Interactive marketing system using short text messages

• US 8,249,920 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2001
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zyzeba Holding Limited
• Original Assignee: Zyzeba Holding Limited
• Inventors: Smith, Glen David
• Primary Examiner(s): Lastra, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US10/240,775
• Publication Number:
  US 20040034561A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,156 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/14.1
• US Class Current: 705/14.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0245 Surveys
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 19/00 Advertising or display means not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 27/00 Combined visual and audible advertising or displaying, e.g. for public address
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

An interactive direct response system combines the use of short text message systems (SMS) via cell phones (100) with a database (102) and website to enable advertisers to view in real time customer responses to a direct response campaign. Customers are invited to respond to a defined advertisement on for example a billboard by responding to a single telephone number associated with the website by sending a text message linked to that particular advertisement, i.e. a single word (104,106). A computer receives and analyses the responses and sends an acknowledgement message to the customer.

Claims

1. An interactive system utilizing short text messages transmitted by Short Message Service (SMS), the interactive system comprising:

(a) a plurality of separate advertisements each advertising by non-SMS means an identical product or service and each inviting one or more participants to respond via a cell phone to a predetermined phone number common to all of the advertisements, wherein each advertisement requests the one or more participants to respond to the advertisement by texting to the predetermined phone number a different predetermined SMS short text message having distinct content that identifies the predetermined SMS short text message as being a response to one of the advertisements and not the other advertisements; and

(b) a computer system for receiving a short text message sent from the one or more participants via SMS to the predetermined phone number in response to the plurality of advertisements, the computer system adapted to identify the received short text message as being in response to a particular one of the advertisements by searching a content of the received short text message and identifying at least a portion of the distinct content associated with at least one of the advertisements in the content of the received short text message, and wherein the computer system is constructed and arranged to send an automated short text message reply via SMS to the cell phone in response to receiving the received short text message.

2. The interactive system of claim 1, wherein the automated short text message reply directs a recipient to access a preselected website.

3. The interactive system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is adapted to select from a plurality of different preselected reply messages to send as the automated short text message reply based on the distinct content identified in the received short text message.

4. The interactive system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is adapted to record information obtained from the received short text message in a database, the recorded information including at least a phone number associated with the cell phone.

5. The interactive system of claim 1, wherein the computer system is adapted to compare the received short text message with one or more reference records and identify the received short text message as being associated with a particular advertising campaign selected from a plurality of advertising campaigns depending upon which of the one or more reference records the received short text message at least partially matches.

6. An interactive system utilizing Short Message Service (SMS) short text messages, the interactive system comprising:

(a) a first advertisement and a second advertisement each advertising an identical product or service via non-SMS based media, wherein each advertisement invites one or more participants to respond via a cell phone to a single predetermined phone number, wherein each advertisement includes distinct content not present in the other advertisement, and wherein each advertisement includes instructions requesting the one or more participants to respond to the advertisement by sending a predetermined SMS short text message to the single predetermined phone number; and

(b) a computer system for receiving a short text message sent from the one or more participants by SMS to the predetermined phone number, the computer system adapted to identify the received short text message as being in response to either the first advertisement or the second advertisement and not the other advertisement by searching a content of the received short text message and locating at least a portion of the distinct content associated with the first or second advertisement which the responder is responding to in the content of the received short text message.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the distinct content of the first advertisement indicates that the first advertisement was presented in a first predetermined area and wherein the distinct content of the second advertisement indicates that the second advertisement was presented in a second predetermined area different than the first predetermined area in which the first advertisement was presented.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the distinct content of the first advertisement indicates that the first advertisement was presented during a first predetermined time slot and wherein the distinct content of the second advertisement indicates that the second advertisement was presented during a second predetermined time slot different than the first predetermined time slot in which the first advertisement was presented.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the distinct content of the first advertisement indicates that the first advertisement was presented by a first advertising entity and wherein the distinct content of the second advertisement indicates that the second advertisement was presented by a second advertising entity separate from the first advertising entity.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the product or service is a polling service requesting a response to a survey question.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein the first advertisement is of a first type of media and the second advertisement is of a second type of media different than the first type of media.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first and second types of media are selected from a group consisting of television, radio, printed material, billboard, film, and internet.

