System and Methods for Delivering Targeted Marketing Offers to Consumers Via an Online Portal

• US 20100106577A1
• Filed: 06/17/2009
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cardlytics Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cardlytics Incorporated
• Inventors: GRIMES, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 8,515,810 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.150
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0213 Consumer transaction fees
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

A system and methods for delivering targeted marketing offers to consumers during a session with an online (web-based) Internet portal, particularly suitable for online banking portals of financial institutions. An offer management system receives information corresponding to an advertising campaign of an advertiser corresponding to terms of a targeted marketing offer to be provided to a consumer accessing the online portal, and provides advertising campaign data corresponding to the targeted marketing offer and to an offer-triggering event to an offer placement system. An offer placement system receives the advertising campaign data, determines the occurrence of the offer-triggering event by a consumer during an online session with the online portal, and delivers information corresponding to the targeted marketing offer to the consumer. In response to the offer-triggering event, such as display of a list of transactions, the predetermined targeted marketing offer is delivered to the consumer during the online session.

Claims

1. A targeted marketing system operative to deliver a targeted marketing offer to a consumer of a financial institution via an online portal associated with a financial institution computer system, the online portal operative to provide a display of a consumer'"'"'s financial transactions during a viewing session, comprising:

an offer management system operative for receiving input from an advertiser corresponding to the terms of a targeted marketing offer to be provided to a consumer of the financial institution in response to the identification of an offer triggering event by the consumer, and for delivering campaign data corresponding to the targeted marketing offer and to the offer triggering event as an output to an offer placement system; and

an offer placement system operative in cooperation with the financial institution computer system to receive the campaign data from the offer management system, determine the occurrence of an offer triggering event by the consumer, and deliver information corresponding to the targeted marketing offer to the consumer during the online session with the online portal.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer triggering event is an offer qualifying transaction conducted by the consumer, as reflected in transaction data maintained by the financial institution computer system.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the campaign data includes information corresponding to an offer qualifying transaction, and wherein the offer placement system is operative to compare the offer qualifying transaction information in the campaign data to transaction data of the financial institution corresponding to transactions conducted by the consumer to identify a particular offer qualifying transaction conducted by the consumer.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the offer placement system is operative to display selected targeted marketing offer information to the consumer in association with the display of information corresponding to the particular offer qualifying transaction provided by the online portal.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the delivery of the targeted marketing offer information to the consumer comprises the display of predetermined offer display information in association with the display of information corresponding to the offer qualifying transaction.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the predetermined offer display information comprises one or more of the following data items:

offer text information, offer image information, reward amount, reward type, date(s) of offer.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the predetermined offer display information is displayed in perceptible visual proximity to information of the offer qualifying transaction.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the predetermined offer display information is displayed immediately below the offer qualifying transaction on a list of the consumer'"'"'s transactions.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the predetermined offer display information is displayed in a field in nearby proximity to the offer qualifying transaction on a list of the consumer'"'"'s transactions.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer triggering event is a group of transactions conducted by the consumer that collectively satisfy predetermined criteria defined by the advertiser for delivery of the targeted marketing offer to the consumer.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer triggering event comprises satisfaction of segment criteria associated with a predetermined market segment based on one or more transactions conducted by the consumer.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer triggering event is an online session by the consumer.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the offer placement system is operative to select predetermined targeted marketing offer information for a particular consumer, and to display the predetermined targeted marketing offer information to the consumer in a predetermined placement in the online portal.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer management system comprises:

a database for storing targeted marketing campaign data, the targeted marketing campaign data comprising advertiser campaign data associated with a particular advertiser, segment data corresponding to at least one market segment defining properties of transactions that qualify for receiving a targeted marketing offer of the advertiser, and offer data corresponding to at least one targeted marketing offer;

a component for providing a marketing campaign interface for the advertiser, the marketing campaign interface allowing the advertiser to define campaign data corresponding to a predetermined marketing campaign by (a) display of information indicating potential market segments definable by the advertiser, (b) advertiser entry of information for defining a predetermined market segment, and (c) advertiser entry of information for defining a predetermined targeted marketing offer for delivery to the predetermined market segment; and

a component for outputting the campaign data to the financial institution for delivery of the predetermined targeted marketing offer to consumers of the financial institution within the predetermined market segment,

