Systems and methods of contextual advertising

• US 8,156,005 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2008
• Issued: 04/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Braintexter Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Braintexter Incorporated
• Inventors: Vieri, Riccardo
• Primary Examiner(s): JOHNSON, GREGORY L
• Application Number:
  US12/206,864
• Publication Number:
  US 20090186635A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,309 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/14.64
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]

Abstract

A system of contextual advertising is disclosed. The system includes a message receiving module to receive a message from a sender and determine a recipient of the message. The system further includes an advertisement selection module to select an advertisement. The advertisement is selected based on at least one of a characteristic of the recipient, a characteristic of the sender, and a characteristic of the message. The system further includes a message delivery module to send the message to the recipient and an advertisement delivery module to send the advertisement to the sender.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a message receiving module to receive short messaging service (SMS) message data, wherein the SMS message data is received from a sender via a user interface associated with a particular website, and wherein the SMS message data is to be delivered to a recipient;

an advertisement selection module executable by the processor to;

identify data associated with an advertisement campaign, wherein the data includes at least one of a characteristic of the recipient, a characteristic of the sender, and a characteristic of the SMS message data;

determine whether the sender is classified as a frequent message sender based on a comparison of a total number of messages previously sent by the sender to a threshold number of messages;

determine whether the sender is classified as a frequent visitor to the particular website based on a comparison of a total number of previous visits to the particular website by the sender to a threshold number of website visits;

select an advertisement based on the identified data, based on whether the sender is classified as a frequent message sender, based on whether the sender is classified as a frequent visitor to the particular website, and based on at least a portion of the SMS message data; and

add the sender to an autoresponder cycle, wherein the autoresponder cycle results in presentation of a sequence of other advertisements to the sender, wherein the sequence is determined based at least in part on whether the sender is classified as a frequent message sender;

a message delivery module to send an SMS message to the recipient, wherein the SMS message includes the SMS message data; and

an advertisement delivery module to send the selected advertisement to the sender.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a voice recognition module responsive to the message receiving module.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement is further selected based on at least one characteristic of the sender that is determined based on information received from a service provider or information received from a sender device.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one characteristic of the sender includes at least one of a name, a location, an interest, a time zone, a type of network connection, a gender, a content of a visited website, and a social class.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the characteristic of the sender includes a climatic condition associated with a location of the sender.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement is further selected based on at least one characteristic of the recipient that is determined based on information received from a service provider or information received from a recipient device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one characteristic of the recipient includes at least one of a name, a location, an interest, a time zone, a type of network connection, a gender, a content of a visited website, and a social class.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the characteristic of the recipient includes a climatic condition associated with a location of the recipient.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the characteristic of the SMS message data includes at least one of text data, audio data, and video data.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the characteristic of the SMS message data further includes at least one of an Internet Protocol (IP) location, a time zone, and a connection type.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the message receiving module is adapted to communicate via at least one of a short message service (SMS) network, an Internet Protocol (IP) network, a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and a multimedia messaging service (MMS) network.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement selection module selects a pre-recorded advertisement.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement selection module selects the advertisement according to a template, wherein the template is populated with data including at least one of text data, audio data, and video data provided by an advertiser.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the template includes one or more avatars, wherein each of the one or more avatars comprises a graphical representation of a character that is adapted to present the selected advertisement to the sender.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising an advertisement feedback module to receive feedback information related to interaction of the sender with the selected advertisement.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a text-to-speech (TTS) module adapted to convert the SMS message to a voice message; and

wherein the message delivery module is adapted to deliver the voice message to the recipient.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected advertisement is further selected based on a number of messages previously sent to the recipient.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected advertisement is further selected based on a number of messages previously sent to the recipient by the sender.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the sequence is further determined based on whether the sender is classified as a frequent visitor to the particular website.

20. A method, comprising:

receiving short messaging service (SMS) message data by a server, wherein the SMS message data is received from a sender via a user interface associated with a particular website, and wherein the SMS message data is to be delivered to a recipient;

identifying, by the server, data associated with an advertisement campaign, wherein the data includes at least one of a characteristic of the recipient, a characteristic of the sender, and a characteristic of the SMS message data;

determining whether the sender is classified as a frequent message sender based on a comparison of a total number of messages previously sent by the sender to a threshold number of messages;

determining whether the sender is classified as a frequent visitor to the particular website based on a comparison of a total number of previous visits to the particular website by the sender to a threshold number of website visits;

generating, by the server, an advertisement based on the identified data, based on whether the sender is classified as a frequent message sender, based on whether the sender is classified as a frequent visitor to the particular website, and based on at least a portion of the SMS message data;

sending the advertisement from the server to the sender;

sending an SMS message from the server to the recipient, wherein the SMS message includes the SMS message data; and

adding the sender to an autoresponder cycle, wherein the autoresponder cycle results in presentation of a sequence of other advertisements to the sender, wherein the sequence is determined based at least in part on whether the sender is classified as a frequent visitor to the particular website.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the advertisement comprises at least an audio portion.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the audio portion is generated by a text-to-speech (TTS) module.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the advertisement further comprises at least one of a video portion and a text portion.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the TTS module identifies a language associated with the SMS message data and generates the audio portion based on the identified language.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the identified language is one of a plurality of languages, and the TTS module uses a distinct voice to generate speech for each of the plurality of languages.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein sending the advertisement from the server to the sender comprises sending the advertisement after the sender performs an action.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the action comprises a mouse movement near a top corner of a window.

28. The method of claim 20, wherein the advertisement and the SMS message are sent at substantially the same time.

29. The method of claim 20, wherein sending the advertisement from the server to the sender occurs after sending the SMS message to the recipient.

30. The method of claim 20, wherein sending the advertisement from the server to the sender occurs after receiving a delivery confirmation message confirming delivery of the SMS message to the recipient.

31. The method of claim 20, wherein the user interface is associated with a web page, the method further comprising parsing the SMS message data to determine whether the SMS message data includes text that matches at least one word displayed on the web page, wherein the web page is adapted to display the advertisement upon the sender mousing over the at least one word.

32. The method of claim 20, further comprising assigning credits to the sender in the form of free SMS messages or reduced fee SMS messages in response to determining that the sender is classified as a frequent message sender.

33. The method of claim 20, wherein the sequence is further determined based on whether the sender is classified as a frequent message sender.

34. The method of claim 20, further comprising receiving feedback information related to interaction of the sender with the advertisement.

35. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

upon receiving the SMS message data at the server, generating a send confirmation query and a generic send confirmation advertisement;

sending the send confirmation query and the generic send confirmation advertisement from the server to the sender; and

upon receiving an affirmative response from the sender to the send confirmation query, sending the advertisement from the server to the sender and sending the SMS message from the server to the recipient, wherein the advertisement is different from the generic send confirmation advertisement.

36. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

converting the SMS message to a voice message using a text-to-speech (TTS) module; and

sending the voice message from the server to the recipient.

37. The method of claim 20, wherein the characteristic of the sender includes a climatic condition associated with a location of the sender.

38. The method of claim 20, wherein the characteristic of the recipient includes a climatic condition associated with a location of the recipient.