Using consumer purchase behavior for television targeting

• US 8,000,993 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2009
• Issued: 08/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kantar LLC
• Original Assignee: TRA Incorporated
• Inventors: Canning, Brian P., Lieberman, Mark, Harvey, William Morris, Despain, Gerald Leo, Bochman, Pavel
• Primary Examiner(s): Boswell; Beth V
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHONG CRUZ, NADJA N
• Application Number:
  US12/632,470
• Publication Number:
  US 20100161492A1
• Time in Patent Office: 617 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.29, 705/7.38
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic

Abstract

In various embodiments, strategies, tools and techniques are provided for processing and analyzing data in an advertising measurement system accessible through a software-as-a-service model or a client-downloaded computer program. The system may be configured to receive and process household media exposure data, product purchase data, advertising data, program data, and demographic data, wherein the data may be obtained from various sources, including from a program delivery source (e.g., a television set-top box) located in a household of a consumer. The data may be matched and cross-correlated for calculating return on advertising investment measurements and other metrics. The data may be used to optimize media placement generally or to address advertising content to specific households. Methods for storing and accessing data in the advertising measurement system by distributing the data across multiple shards are also provided. In addition, methods for protecting privacy of communicated data are disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system for facilitating analysis of consumer behavior in association with advertising exposure or program delivery, the system comprising:

an advertising measurement system including at least one electronic computer processor configured for;

collecting clickstream data from a program delivery source of a consumer, wherein collecting the clickstream data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected clickstream data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

(ii) collecting advertising data associated with delivery of the program by the program delivery source, wherein collecting the advertising data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected advertising data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

(iii) collecting programming data associated with the program delivered on the program delivery source, wherein collecting the programming data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected programming data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

(iv) collecting purchase data from a purchase data source, wherein collecting the purchase data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected purchase data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households; and

(v) matching at least portions of the collected advertising data, the collected clickstream data, the collected purchase data, and the collected programming data at a household data level;

wherein the collected data include a first identifier associated with the household assigned to the program delivery source;

a module configured to use a thesaurus for;

(i) producing data from the collected data without personally identifiable information, and

(ii) indexing the produced data with a second identifier, wherein the thesaurus relates each first identifier of each household to the second identifier;

at least one electronic data storage medium operatively associated with the computer processor, the data storage medium configured for storing the matched advertising data, clickstream data, purchase data, and programming data;

a module programmed for applying at least one cleansing and editing algorithm to the matched data or the stored data; and

a module programmed for calculating at least one return on investment metric or true target index metric based on the matched or stored data.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a list matcher configured to;

receive data communicated in parallel from the one or more data sources, the communicated data comprising at least personally identifiable information associated with the household and the first identifier associated with the household assigned by the data source;

generate the thesaurus relating each first identifier associated with the household to the second identifier; and

send the thesaurus to the module configured to use the thesaurus.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the thesaurus is configured for relating an account number identifier to at least one other account number identifier associated with the same household across multiple data sources.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a module configured for matching purchase data with programming data received from the data sources at a household data level.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a module configured for matching purchase data with advertising data received from the data sources at a household data level.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the identifiers includes an encryption key.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the programming data includes program data.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the programming data includes network data.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the programming data includes daypart data.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising measurement system is further configured for collecting clickstream data associated with a television.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising a module programmed for communicating at least one commercial to a video-on-demand (VOD) system in association with at least a portion of the matched data or the stored data.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the commercial includes an addressable commercial.

7. A computer-implemented method for facilitating analysis of consumer behavior in association with advertising exposure or program delivery, the method comprising:

collecting in an advertising measurement system;

(i) clickstream data from a program delivery source of a consumer, wherein collecting the clickstream data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected clickstream data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

(ii) advertising data associated with delivery of the program by the program delivery source, wherein collecting the advertising data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected advertising data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

(iii) programming data associated with the program delivered on the program delivery source, wherein collecting the programming data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected programming data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households; and

,

(iv) purchase data from a purchase data source, wherein collecting the purchase data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected purchase data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

matching at least portions of the collected advertising data, the collected clickstream data, the collected purchase data, and the collected programming data in the advertising measurement system at a household data level with at least one electronic computer processor configured for processing data received from the program delivery source, the advertising data source, the programming data source, and the purchase data source, wherein the matching further includes;

receiving data including a first identifier associated with the household assigned by the data source, and

