Method for providing personalized, targeted advertisements during playback of media

• US 8,060,407 B1
• Filed: 09/04/2007
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Norris, James W., Gailloux, Michael A., Delker, Jason R., Everson, John M., Nichols, Jarrod A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Casler; Traci
• Application Number:
  US11/850,029
• Time in Patent Office: 1,533 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.61, 705/14.68
• US Class Current: 705/14.68
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A media player is provided. The media player comprises a communications interface, a memory store containing a plurality of personalized advertisements, and a media playback component. The targeted advertisements are refreshed by receiving updates from the communications interface during some of the intervals when the media player is connected to a network. The targeted advertisements are indexed by a plurality of characteristics, the first characteristic being a creation date of the targeted advertisements. The media playback component is configured to play a media content, wherein the media content is stored separately from the targeted advertisements, and to play one of the targeted advertisements in the memory store selected based on the characteristics of the one of the targeted advertisements.

Claims

1. A media player, comprising:

a communications interface;

a memory store containing a plurality of personalized advertisements, wherein the personalized advertisements are refreshed by receiving updates from the communications interface during intervals of connection with a network, and wherein the personalized advertisements are indexed by a plurality of characteristics, at least one of the characteristics being a creation date of the personalized advertisements; and

a media playback component, stored in a non-transitory computer readable media and executable by a processor, configured to play a media content, wherein the media content is stored separately from the personalized advertisements and the media content comprises an embedded advertisement and an embedded metatag associated with the embedded advertisement, and the media playback component further configured to play one of the personalized advertisements in the memory store selected based on the characteristics of the one of the personalized advertisements instead of the embedded advertisement when the metatag associated with the embedded advertisement is encountered during playback of the media content and the media playback component determines that the embedded advertisement is outdated, wherein the media playback component is further configured to play the one of the personalized advertisements during an interval of disconnection from the network.

2. The media player of claim 1, wherein the personalized advertisements are received in a plurality of segments, and wherein the segments are received at different times.

3. The media player of claim 1, wherein the plurality of characteristics include one or more of an advertisement subject, an advertisement media format, an advertisement play length, and a playback history, wherein the playback history of each advertisement identifies how often the advertisement has been played on the media player, the time of the advertisement was last played on the media player, and the number of times the media player has fast-forwarded through the advertisement.

4. The media player of claim 3, wherein the characteristics of each advertisement are stored with the advertisement in the memory store.

5. The media player of claim 1, wherein at least some of the personalized advertisements are refreshed daily, provided that connection with a network occurs at least daily.

6. The media player of claim 1, wherein the media player is configured to track user responses to the playing of the personalized advertisements and to transmit a report of user responses.

7. The media player of claim 1, wherein the embedded metatag designates a characteristic of an advertisement to play.

8. The media player of claim 7, wherein the media playback component selects the one of the personalized advertisements in the memory store based on the characteristics of the one of the personalized advertisements matching the characteristic of an advertisement to play designated in the embedded metatag.

9. The media player of claim 8, wherein the characteristic of the metatag designates at least one of a subject category, a brand name, an age bracket, an income bracket, a regional designation, a sex, an education level, and a demographic signature.

10. The media player of claim 1, wherein the media playback component is further configured to:

create a 9 log of a control input received by the media player while playing the sele10cted one of the personalized advertisements in the memory store, and

transmit the log to a server during an interval that the media player is connected to the network.

11. The media player of claim 1, wherein the media content is one of a multimedia content, a television show, a digital video disk, a video game disk, an on-line game, a compact disk audio recording, a streaming video, a radio broadcast, and an audio recording file.

12. The media player of claim 1, wherein the media content is advertisement linked content, wherein the media playback component is further configured to play a second one of the personalized advertisements stored in the memory store based on reading an advertisement trigger while playing the media content, wherein the media playback component is further configured to select the second one of the personalized advertisements based on an association between the media content and the second one of the personalized advertisements, wherein the media playback component is further configured to pause the playing of the media content during the playing of the second one of the personalized advertisements, and wherein the media playback component is further configured to ignore control inputs to stop, fast forward through, and skip over the second one of the personalized advertisements during the playing of the second one of the personalized advertisements.

13. The media player of claim 1, wherein plurality of personalized advertisements are stored in the memory store over a plurality of separate network connectivity sessions.

14. The media player of claim 13, wherein the memory store further configured to store a second plurality of personalized advertisements received via the network over a plurality of separate network sessions, wherein the second plurality of personalized advertisements replace some of the plurality of personalized advertisements.