Service to push author-spoken audio content with targeted audio advertising to users

• US 7,904,505 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2005
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rakers, Matthew A., Dunmire, David L., Novack, Brian M.
• Primary Examiner(s): WON, MICHAEL YOUNG
• Application Number:
  US11/265,771
• Publication Number:
  US 20070097975A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,952 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/226, 709/228, 725/18
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/46 for recognising users' preferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6137 involving transmission via a telephone network, e.g. POTS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

An audio content item, submitted by and spoken in a voice of an author, is received and registered along with an insertion point and associated content information. An audio advertisement submitted by an advertiser is received and registered. At least one targeting criterion is associated with the audio advertisement. User information and at least one content pushing criterion are stored for a user. Without being selected by the user, the audio content item is automatically selected for pushing to the user based on the content information satisfying the at least one content pushing criterion. The audio advertisement is automatically selected for insertion at the insertion point based on the content information and the user information satisfying the at least one targeting criteria. A package that includes the audio content item with the audio advertisement inserted at the insertion point is created and pushed to the user.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one audio content registry component to receive an audio content item submitted by and spoken in a voice of an author of the audio content item, to register the audio content item, to receive and store an indication of an insertion point for an audio advertisement in the audio content item, and to receive and store content information associated with the audio content item, wherein the at least one audio content registry component comprises an interactive voice response (IVR) unit which provides options for the author to record the audio content item and to indicate the insertion point within a telephone call;

at least one audio advertising registry component to receive the audio advertisement from an advertiser, to receive and store at least one targeting criterion associated with the audio advertisement, and to register the audio advertisement for insertion into one or more audio content items based on the at least one targeting criterion;

a user profile component to store user information and at least one content pushing criterion for a user, the at least one content pushing criterion specified by the user;

a download packager to automatically select the audio content item for pushing to the user in response to determining that the content information satisfies the at least one content pushing criterion, the download packager to automatically insert the audio advertisement in the insertion point based on the content information and based on the user information satisfying the at least one targeting criterion, the download packager to create a package that includes the audio content item with the audio advertisement inserted at the insertion point; and

a push component to automatically push the package to the user without the user selecting the audio content item.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the IVR unit further provides an option for the author to input the content information within the telephone call.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the IVR unit further provides an option for the author to indicate a start time at which the audio content item is made available for pushing to users.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the IVR unit further provides an option for the author to indicate an end time at which the audio content item is no longer available for pushing to users.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one audio content registry component stores author preferences for the author, the author preferences comprising a first set of preferences when submitting audio content from a computer and a second set of preferences when submitting audio content by telephone to the IVR unit.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one audio advertising registry component comprises an interactive voice response (IVR) unit which provides an option for the advertiser to record the audio advertisement within a telephone call.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the IVR unit further provides an option for the advertiser to input the at least one targeting criterion within the telephone call.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the at least one audio advertising registry component stores advertiser preferences for the advertiser, the advertiser preferences comprising a first set of preferences when submitting audio advertising from a computer and a second set of preferences when submitting audio advertising by telephone to the IVR unit.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one targeting criterion comprises a criterion to exclude the audio advertisement from insertion into audio content based on the content information or based on an advertiser profile.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one targeting criterion comprises a criterion to insert the audio advertisement into the audio content item based on a data element associated with the advertiser in a Yellow Pages database matching a term in the content information.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the criterion is to insert the audio advertisement into the audio content item based on a category of the advertiser in the Yellow Pages database matching the term in the content information.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one targeting criterion comprises a criterion to insert the audio advertisement into the audio content item based on a data element associated with the advertiser in a Yellow Pages database matching a term in the user information.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the criterion is to insert the audio advertisement into the audio content item based on a category of the advertiser in the Yellow Pages database matching the term in the user information.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one targeting criterion comprises a criterion to insert the audio advertisement into the audio content item based on a location of the advertiser in a Yellow Pages database being proximate to a location of the user.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one audio content registry component comprises a registry of a first plurality of audio content items submitted by a plurality of authors and a second plurality of audio content items discovered by a content discovery component based on an Internet search.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising a registry maintenance component to automatically remove objectionable audio content items and no-longer-existent audio content items from the registry.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the package is pushed to the user via at least one of a digital subscriber line and a wireless data network.

18. A method comprising:

receiving an audio content item submitted by and spoken in a voice of an author of the audio content item;

registering the audio content item;

storing an indication of an insertion point for the audio content item in response to receiving the indication of the insertion point from the author, wherein an interactive voice response (IVR) unit provides options for the author to record the audio content item and to indicate the insertion point within a telephone call;

receiving and storing content information associated with the audio content item in response to receiving the content information from the author;

registering an audio advertisement in response to receiving the audio advertisement from an advertiser;

receiving and storing at least one targeting criterion associated with the audio advertisement in response to receiving the at least one targeting criterion from the advertiser;

storing user information and at least one content pushing criterion for a user, the at least one content pushing criterion specified by the user;

automatically selecting the audio content item for pushing to the user based on the content information satisfying the at least one content pushing criterion;

automatically selecting the audio advertisement for insertion at the insertion point based on the content information and based on the user information satisfying the at least one targeting criterion;

creating a package that includes the audio content item with the audio advertisement inserted at the insertion point; and

automatically pushing the package to the user without the user selecting the audio content item.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable program instructions that are executable by a computer to cause the computer to:

receive an audio content item submitted by and spoken in a voice of an author of the audio content item;

store an indication of an insertion point for the audio content item in response to receiving the indication of the insertion point from the author, wherein an interactive voice response (IVR) unit provides options for the author to record the audio content item and to indicate the insertion point within a telephone call;

store content information associated with the audio content item in response to receiving the content information from the author;

register an audio advertisement in response to receiving the audio advertisement from an advertiser;

store at least one targeting criterion associated with the audio advertisement in response to receiving the at least one targeting criterion from the advertiser;

store user information and at least one content pushing criterion for a user, the at least one content pushing criterion specified by the user;

automatically select the audio content item for pushing to the user based on the content information satisfying the at least one content pushing criterion;

automatically select the audio advertisement for insertion at the insertion point based on the content information and based on the user information satisfying the at least one targeting criterion;

create a package that includes the audio content item with the audio advertisement inserted at the insertion point; and

automatically push the package to the user without the user selecting the audio content item.