BRANDED PERSONA ADVERTISEMENT

• US 20140129344A1
• 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: Smith, Karen Woessner, de la Garza, Enrique, Waliczek, Nell, Hobart, Leah
• Application Number:
  US13/672,431
• Publication Number:
  US 20140129344A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.66
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation

Abstract

Technology is described for providing an engaging and interactive advertising experience to a user. In one embodiment, an advertising avatar (also known as “advertar”) is created based on information provided for a product or service. An advertisement may be generated and provided to the user that employs the advertising avatar as a digital spokesperson to promote a certain brand of product and/or service. Upon receiving the advertisement, the user can interact with the advertisement by clicking on the advertising avatar or via voice and/or gesture control. A user may be presented with additional information about the brand in response to the user interaction.

Claims

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

acquiring a branded persona avatar definition including targeting information for the branded persona;

acquiring information associated with user activity on a device capable of displaying the branded persona avatar;

generating an advertisement based on the branded persona avatar and the targeting information; and

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

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting user interaction with the branded persona avatar, the user interaction indicating that the user may like to obtain additional information about a product or service represented by the branded persona avatar; and

providing additional information content associated with the 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 branded persona avatar through a visual interface element;

a user interacting with the branded persona avatar through a voice command; and

a user interacting with the branded persona 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 device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein information associated with the targeting information includes one or more of:

user profile information, user avatar attributes, user demographic information, personality traits, behavioral information, and contextual information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of acquiring information, generating an advertisement and rendering the advertisement are repeated for a duration defined by the targeting information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the acquiring a branded persona avatar definition includes acquiring a plurality of avatar attributes defining a physical appearance of the avatar and one or more product or service specific elements.

8. The method of claim 2, further modifying the branded persona avatar in response to the user interaction.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the branded persona definition includes a link to the additional information content.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating an advertisement includes linking additional information concerning the product or service to the branded persona avatar.

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

providing a selection of online advertising types, one of said types including an avatar definition including attributes associating the avatar with a product or service source, and linking to additional information about the product or service, the additional information available through interaction with the avatar;

receiving a campaign definition including at least one advertisement including the avatar definition and specifying a target audience for advertising using the avatar definition;

determining a presentation event for the avatar based on the definition, the presentation event based on activity of a user on a processing device;

and

rendering the advertisement to the user on the processing device.

12. The one or more storage devices of claim 11, further including:

detecting user interaction with the avatar, the user interaction indicating that the user may like to obtain additional information about a product or service represented by the avatar; and

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

13. The one or more storage devices of claim 12, further comprising:

redirecting the user to branded content associated with the product or service in response to detecting a voice command or a gesture from the user.

14. The one or more storage devices of claim 13, wherein the information associated with the user includes user profile information, demographic information, and contextual information.

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

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

16. The one or more storage devices of claim 15, further comprising:

rendering the advertisement to the user in a manner unobtrusive to the 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;

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

acquiring advertising avatar definition, each advertising avatar definition associated with a product or service and comprising at least part of a campaign definition, the campaign definition defining when to generate an advertisement using the advertising avatar;

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

providing an advertisement based on the advertising avatar to the user;

receiving user interaction with the advertising avatar; and

responsive to receiving user interaction, providing additional information concerning the product or service to the user.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein:

the information associated with the user includes user profile information, avatar attributes, demographic information, personality traits, behavioral information, contextual information, and other information associated with the user.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein:

the one or more processors redirect the user to branded content associated with the product or service in response to user interaction with the advertising.

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.