Method and system for automated targeted polling via an e-commerce promotions platform

• US 10,460,333 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2014
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Transform Sr Brands, LLC (ESL Investments, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Transform Sr Brands, LLC (ESL Investments, Inc.)
• Inventors: Skoler, Frederick W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sigmond, Bennett M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Scott C
• Application Number:
  US14/444,457
• Publication Number:
  US 20140337102A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,919 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/323 wherein the player is informed, e.g. advertisements, odds, instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3239 Tracking of individual players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/329 Regular and instant lottery, e.g. electronic scratch cards

Abstract

Certain embodiments of the disclosure relate to methods and systems that support automated, targeted polling of consumers via an e-commerce promotions platform for administering e-commerce promotional activities, such as, for example, sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, and/or instant wins.

Claims

1. A method of operating an e-commerce promotions platform that supports automated targeted polling of a plurality of consumers, the method comprising:

in a computer system configured to manage a promotional activity on an e-commerce platform that communicatively couples to a respective communication device of each of a plurality of users,

configuring, via a creation user interface, one or more graphical user interfaces for generating questions, wherein the creation user interface is configured to set for a particular question, via one or more graphical elements, a poll class, a poll category identification, a poll status, a question type, and a question format;

causing, via a selection of one or more graphical elements of a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface to filter promotional activities by question format including one or more of questions with images, questions with videos, and questions with write-in responses;

identifying, from the promotional activities supported by the e-commerce platform, one or more available promotional activities that are suitable for polling based on input from a poll sponsor;

selecting, by the poll sponsor, a promotional activity from the one or more available promotional activities;

providing a first set of questions comprising one or more questions;

receiving, from the poll sponsor, information representative of a consumer demographic, and information identifying a second set of questions comprising one or more questions chosen by the poll sponsor;

receiving, from the poll sponsor, tag information;

associating the received tag information with tags that correspond to the one or more questions chosen by the poll sponsor;

receiving a request to participate in a promotional activity supported by the computer system, from a communication device of a first consumer of the plurality of consumers;

in response to receiving the request to participate, selecting one or more particular questions from the second set of questions, wherein the selection of the one or more particular questions is performed according to personal information of the first consumer stored in a loyalty program and accessed by the computer system;

forming a third set of questions from the first set of questions and the one or more particular questions, such that the third set of questions includes the one or more particular questions;

presenting the questions of the third set of questions to the first consumer via the communication device of the first consumer;

collecting, via the communication device of the first consumer, any responses of the first consumer to the questions of the third set of questions; and

delivering, to a recipient identified to the computer system by the poll sponsor, responses of the first consumer to the one or more particular questions.

2. The method according to claim 1, comprising determining whether the first consumer can participate in the promotion activity based on a consumer response of the first consumer to the third set of questions.

3. The method according to claim 1, comprising identifying, from contests, sweepstakes, instant wins, and give-aways supported by the e-commerce platform, one or more of the contests, the sweepstakes, the instant wins, and the give-aways that are suitable for polling based on input from the poll sponsor.

4. The method according to claim 1, comprising:

storing the personal information of the first consumer as part of a loyalty program of the sponsor of the promotional activity; and

selecting the one or more particular questions from the second set of questions based on the stored personal information of the loyalty program.

5. The method according to claim 1, comprising:

accessing the personal information of the first consumer in response to the request to participate in the promotional activity; and

selecting the one or more particular questions from the second set of questions based on the accessed personal information.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the questions of the first set of questions are provided by the operator of the computer system.

7. The method according to claim 1, comprising:

receiving, from the poll sponsor, one or more characteristics common to a group of consumers; and

determining whether the first consumer can participate in the promotional activity based on the one or more characteristics received from the poll sponsor.

8. The method according to claim 1, comprising:

receiving, from the poll sponsor, characteristics common to a group of consumers;

identifying a particular promotion activity targeted to the group of consumers having the common characteristics; and

determining whether the first consumer can participate in the promotional activity based on the one or more characteristics received from the poll sponsor.

9. The method according to claim 1, comprising:

managing a flow and an order of operations to be performed by multiple departments of an entity corresponding to the selected promotional activity based on the information received from the poll sponsor, wherein each department is not involved in the selected promotional activity until one or more prerequisites of respective department are met and one or more respective approvals are secured.

10. The method according to claim 1, comprising:

managing a flow and an order of operations to be performed by a marketing department and an analytics department of an entity corresponding to the selected promotional activity based on the information received from the poll sponsor;

not involving the marketing department and the analytics department in the selected promotional activity until one or more prerequisites of the marketing department and the analytics department are met and one or more approvals from the marketing department and the analytics department are secured.

11. The method according to claim 1, comprising:

providing, to the poll sponsor, general information about the one or more available promotional activities;

selecting a promotional activity; and

providing, to the poll sponsor, detailed information about the selected promotional activity.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon, one or more code sections each comprising a plurality of instructions executable by at least one processor for causing the at least one processor to perform actions for operating an e-commerce promotions platform that supports automated targeted polling of a plurality of consumers, the actions comprising:

configuring, via a creation user interface, one or more graphical user interfaces for generating questions, wherein the creation user interface is configured to set for a particular question, via one or more graphical elements, a poll class, a poll category identification, a poll status, a question type, and a question format;

causing, by a selection of one or more graphical elements of a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface to filter promotional activities by question format including one or more of questions with images, questions with videos, and questions with write-in responses;

identifying, from the promotional activities supported by the e-commerce platform, one or more available promotional activities that are suitable for polling based on input from a poll sponsor;

