Methods and systems for selectively displaying advertisements

• US 7,136,871 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2001
• Issued: 11/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chau, Carolyn Khanh, Cho, Wei Wei Ada, Hart, Michael Patrick, Ozer, Stuart
• Primary Examiner(s): Pardo, Thuy N.
• Application Number:
  US09/991,389
• Publication Number:
  US 20030110171A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,819 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231, 709/217, 700/100, 705/14, 707/101, 707/102, 707/103.X, 707/104.1, 725/34, 725/42, 725/443
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0248 Avoiding fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A system, including a planning module, a control module and a receiver module, configured to schedule display of one or more advertising impressions of available advertising inventory. The planning module enables scheduling a requested quantity of advertising impressions in accordance with target criteria. Further, the planning module enables selecting an advertising impression goal for advertisement, assigning an advertising type and defining a weight for the advertisements. The control module receives the schedule, the advertising type and the defined weights and generates one or more metadata files that contain target criteria, advertising type and weights for the advertisements. The one or more metadata files, with the advertisements, are delivered to the receiver module that is configured to define a display frequency for the advertisements based upon one or more of the metadata files. The receiver module selectively displays advertisement content associated with the advertisements to achieve the advertising impression goal.

Claims

1. A method for delivering advertisement content to a viewer according to an advertising plan that is executed in a system that includes at least one processor configured to display advertisements to a viewer at a frequency determined by the advertising plan, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving, at a control module, for each advertisement, a schedule defining a particular period of time during which the advertisement should be displayed, a location for the display of the advertisement, an indicator of the advertisement type, and a weight for the advertisement, wherein the weight is used to determine a frequency to display the advertisement during the defined period of time as defined by an advertising plan;

generating a data file defining, for each advertisement, the advertising type, weight, location, and schedule for display of the advertisement content for the advertisement, wherein defining the weight comprises defining an absolute weight for each committed advertisement that corresponds to a guaranteed impression frequency for displaying each said committed advertisement during the period of time, and defining a relative weight to each flexible advertisement that corresponds to a proportional allocation of remaining advertising inventory that can be used for displaying each said flexible advertisement, wherein each committed advertisement is an advertisement that a provider has committed to broadcasting as part of an advertising campaign, and wherein each flexible advertisement is an advertisement that operates as a filler advertisement to be displayed when advertising inventory exists in excess of advertising utilized by the committed advertisement; and

upon retrieving the advertisement content for the advertisement, delivering the advertisement content and the data file, including data defining for each advertisement, the advertising type, relative or absolute weight, location, and schedule for display of the advertisement content, to at least one receiver module configured to display the advertisement content of the advertisement in accordance with the data file in such a way as to satisfy the advertising impression goal, and such that each committed and each non-committed advertisement is displayed according to the frequency defined by the weight of the advertisement within the defined period of time.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein receiving, for each advertisement, the schedule, the location, the advertising type and the weight comprises receiving from a planning module remote from the control module, for each advertisement, the schedule, the location, the advertising type and the weight.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein receiving, for each advertisement, the schedule, the location, the advertising type and the weight comprises receiving continuously, periodically, or sporadically the schedule, the advertising type, and the weight from the planning module.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of generating the data file comprises the acts of:

defining at least one attribute from at least one of;

a schedule time for the advertisement;

a display area for the advertisement;

a duration of the advertisement;

a time zone shift for the advertisement schedule time;

an indicator of type of the advertisement;

a weight of the advertisement; and

a demographic target of the advertisement; and

storing the at least one attribute at the receiver module.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein delivering the advertisement content and the data file comprises:

identifying a time when the advertisement content is to be displayed to the viewer;

identifying a rule stored at the control module, the rule defining when to deliver the advertisement content and the data file; and

based upon the time and the rule, delivering the advertisement content and the data file to the at least one receiver module.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein delivering the advertisement content and the data file comprises delivering the advertisement content and the data file to the at least one receiver module.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein an individual scheduling the advertisement content defines the advertising impression goal used to define the advertising weight.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the advertising type defines whether the advertising weight is an absolute weight or a relative weight.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising receiving historical data from the at least one receiver module, the historical data defining the viewing activities of the viewer at the at least one receiver module.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the advertising type defines the advertisement as either a committed advertisement or a flexible advertisement.

