Advertisement auction system

• US 6,324,519 B1
• Filed: 03/12/1999
• Issued: 11/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Prime Research Alliance E, LLC
• Original Assignee: Expanse Networks, Inc.
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hayes, John W.
• Application Number:
  US09/268,520
• Time in Patent Office: 991 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/10, 705/26, 705/27, 705/37, 348/8, 725/42, 725/9, 725/14, 725/47, 725/46
• US Class Current: 705/14.66
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0268 at point-of-sale [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

An advertisement auction system is presented in which content/opportunity providers announce to advertisers that they have an opportunity to present an advertisement to a consumer. The advertiser transmits ad characterization information which is correlated with the consumer profile. Based on the results of the correlation, the advertisers place bids for the advertisement opportunity. Upon acceptance of a bid the advertisement is delivered to the consumer. The system can be applied to a variety of media including Internet advertisements, advertisements delivered over cable television systems, and printed materials such as magazines and periodicals. The system allows consumers to receive more targeted advertisements which match their lifestyle and interests, insures advertisers that their ads will be received by the appropriate audience, and allows the content/opportunity provider the ability to maximize revenue for the advertising opportunity.

Claims

1. A method for auctioning advertising opportunities, the method comprising:

constructing a profile of a subscriber based on activities of the subscriber;

recognizing an advertisement opportunity in a medium;

providing notification of the advertisement opportunity to advertisers;

receiving advertisement characterizations from the advertisers, wherein the advertisement characterizations characterize an associated advertisement;

determining a correlation between the advertisement characterizations and the subscriber profile, wherein the correlation is calculated as a scalar product between the ad characterization and the subscriber profile;

providing the correlation to the advertisers;

receiving bids for the advertisement opportunity from the advertisers;

selecting the winning bid.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving bids and said selecting the winning bid are conducted over the Internet.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising

determining an initial winning bid;

transmitting the initial winning bid to the advertisers; and

receiving additional bids from the advertisers, wherein said selecting the winning bid is performed subsequent to said determining an initial winning bid, said transmitting the initial winning bid, and said receiving additional bids.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein

said determining an initial winning bid includes determining a highest bid;

and

said transmitting includes transmitting the highest bid to the advertisers.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said determining a highest bid and said transmitting the highest bid are continually performed until said receiving additional bids does not produce additional bids.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said receiving bids, said determining a highest bid, said transmitting the highest bid, said receiving additional bids and said selecting the winning bid are conducted over the Internet.

7. A method for auctioning advertising opportunities, the method comprising:

constructing a profile of a subscriber based on activities of the subscriber, wherein the activities of the subscriber include television viewing transactions;

recognizing an advertisement opportunity in a medium;

providing notification of the advertisement opportunity to advertisers;

receiving advertisement characterizations from the advertisers, wherein the advertisement characterizations characterize an associated advertisement;

determining a correlation between the advertisement characterizations and the subscriber profile, wherein the correlation is calculated as a scalar product between the advertisement characterizations and the subscriber profile;

providing the correlation to the advertisers;

receiving bids for the advertisement opportunity from the advertisers; and

selecting the winning bid.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the activities of the subscriber further include point-of-purchase transactions.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the activities of the subscriber further include Internet viewing transactions.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said constructing a profile of a subscriber includes generating one or more subscriber characterization vectors based on one or more predetermined parameters.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein said constructing a profile of a subscriber includes characterizing the subscriber based on publicly available data.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein said constructing a profile of a subscriber includes characterizing the subscriber based on private data.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the advertisement characterizations characterize the advertisement based on one or more predetermined parameters.

14. The method of claim 7, wherein the subscriber profile includes a demographic characterization of the subscriber, and the ad characterization includes a demographic characterization of a target market for the advertisement.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein the subscriber profile includes a product preference characterization of the subscriber, and the ad characterization includes a product preference characterization of a target market for the advertisement.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein said recognizing an opportunity is performed by the subscriber and said providing the correlation includes providing the correlation and a target price for the advertisement opportunity, the target price being inversely proportional to the correlation.

17. The method of claim 7, wherein said recognizing an opportunity is performed by a content/opportunity provider and said providing the correlation includes providing the correlation and a target price for the advertisement opportunity, the target price being directly proportional to the correlation.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the target price is a minimum acceptable price.

19. The method of claim 7, wherein the subscriber profile and the advertisement characterization are in the form of vectors.

20. The method of claim 7, wherein the medium is a program stream.

21. A system for auctioning an advertisement opportunity, the system comprising:

means for determining a subscriber profile based on subscriber activities;

means for announcing an advertisement opportunity, wherein each advertisement opportunity corresponds to an opportunity to place an advertisement in a program;

means for receiving advertisement characterizations from one or more advertisers, wherein each advertisement characterization corresponds to an advertisement;

means for correlating the advertisement characterizations with the subscriber profile to produce a correlation result, wherein the correlation result is calculated as a scalar product between the ad characterization and the subscriber profile;

means for transmitting the correlation result to the one or more advertisers;

means for receiving a bid for the advertisement opportunity from the advertisers; and

means for determining if the bid is acceptable.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein said means for determining determines the subscriber profile based on the subscriber activities including point-of-purchase transactions, television viewing transactions, and Internet viewing transactions.

23. The system of claim 21, further comprising means for setting a target price for the advertisement opportunity, wherein said means for announcing an advertisement opportunity is controlled by the subscriber and said means for transmitting the correlation result also transmits the target price, the target price being inversely proportional to the correlation results.

24. The system of claim 21, further comprising means for setting a target price for the advertisement opportunity, wherein said means for announcing an advertisement opportunity is controlled by a content/opportunity provider and said means for transmitting the correlation result also transmits the target price, the price to transmit an advertisement to a subscriber is directly proportional to the correlation results.

25. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium for auctioning an advertisement opportunity, the computer program comprising:

a source code segment for receiving an advertisement characterization;

a source code segment for creating subscriber profiles based on subscriber activities;

a source code segment for calculating a correlation factor between the advertisement characterization and the subscriber profile as the scalar product of the ad characterization and the subscriber profile;

a source code segment for transmitting the correlation factor to one or more advertisers;

a source code segment for receiving a bid for the opportunity; and

a source code segment for selecting a successful bid which results in transmission of the advertisement to the subscriber.

26. The computer program of claim 25, wherein the subscriber activities include point-of-purchase transactions, television viewing transactions and Internet viewing transactions.

27. A method for auctioning a right to transmit an advertisement to a consumer, in an advertising opportunity, based on a correlation between a consumer profile and advertisement profiles, the method comprising:

receiving transaction data for the consumer;

constructing the consumer profile based on the transaction data, wherein the consumer profile characterizes the consumer;

receiving the advertisement profiles from advertisers, wherein the advertisement profiles characterize associated advertisements;

correlating the advertisement profiles and the consumer profile, wherein said correlating includes calculating a scalar product between the ad characterization and the subscriber profile;

providing the results of said correlating to the advertisers;

receiving bids for the advertisement opportunity from the advertisers based on the provided results;

determining the winning bid;

transmitting notification of the winning bid to the advertiser; and

permitting the advertisement to be transmitted to the consumer in the advertisement opportunity.