selecting, by the poll sponsor, a promotional activity from the one or more available promotional activities;

providing a first set of questions comprising one or more questions;

receiving, from the poll sponsor, information representative of a consumer demographic, and information identifying a second set of questions comprising one or more questions chosen by the poll sponsor;

receiving, from the poll sponsor, tag information;

associating the received tag information with tags that correspond to the one or more questions chosen by the poll sponsor;

receiving a request to participate in a promotional activity supported by the at least one processor, from a communication device of a first consumer of a plurality of consumers;

in response to receiving the request to participate, selecting one or more particular questions from the second set of questions, wherein the selection of the one or more particular questions is performed according to personal information of the first consumer stored in a loyalty program and accessed by the at least one processor;

forming a third set of questions from the first set of questions and the one or more particular questions, such that the third set of questions includes the one or more particular questions;

presenting the questions of the third set of questions to the first consumer via the communication device of the first consumer;

collecting, via the communication device of the first consumer, any responses of the first consumer to the questions of the third set of questions; and

delivering, to a recipient identified to the at least one processor by the poll sponsor, responses of the first consumer to the one or more particular questions.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12, comprising determining whether the first consumer can participate in the promotion activity based on a consumer response of the first consumer to the third set of questions.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12, comprising identifying, from contests, sweepstakes, instant wins, and give-aways supported by the e-commerce platform, one or more of the contests, the sweepstakes, the instant wins, and the give-aways that are suitable for polling based on input from the poll sponsor.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12, comprising:

storing the personal information of the first consumer as part of a loyalty program of the sponsor of the promotional activity; and

selecting the one or more particular questions from the second set of questions based on the stored personal information of the loyalty program.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12, comprising:

accessing the personal information of the first consumer in response to the request to participate in the promotional activity; and

selecting the one or more particular questions from the second set of questions based on the accessed personal information.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12, wherein the questions of the first set of questions are provided by the operator of the computer system.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12, comprising:

receiving, from the poll sponsor, one or more characteristics common to a group of consumers; and

determining whether the first consumer can participate in the promotional activity based on the one or more characteristics received from the poll sponsor.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12, comprising:

receiving, from the poll sponsor, characteristics common to a group of consumers;

identifying a particular promotion activity targeted to the group of consumers having the common characteristics; and

determining whether the first consumer can participate in the promotional activity based on the one or more characteristics received from the poll sponsor.

20. A system for operating an e-commerce promotions platform that supports automated targeted polling of a plurality of consumers, the system comprising:

a computer system comprising at least one processor that, during operation, manages a promotional activity on an e-commerce platform that communicatively couples to a respective communication device of each of a plurality of users, wherein the at least one processor is operable to, at least;

configuring, via a creation user interface, one or more graphical user interfaces for generating questions, wherein the creation user interface is configured to set for a particular question, via one or more graphical elements, a poll class, a poll category identification, a poll status, a question type, and a question format;

cause, by a selection of one or more graphical elements of a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface to filter promotional activities by question format including one or more of questions with images, questions with videos, and questions with write-in responses;

identify, from the promotional activities supported by the e-commerce platform, one or more available promotional activities that are suitable for polling based on input from a poll sponsor;

select, by the poll sponsor, a promotional activity from the one or more available promotional activities;

provide a first set of questions comprising one or more questions;

receive, from the poll sponsor, information representative of a consumer demographic, and information identifying a second set of questions comprising one or more questions chosen by the poll sponsor;

receive, from the poll sponsor, tag information;

associate the received tag information with tags that correspond to the one or more questions chosen by the poll sponsor;

receive a request to participate in a promotional activity supported by the computer system, from a communication device of a first consumer of the plurality of consumers;

in response to receiving the request to participate, select one or more particular questions from the second set of questions, wherein the selection of the one or more particular questions is performed according to personal information of the first consumer stored in a loyalty program and accessed by the computer system;

form a third set of questions from the first set of questions and the one or more particular questions, such that the third set of questions includes the one or more particular questions;

present the questions of the third set of questions to the first consumer via the communication device of the first consumer;

collect, via the communication device of the first consumer, any responses of the first consumer to the questions of the third set of questions; and

deliver, to a recipient identified to the computer system by the poll sponsor, responses of the first consumer to the one or more particular questions.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is operable to determine whether the first consumer can participate in the promotion activity based on a consumer response of the first consumer to the third set of questions.

22. The system according to claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is operable to identify, from contests, sweepstakes, instant wins, and give-aways supported by the e-commerce platform, one or more of the contests, the sweepstakes, the instant wins, and the give-aways that are suitable for polling based on input from the poll sponsor.

23. The system according to claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is operable to:

store the personal information of the first consumer as part of a loyalty program of the sponsor of the promotional activity; and

select the one or more particular questions from the second set of questions based on the stored personal information of the loyalty program.

24. The system according to claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is operable to:

access the personal information of the first consumer in response to the request to participate in the promotional activity; and

select the one or more particular questions from the second set of questions based on the accessed personal information.

25. The system according to claim 20, wherein the questions of the first set of questions are provided by the operator of the computer system.

26. The system according to claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is operable to:

receive, from the poll sponsor, one or more characteristics common to a group of consumers; and

determine whether the first consumer can participate in the promotional activity based on the one or more characteristics received from the poll sponsor.

27. The system according to claim 20, wherein the at least one processor is operable to:

receive, from the poll sponsor, characteristics common to a group of consumers;

identify a particular promotion activity targeted to the group of consumers having the common characteristics; and

determine whether the first consumer can participate in the promotional activity based on the one or more characteristics received from the poll sponsor.