisement information;

present an offer to the merchant to demographically target users of the media communication system with the advertisement information; and

direct the advertisement UI to one or more set-top boxes (STBs) of the plurality of users responsive to detecting an affirmative acceptance of the offer by the merchant.

14. The network element of claim 13, wherein the media communication system supplies media content to its user by way of STBs, and wherein the media content comprises at least one of audio content, still image content, moving image content, and combinations thereof.

15. The network element of claim 13, wherein the controller is adapted to distribute the advertisement UI by providing passive accessibility to the advertisement UI by way of the STB of each of the plurality of users.

16. The network element of claim 13, wherein the controller is adapted to distribute the advertisement UI by notifying each of the plurality of users of a service or product offered in the advertisement UI.

17. The network element of claim 13, wherein the controller is adapted to present an offer to the merchant to demographically target users of the media communication system with the advertisement information responsive to detecting the affirmative acceptance of the offer by the merchant.

18. The network element of claim 13, wherein the controller is adapted to:

present the plurality of users an auctioning process for submitting bids for purchasing a good or a service presented in the advertisement UI;

receive one or more bids from at least a portion of the plurality of users; and

present the one or more bids to the merchant.

19. The network element of claim 13, wherein the profile of each of the plurality of users of the media communication system comprises at least one of a demographic profile and a psychographic profile.

20. The network element of claim 13, wherein the controller is adapted to:

detect a demographic or psychographic pattern in the advertisement information; and

correlate the profile of each of the plurality of users of media communication system to the detected demographic or psychographic pattern.

21. The network element of claim 13, wherein the controller is adapted to:

detect one or more selections of the advertisement UI at the STB of at least one of the plurality of users; and

notify a billing system responsive to detecting the one or more selections of the advertisement UI, wherein the billing system generates a fee directed to the merchant.

22. The network element of claim 13, wherein the media communication system corresponds to an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) communication system, an IPTV communication system, a cable TV communication system, a satellite TV communication system, or combinations thereof.

23. The network element of claim 13, wherein the controller is adapted to:

receive from an STB of a user of the media communication system a search request for a product or service; and

present at the STB the advertisement UI responsive to identifying a correlation between the search request and the advertisement UI.

24. A method, comprising supplying advertisement information to an interactive television (iTV) system to target a subset of users of the iTV system having interests that correlate to the advertisement information.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the iTV system corresponds to an IPTV communication system, a cable TV communication system, a satellite TV communication system, or combinations thereof, wherein the iTV system comprises at least one of a demographic profile and a psychographic profile for each of its users, wherein the iTV system detects a correlation between the interests of the subset of users of the iTV system and the advertisement information according to at least one of said profiles, wherein the iTV distributes the advertisements information to one or more communication devices of the subset of users, and wherein the one or more communication devices of each of the subset of users correspond to at least one of a set-top box, a cellular phone, a game console, a media player, a computer, a personalized portal, and a short-range mobility phone.