System and method for providing print advertisements

• US 7,949,560 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2007
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Arias, Ana, Chow, Celia, Bringans, Ross, Begole, Bo, Weinerth, David, Lee, Lawrence, Mosko, Marc, Mulhern, Susan (Susie), Jacobson, Linda, Fahey, Lisa, Bruce, Richard H., Peeters, Eric, Parekh, Nitin
• Primary Examiner(s): Weiss; John G
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHORNESKY, ADAM B
• Application Number:
  US11/818,327
• Publication Number:
  US 20080313035A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,441 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.49, 705/14.71, 705/10, 705/319, 705/14.39
• US Class Current: 705/14.39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A system and method for providing print advertisements is presented. A target audience is assembled from characteristics about readers. Advertising content is targeted to the target audience. The characteristics of the target audience are analyzed against the advertising content to identify potential advertisers. At least one of the potential advertisers is selected. At least one print advertisement for the selected advertiser is included on the document.

Claims

1. A system for providing print advertisements, comprising:

a database to assemble a target audience in a storage, wherein members of the target audience are either an individual or part of a social group of demographically similar individuals who are engaged in pursuing a common activity, and to store characteristics of each member of the target audience obtained for the expressed purpose of targeting advertising to that member;

an advertising server to target advertising content to the target audience, comprising;

a selector to retrieve from the storage the advertising content comprising advertisements provided by one or more potential advertisers;

an analyzer to match the characteristics of the target audience using the processor against the advertising content and ranking the potential advertisers based on the matchings of their advertising content, wherein the selector selects at least one of the top ranked potential advertisers;

a merger to select one or more advertisements using the processor for the selected advertiser; and

an incentivizer to intercept a print request for a document that was initiated by the target audience from a private printing device available for local printing only by the members of the target audience and to prompt the target audience for inclusion of the selected advertisements, wherein the merger includes the selected advertisements upon receipt of an acceptance by the target audience with other content on the document; and

an output device to physically print the document on the printing device to the members of the target audience.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the print advertisements are placed between a printing request for and printing of the document.

3. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a payment module to apply a payment model to recoup compensation for inclusion of the print advertisements from the selected advertiser.

4. A system according to claim 1,

wherein the incentivizer further incentivizes readers to make characteristics about themselves available.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein layout and printing services are provided as incentives to the target audience to reveal the characteristics of the readers who comprise that target audience.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein the readers comprises the target audience as a social group whose members each share at least one of the characteristics in common.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein remuneration is provided to a publisher of the document as recompense for inclusion of the print advertisements on the document.

8. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an auction server to run an auction between a plurality of the potential advertisers as the competition, wherein at least one of the potential advertisers who present a winning bid in the auction is selected.

9. A system according to claim 1, wherein the document is selected from a group comprising books, periodicals, magazines, catalogs, newsletters, documents, and writings, further comprising:

an evaluator to determine the print advertisements for placement in the document through the characteristics.

10. A system according to claim 1, wherein the characteristics are obtained from each reader by either actively querying the reader or passively collecting the characteristics from the reader.

11. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a filter to filter the advertising content against the characteristics of the target audience for appropriateness.

12. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a direct compensation payment model applied by paying compensation to an electronic marketplace based on publication of the document.

13. A system according to claim 12, wherein a commission is paid to a publisher of the document in exchange for the inclusion of the print advertisements.

14. A system according to claim 12, wherein the compensation is determined as a function of a number of the documents that are either distributed or printed.

15. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an indirect compensation payment model applied by paying compensation to an electronic marketplace at a time of redemption of the print advertisements by one or more of the readers in the target audience.

16. A system according to claim 15, wherein the redemption is selected from a group comprising a printed coupon, discount code, pre-made identifier, and Uniform Resource Locator.

17. A system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an online advertising server to provide Web-based targeting of the advertising content to the target audience in addition to the print advertisements.

