SOCIAL REFERRALS OF PROMOTIONAL CONTENT

• US 20150348078A1
• Filed: 05/30/2014
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Alsina, Thomas, Wilson, David T., Dicker, George R., Sundaresan, Subash
• Granted Patent: US 9,600,830 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Methods and arrangements allow merchants to set up advertising campaigns that distribute special offers or discounts and allows users to forward the special offers to friends. The forwarding of the offers could expose merchants to offering more discounts than budgeted and this is a concern. The invention addresses this by having the forwarded offer check with the merchant server or advertising server to see if there is enough budget in the campaign left to allow the issuance of the forwarded offer, and if so, the server issues a new identifier. If not, the user receiving the forwarded offer receives a message saying the campaign has expired. Since every offer has its own identifier, the forwarding of the offers can be tracked, as well as the redemption, which allows for social metric collection.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a server, a request for a referred promotional content item that is substantially the same as an original promotional content item, the original promotional content item having a first identifier;

sending, by the server to a client device, the referred promotional content item having a second identifier that is substantially the same as the original promotional item; and

storing, by the server, a record of the referral from the original promotional content item having the first identifier to the referred promotional content item having the second identifier.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining, by the server, that the referred promotional content item can be sent when a sufficient amount of budget remains in a promotion budget.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, by the server, a redemption request, the redemption request including a identifier of a promotional content uniquely identifying the one of the original promotional content item or the referred promotional content item.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request for a referred content item is a request made by a graphical user interface wrapper for the referred content item, the request requesting data unique to the referred promotional content item.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the server, customer information, prior to sending the referred promotional content.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying, by the server, for demographic information pertaining to users that have downloaded the original promotional content item or referred promotional content item.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a social graph the record of the referrals that tracks the referral from the original promotional content item having to the referred promotional content item and any subsequent referrals.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

after the referred promotional content item is received by the client device, sending the second identifier to an advertising server.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending, by an advertising server, the original promotional content item to a first device.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the server is an advertising server.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the server is a merchant'"'"'s server.

12. A product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium; and

computer readable instructions, stored on the computer readable medium, that when executed are effective to cause a computer to;

receive a request for a referred promotional content item that is substantially the same as an original promotional content item, the original promotional content item having a first identifier;

send, to a client device, the referred promotional content item having a second identifier that is substantially the same as the original promotional item; and

store a record of the referral from the original promotional content item having the first identifier to the referred promotional content item having the second identifier.

13. The product of claim 12 further comprising:

determine that the referred promotional content item can be sent when a sufficient amount of budget remains in a promotion budget.

14. The product of claim 12 further comprising:

receive a redemption request including a identifier of a promotional content uniquely identifying the one of the original promotional content item or the referred promotional content item.

15. The product of claim 12, further comprising:

receive customer information prior to sending the referred promotional content.

16. The product of claim 12, further comprising:

query for demographic information pertaining to users that have downloaded the original promotional content item or referred promotional content item.

17. A system comprising:

a merchant server configured to receive a request from a second client device for a referred promotional content item, and to send, to the second client device, the referred promotional content item having a second identifier.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising:

a first client device configured to refer an original promotional content item to the second client device, the original promotional content item having a first identifier.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

an advertising server configured to send the original promotion content item to the first client device, and to receive the second identifier of the referred promotional content item from the second client device.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

the merchant server being further configured to store a record of the referral from the original promotional content item having the first identifier to the referred promotional content item having the second identifier.

21. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

the advertising server being further configured to store a record of the referral from the original promotional content item having the first identifier to the referred promotional content item having the second identifier.