11. A computer program product comprising one or more computer readable media having computer-executable instructions for implementing the method recited in claim 1.

12. A computer program product as recited in claim 11, wherein the computer-executed instructions further comprise program code means for receiving from a planning module remote from the control module the schedule and the weight.

13. A computer program product as recited in claim 12, wherein the computer-executed instructions further comprise program code means for receiving continuously, periodically, or sporadically the schedule, the advertising type and the weight from the planning module.

14. A computer program product as recited in claim 11, wherein the computer-executed instructions further comprise:

program code means for defining at least one attribute from at least one of;

a schedule time for the advertisement;

a duration of the advertisement;

a time zone shift of the advertisement;

an indicator of type for the advertisement schedule;

a weight of the advertisement;

a demographic target for the advertisement; and

a display area for the advertisement; and

program code means for storing the at least one attribute.

15. A computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein the computer-executed instructions further comprise:

program code means for identifying a time when the advertisement is to be displayed to the viewer;

program code means for identifying a rule stored at the control module, the rule defining when to deliver the advertisement content of the advertisement and the data file; and

based upon the time and the rule, program code means for delivering the advertisement content of the advertisement and the data file to the at least one receiver module.

16. A computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein the computer-executed instructions further comprise program code means for delivering the advertisement content of the advertisement and the data file to the at least one receiver module.

17. A computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein the computer-executed instructions further comprise program code means for defining an advertising type where the advertising type determines whether the advertising weight is an absolute weight or a relative weight.

18. A computer program product as recited in claim 14, wherein the computer-executed instructions further comprise program code means for receiving historical data from the at least one receiver module, the historical data defining the viewing activities of the viewer at the at least one receiver module.

19. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the location defines a particular location on a screen of displayed video where the advertisement should be rendered.

20. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the location defines where the advertisement should be rendered on an EPG.

21. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the location defines where the advertisement should be rendered on a game.

22. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the location defines a geographically defined market where the advertisement should be displayed.

23. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein schedule further defines a particular duration during which the advertisement should be displayed during the defined period of time.

24. A method as recited in claim 1, further including:

after receiving the weight at the receiver module, readjusting the weight for the advertisement based on available advertising inventory so as to implement the plan.

25. A computer program product as recited in claim 11, wherein the location defines a particular location on a screen of displayed video where the advertisement should be rendered.

26. A computer program product as recited in claim 11, wherein the location defines where the advertisement should be rendered on an EPG.

27. A computer program product as recited in claim 11, wherein the location defines where the advertisement should be rendered on a game.

28. A computer program product as recited in claim 11, wherein the location defines a geographically defined market where the advertisement should be displayed.

29. A computer program product as recited in claim 11, wherein schedule further defines a particular duration during which the advertisement should be displayed during the defined period of time.

30. A computer program product as recited in claim 11, further including:

after receiving the weight at the receiver module, readjusting the weight for the advertisement based on available advertising inventory so as to implement the plan.

31. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the receiver module, upon identifying and selecting advertisements that are to be used for the defined period of time based at least in part on the absolute weights of committed advertisements, and upon determining that the advertising inventory is not fully utilized for the defined period of time, assigns absolute weights to the flexible advertisements, based on the remaining advertising inventory relative to each non-committed advertisement'"'"'s flexible weight as a proportion of the total flexible weight of all valid non-committed advertisements, and so as to determine when and whether to display the non-committed advertisements during the defined period of time.

32. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the weight is also used to determine an order for displaying an advertisement.

33. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the weight for each advertisement is defined only after first defining the advertisements as flexible and committed advertisements according to the advertising plan.

34. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein generating the data file includes defining a duration, a display area, and a scheduled display time for which the advertisement should be displayed.

35. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the receiver module, upon receiving the data file and advertising content deletes one or more previously stored data files and advertising content.

36. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein the act of generating the data file comprises the acts of:

defining at least one attribute for each of;

a schedule time for the advertisement;

a display area for the advertisement;

a duration of the advertisement;

a time zone shift for the advertisement schedule time;

an indicator of type of the advertisement;

a weight of the advertisement; and

a demographic target of the advertisement.