whereby consumers in the predetermined market segment are provided with a display of the predetermined targeted marketing offer during an online session comprising a display of transactions of consumers via the online portal of the financial institution.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the marketing campaign interface is hosted on a web-accessible server, and comprises a web-based user interface accessible by a plurality of advertisers that define and manage a plurality of marketing campaigns.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the campaign data comprises information corresponding to a campaign identifier (ID), an advertiser identifier (ID) associated with an advertiser providing the predetermined targeted marketing offer, and campaign delimiting information, for a plurality of advertisers and a plurality of campaigns, for a plurality of financial institutions.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the campaign delimiting information comprises one or more of the following data items:

a campaign start date, a campaign end date, a campaign name, a predetermined market segment, location information, merchant information, a spend amount.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the offer management system stores campaign data comprising segment data corresponding to a plurality of predetermined market segments and offer data comprising a plurality of predetermined targeted marketing offers.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the segment data comprises information corresponding to a segment identifier (ID) and segment delimiting information for each predetermined market segment.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the segment delimiting information comprises one or more of the following data items:

location information for the market segment, merchant identifying information, a spend amount, date(s) of availability.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the offer data comprises an offer identifier (ID), offer defining information, and offer display information associated with each predetermined targeted marketing offer.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the offer defining information comprises one of more of the following data items:

an offer amount, an offer start date, an offer end date, an offer type.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the offer display information comprises one or more of the following data items:

offer text information, offer image information, offer amount information, offer type information.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer management system is remotely located from the financial institution computer system.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer management system is remotely located from the offer placement system.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the campaign data is provided electronically from the offer management system to the offer placement system.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the campaign data is stored at the offer management system and provided to the offer placement system.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein the system stores offer redemption data corresponding to information indicating that a particular consumer has engaged in a redemption qualifying transaction that qualifies for a reward associated with the targeted marketing offer displayed to the particular consumer.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the offer redemption data includes one or more of the following data items:

an offer identifier (ID) associated with a particular targeted marketing offer displayed to the particular consumer, an account global identifier (GUID) associated with the particular consumer, a date, a time, a reward amount, a reward type.

30. The system of claim 1, wherein the targeted marketing offer includes information indicating promised delivery of a predetermined reward in response to the consumer engaging in a redemption qualifying transaction having predetermined conditions, and

further comprising a component for delivering the predetermined reward to the consumer in response to a determination, by processing of subsequent transaction data of the financial institution, that a transaction conducted by the consumer satisfies the predetermined conditions of the redemption qualifying transaction.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the system provides for a plurality of related predetermined market segments associated with a marketing campaign, whereby different reward amounts are available for different but related predetermined market segments.

32. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer management system comprises:

a processor;

an interface connected for secure communications with the offer placement system;

a web interface for online user interaction with advertisers, operative for displaying information to advertisers for use in creating targeted marketing campaigns and receiving information from advertisers for use in creating targeted marketing campaigns; and

a database for storing campaign data corresponding to targeted marketing campaigns created by advertisers.

33. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer placement system comprises:

a database for storing targeted marketing campaign data and transaction data records, the targeted marketing campaign data including one or more targeted marketing offers;

a component for receiving campaign data associated with an advertiser and storing the campaign data in the database;

a component for receiving transaction data from the financial institution corresponding to financial transactions conducted by the consumer and storing the transaction data in the database;

a component for matching the transaction data in the database with the campaign data to identify an offer triggering event of a particular consumer and for storing information associated with the offer triggering event as matched offer data, the matched offer data including an identifier of a predetermined targeted marketing offer;

a component for delivering the targeted marketing offer via the online banking portal to the particular consumer in response to access by the particular consumer of information corresponding to the consumer'"'"'s financial transactions, via the display of a targeted marketing offer via the online banking portal.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the transaction data is de-identified by a transaction system of the financial institution computer system to obtain de-identified transaction data records from which personal information of the consumer has been removed.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the de-identified transaction records include one or more of the following data items:

an account global identifier (GUID) associated with each consumer, a transaction identifier (ID) associated with each transaction of a consumer, location information, merchant information, a transaction amount, a rewards type.

36. The system of claim 33, wherein the campaign data comprises information corresponding to a campaign identifier (ID), an advertiser identifier (ID) associated with the advertiser providing the targeted marketing offer, and campaign delimiting information.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the campaign delimiting information comprises one or more of the following data items:

a campaign start date, a campaign end date, location information, merchant information, spend amount.

38. The system of claim 33, wherein the campaign data comprises segment data and offer data.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the segment data comprises information corresponding to a segment identifier (ID) and segment delimiting information.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the segment delimiting information comprises one or more of the following data items:

location information for the market segment, merchant identifying information, a spend amount.

