Interactive marketing system
First Claim
Patent Images
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 a response via SMS to a predetermined number common to all of the advertisements, each advertisement requesting the response to the advertisement by texting to the predetermined number a different predetermined SMS short text message having distinct content that identifies the predetermined SMS short text message as being the response to one of the advertisements and not the other advertisements; and
(b) a computer system for receiving a short text message sent via SMS to the predetermined phone number in response to the plurality of advertisements, the computer system being 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, the computer system being operable to send an automated short text message via SMS in response to receiving the received short text message.
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Abstract
An interactive direct response system combines the use of short text message systems transmitted via GSM-SMS enabled cell phones with a database 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. A computer receives and analysis the responses and sends an acknowledgement message to the customer.
78 Citations
75 Claims
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1. An interactive system utilizing short text messages transmitted by Short Message Service (SMS), the interactive system comprising:
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(a) a plurality of separate advertisements each advertising by non-SMS means an identical product or service and each inviting a response via SMS to a predetermined number common to all of the advertisements, each advertisement requesting the response to the advertisement by texting to the predetermined number a different predetermined SMS short text message having distinct content that identifies the predetermined SMS short text message as being the response to one of the advertisements and not the other advertisements; and (b) a computer system for receiving a short text message sent via SMS to the predetermined phone number in response to the plurality of advertisements, the computer system being 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, the computer system being operable to send an automated short text message via SMS in response to receiving the received short text message. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. An interactive system utilizing short text messages, the interactive system comprising:
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(a) a first advertisement and a second advertisement each advertising an identical product or service via non-Short Message Service (SMS) means, wherein each advertisement invites a response via SMS to a single predetermined number, each advertisement including distinct content not present in the other advertisement, each advertisement including instructions requesting the response to the advertisement by sending a predetermined SMS short text message to the single predetermined number; and (b) a computer system for receiving a short text message sent from by SMS to the predetermined number, the computer system being 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 in the content of the received short text message. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method of operating an interactive system utilizing Short Message Service (SMS) text messages, the method comprising:
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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, the first and second advertisements each including a unique code not present in the other advertisement, each advertisement inviting a response to the advertisement by sending a predetermined SMS short text message via SMS to a single predetermined number; 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; receiving via SMS a short text message sent in response to the first or second advertisement; 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; and 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. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. An interactive system utilizing short text messages received via Short Message Service (SMS), the interactive system comprising:
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(a) at least a first advertisement and a second advertisement each concurrently advertising via SMS means an identical product or service, each advertisement inviting a response via SMS to a single predetermined number, each advertisement including instructions requesting the response with a different predetermined SMS short text message having distinct content that distinctly identifies the predetermined SMS short text message as being the response to either the first advertisement or the second advertisement and not the other advertisement; and (b) a computer system configured to receive short text messages via SMS to the single predetermined, 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 each received short text message and identifying at least a portion of the distinct content associated with the first or second advertisement in the content of the received short text message.
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35. A method of operating an interactive system which utilizes Short Message Service (SMS), the method comprising:
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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 a response via a SMS text message containing a respective one of multiple predetermined codes via a communication device to the same predetermined number, at least one of the predetermined codes being different from others of the predetermined codes associated with the other of the multiple advertisements; 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; receiving, at a SMS gateway, via SMS, the short text messages sent to the predetermined number in response to the multiple advertisements; searching, by computer, a content of each of the received text messages for the multiple predetermined codes; and 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.
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36. An interactive system utilizing short text messages transmitted by Short Message Service (SMS), the interactive system comprising:
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(a) a plurality of separate advertisements each advertising by non-SMS means an identical product or service and each inviting a response via SMS to a predetermined number common to all of the advertisements, each advertisement requesting the response to the advertisement by texting to the predetermined number a different predetermined 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 via SMS to the predetermined 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, the computer system being configured to send an automated short text message via SMS in response to receiving the received short text message. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. An interactive system utilizing Short Message Service (SMS) short text messages, the interactive system comprising:
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(a) a first advertisement and a second advertisement each advertising an identical product or service via non-SMS based media, each advertisement inviting a response via SMS to a single predetermined number, each advertisement including distinct content not present in the other advertisement, each advertisement including instructions requesting the response to the advertisement by sending a predetermined SMS short text message to the single predetermined number; and (b) a computer system for receiving a short text message sent 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 in the content of the received short text message. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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55. A method of operating an interactive system utilizing Short Message Service (SMS) text messages, the method comprising:
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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, the first and second advertisements each including a unique code not present in the other advertisement, each advertisement inviting a response to the advertisement by sending a predetermined SMS short text message via SMS to a single predetermined number; 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; receiving, via a SMS gateway, a short text message sent to the predetermined number in response to the first or second advertisement; 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 in the content of the received short text message; and 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. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69)
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70. An interactive system utilizing short text messages transmitted via Short Message Service (SMS), the interactive system comprising:
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(a) at least a first advertisement and a second advertisement each concurrently advertising via non-SMS means an identical product or service, each advertisement inviting a response via SMS to a single predetermined number, each advertisement including instructions requesting the response 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 to the single predetermined 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 in the content of the received short text message.
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71. A method of operating an interactive system which utilizes Short Message Service (SMS), the method comprising:
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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 a response via a SMS text message containing a respective one of multiple predetermined codes via SMS to the same predetermined number, at least one of the predetermined codes being different from others of the predetermined codes associated with others of the multiple advertisements; 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; receiving, via SMS gateway, the short text messages sent to the predetermined number in response to the multiple advertisements; searching, by computer, a content of each of the received text messages for the multiple predetermined codes; and 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.
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72. A method of operating an interactive system utilizing Short Message Service (SMS) text messages, the method comprising:
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presenting, by at least one of visual and non-visual means, a plurality of different advertisements, each of the advertisements inviting participants to send a SMS short text message to single predetermined SMS-capable 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 others of the multiple codes by a computer; storing information in a computer database that defines a correlation between the multiple codes and the different advertisements, respectively; (c) receiving, via a SMS gateway, the short text messages sent to the predetermined SMS-capable number, in response to one of the different advertisements; 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 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. - View Dependent Claims (73, 74)
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75. An interactive system utilizing short text messages transmitted by Short Message Service (SMS), the interactive system comprising:
a computer system configured to receive one or more short text messages sent via SMS to a predetermined number, each of the short text messages comprising distinct content sufficient to identify a distinct one of a plurality of advertisements advertising an identical product or service by non-SMS means, the computer system being configured to identify at least a portion of the distinct content associated with at least one of the advertisements to identify the distinct one of the plurality of advertisements, the computer system being configured to send an automated short text message via SMS in response to receiving the one or more received short text messages.
Specification