System and Methods for Merging or Injecting Targeting Marketing Offers with a Transaction Display of an Online Portal

• US 20100106598A1
• 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 8,438,061 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.530
• 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 displaying a selected advertisement on a web page merged (injected) into a list of transactions provided by an online (Internet) banking portal of a financial institution, independently of a computer system that provides the list. A consumer'"'"'s browser receives an account history page comprising a list of transactions from the portal. The list is processed locally at the consumer'"'"'s machine to generate a list of currently-displayed transactions, which are then transmitted to an offer placement system. The offer placement system accesses a database of potential advertisements to identify a selected advertisement corresponding to an advertisement selection criterion. The selected advertisement is then transmitted to the consumer'"'"'s machine. The consumer'"'"'s machine merges (injects) the selected advertisement in the web browser with the transactions list in accordance with predetermined advertisement placement information. The injection is effected by a script such as Javascript loaded from an associated script server.

Claims

1. A system for displaying a selected advertisement on a web page display associated with a list of transactions delivered by a financial institution computer system to a consumer via an Internet-accessible online banking portal to a client machine operated by the consumer and displayed in a web browser of the client machine, the selected advertisement provided from an offer placement system independently of the financial institution computer system, comprising:

an offer placement system including a database storing a plurality of potential advertisements and operative to identify a selected advertisement corresponding to a predetermined advertisement selection criterion based on information in a list of currently-displayed transactions received from the client machine, the offer placement system being further operative in response to the identification of a selected advertisement to generate an advertisement return package to the client machine that includes the selected advertisement and advertisement placement information and to transmit the advertisement return package to the client machine; and

software installed on the client machine operative for;

receiving an account history page from the financial institution computer system comprising a list of transactions in response to a request from the web browser resulting from an event triggered by the consumer;

processing the list of transactions to generate a list of currently-displayed transactions;

transmitting the list of currently-displayed transactions to the offer placement system;

receiving the selected advertisement from the offer placement system; and

displaying the selected advertisement in the web browser with the currently-displayed transactions in accordance with predetermined advertisement placement information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement selection criterion comprises the occurrence of an offer qualifying transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement selection criterion comprises a customer identifier provided to the offer placement system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the list of transactions is processed at the client machine to generate the list of currently-displayed transactions.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the list of transactions is processed at the financial institution computer system to generate the list of currently-displayed transactions.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the list of currently-displayed transaction is transmitted to the offer placement system together with a customer identifier, and wherein the offer placement system utilizes the customer identifier as additional information in identifying the selected advertisement.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein operations are carried out during a secure online session with the financial institution computer system.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the client machine transmits a customer identifier to the offer placement system, the customer identifier including a network return pathname (URL) for returning information from the offer placement system to the client machine.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer placement system, in response to receipt of the list of currently-displayed transactions from the client machine, identifies a selected advertisement that corresponds to an offer qualifying transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the account history page provided by the financial institution computer system includes an injection script executable within the web browser environment that is operative to process the list of transactions to generate the list of currently-displayed transactions and display the selected advertisement in the web browser in accordance with the predetermined advertisement placement information.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the account history page provided by the financial institution computer system includes a script call code embedded in the code of the account history page, the script call code including a script request via a network pathname to an injection script server storing the injection script.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the injection script server is associated with the financial institution computer system.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the injection script server is associated with the offer placement system.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein operation of displaying one more of transactions of the list of transactions in the web browser is asynchronous to requesting and executing the injection script.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the injection script is a DOM injection script.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the injection script is Javascript, and the web browser is Javascript-enabled.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the injection script server is co-located with the offer placement system.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the injection script server is associated with the financial institution computer system.

19. The system of claim 10, wherein the network pathname to the injection script server of the script call code is directed to the financial institution computer system, and wherein the financial institution computer system redirects script request to the offer placement system that serves as the script server.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the financial institution computer system returns the injection script to the client machine.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement placement information comprises instructions to display the selected advertisement in the web browser adjacent to a particular transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement placement information comprises instructions to display the selected advertisement in the web browser in a predetermined region of the account history page.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the account history page comprises an HTML web page.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected advertisement comprises a targeted marketing offer.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the targeted marketing offer comprises an advertisement that corresponds to a particular one of the transactions in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer placement system identifies the selected advertisement based on the list of currently-displayed transactions and an account identifier associated with the consumer.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the offer placement system stores advertising campaign data including 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 the list of currently-displayed transactions to identify a particular offer qualifying transaction conducted by the customer for use in identifying the selected advertisement.

28. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in association with the display of information corresponding to the offer qualifying transaction.

29. The system of claim 1, wherein display of the selected advertisement comprises display of one or more of the following data items:

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

30. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in perceptible visual proximity to the list of currently-displayed transactions.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed immediately below a transaction on the list of currently-displayed transactions.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in a predetermined region in nearby proximity to the list of currently-displayed transactions.

33. A computer-implemented method for displaying a selected advertisement on a web page display associated with a list of transactions delivered by a financial institution computer system to a consumer via an Internet-accessible online banking portal to a client machine operated by the consumer and displayed in a web browser of the client machine, the selected advertisement provided from an offer placement system independently of the financial institution computer system, comprising the steps of:

at the client machine, receiving an account history page from the financial institution computer system comprising a list of transactions in response to a request from the web browser resulting from an event triggered by the consumer;

processing the list of transactions to generate a list of currently-displayed transactions;

transmitting the list of currently-displayed transactions to an offer placement system;

at the offer placement system and in response to receipt of the list of currently-displayed transactions, accessing a database storing a plurality of potential advertisements to identify a selected advertisement corresponding to an advertisement selection criterion;

transmitting the selected advertisement from the offer placement system to the client machine;

at the client machine, receiving the selected advertisement from the offer placement system; and

displaying the selected advertisement in the web browser with the currently-displayed transactions in accordance with predetermined advertisement placement information.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the advertisement selection criterion comprises the occurrence of an offer qualifying transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the advertisement selection criterion comprises a customer identifier provided to the offer placement system.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the list of transactions is processed at the client machine to generate the list of currently-displayed transactions.

37. The method of claim 33, wherein the list of transactions is processed at the financial institution computer system to generate the list of currently-displayed transactions.

38. The method of claim 33, wherein the list of currently-displayed transaction is transmitted to the offer placement system together with a customer identifier, and wherein the offer placement system utilizes the customer identifier as additional information in identifying the selected advertisement.

39. The method of claim 33, wherein the steps are carried out during a secure online session with the financial institution computer system.

40. The method of claim 33, further comprising the step of transmitting a customer identifier to the offer placement system, the customer identifier including a network return pathname (URL) for returning information from the offer placement system to the client machine.

41. The method of claim 33, further comprising the step of, at the offer placement system and in response to receipt of the list of currently-displayed transactions, accessing a database storing a plurality of potential advertisements to identify a selected advertisement that corresponds to an offer qualifying transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

42. The method of claim 33, wherein the account history page provided by the financial institution computer system includes an injection script executable within the web browser environment that is operative to carry out steps of processing the list of transactions to generate the list of currently-displayed transactions and displaying the selected advertisement in the web browser in accordance with predetermined advertisement placement information.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the account history page provided by the financial institution computer system includes a script call code embedded in the code of the account history page, the script call code including a script request via a network pathname to an injection script server storing the injection script.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the injection script server is associated with the financial institution computer system.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein the injection script server is associated with the offer placement system.

46. The method of claim 42, wherein the step of displaying one more of transactions of the list of transactions in the web browser is asynchronous to the steps relating to the requesting and executing of the injection script.

47. The method of claim 42, wherein the injection script is a DOM injection script.

48. The method of claim 42, wherein the injection script is Javascript, and the web browser is Javascript-enabled.

49. The method of claim 42, wherein the injection script server is co-located with the offer placement system.

50. The method of claim 42, wherein the injection script server is associated with the financial institution computer system.

51. The method of claim 42, wherein the network pathname to the injection script server of the script call code is directed to the financial institution computer system, and wherein the financial institution computer system redirects script request to the offer placement system that serves as the script server.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the financial institution computer system returns the injection script to the client machine.

53. The method of claim 33, wherein the advertisement placement information comprises instructions to display the selected advertisement in the web browser adjacent to a particular transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

54. The method of claim 33, wherein the advertisement placement information comprises instructions to display the selected advertisement in the web browser in a predetermined region of the account history page.

55. The method of claim 33, wherein the account history page comprises an HTML web page.

56. The method of claim 33, wherein the selected advertisement comprises a targeted marketing offer.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the targeted marketing offer comprises an advertisement that corresponds to a particular one of the transactions in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

58. The method of claim 33, wherein the offer placement system identifies the selected advertisement based on the list of currently-displayed transactions and an account identifier associated with the customer.

59. The method of claim 33, wherein the offer placement system stores advertising campaign data including 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 the list of currently-displayed transactions to identify a particular offer qualifying transaction conducted by the customer for use in identifying the selected advertisement.

