Methods and systems for selectively displaying advertisements

• US 7,356,547 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2004
• Issued: 04/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• 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): Lu; Kuen S.
• Application Number:
  US10/867,485
• Publication Number:
  US 20050021403A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,394 Days
• Field of Search: 707/101, 707/104.1, 707/2, 707/4, 707/3
• 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. In a system, including at least one processor, configured to schedule a display of one or more advertising impressions of available advertising inventory, a method for scheduling and displaying a requested quantity of the advertising impressions in accordance with target criteria, the method comprising:

selecting, at a planning module, an advertising impression goal for a plurality of advertising campaigns, an advertising type and a weight for each of a plurality of advertisement contents displayed in association with the plurality of advertising campaigns, the advertising impression goal being specific to one or more target criteria;

upon scheduling a display of the plurality of advertisements to attain the advertising impression goal for each of the plurality of advertising campaigns, updating, at a control module, a display schedule for the plurality of advertisements; and

upon intermittently delivering the plurality of advertisement contents for the plurality of advertisements, the advertising type and the weight for each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements to a receiver module, defining a display frequency for each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements to enable the receiver module to selectively display the advertisement contents of the advertisement following the display frequency to achieve the advertising impression goal, wherein defining the display frequency comprises;

identifying, for the specific one or more target criteria, an advertisement from a the plurality of advertisements as either a committed advertisement or a flexible advertisement;

upon identifying a first absolute weight for each committed advertisement and a relative weight for each flexible advertisement, defining a total flexible advertising inventory percentage as the difference between the sum of the first absolute weights for the committed advertisements and 100%;

defining a second absolute weight for each of the flexible advertisements based upon the relative weight of the flexible advertisements, the sum of the relative weights of the flexible advertisements, and the total flexible advertising inventory percentage; and

randomly selecting the advertisement based upon the first absolute weight of the committed advertisements and the second absolute weight of the flexible advertisements.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more target criteria comprises data defining at least one of market area data, date data, time data, ad space data, and ad type data.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the weight is automatically calculated based upon the advertising impression goal selected and a total available inventory associated with the one or more target criteria.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein updating the control module comprises continuously, periodically, or sporadically delivering data indicative of the display schedule.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising generating a data file, specific to the advertising campaigns, containing the plurality of advertisement contents of the advertisement, the advertising type and the weight for the each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising generating a data file, specific to the advertisement, containing the advertising type and the weight for the advertisement.

7. A method for delivering advertisement contents 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:

selecting, at a planning module, an advertising impression goal for a plurality of advertising campaigns, an advertising type and a weight for each of a plurality of advertisement contents displayed in association with the plurality of advertising campaigns, the advertising impression goal being specific to one or more target criteria;

the planning module using the advertising impression goal for each of the plurality of advertising campaigns to create 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;

the planning module then updating a control module with the created display schedule for a plurality of advertisements,

whereupon the control module generates a data file defining, for each advertisement, the advertising type, weight, location, and schedule for display of the advertisement contents for the advertisement, and

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

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; and

upon retrieving at the control module the content for the advertisement, delivering the advertisement contents and the generated data file to at least one receiver module configured to display the advertisement contents of the advertisement in accordance with the data file, so that the advertising impression goal is accomplished, 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.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein defining the display frequency comprises:

defining the relative weight for each committed advertisement based upon the absolute weight for each committed advertisement divided by the total of all absolute weights for committed advertisement when the total of absolute weights is greater than 100%, indicating total committed advertising inventory percentage is greater than the total advertising inventory; and

generating the display frequency for the committed advertisement based upon the relative weights of committed advertisement, and setting display frequency to zero for flexible advertisement since 100% of advertising inventory is allocated to the one or more committed advertisements.

9. A computer program product comprised of a computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions for implementing the method in a system that includes at least one processor configured to display advertisements to a viewer at a frequency determined by the advertising plan, performing:

selecting, at a planning module, an advertising impression goal for a plurality of advertising campaigns, an advertising type and a weight for each of a plurality of advertisement contents displayed in association with the plurality of advertising campaigns, the advertising impression goal being specific to one or more target criteria;

upon scheduling a display of the plurality of advertisements to attain the advertising impression goal for each of the plurality of advertising campaigns, updating, at a control module, a display schedule for the plurality of advertisements; and

upon intermittently delivering the plurality of advertisement contents for the plurality of advertisements, the advertising type and the weight for each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements to a receiver module, defining a display frequency for each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements to enable the receiver module to selectively display the advertisement contents of the advertisement following the display frequency to achieve the advertising impression goal, wherein defining the display frequency comprises;

identifying, for the specific one or more target criteria, an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements as either a committed advertisement or a flexible advertisement;

upon identifying a first absolute weight for each committed advertisement and a relative weight for each flexible advertisement, defining a total flexible advertising inventory percentage as the difference between the sum of the first absolute weights for the committed advertisements and 100%;

defining a second absolute weight for each of the flexible advertisements based upon the relative weight of the flexible advertisements, the sum of the relative weights of the flexible advertisements, and the total flexible advertising inventory percentage; and

randomly selecting the advertisement based upon the first absolute weight of the committed advertisements and the second absolute weight of the flexible advertisements.

10. A computer program product comprised of a computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions for implementing the method in a system that includes at least one processor configured to display advertisements to a viewer at a frequency determined by the advertising plan, performing:

selecting, at a planning module, an advertising impression goal for a plurality of advertising campaigns, an advertising type and a weight for each of a plurality of advertisement contents displayed in association with the plurality of advertising campaigns, the advertising impression goal being specific to one or more target criteria

the planning module using the advertising impression goal for each of the plurality of advertising campaigns to create 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;

the planning module then updating a control module with the created display schedule for a plurality of advertisements,

whereupon the control module generates a data file defining, for each advertisement, the advertising type, weight, location, and schedule for display of the advertisement contents for the advertisement, and

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

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; and

upon retrieving at the control module the content for the advertisement, delivering the advertisement contents and the generated data file to at least one receiver module configured to display the advertisement contents of the advertisement in accordance with the data file, so that the advertising impression goal is accomplished, 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.