Electronic advertising using distributed demographics

• US 8,589,974 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2008
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Menditto, Louis F., Davidson, Kenneth, Gray, Richard L.
• Primary Examiner(s): FELTEN, DANIEL S
• Application Number:
  US12/015,140
• Publication Number:
  US 20090182619A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,134 Days
• Field of Search: 725/34, 725/32, 725/14, 725/110
• US Class Current: 725/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices

Abstract

In one embodiment, at least one portion of a request for an electronic advertisement is received. The request includes an indicator indicative of one of a plurality of demographic servers. The at least one portion is analyzed. The at least one portion includes data of a user. Demographic information is identified as a function of the user data. A request for a selection of the electronic advertisement as a function of the demographic information is transmitted.

Claims

1. A method for distributed demographic electronic advertising

comprising:

receiving, at a demographic server, at least one portion of a request for an electronic advertisement from a user device, the request including an indicator indicative of the demographic server, wherein the demographic server is one of a plurality of demographic servers and each of the plurality of demographic servers is associated with a separate geographic location;

analyzing user data included in the request;

identifying demographic information as a function of the user data; and

transmitting a request for a selection of the electronic advertisement as a function of the demographic information,

wherein the indicator comprises an obscure key transmitted by remote authentication dial in user service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the at least one portion comprises receiving encrypted user data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the encrypted user data comprises personal information of a subscriber, the personal information including name, address, income, or age information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying demographic information comprises correlating gathered demographic data with the personal information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein transmitting the request for the selection of the electronic advertisement comprises sending an identifier to an

advertisement server, the identifier indicative of a type of advertisement corresponding to the correlated demographic data.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein analyzing the user data comprises decrypting the encrypted user data.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the encrypted user data is in a header of the request.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein an IP address of the demographic server is included in a header of the request.

9. A method comprising:

monitoring, by a network device, communications between a user device and a server, wherein the communications include a request for content;

receiving, by the network device, the request for content from the user device, the content associated with an electronic advertisement;

including user data in the request for the content, the user data corresponding to user information and indicative of one of a plurality of demographic devices, each of the plurality of demographic devices including separate demographic information distributed according to respective geographic locations;

transmitting the request for content and the user data to the one of the plurality of demographic devices selected based on a geographic location of the user device; and

receiving a selected electronic advertisement from the one of the plurality of demographic devices.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the user data comprises an IP address of the one of the plurality of demographic devices, the IP address in a header of the request.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

including personal information of a subscriber in the user data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the personal information is encrypted, and wherein including data comprises inserting the encrypted personal information in a header of the request.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the selected electronic advertisement is selected based on the personal information.

21. The method of claim 9, wherein the user data includes a hardware address of a user device.

22. The method of claim 9, wherein the user data comprises an obscure key transmitted by remote authentication dial in user service.

14. An apparatus operable to monitor data communication between a user device and a server, the apparatus comprising:

a memory configured to store a lookup table correlating each of a plurality of demographic servers with a geographic location; and

a controller configured to receive a request for content, the content including an electronic advertisement, the controller configured to access the lookup table using a user device geographic location obtained from the request for content, and the controller configured to insert data in the request for content, the inserted data indicative of one of the plurality of demographic servers associated with the user device location as correlated by and retrieved from the lookup table.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the controller is further configured to include personal information of a subscriber in the request, the personal information used to identify demographic information associated with the plurality of demographic servers.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the controller is further operable to receive a selected electronic advertisement as a function of the identified demographic information.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the apparatus comprises a network access server or a gateway device.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of demographic servers is associated with a different set of demographic data.

23. The method of claim 14, wherein the inserted data comprises an obscure key or encrypted data used to query at least one of the plurality of demographic servers.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing instructions when executed operable to:

receive a request for content from a user device, wherein the content includes a user address associated with the user device;

query a database using the user address to identify a demographic server associated with the user device;

generate a request for advertisement by inserting an internet protocol address of the demographic server into a header of the request for content;

send the request for advertisement to the demographic server; and

send the request for content to a content server.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising instructions when executed further operable to:

insert a key associated with the user device into the request for advertisement.