Systems and methods to reward user interactions

• US 9,558,502 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2011
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Carlson, Mark, Stan, Patrick, MacIlwaine, John Hamilton
• Primary Examiner(s): LI, SUN M
• Application Number:
  US13/288,713
• Publication Number:
  US 20120136704A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,916 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/14.41, 705/14.71, 705/14.3, 705/14.17, 705/14.27
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/254 Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

In one aspect, a system includes a transaction handler, a data warehouse to store transaction data recording transactions processed at the transaction handler and to store account data identifying an account of a user, and a portal to receive a user selection of a first portion of an advertisement announcing a reward. The portal is to track user interactions associated with the advertisement to determine whether the user is qualified for the reward. Upon a determination that the user has completed the user interactions for the reward, the transaction handler is to provide the reward to the account of the user via statement credit.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

providing a computing device having;

a portal; and

a data warehouse coupled with the portal and storing

an identifier of an advertisement, wherein

the advertisement is configured to be present in a web page by a media channel separate from the portal when a browser loads the web page, and

the advertisement includes a reference to the portal;

a cookie identifier provided by the portal in the browser to identify a user of the browser; and

transaction data of the user identified by the cookie identifier;

responsive to the browser loading the advertisement in a form of a banner that appears to be a single image occupying a predefined region of the web page, receiving in the portal a request for a resource of the advertisement in accordance with the reference to the portal configured in the advertisement provided by the media channel, wherein the single image of the advertisement includes

a first portion associated with a first uniform resource locator configured to direct the browser to visit a website at the first uniform resource locator when the first portion of the advertisement is selected;

responsive to the request for the resource of the advertisement, during the loading of the advertisement for a presentation of the single image of the advertisement in the web page by the media channel, and prior to the user interacting with the advertisement,

determining, by the computing device, an account identifier of the user based on the cookie identifier

determining, by the computing device, whether the user identified by the account identifier is qualified to receive an offer for a reward based at least in part on the transaction data of the user;

configuring, by the computing device, the resource based on a result of the determining of whether the user identified by the account identifier is qualified to receive the offer, including

in response to a determination that the user is qualified for the offer, providing first content in the resource to cause the browser to add to the single image of the advertisement rendered in the browser a user interface element, the user interface element including

a second portion of the advertisement showing a message inviting the user to select the second portion of the advertisement, and,

a second uniform resource locator linked to the second portion of the advertisement, wherein when the second portion of the advertisement is selected the browser visits the second uniform resource locator, and

in response to a determination that the user is not qualified for the offer, providing second content in the resource to cause the browser to render the advertisement without the second portion that would be rendered if the user were determined to be qualified for the offer;

communicating, by the portal to the browser, the resource configured based on the result of the determining of whether the user identified by the account identifier is qualified to receive the offer; and

in response to the second portion of the advertisement being selected in the browser, tracking, by the computing device, interactions of the user with the advertisement and determining whether the user is qualified for the reward, wherein the tracking and the determining are performed by;

redirecting the browser from the portal to an offeree website separate from the portal; and

after the user interacting with the offeree website, receiving a notification from the browser, wherein a determination of whether the user is qualified for the reward is based on the notification.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, by the computing device, an amount of statement credits to an account identified by the account identifier in response to a determination that the user is qualified for the reward.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the amount of statement credits is provided to the user as the reward without requiring the user to make a purchase in accordance with the advertisement.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

processing, by the computing device, a payment for a purchase in accordance with the advertisement using the account identifier in response to the user making a purchase following interacting with the advertisement.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement is a banner advertisement embedded in a web page.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to the determining of the account identifier of the user:

receiving a first request from the user;

presenting a user interface to the user in response to the first request;

receiving via the user interface information identifying the account identifier of the user;

providing a user identifier to a user device of the user; and

storing data associating the user identifier with the account identifier, wherein the determining the account identifier of the user is based on receiving the user identifier from the user device in the web request.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of whether the user identified by the account identifier is qualified to receive the offer is based on at least one of:

a type of an account identified by the account identifier;

a spending level of the account identified by the account identifier;

a geographical area where most of spending in the account identified by the account identifier occurred; and

a spending level of the account identified by the account identifier in a group of merchants.

