Software program and method for providing promotions on a phone prior to call connection

• US 8,160,552 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2006
• Issued: 04/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Bevocal Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Stone, Kevin M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Afshar, Kamran
• Assistant Examiner(s): LAM, DUNG LE
• Application Number:
  US11/636,334
• Publication Number:
  US 20080139224A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,957 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.1, 455/466, 4554561-4566, 455/457, 379/114.13, 379/114.1, 379/114.12, 379/207.02, 379/207.03, 379/201.02, 379/207.11, 379/207.14
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates

Abstract

The present invention includes a method and software application for providing a promotion to a user on a phone. The software application resides on a user'"'"'s phone and “listens” for phone numbers dialed by a user. In response to the user dialing a phone number, the software determines whether a promotion or an offer for a promotion should be provided to the user. In response to determining to play or offer to play a promotion to the user, the software application on the phone effectively “intercepts” the call and plays to the user either a promotion or an offer to hear about a promotion prior to placing an outbound voice call. The software application may retrieve the promotion from local memory or may connect with a remote server to download an applicable promotion.

Claims

1. A method on a phone for providing a promotion to a user that has entered a command on the phone to place a call to a phone number, the method comprising:

listening on the phone for a command from a user to place a call to a phone number;

in response to the user entering such a command, performing the following;

prior to initiating an outbound call to the phone number, determining using software on the phone whether or not to provide a promotion to the user;

in response to determining not to provide a promotion, initiating an outbound call to the phone number;

in response to determining to provide a promotion to the user, providing the promotion to the user, wherein the promotion is provided prior to the phone initiating an outbound call to the phone number and wherein the promotion includes an offer to perform an alternate action;

in response to the user accepting such offer, initiating such alternate action on the phone instead of placing a call to the phone number; and

in respond to the user not accepting such offer, initiating an outbound voice call to the phone number.

2. The method for claim 1, wherein providing a promotion comprises providing a promotion for a business associated with the phone number dialed by the user.

3. The method for claim 2, wherein the promotion provides information about a product or service about the business.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the promotion provides information about a sale offered by the business.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion is provided in audio form on the phone by playing a voice prompt.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the promotion is also provided in visual form on the phone by displaying text describing the promotion on a user interface on the phone.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on user profile information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on user location.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on known user preferences.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on previous promotions offered the user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on previous phone numbers called by user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is paid for by an advertiser and wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on the advertiser that bid the most money for promotion placement.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on the called phone number.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to play a promotion to a user comprises determining whether the phone number is associated with a promotion.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining whether the phone number is associated with a promotion comprises communicating with a remote server to determine whether the phone number is associated with a promotion, and, if the phone number is associated with a promotion, downloading the promotion from the remote server.

16. A method on a phone for providing a promotion to a user that has entered a command on a phone to place a call to a phone number, the method comprising:

listening on the phone for a command from a user to place a call to a phone number;

in response to the user entering such a command, intercepting the call before it is placed and providing a locally-stored promotion to the user, wherein the promotion is provided prior to the phone initiating an outbound call to the phone number and wherein the promotion includes an offer to perform an alternate action;

in response to the user accepting such offer, initiating such alternate action on the phone instead of placing a call to the phone number; and

in response to the user not accepting such offer, placing an outbound voice call to the phone number dialed by the user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on user profile information.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on user location.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on known user preferences.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected based at least in part on previous promotions offered the user.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is select based at least in part on previous phone numbers called by the user.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is paid for by an advertiser and wherein the promotion provided to the user is selected at least in part based on the advertiser that bid the most money for promotion placement.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein the promotion provided to the user is based at least in part on the phone number.

24. A software program product embodied on a computer-readable storage medium and comprising code that, when executed by a processor on a phone, enables the phone to perform the following method:

listening on the phone for phone numbers dialed by a user on the phone;

in response to the user dialing a phone number, performing the following;

prior to initiating an outbound call to the phone number, determining using software on the phone whether or not to provide the user with a promotion;

in response to determining not to provide a promotion, placing an outbound call to the phone number;

in response to determining to provide the user with a promotion, providing the promotion to the user, wherein the promotion is provided prior to the phone placing the call to the dialed phone number and wherein the promotion includes an offer to perform an alternate action;

in response to the user accepting such offer, initiating such alternate action on the phone instead of placing a call to the phone number

in respond to the user not accepting such offer, placing an outbound voice call to the phone number dialed by the user.

25. A phone for providing a promotion to a user that has entered a command on the phone to place a call to a phone number, the phone comprising:

a keystroke event dispatcher that listens for keystroke events;

a dialer application that executes on the phone, that registers with the keystroke event dispatcher for keystroke events, and that initiates outbound calls;

an interceptor application that executes on the phone, that registers with the keystroke event dispatcher for keystroke events, and that (i) in response to receiving a keystroke event, determines whether or not the keystroke event is a command to place a call to a phone number, (ii) in response to determining that the keystroke event is a command to place a call to a phone number, determines whether or not the phone number is associated with a promotion, and (iii) in response to determining that the phone number is associated with a promotion, consumes the keystroke event before the event is propagated to the dialer application;

a promotion application that executes on the phone in response to being launched by the inceptor application and that, when launched, provides the user with a promotion, wherein the promotion application is launched by the interceptor application in response to the inceptor determining that the phone number is associated with a promotion; and

a processor for executing the keystroke event dispatcher, the dialer application, and the interceptor application, and the promotion application.

26. A method on a phone for providing a promotion to a user that has entered a command on the phone to place a call to the phone number, the method comprising:

listening on a phone for keystroke events;

providing keystroke events to an interceptor application that is executed by a processor on the phone and that determines if a keystroke event is a command to place a call to a phone number, wherein;

in response to the interceptor application determining that a keystroke event is not a command to place a call to a phone number, the interceptor application allows the keystroke event to propagate to one or more other applications executing on the phone that have registered for keystroke events;

in response to the interceptor application determining that a keystroke event is a command to place a call to a phone number, the interceptor application determines whether or not to provide the user with a promotion;

in response to the interceptor application determining not to offer the user a promotion, the interceptor application allows the event to be propagated to one or more other applications executing on the phone that have registered for keystroke events, including a dialer application that executes on the phone and that initiates outbound calls to dialed phone numbers;

in response to the interceptor application determining to offer the user a promotion, the interceptor application consumes the keystroke event so that it is not propagated to the dialer application and launches a promotion application on the phone;

in response to being launched, the promotion application provides a promotion to the user, wherein the promotion includes an offer to perform an alternate action;

in response to the user accepting the offer, the promotion application initiates the alternate action; and

in response to the user not accepting the offer, the dialer application places an outbound call to the phone number.