60. The method of claim 33, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in association with the display of information corresponding to the offer qualifying transaction.

61. The method of claim 33, wherein display of the selected advertisement comprises display of one or more of the following data items:

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

62. The method of claim 33, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in perceptible visual proximity to the list of currently-displayed transactions.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed immediately below a transaction on the list of currently-displayed transactions.

64. The method of claim 62, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in a predetermined region in nearby proximity to the list of currently-displayed transactions.

65. A computer-implemented method for displaying a selected advertisement on a web page display associated with a list of transactions delivered by a financial institution computer system to a consumer via an Internet-accessible online banking portal to a client machine operated by the consumer and displayed in a web browser of the client machine, the selected advertisement provided from an offer placement system independently of the financial institution computer system, comprising the steps of:

at the client machine, initiating a secure online session with the financial institution computer system via the web browser of the client machine and requesting display of an account history page that includes a plurality of transactions of the consumer;

at the financial institution computer system, responding to the account history page request by providing an account history page comprising a list of transactions derived from the plurality of transactions, the account history page including a script call code embedded in the code of the account history page, the script call code including a script request via a network pathname to an injection script server storing an injection script;

at the client machine and in response to receipt of the account history page, displaying one or more transactions of the list of transactions in the web browser;

at the client machine, responding to the script call code by loading a script execution component of the web browser and executing the script call code to issue a request to the injection script server to request the injection script;

at the injection script server, responding to the request from the client machine by retrieving the injection script and transmitting the injection script to the client machine;

at the client machine, in response to receipt of the injection script, executing the injection script to process the list of transactions to generate a list of currently-displayed transactions;

transmitting the list of currently-displayed transactions and a customer identifier to the offer placement system, the customer identifier including a network return pathname (URL) for returning information from the offer placement system to the client machine;

at the offer placement system and in response to receipt of the list of currently-displayed transactions, accessing a database storing a plurality of potential advertisements to identify a selected advertisement that corresponds to an advertisement selection criterion;

in response to the identification of a selected advertisement at the offer placement system, generating an advertisement return package to the client machine that includes the selected advertisement and advertisement placement information;

transmitting the advertisement return package from the offer placement system to the client machine via the network return pathname;

at the client machine, receiving the advertisement return package from the offer placement system and continuing execution of the injection script by parsing out the advertisement placement information and the selected advertisement; and

at the client machine, continuing the execution of the injection script by displaying the selected advertisement in the web browser in accordance with the advertisement placement information.

66. The method of claim 65, wherein the advertisement selection criterion comprises the occurrence of an offer qualifying transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

67. The method of claim 65, wherein the advertisement selection criterion comprises the customer identifier.

68. The method of claim 65, wherein the injection script server is associated with the financial institution computer system.

69. The method of claim 65, wherein the injection script server is associated with the offer placement system.

70. The method of claim 65, wherein the step of displaying one more of transactions of the list of transactions in the web browser is asynchronous to the steps relating to the requesting and executing of the injection script.

71. The method of claim 65, wherein the injection script is a DOM injection script.

72. The method of claim 65, wherein the injection script is Javascript, and the web browser is Javascript-enabled.

73. The method of claim 65, wherein the advertisement placement information comprises instructions to display the selected advertisement in the web browser adjacent to a particular transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

74. The method of claim 65, wherein the advertisement placement information comprises instructions to display the selected advertisement in the web browser in a predetermined region of the account history page.

75. The method of claim 65, wherein the injection script server is co-located with the offer placement system.

76. The method of claim 65, wherein the injection script server is associated with the financial institution computer system.

77. The method of claim 65, wherein the account history page comprises an HTML web page.

78. The method of claim 65, wherein the selected advertisement comprises a targeted marketing offer.

79. The method of claim 78, wherein the targeted marketing offer comprises an advertisement that corresponds to a particular one of the transactions in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

80. The method of claim 65, wherein the network pathname to the injection script server of the script call code is directed to the financial institution computer system, and wherein the financial institution computer system redirects the script request to the offer placement system that serves as the script server.

81. The method of claim 80, wherein the financial institution computer system returns the injection script to the client machine.

82. The method of claim 65, wherein the offer placement system identifies the selected advertisement based on the list of currently-displayed transactions and an account identifier associated with the consumer.

83. The method of claim 65, wherein the offer placement system stores advertising campaign data including 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 the list of currently-displayed transactions to identify a particular offer qualifying transaction conducted by the consumer for use in identifying the selected advertisement.

84. The method of claim 83, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in association with the display of information corresponding to the offer qualifying transaction.