41. The system of claim 38, wherein the offer data comprises an offer identifier (ID), offer defining information, and offer display information.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the offer defining information comprises one of more of the following data items:

an offer amount, an offer start date, an offer end date.

43. The system of claim 41, wherein the offer display information comprises one or more of the following data items:

offer text information, offer image information, offer amount information, offer type information, offer date information.

44. The system of claim 33, wherein matched offer data includes one of more of the following data items:

one or more transaction identifiers (ID) associated with one or more transactions of the particular consumer associated with an offer triggering event, an offer identifier (ID), an account global identifier (GUID) associated with the particular consumer.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the offer identifier is used to retrieve information for display to the consumer corresponding to a specific offer applicable to the offer triggering event from the campaign data.

46. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer placement system is physically co-located with the financial institution computer system associated with the financial institution and utilizes network security protections of the financial institution, and receives de-identified transaction data from a transaction system associated with the financial institution computer system.

47. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer placement system is one of a plurality of offer placement systems operative in cooperation with the financial institution computer system.

48. The system of claim 1, wherein the system stores offer impression data corresponding to information indicating that a predetermined targeted marketing offer has been displayed to a particular consumer, for use in determining the number of occurrences of the predetermined marketing offer to consumers.

49. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer placement system comprises:

a processor;

an interface connected for secure communications with the financial institution computer system, to receive data corresponding to transactions conducted by consumers;

an interface connected for secure communications with the offer management system;

a database for storing campaign data received from the offer management system;

a database for storing targeted marketing offer information;

a database for storing offer triggering event information; and

a program component operative to access said databases to carry out the functions of the offer placement system in response to receipt of information from the financial institution computer system.

50. The system of claim 1, wherein the financial institution computer system comprises the financial institution online portal and a financial institution transaction processing system.

51. A computer-implemented method for delivering a targeted marketing offer to a consumer of a financial institution via an online portal associated with the financial institution, the online portal operative to provide a display of a consumer'"'"'s financial transactions during a viewing session, comprising the steps of:

receiving input from an advertiser corresponding to the terms of a targeted marketing offer to be provided to a consumer of the financial institution in response to the identification of an offer triggering event by the consumer;

generating campaign data corresponding to the targeted marketing offer and to the offer triggering event;

providing the campaign data for use in connection with operations of the online portal of the financial institution;

determining the occurrence of the offer triggering event by the consumer; and

delivering information corresponding to the targeted marketing offer to the consumer by display to the consumer of selected targeted marketing offer information to the consumer via the online portal.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the offer triggering event is an offer qualifying transaction conducted by the consumer, as reflected in transaction data maintained by the financial institution.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the campaign data includes information corresponding to an offer qualifying transaction, and further comprising the step of comparing the offer qualifying transaction information in the campaign data to transaction data of the financial institution corresponding to transactions conducted by the consumer to identify a particular offer qualifying transaction conducted by the consumer.

54. The method of claim 53, further comprising the step of displaying the selected targeted marketing offer information to the consumer in association with the display of information corresponding to the particular offer qualifying transaction provided by the online portal.

55. The method of claim 52, wherein the display of selected targeted marketing offer information comprises the display of predetermined offer display information in association with the display of information corresponding to the offer qualifying transaction.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the predetermined offer display information comprises one or more of the following data items:

offer text information, offer image information, reward amount, reward type, date(s) of offer.

57. The method of claim 55, wherein the predetermined offer display information is displayed in perceptible visual proximity to information of the offer qualifying transaction.

58. The method of claim 55, wherein the predetermined offer display information is displayed immediately below the offer qualifying transaction on a list of the consumer'"'"'s transactions.

59. The method of claim 55, wherein the predetermined offer display information is displayed in a field in nearby proximity to the offer qualifying transaction on a list of the consumer'"'"'s transactions.

60. The method of claim 51, wherein the offer triggering event is a group of transactions conducted by the consumer that collectively satisfy predetermined criteria defined by the advertiser for delivery of information corresponding to the targeted marketing offer to the consumer.

61. The method of claim 51, wherein the offer triggering event comprises satisfaction of segment criteria associated with a predetermined market segment based on one or more transactions conducted by the consumer.

62. The method of claim 51, wherein the offer triggering event is an online session by the consumer.

63. The method of claim 62, further comprising the steps of selecting predetermined targeted marketing offer information for a particular consumer, and

displaying the predetermined targeted marketing offer information to the particular consumer in a predetermined placement in the online portal.