13. The system of claim 6, wherein the computer system is constructed and arranged to automatically send a response via SMS to the received short text message containing additional information related to the product or service.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the response includes instructions to access an internet website related to the product or service.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the product or service is a polling service and the predetermined short text message includes an answer to a survey question, and wherein the computer system is adapted to automatically record a number of responses made by the one or more participants having a first predetermined answer and also record a number of responses made by the one or more participants having a second predetermined answer, and wherein the automatically sent response includes an indication of whether more respondents have answered the survey question with the first predetermined answer or the second predetermined answer.

16. The system of claim 6, further comprising a third advertisement advertising via non-SMS based media a different product or service than advertised by the first and second advertisements, wherein the third advertisement invites one or more participants to respond via a cell phone to the single predetermined phone number, wherein the third advertisement includes distinct content not present in the first or second advertisements, and wherein the computer system is adapted to identify the received short text message as being in response to either the first, second, or third advertisement and not the other advertisements by searching the content of the received short text message and locating at least a portion of the distinct content associated with the first, second, or third advertisement which the responder is responding to in the content of the received short text message.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first and second advertisements are sponsored by a first entity and the third advertisement is sponsored by a second entity separate from the first entity, wherein the computer system is adapted to automatically route the received short text message received via SMS to either the first entity or the second entity based on whether the portion of the distinct content identified by the computer system in the content of the received short text message is associated with the first, second, or third advertisement.

18. The system of claim 6, wherein the distinct content is a single word or a single string of characters.

19. The system of claim 6, wherein the first advertisement and second advertisement each invite the one or more participants to enter a draw to win a prize by responding to the first or second advertisement by texting via SMS the predetermined short text message to the predetermined phone number.

20. A method of operating an interactive system utilizing Short Message Service (SMS) text messages, the method comprising:

(a) presenting, by at least one of visual and non-visual means, at least a first advertisement and a second advertisement, each advertising an identical product or service by non-SMS means, wherein the first and second advertisements each include a unique code not present in the other advertisement, and wherein each advertisement invites one or more participants to respond to the advertisement by sending a predetermined SMS short text message via a cell phone to a single predetermined phone number;

(b) providing a database stored on a computer, the database containing the first code and the second code, the database correlating the first and second codes to the first and second advertisements, respectively;

(c) receiving, by an SMS gateway, via SMS, a short text message sent from the one or more participants to the predetermined phone number in response to the first or second advertisement;

(d) searching, by computer, a content of the received short text message and identifying at least a portion of the unique code associated with the first or second advertisement which the responder is responding to in the content of the received short text message; and

(e) classifying, by computer, the received short text message as being in response to either the first or the second advertisement and not the other advertisement depending on whether the portion of the unique code identified is associated with the first or second advertisement.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising presenting the first advertisement at a first time slot and presenting the second advertisement at a second time slot later than the first time slot and determining a quantity of responses received at the predetermined phone number in response to the first advertisement and determining a quantity of responses received at the predetermined phone number in response to the second advertisement.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising presenting the first and second advertisements at different times in a single day.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising presenting the first advertisement at a first location and presenting the second advertisement at a second location located remotely of the first location and determining a quantity of responses received at the predetermined phone number in response to the first advertisement and determining a quantity of responses received at the predetermined phone number in response to the second advertisement.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising having a first entity present the first advertisement by non-SMS means and having a second entity present the second advertisement by non-SMS means and determining a quantity of responses received via SMS at the predetermined phone number in response to the first advertisement and determining a quantity of responses received via SMS at the predetermined phone number in response to the second advertisement.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the product or service is a polling service requesting a survey response.

26. The method of claim 20, further comprising presenting the first advertisement by a first type of media and presenting the second advertisement by a second type of media different than the first type of media.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the first and second types of media are selected from a group consisting of television, radio, print media, billboard, film, and internet.

