System and methods for determining and displaying product promotions

• US 6,502,076 B1
• Filed: 06/01/1999
• Issued: 12/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NCR Voyix Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation (NCR Voyix Corporation)
• Inventors: Smith, Derek R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coggins, Wynn W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Garg, Yogesh C
• Application Number:
  US09/323,603
• Time in Patent Office: 1,309 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/27, 705/14, 705/10, 705/66, 709/219, 707/10
• US Class Current: 705/14.54
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A product promotion display system comprises a server computer hosting a network of terminals, each terminal having a display for displaying advertisements and product promotion information to a customer. The server computer has access to a product promotion database containing data to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals. A product promotion software object executed by the server computer accesses the database in order to retrieve data therefrom to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals. A user interface connected to the terminals and to the promotion software object causes the assembled advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals.

Claims

1. A product promotion display system, comprising:

a server computer hosting a network of retail self-service terminals located throughout a store, each terminal having a display for displaying custom interactive advertising content promoting in-store products;

a product promotion database accessible by the server computer, the product promotion database containing data to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals, the product promotion database containing a specification selectably assigning each terminal to one or more device groups, and defining groups of advertisements and product information for display on one or more of the device groups of terminals;

a product promotion software object executed by the server computer, the product promotion software object having access to the database in order to retrieve data therefrom to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals; and

a user interface connected to the terminals and to the promotion software object, the user interface causing the assembled advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more defined groups of terminals.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the product promotion database contains definitions of groups of advertisements that are to be displayed together.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the product promotion database contains a specification of a time schedule for the display of each ad group.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the product promotion database contains a specification of an ordering for the display of advertisements within each ad group, either according to an explicit ordering or according to a random order algorithm.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein each ad group can be configured to run independently on any terminal or group of terminals, and wherein each terminal or group of terminals can be configured to run any number of different ad groups, thereby enabling a retailer to define advertising content that should be displayed on any terminal or group of related terminals.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein advertisements are maintained independently, thereby allowing advertisements to be created independently and subsequently grouped together to form ad groups.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the product promotion database comprises a set of predefined ad groups.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein advertising content is stored as regular files on an internet information server.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the system is Web-based, with each of the terminals being provided with Web browser software and with the server computer being provided with Web server software.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the user interface comprises active server pages, such that when the browser software at a terminal requests an active server page, the Web server software used by the server computer generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the browser at the terminal for display, the page containing an advertisement.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the user interface comprises:

an active server page with an attract loop manager server-side include file that provides logic for controlling an attract loop, comprising a sequence of advertisements, instructions, or other content that is displayed on a terminal when it is idle in order to attract a customer to use the terminal;

an ad manager active server page for collecting tally data for each advertisement;

an ad interaction manager active server page that collects data ever time a customer interacts with an advertisement; and

an active server page with an idle time manager server-side include file that provides logic to manage an idle time for each terminal, after which the attract loop is displayed.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising a product promotion interface connected between the product promotion software object and the user interface for:

retrieving an idle timeout value for a specific terminal;

retrieving instructional content information for a specific terminal; and

retrieving an appropriate ad group to be displayed on a specific terminal.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising a data collection and analysis module accessible by the product promotion software object for collecting and analyzing data related to the advertisements and product promotion information displayed on the terminals.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the data the is collected and analyzed includes data relating to:

how long each advertisement has been displayed within a specific date/time slot;

the number of times each advertisement has been displayed within a specific date/time slot; and

the number of times a customer interacts with each advertisement.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein each terminal includes a touch-screen display for receiving inputs from, and displaying outputs, to a customer at the terminal, and wherein the attract loop is displayed on the touch-screen display.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the attract loop is displayed on two distinct regions of the touch-screen display, a content region and a navigation region.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the attract loop at a terminal is terminated by a customer touching the touch-screen display at that terminal.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein when the attract loop has been terminated at a terminal by a customer, the terminal displays a default home page.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein when the attract loop has been terminated at a terminal by a customer, the terminal displays a screen related to a choice selected by the customer on the terminal'"'"'s touch-screen display.

20. A method for displaying product promotion information, comprising the following steps:

providing a server computer and a network of retail self-service terminals located throughout a store, each terminal having a display for displaying custom interactive advertising content promoting in-store products, said interactive advertising content allowing customers to affect the display of advertising content;

providing a product promotion database accessible by the server computer, the database containing data to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals, the product promotion database containing a specification selectably assigning each terminal to one or more device groups, and defining groups of advertisements and product information for display on one or more of the device groups of terminals;

retrieving data from the database and using the data to assemble advertisements product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals; and

causing the assembled advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more defined groups of terminals.

