DYNAMIC TARGETED ADVERTISING AVATAR

• US 20140129343A1
• Filed: 11/08/2012
• Published: 05/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: de la Garza, Enrique, Pineda, Alexei, Finster, Diana, Alexander, Sean
• Application Number:
  US13/671,814
• Publication Number:
  US 20140129343A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.66
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

A dynamic, personalized advertising avatar based on a user'"'"'s own avatar used in an online service is used to provide branded advertising in a virtual context. A definition of a user avatar with user attributes is acquired, and custom attributes for a dynamic user-based avatar are received from an advertiser. Dynamically generated user-based avatars are created having at least a portion of user attributes of the user avatar and a portion of the custom attributes, so that the resulting custom avatar is recognizable to the user but represents a product brand or service. Information is then acquired regarding user activity on a device capable of displaying the dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar and advertisements generated based on the dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar and the targeting information. The advertisement is then rendered on the user device using the dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar.

Claims

1. A method for providing an advertisement to a user, comprising:

receiving advertising attributes and advertising information including targeting information for an advertisement to be delivered to the user;

acquiring user information including a virtual user representation and user activity on a processing device;

creating a dynamically generated user-based avatar having at least a portion of the advertising attributes and based on the virtual user representation;

generating an advertisement based on the dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar and the advertising information; and

displaying the advertisement to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting user interaction with the dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar; and

providing additional information content associated with a product or service to the user in response to said detecting.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the user interaction includes any of one of:

a user interacting with the dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar through a visual interface element;

a user interacting with the dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar through a voice command; and

a user interacting with the dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar through physical gesture.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the user includes user activity with content consumption on the processing device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of acquiring information includes acquiring a definition of a user avatar comprising a set of attributes, the attributes including feature attributes and style attributes, the avatar comprising at least a portion of the virtual user representation.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of creating includes creating a dynamically generated user based avatar having at least a portion of a set of user attributes defining a user avatar and a portion of the advertising attributes applied to the user avatar.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the at least portion of a set of user attributes contains a plurality of user feature attributes allowing recognition of the dynamically generated user based avatar as associated with the user.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of creating includes determining conflicts between custom attributes and user attributes, and preventing application of custom attributes in conflict with user attributes.

9. The method of claim 1 further including the step of determining target users from the targeting information and wherein said steps of acquiring, creating, generating and displaying are performed for at least a portion of the target users.

10. One or more storage devices containing processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

acquiring a definition of a user avatar comprising a set of attributes, the attributes including feature attributes and style attributes;

receiving custom attributes to create a dynamically generated user-based avatar;

receiving advertising information including targeting information using the dynamically generated user-based avatar;

creating a dynamically generated user based avatar having at least a portion of the set attributes of the user avatar and a portion of the custom attributes;

acquiring information associated with user activity on a device capable of displaying the dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar;

generating an advertisement based on the dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar and the targeting information; and

rendering the advertisement to the user in a manner unobtrusive to the activity.

11. The one or more storage devices of claim 10, wherein said creating includes:

selecting one or more custom attributes from a set of ideal attributes;

determining ones of the custom attributes to apply to the definition of a user avatar, said determining leaving a subset of the set attributes of the user avatar.

12. The one or more storage devices of claim 11 wherein the step of determining one of the custom attributes includes determining at least a portion of a set of custom style attributes and at least a portion of a set of feature attributes.

13. The one or more storage devices of claim 12 wherein the advertising information includes instructions for content of advertising to be associated with the dynamically generated user-based avatar during said generating.

14. The one or more storage devices of claim 13, further comprising:

detecting user interaction with the dynamically generated user-based avatar; and

providing additional information content associated with a product or service to the user in response to said detecting.

15. The one or more storage devices of claim 14, wherein acquiring information associated with the user includes user profile information, demographic information, and contextual information.

16. The one or more storage devices of claim 14, further comprising:

rendering the advertisement to the user in a manner unobtrusive to user activity.

17. A system for providing an advertisement to a user of a content management service, comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processors, the one or more processors in communication with the memory, the one or more processors configured to perform the steps of;

receiving advertising attributes, the advertising attributes associated with a product or service and comprising at least part of a campaign definition, the campaign definition defining when to generate a dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar, a target audience, and information associated with a dynamically generated user-based advertising avatar for an advertisement;

acquiring user-defined avatar definitions, each user-defined avatar definition representing a user;

receiving information associated with a user, the information associated including user profile information and user activity on a client device;

creating a dynamically generated user based avatar having at least a portion of a set of user attributes defining a user avatar and a portion of the advertising attributes applied to the user avatar; and

displaying an advertisement using the dynamically generated user based avatar having at least a portion of a set of user attributes defining a user avatar and a portion of the advertising attributes applied to the user avatar.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein:

at least portion of a set of user attributes contains a plurality of user feature attributes allowing recognition of the dynamically generated user based avatar as associated with the user.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein creating includes determining conflicts between custom attributes and user-defined attributes, and preventing application of custom attributes in conflict with user-defined attributes.

20. The system of claim 17 wherein steps of receiving information associated with a user, providing an advertisement based on the advertising avatar to the user are repeated for a duration defined by the campaign definition.