85. The method of claim 65, wherein display of the selected advertisement comprises display of one or more of the following data items:

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

86. The method of claim 65, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in perceptible visual proximity to the list of currently-displayed transactions.

87. The method of claim 86, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed immediately below a transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

88. The method of claim 86, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in a predetermined region in nearby proximity to the list of currently-displayed transactions.

89. A system for displaying a selected advertisement on a web page display associated with a list of transactions delivered by a financial institution computer system to a consumer via an Internet-accessible online banking portal to a client machine operated by the consumer and displayed in a web browser of the client machine, the selected advertisement provided independently of the financial institution computer system, comprising:

an offer placement system including a database storing a plurality of potential advertisements and operative to identify a selected advertisement corresponding to a predetermined advertisement selection criterion, the offer placement system being further operative in response to the identification of a selected advertisement to generate an advertisement return package to the client machine that includes the selected advertisement and advertisement placement information, and to transmit the advertisement return package to the client machine via a network return pathname; and

software installed on the client machine operative for;

initiating a secure online session with the financial institution computer system via the web browser of the client machine and requesting display of an account history page that includes a plurality of transactions of the customer;

receiving an account history page from the financial institution computer system comprising a list of transactions derived from the plurality of transactions, the account history page including a script call code embedded in the code of the account history page, the script call code including a script request via a network pathname to an injection script server storing an injection script;

in response to receipt of the account history page, displaying one more of transactions of the list of transactions in the web browser;

responding to the script call code by loading a script execution component of the web browser and executing the script call code to issue a request to the injection script server to request the injection script;

receiving the injection script from the injection script server;

in response to receipt of the injection script, executing the injection script to process the list of transactions to generate a list of currently-displayed transactions for transmission to the offer placement system;

transmitting the list of currently-displayed transactions and a customer identifier to the offer placement system, the customer identifier including the network return pathname for returning information from the offer placement system to the client machine;

receiving the advertisement return package from the offer placement system and continuing execution of the injection script by parsing out the advertisement placement information and the selected advertisement; and

continuing the execution of the injection script by displaying the selected advertisement in the web browser in accordance with the advertisement placement information.

90. The system of claim 89, wherein the advertisement selection criterion comprises the occurrence of an offer qualifying transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

91. The system of claim 89, wherein the advertisement selection criterion comprises the customer identifier.

92. The system of claim 89, wherein the injection script server is associated with the financial institution computer system.

93. The system of claim 89, wherein the injection script server is associated with the offer placement system.

94. The system of claim 89, wherein the displaying one more of transactions of the list of transactions in the web browser is asynchronous to requesting and executing of the injection script.

95. The system of claim 89, wherein the injection script is a DOM injection script.

96. The system of claim 89, wherein the injection script is Javascript, and the web browser is Javascript-enabled.

97. The system of claim 89, wherein the advertisement placement information comprises instructions to display the selected advertisement in the web browser adjacent to a particular transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

98. The system of claim 89, wherein the advertisement placement information comprises instructions to display the selected advertisement in the web browser in a predetermined region of the account history page.

99. The system of claim 89, wherein the injection script server is co-located with the offer placement system.

100. The system of claim 89, wherein the injection script server is associated with the financial institution computer system.

101. The system of claim 89, wherein the account history page comprises an HTML web page.

102. The system of claim 89, wherein the selected advertisement comprises a targeted marketing offer.

103. The system of claim 102, wherein the targeted marketing offer comprises an advertisement that corresponds to a particular one of the transactions in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

104. The system of claim 89, wherein the network pathname to the injection script server of the script call code is directed to the financial institution computer system, and wherein the financial institution computer system redirects the script request to the offer placement system that serves as the script server.

105. The system of claim 104, wherein the financial institution computer system returns the injection script to the client machine.

106. The system of claim 89, wherein the offer placement system identifies the selected advertisement based on the list of currently-displayed transactions and an account identifier associated with the customer.

107. The system of claim 89, wherein the offer placement system stores advertising campaign data including 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 the list of currently-displayed transactions to identify a particular offer qualifying transaction conducted by the consumer for use in identifying the selected advertisement.

108. The system of claim 107, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in association with the display of information corresponding to the offer qualifying transaction.

109. The system of claim 89, wherein display of the selected advertisement comprises display of one or more of the following data items:

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

110. The system of claim 89, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in perceptible visual proximity to a transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

111. The system of claim 110, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed immediately below a transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.

112. The system of claim 110, wherein the selected advertisement is displayed in a field in nearby proximity to a transaction in the list of currently-displayed transactions.