MATCHING ADVERTISING TO GAME PLAY CONTENT

• US 20120252574A1
• Filed: 09/26/2011
• 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 9,373,126 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• 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 computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a play, including certain moves having a respective selection criterion, from a game on a client device;

determining, with at least one processor, that each of the certain moves in the play corresponds to an advertisement trigger for an advertisement message;

determining an advertisement message having a greatest economic benefit from among the advertisement messages based on the respective selection criterion; and

transmitting the determined advertisement message to the client device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the play is produced according to user moves initiated at the client device by a player.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the client device is preconfigured with advertisement messages and stored plays as advertisement triggers associated to the advertisement messages.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the stored plays and the advertisement messages are stored in a storage module of the client device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising associating advertisement messages with plays based on a characteristic of the advertisement messages and a characteristic of the plays.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plays are produced without requiring the client device to be communicatively coupled to a network.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a play includes at least one move from one or more players in one or more instances of the computer-implemented game.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement messages and advertisement triggers are delivered during a pre-configuration of the computer-implemented game and prior to initiating an instance of the computer-implemented game.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the play corresponds to the advertisement trigger and displaying a further advertisement message associated with the play in a further computer-implemented game.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the selection criterion used in the determining an advertisement message having a greatest economic benefit is at least one of a maximum price per click associated with a respective one of the plurality of advertisement triggers, a maximum advertisement purchase price, and a maximum price paid to purchase a corresponding advertising campaign.

8. (canceled)

11. A non-transitory 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 play, including certain moves having a respective selection criterion, from a game on a client device;

determining, with at least one processor, that each of the certain moves in the play corresponds to an advertisement trigger for an advertisement message;

determining an advertisement message having a greatest economic benefit from among the advertisement messages based on the respective selection criterion; and

transmitting the determined advertisement message to the client device.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the play is produced according to user moves initiated at the client device by a player.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the client device is preconfigured with advertisement messages and stored plays as advertisement triggers associated to the advertisement messages.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the stored plays and the advertisement messages are stored in a storage module of the client device.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the operations further comprising associating advertisement messages with plays based on a characteristic of the advertisement messages and a characteristic of the plays.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the plays are produced without requiring the client device to be communicatively coupled to a network.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein a play includes at least one move from one or more players in one or more instances of the computer-implemented game.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the advertisement messages are bound to plays and advertisement triggers within the computer-implemented game is fulfilled in an ad campaign.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the operations further comprising determining that the play corresponds to the advertisement trigger and displaying a further advertisement message associated with the play in a further computer-implemented game.

20. A system comprising:

a game play device configured to provide game play interaction to a user initiating user moves on the game play device;

a determination module configured to determine an advertisement message having a greatest economic benefit based on selection criteria provided during game play;

a game data storage module configured to store advertisement messages, selection criterion, and plays, the plays being advertisement triggers associated to the advertisement messages; and

an association module configured to associate an advertisement message with plays based on a characteristic of the advertisement message and a characteristic of a respective play.