Multi-market broadcast tracking, management and reporting method and system

• US 7,624,409 B2
• Filed: 10/18/2002
• Issued: 11/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US), LLC
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Whymark, Thomas J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller; John W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Montoya; Oschta
• Application Number:
  US10/274,018
• Publication Number:
  US 20040025177A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,594 Days
• Field of Search: 725/32, 725/34
• US Class Current: 725/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26208 the scheduling operation being performed under constraints
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309

Abstract

A method for confirming and reporting on fulfilled and unfulfilled advertising orders includes assigning unique identifiers to a plurality of commercial advertisements, recording information regarding the plurality of commercial advertisements and the respective unique identifiers in a computer database, receiving electronic detections of a plurality of actual market-broadcast instances of a commercial advertisement from a plurality of broadcast markets, recording information regarding the detections in a computer database, associating related ones of the plurality of actual market-broadcast instances of the commercial advertisement in a computer database, the related ones of the actual market-broadcast instances being from a plurality of broadcast markets and being related to a common featured program broadcast in the plurality of broadcast markets, recording information regarding a plurality of multi-market broadcast orders of commercial advertisements in a computer database, and associating the associated related actual market-broadcast instances of the commercial advertisement with a related multi-market broadcast order for the commercial advertisement in a computer database, the multi-market broadcast order comprising the plurality of broadcast markets.

Claims

1. A method of analyzing multi-market broadcasts of commercial advertisements, comprising:

assigning unique identifiers to a plurality of commercial advertisements;

recording information regarding said plurality of commercial advertisements and said respective unique identifiers in a computer database;

receiving electronic detections of a plurality of actual market-broadcast instances of at least one of the plurality of commercial advertisements, said plurality of actual market-broadcast instances comprising a plurality of broadcast markets, and each of said actual market-broadcast instances associated with an actual broadcast time;

recording information regarding said detections in the computer database;

associating related ones of said plurality of actual market-broadcast instances of said at least one commercial advertisement in the computer database, said related ones of said actual market-broadcast instances comprising a plurality of broadcast markets;

recording information regarding a plurality of multi-market broadcast orders of commercial advertisements in the computer database; and

associating said associated related actual market-broadcast instances of said at least one commercial advertisement with a related one of the plurality of multi-market broadcast orders for said at least one commercial advertisement in the computer database having a direct match of the assigned unique identifiers, and generating a subset of said associated related actual market-broadcast instances of said at least one commercial advertisement having an imprecise match of the assigned unique identifiers.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein said related ones of said actual market-broadcast instances are related to a common featured program broadcast in said plurality of broadcast markets.

3. A computer-implemented method of analyzing advertisements broadcast in multiple markets comprising:

receiving a broadcast market order comprising a set of flight information parameters to verify order fulfillment with at least one detection device;

monitoring a plurality of broadcast markets to detect a plurality of advertisements with the at least one detection device, each of the plurality of advertisements comprising at least one unique identifier and an actual broadcast time; and

generating a first set of the detected plurality of advertisements with the broadcast market order in accordance with a direct match of the set of flight information parameters and the at least one unique identifier, and generating a second set of the detected plurality of advertisements having a partial match between the set of flight information parameters and the at least one unique identifier, the first and second sets stored in a computer database.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the broadcast market order comprises a first set of advertisements from the plurality of advertisements, the first set comprising advertisements having identical unique identifiers.

5. A method as defined in claim 4, further comprising associating the first set of advertisements with a first anchor detection record.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein the broadcast count is incremented upon detection of an advertisement associated with the first anchor detection record.

7. A method as defined in claim 5, further comprising creating a second anchor detection record when one of the plurality of advertisements detected is associated with a second set of advertisements.

8. A method as defined in claim 7, wherein the second set of advertisements are associated with a second broadcast market order.

9. A method as defined in claim 3, further comprising generating a plurality of subsets of the set of flight information parameters, each of the plurality of subsets of flight information parameters associated with a secondary parameter that, when detected, confirms a match between at least one of the detected advertisements having the partial match with the set of flight information parameters and the broadcast market order.

10. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the set of flight information comprises a first industry standard commercial identifier (ISCI) code, and the secondary parameters comprises a second ISCI code.

11. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the second ISCI code is within an ISCI group of the first ISCI code.

12. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the set of flight information comprises a first advertisement duration, and the secondary parameter comprises a second advertisement duration that is at least one of greater-than or less-than the first advertisement duration.

13. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the set of flight information comprises a first from-time, and the secondary parameter comprises a second from-time that is at least one of greater than or less than the first from-time.

14. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the set of flight information parameters comprises at least one of a client name, an agency name, a call letter code, an industry standard commercial identifier (ISCI) code, an ISCI group, a from-time, a to-time, a from-allowance, or a to-allowance.

15. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the partial match with the set of flight information parameters comprises detecting at least one of a dissimilar client name, a dissimilar agency name, a dissimilar call letter code, a dissimilar industry standard commercial identifier code, a dissimilar from-time, a dissimilar to-time, a dissimilar from-allowance, or a dissimilar to-allowance.

16. A computer-implemented method to qualify anchor detection records comprising:

receiving a plurality of advertisements associated with an actual broadcast time and storing the plurality of advertisements in a computer database, at least some of the plurality of advertisements comprising embedded flight information parameters;

associating related ones of the received plurality of advertisements in the computer database with an anchor detection record, each related one of the received plurality of advertisements to increment a broadcast count to verify order fulfillment with a detection device when a set of flight information parameters associated with a market order directly matches the embedded flight information parameters;

generating a subset of the received plurality of advertisements to be stored in the computer database, wherein the embedded flight information parameters imprecisely match the set of flight information parameters associated with the market order; and

qualifying the anchor detection record based on the broadcast count.

17. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the anchor detection record is qualified when the broadcast count exceeds a minimum value.

18. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein the qualified anchor detection record is associated with at least one of a geographic market, a distributor code, a national call letter code, a local time, or a date.

19. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein qualifying the anchor detection record further comprises removing the anchor detection record when the broadcast count is below a minimum value.

20. A method as defined in claim 16, further comprising generating a plurality of subsets of the set of flight information parameters associated with the market order, each of the plurality of subsets associated with a secondary parameter that, when detected, confirms a match between at least one of the plurality of advertisements having the imprecise match with the set of flight information parameters and the market order.

21. A method to verify advertisement fulfillment in multiple markets comprising:

receiving an advertisement broadcast order comprising a set of flight information parameters;

monitoring a plurality of broadcast markets with at least one detection device to detect a plurality of advertisements, each of the plurality of advertisements comprising encoded parameters to identify the advertisement;

generating a detection table comprising the detected encoded parameters and local market parameters indicative of each one of the plurality of broadcast markets in which the advertisement is detected;

comparing the set of flight information parameters with the detection table to identify a first set of advertisements from the plurality of detected advertisements having a direct match between the set of flight information parameters and the detection table; and

identifying a second set of advertisements from the plurality of detected advertisements having a partial match between the set of flight information parameters and the detection table.

22. A method as defined in claim 21, further comprising generating a subset of the flight information parameters associated with at least one secondary parameter that, when detected, confirms a match between at least one of the second set of advertisements associated with the partial match.