21. The method of claim 20, comprising the further step of:

defining ad groups comprising related advertisements to be displayed together.

22. The method of claim 21, comprising the further step of:

specifying a time schedule for the display of ad groups.

23. The method of claim 21, comprising the further step of:

specifying an ordering for the display of advertisements within each ad group, either according to an explicit ordering or according to a random order algorithm.

24. The system of claim 22, comprising the further step of:

storing advertising content as regular files on an internet information server.

25. The method of claim 24, comprising the further step of:

providing each of the terminals with Web browser software and providing the server computer with Web server software.

26. The method of claim 25, comprising the further step of:

providing a user interface comprising active server pages, such that when the browser software at a terminal requests an active server page, the Web server software used by the server computer generates a page with HTML code and sends it back to the browser at the terminal for display, the page containing an advertisement.

27. The method of claim 20, comprising the further step of:

collecting and analyzing data related to the advertisements and product promotion information displayed on the terminals.

28. The method of claim 20, comprising the further step of:

defining an attract loop, comprising a sequence of advertisements, instructions, or other content that is displayed on a terminal when it is idle in order to attract a customer to use the terminal.

29. A product promotion display system, comprising:

a server computer hosting a network of retail self-service terminals located throughout a store, each terminal having a display for displaying custom interactive advertising content promoting in-store products;

a product promotion database accessible by the server computer, the product promotion database containing data to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals, the product promotion database containing a specification selectably assigning each terminal to one or more device groups, and defining groups of advertisements and product information for display on one or more of the device groups of terminals;

a product promotion software object executed by the server computer, the product promotion software object having access to the database in order to retrieve data therefrom to be used in assembling advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more of the terminals; and

a user interface connected to the terminals and to the promotion software object, the user interface causing the assembled advertisements and product promotion information to be displayed on one or more defined groups of terminals,

the server computer running a promotion software object including a promotion object that performs the following functions;

finding a device group for an in-store terminal by looking up the in-store terminal'"'"'s address, passed in from the terminal, in a device table to find the in-store terminal'"'"'s group identifier;

finding all ad groups for the device group by using the device'"'"'s group identifier and a navigational category identifier, passed in from the terminal, to query a navigational device ad group table to find all ad groups with matching device group identifiers and navigational category identifiers;

finding all scheduled ad groups by using a current system date and time to find all ad groups with time schedules making them eligible for display;

for each eligible ad group, using the ad group'"'"'s identifier as a key to query an ad group table for the ad group'"'"'s duration, start type, and order type, and further using the ad group identifier as a key to query an ad group member table for ad identifiers for all ads in the group, their explicit sort indices, their navigational category identifiers, and their random order weights;

for each ad in each eligible ad group, using each ad identifier and current language identifier, passed in from the terminal, as a key to query an ad-language table for the ad'"'"'s display duration, content URL, and link URL;

constructing a result set of ads containing each ad'"'"'s ad group identifier, sort index, navigational category identifier, random order weight, display duration, content URL and link URL;

for each ad in each result set, using the ad group'"'"'s default duration ad group default duration to fill in the ad'"'"'s display duration if its value is null;

sorting the final result set;

returning the sorted result set, the overall ad group start type, the overall ad group sort order type, and a number of seconds until a current group of ads is due to expire.

30. A method for displaying product promotions, comprising:

finding a device group for an in-store terminal by looking up the in-store terminal'"'"'s address, passed in from the terminal, in a device table to find the in-store terminal'"'"'s group identifier;

finding all ad groups for the device group by using the device'"'"'s group identifier and a navigational category identifier, passed in from the terminal, to query a navigational device ad group table to find all ad groups with matching device group identifiers and navigational category identifiers;

finding all scheduled ad groups by using a current system date and time to find all ad groups with time schedules making them eligible for display;

for each eligible ad group, using the ad group'"'"'s identifier as a key to query an ad group table for the ad group'"'"'s duration, start type, and order type, and further using the ad group identifier as a key to query an ad group member table for ad identifiers for all ads in the group, their explicit sort indices, their navigational category identifiers, and their random order weights;

for each ad in each eligible ad group, using each ad identifier and current language identifier, passed in from the terminal, as a key to query an ad-language table for the ad'"'"'s display duration, content URL, and link URL;

constructing a result set of ads containing each ad'"'"'s ad group identifier, sort index, navigational category identifier, random order weight, display duration, content URL and link URL;

for each ad in each result set, using the ad group'"'"'s default duration ad group default duration to fill in the ad'"'"'s display duration if its value is null;

sorting the final result set;

returning the sorted result set, the overall ad group start type, the overall ad group sort order type, and a number of seconds until a current group of ads is due to expire.