64. The method of claim 51, wherein the input from the advertiser is received at an offer management system.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein the offer management system comprises:

a processor;

a web interface for online user interaction with advertisers, operative for displaying information to advertisers for use in creating targeted marketing campaigns and receiving information from advertisers for use in creating targeted marketing campaigns; and

a database for storing campaign data corresponding to targeted marketing campaigns created by advertisers.

66. The method of claim 64, wherein the offer management system comprises a database for storing campaign data, the campaign data comprising advertiser campaign data associated with a particular advertiser, segment data corresponding to at least one market segment defining properties of transactions that qualify for receiving a targeted marketing offer of the advertiser, and offer data corresponding to at least one targeted marketing offer, and further comprising the steps of:

receiving aggregated consumer transaction data from the financial institution;

providing a marketing campaign interface for an advertiser, the marketing campaign interface allowing the advertiser to define campaign data corresponding to a predetermined marketing campaign by (a) display of information derived from the aggregated consumer transaction data indicating potential market segments definable by the advertiser, (b) advertiser entry of information for defining a predetermined market segment, and (c) advertiser entry of information for defining a predetermined targeted marketing offer for delivery to the predetermined market segment; and

outputting the campaign data to the financial institution for delivery of the predetermined targeted marketing offer to consumers of the financial institution within the predetermined market segment,

whereby consumers in the predetermined market segment are provided with a display of the predetermined targeted marketing offer during an online session comprising a display of transactions of consumers via the online portal of the financial institution.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein the marketing campaign interface is hosted on a web-accessible server, and comprises a web-based user interface accessible by a plurality of advertisers that define and manage a plurality of marketing campaigns.

68. The method of claim 66, wherein the campaign data comprises information corresponding to a campaign identifier (ID), an advertiser identifier (ID) associated with an advertiser providing the predetermined targeted marketing offer, and campaign delimiting information, for a plurality of advertisers and a plurality of campaigns, for a plurality of financial institutions.

69. The method of claim 68, wherein the campaign delimiting information comprises one or more of the following data items:

a campaign start date, a campaign end date, a campaign name, a predetermined market segment, location information, merchant information, a spend amount.

70. The method of claim 66, wherein the offer management system stores campaign data comprising segment data corresponding to a plurality of predetermined market segments and offer data comprising a plurality of predetermined targeted marketing offers.

71. The method of claim 70, wherein the segment data comprises information corresponding to a segment identifier (ID) and segment delimiting information for each predetermined market segment.

72. The method of claim 71, wherein the segment delimiting information comprises one or more of the following data items:

location information for the market segment, merchant identifying information, a spend amount, date(s) of availability.

73. The method of claim 70, wherein the offer data comprises an offer identifier (ID), offer defining information, and offer display information associated with each predetermined targeted marketing offer.

74. The method of claim 73, wherein the offer defining information comprises one of more of the following data items:

an offer amount, an offer start date, an offer end date, an offer type.

75. The method of claim 73, wherein the offer display information comprises one or more of the following data items:

offer text information, offer image information, offer amount information, offer type information.

76. The method of claim 64, wherein the offer management system is remotely located from a system of the financial institution that provides the online portal.

77. The method of claim 64, wherein the campaign data is provided electronically from the offer management system to a separate offer placement system operative in association with the online portal associated with the financial institution.

78. The method of claim 77, wherein the campaign data is generated at the offer management system and provided electronically to the offer placement system.

79. The method of claim 66, wherein the aggregated consumer transaction data comprises the total number of consumers associated with each potential market segment.

80. The method of claim 51, further comprising the step of providing a reward to a consumer in response to receipt of information indicating that a particular consumer has engaged in a redemption qualifying transaction that qualifies for a reward associated with the targeted marketing offer displayed to the consumer.

81. The method of claim 80, further comprising the step of storing offer redemption data corresponding to the reward and to characteristics of the redemption qualifying transaction that qualifies for receipt of the reward.

82. The method of claim 81, wherein the redemption data includes one or more of the following data items:

an offer identifier (ID) associated with a particular targeted marketing offer displayed to a particular consumer, an account global identifier (GUID) associated with the particular consumer, a date, a time, a reward amount, a reward type.