18. A computer-implemented method for providing print advertisements, comprising:

assembling a target audience into a database in a storage using a processor wherein members of the target audience are either an individual or part of a social group of demographically similar individuals who are engaged in pursuing a common activity;

obtaining characteristics of each member of the target audience for the expressed purpose of targeting advertising to that member, wherein the characteristics are kept in the storage;

retrieving from the storage advertising content comprising advertisements provided by one or more potential advertisers;

targeting using the processor the advertising content to the target audience, comprising;

matching the characteristics of the target audience using the processor against the advertising content and ranking the potential advertisers based on the matchings of their advertising content;

selecting using the processor at least one of the top ranked potential advertisers; and

selecting one or more advertisements using the processor for the selected advertiser;

intercepting a print request for a document that was initiated by the target audience from a private printing device available for local printing only by the members of the target audience;

prompting the target audience for inclusion of the selected advertisements and including the selected advertisements using the processor upon receipt of an acceptance by the target audience with other content on the document; and

physically printing the document on the printing device to the members of the target audience.

19. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, further comprising:

placing the print advertisements using the processor between a printing request for and printing of the document.

20. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, further comprising:

applying a payment model using the processor to recoup compensation for inclusion of the print advertisements from the selected advertiser.

21. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, further comprising:

incentivizing readers using the processor to make characteristics about themselves available.

22. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, further comprising:

providing layout and printing services using the processor as incentives to the target audience to reveal the characteristics of the readers who comprise that target audience.

23. A computer-implemented method according to claim 22, wherein the readers comprises the target audience as a social group whose members each share at least one of the characteristics in common.

24. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, further comprising:

providing remuneration using the processor to a publisher of the document as recompense for inclusion of the print advertisements on the document.

25. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, further comprising:

running an auction using the processor between a plurality of the potential advertisers as the competition; and

selecting using the processor at least one of the potential advertisers who present a winning bid in the auction.

26. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, wherein the document is selected from a group comprising books, periodicals, magazines, catalogs, newsletters, documents, and writings, further comprising:

determining the print advertisements using the processor for placement in the document through the characteristics.

27. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, further comprising:

obtaining using the processor the characteristics from each reader by either actively querying the reader or passively collecting the characteristics from the reader.

28. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, further comprising:

filtering the advertising content using the processor against the characteristics of the target audience for appropriateness.

29. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, further comprising:

applying a direct compensation payment model using the processor by paying compensation to an electronic marketplace based on publication of the document.

30. A computer-implemented method according to claim 29, further comprising:

paying a commission to a publisher of the document using the processor in exchange for the inclusion of the print advertisements.

31. A computer-implemented method according to claim 29, further comprising:

determining the compensation using the processor as a function of a number of the documents that are either distributed or printed.

32. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, further comprising:

applying an indirect compensation payment model using the processor by paying compensation to an electronic marketplace at a time of redemption of the print advertisements by one or more of the readers in the target audience.

33. A computer-implemented method according to claim 32, wherein the redemption is selected from a group comprising a printed coupon, discount code, pre-made identifier, and Uniform Resource Locator.

34. A computer-implemented method according to claim 18, further comprising:

providing Web-based targeting of the advertising content using the processor to the target audience in addition to the print advertisements.

35. A computer-readable storage medium holding code for performing the computer-implemented method according to claim 18.

36. An apparatus for providing print advertisements, comprising:

means for assembling a target audience into a database in a storage using a processor wherein members of the target audience are either an individual or part of a social group whose members are of demographically similar individuals who are engaged in pursuing a common activity;

means for obtaining characteristics of each member of the target audience for the expressed purpose of targeting advertising to that member, wherein the characteristics are kept in the storage;

means for retrieving from the storage advertising content comprising advertisements provided by one or more potential advertisers;

means for targeting using the processor the advertising content to the target audience, comprising;

means for matching the characteristics of the target audience using the processor against the advertising content and ranking the potential advertisers based on the matchings of their advertising content;

means for selecting using the processor at least one of the top ranked potential advertisers; and

means for selecting one or more advertisements using the processor for the selected advertiser;

means for intercepting a print request for a document that was initiated by the target audience from a private printing device available for local printing only by the members of the target audience;

means for prompting the target audience for inclusion of the selected advertisements and means for including the selected advertisements using the processor upon receipt of an acceptance by the target audience with other content on the document; and

means for physically printing the document on the printing device to the members of the target audience.