28. The method of claim 20, further comprising automatically sending a response to the received short text message via SMS containing additional information related to the product or service.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the response includes instructions to access an internet website related to the product or service.

30. The method of claim 20, wherein the unique code associated with the first advertisement is used to identify that the first advertisement was presented in a different geographic location than the second advertisement.

31. The method of claim 20, further comprising using the unique code associated with the first advertisement to indicate that the first advertisement was presented at a different time than the second advertisement.

32. The method of claim 20, further comprising presenting the first advertisement on a first piece of print media, presenting the second advertisement on a second piece of print media separate from the first piece of print media, and using the unique code associated with the first advertisement to indicate that the first advertisement was presented on the first piece of print media and not on the second piece of print media.

33. The method of claim 20, further comprising using the unique code associated with the first advertisement to indicate that the first advertisement was presented by a predetermined type of media, at a predetermined time, at a predetermined location, or by a predetermined entity.

34. The method of claim 20, further comprising using the first and second advertisements to invite the one or more participants to enter a draw to win a prize by responding to the first or second advertisement by texting the predetermined short text message to the predetermined phone number.

35. An interactive system utilizing short text messages transmitted via Short Message Service (SMS), the interactive system comprising:

(a) at least a first advertisement and a second advertisement each concurrently advertising via non-SMS means an identical product or service, wherein each advertisement invites one or more participants to respond via a cell phone to a single predetermined phone number, wherein each advertisement includes instructions requesting the one or more participants to respond with a different predetermined SMS short text message having distinct content that distinctly identifies the predetermined SMS short text message as being a response to either the first advertisement or the second advertisement and not the other advertisement; and

(b) a computer system for receiving a short text message sent via SMS from the one or more participants to the single predetermined phone number in response to the first and second advertisements, the computer system adapted to identify the received short text message as being in response to either the first advertisement or the second advertisement and not the other advertisement by searching a content of the received short text message and identifying at least a portion of the distinct content associated with the first or second advertisement which the responder is responding to in the content of the received short text message.

36. A method of operating an interactive system which utilizes Short Message Service (SMS), the method comprising:

(a) presenting, by at least one of visual and non-visual means, multiple advertisements each advertising an identical product or service by non-SMS means, each advertisement inviting participants to send via SMS a text message containing a respective one of multiple predetermined codes via a cell phone to the same predetermined phone number, wherein at least one of the predetermined codes is different from other of the predetermined codes associated with other of the multiple advertisements;

(b) providing a database stored on a computer, the database containing the multiple predetermined codes, the database correlating the multiple predetermined codes to respective ones of the multiple advertisements;

(c) receiving, by an SMS gateway, via SMS, the short text messages sent by the participants to the predetermined phone number in response to the multiple advertisements;

(d) searching, by computer, a content of each of the received text messages for the multiple predetermined codes; and

(e) classifying, by computer, each of the received text messages as being in response to a respective one of the multiple advertisements based on the correlation between the predetermined code contained in said text message and the respective one of the multiple advertisements.

37. A method of operating an interactive system utilizing Short Message Service (SMS) text messages, the method comprising:

(a) presenting, by at least one of visual and non-visual means, a plurality of different advertisements, each of the advertisements inviting participants to send an SMS short text message to single predetermined SMS-capable phone number, each of the different advertisements identifying as the SMS short text message a respective one of multiple codes, each of the multiple codes being distinguishable from other of the multiple codes by a computer;

(b) storing information in a computer database that defines a correlation between the multiple codes and the different advertisements, respectively;

(c) receiving, by an SMS gateway, via SMS, the short text messages sent by the participants to the predetermined SMS-capable phone number, in response to one of the different advertisements;

(d) searching, by computer, content of each of the received short text messages and identifying the computer-distinguishable code contained in said received short text message; and

(e) classifying, by computer, the received short text messages to produce a set of classified results in terms of the different advertisements based on the correlation between the respective computer-distinguishable codes and the different advertisements.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the classified results are displayed in real time.