83. The method of claim 51, wherein the targeted marketing offer includes information indicating promised delivery of a predetermined reward in response to the consumer engaging in a redemption qualifying transaction having predetermined conditions, and

further comprising the step of delivering the predetermined reward to the consumer in response to a determination, by processing of subsequent transaction data of the financial institution, that a transaction conducted by the consumer satisfies the predetermined conditions of the redemption qualifying transaction.

84. The method of claim 83, wherein the campaign data includes information identifying a plurality of related predetermined market segments associated with a marketing campaign, and further comprising the step of:

delivering different predetermined reward amounts for different predetermined market segments.

85. The method of claim 51, wherein the step of delivering information corresponding to the targeted marketing offer is carried out by an offer placement system, wherein the step comprises providing the targeted marketing offer information for insertion by the online portal into a display of the consumer'"'"'s financial transactions.

86. The method of claim 85, wherein the offer placement system is physically co-located with a financial institution computer system associated with the financial institution and utilizes network security protections of the financial institution, and receives de-identified transaction data from a transaction system associated with the financial institution computer system.

87. The method of claim 85, wherein the offer placement system is one of a plurality of offer placement systems operative in cooperation with the financial institution.

88. The method of claim 85, wherein the offer placement system comprises:

a processor;

an interface connected for secure communications with a financial institution computer system, to receive data corresponding to transactions conducted by consumers;

an interface connected for secure communications with an offer management system that provides campaign data;

a database for storing campaign data received from the offer management system;

a database for storing targeted marketing offer information;

a database for storing offer triggering event information; and

a program component operative to access said databases to carry out the functions of the offer placement system in response to receipt of information from the financial institution computer system.

89. The method of claim 85, wherein the offer placement system comprises a database for storing campaign data and transaction data records, the campaign data including one or more targeted marketing offers, and further comprising the steps of:

receiving campaign data associated with an advertiser and storing the campaign data in the database;

receiving transaction data from the financial institution corresponding to financial transactions conducted by the consumer;

storing the transaction data in the database;

matching the transaction data in the database with the campaign data to identify an offer triggering event of a particular consumer;

storing information associated with the offer triggering event as matched offer data, the matched offer data including an identifier of a predetermined targeted marketing offer; and

delivering the targeted marketing offer via the online portal associated with the financial institution to the particular consumer in response to access by the particular consumer of information corresponding to the consumer'"'"'s financial transactions, via the display of a targeted marketing offer via the online portal.

90. The method of claim 89, wherein the transaction data is de-identified by a transaction system of the financial institution to obtain de-identified transaction data records from which personal information of the consumer has been removed, prior to the matching step.

91. The method of claim 90, wherein the de-identified transaction records include one or more of the following data items:

an account global identifier (GUID) associated with each consumer, a transaction identifier (ID) associated with each transaction of a consumer, location information, merchant information, a transaction amount, a rewards type.

92. The method of claim 89, wherein the campaign data comprises information corresponding to a campaign identifier (ID), an advertiser identifier (ID) associated with an advertiser providing the targeted marketing offer, and campaign delimiting information.

93. The method of claim 92, wherein the campaign delimiting information comprises one or more of the following data items:

a campaign start date, a campaign end date, location information, merchant information, spend amount.

94. The method of claim 89, wherein the campaign data comprises segment data and offer data.

95. The method of claim 94, wherein the segment data comprises information corresponding to a segment identifier (ID) and segment delimiting information.

96. The method of claim 95, wherein the segment delimiting information comprises one or more of the following data items:

location information for the market segment, merchant identifying information, a spend amount.

97. The method of claim 94, wherein the offer data comprises an offer identifier (ID), offer defining information, and offer display information.

98. The method of claim 97, wherein the offer defining information comprises one of more of the following data items:

an offer amount, an offer start date, an offer end date.

99. The method of claim 97, wherein the offer display information comprises one or more of the following data items:

offer text information, offer image information, offer amount information, offer type information, offer date information.

100. The method of claim 89, wherein matched offer data includes one of more of the following data items:

one or more transaction identifiers (ID) associated with one or more transactions of the particular consumer associated with an offer triggering event, an offer identifier (ID), an account global identifier (GUID) associated with the particular consumer.

101. The method of claim 100, wherein the offer identifier is used to retrieve information for display to the consumer corresponding to a specific offer applicable to the offer triggering event from the campaign data.

102. The method of claim 51, further comprising the step of storing offer impression data corresponding to information indicating that a predetermined targeted marketing offer has been displayed to a particular consumer, for use in determining the number of occurrences of the predetermined targeted marketing offer to consumers.