8. A non-transitory computer-storage medium storing instructions configured to instruct a computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:

providing the computing device having;

a portal; and

a data warehouse coupled with the portal and storing

an identifier of an advertisement, wherein

the advertisement is configured to be present in a web page by a media channel separate from the portal when a browser loads the web page, and

the advertisement includes a reference to the portal;

a cookie identifier provided by the portal in the browser to identify a user of the browser; and

transaction data of the user identified by the cookie identifier;

responsive to the browser loading the advertisement in a form of a banner that appears to be a single image occupying a predefined region of the web page, receiving in the portal a request for a resource in accordance with the reference to the portal configured in the advertisement provided by the media channel, wherein the single image of the advertisement includes

a first portion associated with a first uniform resource locator configured to direct the browser to visit a website at the first uniform resource locator when the first portion of the advertisement is selected;

during the loading of the advertisement for a presentation of the single image of the advertisement in the web page by the media channel, receiving, in the computing device, the request from the browser running in a user device for the resource of the advertisement;

responsive to the request for the resource of the advertisement, and prior to the user interacting with the advertisement,

determining, by the computing device, an account identifier of the user based on the cookie identifier;

determining, by the computing device, whether the user identified by the account identifier is qualified to receive an offer for a reward based at least in part on the transaction data of the user;

configuring, by the computing device, the resource based on a result of the determining of whether the user identified by the account identifier is qualified to receive the offer, including

in response to a determination that the user is qualified for the offer, providing, by the computing device, first content in the resource of the advertisement, wherein the first content of the resource of the advertisement adds a user interface element to the single image of the advertisement presented in the browser, the user interface element including

a second portion of the advertisement showing a message inviting the user to select the second portion of the advertisement, and a second uniform resource locator linked to the second portion of the advertisement, wherein when the second portion of the advertisement is selected the browser visits the second uniform resource locator; and

in response to a determination that the user is not qualified for the offer, providing, by the computing device, second content in the resource of the advertisement to cause the browser to render the advertisement without the second portion that would be rendered if the user were determined to be qualified for the offer;

communicating, by the portal to the browser, the resource configured based on the result of the determining of whether the user identified by the account identifier is qualified to receive the offer; and

in response to the second portion of the advertisement being selected in the browser, tracking, by the computing device, interactions of the user with the advertisement and determining whether the user is qualified for the reward, wherein the tracking and the determining are performed by;

redirecting the browser from the portal to an offeree website separate from the portal; and

after the user interacting with the offeree website, receiving a notification from the browser, wherein a determination of whether the user is qualified for the reward is based on the notification.

9. A system, comprising:

a transaction handler configured to process transactions made using account identifiers in an electronic payment processing network;

a data warehouse configured to store

an identifier of an advertisement, wherein

the advertisement is configured to be present in a web page by a media channel separate from the portal when a browser loads the web page, and

the advertisement includes a reference to the portal;

a cookie identifier provided by the portal in the browser to identify a user of the browser; and

transaction data recording the transactions, including transaction data of the user identified by the cookie identifier;

a portal coupled with the data warehouse, wherein

responsive to the browser loading the advertisement in a form of a banner that appears to be a single image occupying a predefined region of the web page, the portal is configured to receive a request for a resource of the advertisement from the browser in accordance with the reference to the portal configured in the advertisement provided by the media channel, wherein the single image of the advertisement includes

a first portion associated with a first uniform resource locator configured to direct the browser to visit a website at the first uniform resource locator when the first portion of the advertisement is selected;

responsive to the request for the resource, during the loading of the advertisement for a presentation of the single image of the advertisement in the web page by the media channel to the user and prior to the user interacting with the advertisement, the portal is configured to;

determine an account identifier of the user of the browser based on the cookie identifier,

determine, based on the transaction data of the user, whether the user of the browser is qualified to receive an offer for a reward,

configure the resource based on a result of the determining of whether the user identified by the account identifier is qualified to receive the offer, by

in response to a determination that the user is qualified for the offer, providing first content in the resource to cause the browser to add to the single image of the advertisement rendered in the browser a user interface element, the user interface element including

 

a second portion of the advertisement showing a message inviting the user of the browser to select the second portion of the advertisement,

 

a second uniform resource locator linked to the second portion of the advertisement, wherein when the second portion of the advertisement is selected the browser visits the second uniform resource locator, and in response to a determination that the user is not qualified for the offer, providing second content in the resource to cause the browser to render the advertisement without the second portion that would be rendered if the user were determined to be qualified for the offer;

communicate, by the portal to the browser, the resource configured based on the result of the determining of whether the user identified by the account identifier is qualified to receive the offer; and

wherein in response to the second portion of the advertisement being selected in the browser, the portal is configured to track interactions of the user with the advertisement and determine whether the user is qualified for the reward, by redirecting the browser from the portal to an offeree website separate from the portal; and

after the user interacting with the offeree website, receiving a notification from the browser, wherein a determination of whether the user is qualified for the reward is based on the notification.