(ii) electronically using a thesaurus for;

producing data without personally identifiable information, and

indexing the produced data by a second identifier, wherein the thesaurus relates each first identifier of the household to the second identifier;

storing the matched advertising data, clickstream data, purchase data, and programming data in at least one electronic data storage medium operatively associated with the computer processor;

applying at least one cleansing and editing algorithm to the matched data or the stored data; and

,

calculating at least one return on investment metric or true target index metric based on the matched or stored data.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving data communicated in parallel from the one or more data sources, the communicated data comprising at least personally identifiable information associated with the household and the first identifier associated with the household assigned by the data source; and

,

generating the thesaurus for relating each first identifier associated with the household to the second identifier.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising using the thesaurus for relating an account number identifier to at least one other account number identifier associated with the same household across multiple data sources.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising matching purchase data with programming data received from the data sources at a household data level.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising matching purchase data with advertising data received from the data sources at a household data level.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of the identifiers includes an encryption key.

20. The method of claim 7, wherein the programming data includes program data.

21. The method of claim 7, wherein the programming data includes network data.

22. The method of claim 7, wherein the programming data includes daypart data.

23. The method of claim 7, further comprising collecting clickstream data associated with a television.

24. The method of claim 7, further comprising communicating at least one commercial to a video-on-demand (VOD) system in association with at least a portion of the matched data or the stored data.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the commercial includes an addressable commercial.

19. A computer-implemented system for facilitating analysis of consumer behavior in association with advertising exposure or program delivery, the system comprising:

an advertising measurement system including at least one electronic computer processor configured for;

(i) collecting clickstream data from a program delivery source of a consumer, wherein collecting the clickstream data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected clickstream data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

(ii) collecting advertising data associated with delivery of the program by the program delivery source, wherein collecting the advertising data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected advertising data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

(iii) collecting programming data associated with the program delivered on the program delivery source, wherein collecting the programming data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected programming data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

(iv) collecting purchase data from a purchase data source, wherein collecting the purchase data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected purchase data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households; and

(v) matching at least portions of the collected advertising data, the collected clickstream data, the collected purchase data, and the collected programming data at a household data level;

a module configured for;

(i) collecting data associated with at least one household opted into allowing tuning data associated with the household to be collected; and

(ii) processing personally identifiable information associated with the opted-into household;

at least one electronic data storage medium operatively associated with the computer processor, the data storage medium configured for storing the matched advertising data, clickstream data, purchase data, and programming data;

a module programmed for applying at least one cleansing and editing algorithm to the matched data or the stored data; and

a module programmed for calculating at least one return on investment metric or true target index metric based on the matched or stored data.

26. A computer-implemented method for facilitating analysis of consumer behavior in association with advertising exposure or program delivery, the method comprising:

collecting in an advertising measurement system;

(i) clickstream data from a program delivery source of a consumer, wherein collecting the clickstream data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected clickstream data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

(ii) advertising data associated with delivery of the program by the program delivery source, wherein collecting the advertising data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected advertising data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

(iii) programming data associated with the program delivered on the program delivery source, wherein collecting the programming data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected programming data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households; and

,

(iv) purchase data from a purchase data source, wherein collecting the purchase data is not dependent on a supplemental data collection device, and also wherein the collected purchase data includes household level data associated with multiple consumer households;

matching at least portions of the collected advertising data, the collected clickstream data, the collected purchase data, and the collected programming data in the advertising measurement system at a household data level with at least one electronic computer processor configured for processing data received from the program delivery source, the advertising data source, the programming data source, and the purchase data source, wherein the matching further includes;

(i) collecting data associated with at least one household opted into allowing tuning data associated with the household to be collected; and

(ii) processing personally identifiable information associated with the opted-into household;

storing the matched advertising data, clickstream data, purchase data, and programming data in at least one electronic data storage medium operatively associated with the computer processor;

applying at least one cleansing and editing algorithm to the matched data or the stored data; and

,

calculating at least one return on investment metric or true target index metric based on the matched or stored data.