MATCHING ADVERTISING TO GAME PLAY CONTENT

• US 20120252557A1
• Filed: 04/04/2011
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zynga Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Zynga Incorporated
• Inventors: Chow, Michael, Rouse, Justin, Holme, Kevin
• Granted Patent: US 9,256,888 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality

Abstract

An advertisement is associated with a particular user move in a gaming environment where playing of the user move by a user results in the advertisement being displayed at the user'"'"'s gaming device. With multiple users, each play of a unique user move results in a corresponding uniquely targeted advertisement being displayed at the respective gaming device of each user. User moves and associated advertisements are bound to one another based on a frequency of use of the user move in game play and the desirability of the advertiser to associate the advertisement with the user move.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a user move from a device engaged in a game session;

retrieving, by at least one processor, an advertisement associated with the user move from a database having stored user moves and associated advertisements; and

transmitting the advertisement to the device for display.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the user moves with the advertisements; and

storing the user moves and the associated advertisements in the database.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to the receiving of the user move, comparing the user move with the stored user moves in the database; and

based on the comparing, determining the user move is a stored user move, wherein the advertisement is retrieved based on the determining the user move is the stored user move.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second user move from a second device engaged in the game session;

retrieving a second advertisement and a game play location associated with the second user move from the database; and

transmitting the second advertisement for display to the second device according to the game play location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the game session corresponds to a word game and the user move is at least one word, the method further comprising:

receiving game play data comprising a further user move, a selection criterion, and at least one of a game type identifier, a frequency of use of the further user move, and a game play location;

retrieving, from the database, a plurality of further advertisements corresponding with the further user move;

determining an optimal advertisement from among the advertisement and the plurality of further advertisements according to the selection criterion; and

transmitting the optimal advertisement to the device for display.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the selection criterion determining the optimal advertisement is at least one of a maximum price per click of a corresponding advertisement trigger, a maximum advertisement purchase price, a maximum price paid to purchase a corresponding advertising campaign, an optimal relationship ranking of a corresponding advertiser, frequency of use of the user move, the advertisement not having been recently displayed, and a random selection between the advertisement and the plurality of further advertisements.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a reward element;

completing a featured user move from a list of at least one featured user move, the completion accomplished using at least one reward element selected from the received reward element and previously stored reward elements; and

receiving a further reward upon the completion of the featured user move.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising

receiving the reward element from the device and transmitting the reward element to a second device;

and

receiving an indication from the device to execute one of gifting and trading of the reward element,

wherein the gifting comprises receiving the reward element from the device and transmitting the reward element to a second device, and

wherein the trading comprises exchanging the reward element from the device with a second reward element from the second device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking, for a predetermined period of time, use of the user move by a plurality of devices each engaged in a game session;

calculating a frequency of use of the user move within the game sessions;

presenting the user move along with the user move frequency as an advertisement trigger to an advertiser; and

selling the advertisement trigger to the advertiser.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising storing the user move and the user move frequency of use as a candidate advertisement trigger when the user move frequency of use exceeds a predetermined threshold of usage.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the user move being a word and providing at least one of a definition, a grammatical fact, and an etymological fact to be displayed by the device when the word is determined to be the stored user move.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising one of charging an advertiser each time the advertisement is transmitted to the device for display and charging an advertiser to sponsor the advertisement.

13. A computer-readable storage medium embodying a set of instructions, that when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a user move from a device engaged in a game session;

retrieving an advertisement associated with the user move from a database having stored user moves and associated advertisements; and

transmitting the advertisement to the device for display.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

responsive to the receiving of the user move, comparing the user move with the stored user moves in the database; and

based on the comparing, determining the user move is a stored user move, wherein the advertisement is retrieved based on the determining the user move is the stored user move.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

initiating a game session having a plurality of users;

transmitting a promotional advertisement for display, the promotional advertisement advocating a use of the stored user move by the plurality of users; and

offering a reward to the plurality of users to play the stored user move during an advertising campaign.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

associating at least one stored user move with the promotional advertisement and the advertising campaign; and

providing the reward to a first portion of the plurality of users, the first portion of the plurality of users being less than or equal to a predefined threshold of users.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise providing a further advertisement corresponding to the stored user move when the stored user move is used in game play.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the offering of the reward is conditioned upon a use of the stored user move in game play within a predefined period of time of the display of the advertisement.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise binding the stored user move to an advertisement.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise receiving an advertising proposal from a prospective advertiser, the advertising proposal including at least one proposed user move to be considered as a candidate stored user move.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving at least one candidate user move provided by a prospective advertiser;

determining the at least one candidate user move is a stored user move stored in the database with a corresponding frequency of use; and

proposing an advertising campaign when the frequency of use of the stored user move exceeds a predefined amount.

22. A system comprising:

a game play server configured to provide game play interaction through a network connection to at least one client machine;

a game data storage module configured to store game play data associated with a game session with the at least one client machine;

an ad server configured to provide a selected advertisement to the at least one client machine and retain a stored user move corresponding to a predefined game play move; and

a priority module configured to determine an optimal advertisement according to a predefined selection criterion and to transmit the determined optimal advertisement to be displayed by the at the least one client machine.