Methods and systems for selectively displaying advertisements

• US 20040243470A1
• Filed: 06/14/2004
• Published: 12/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ada Cho, Wei Wei, Chau, Carolyn Khanh, Hart, Michael Patrick, Ozer, Stuart
• Granted Patent: US 7,536,316 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0248 Avoiding fraud
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A system, including a planning module, a control module and a receiver module, configured to schedule display of one or more advertising impressions of available advertising inventory. The planning module enables scheduling a requested quantity of advertising impressions in accordance with target criteria. Further, the planning module enables selecting an advertising impression goal for advertisement, assigning an advertising type and defining a weight for the advertisements. The control module receives the schedule, the advertising type and the defined weights and generates one or more metadata files that contain target criteria, advertising type and weights for the advertisements. The one or more metadata files, with the advertisements, are delivered to the receiver module that is configured to define a display frequency for the advertisements based upon one or more of the metadata files. The receiver module selectively displays advertisement content associated with the advertisements to achieve the advertising impression goal.

Claims

1. In a system, including at least one processor, configured to display an advertisement in accordance with available advertising inventory, a method for selecting the advertisement to be displayed to a viewer, the method comprising:

receiving at least one data file defining each of a plurality of advertisements as either a committed advertisement or a flexible advertisement;

generating a display frequency, at the receiver module, for each of the committed advertisements; and

selecting advertisement content of the advertisements to be displayed by the receiver module based upon the display frequency for the committed advertisements.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising generating a display frequency, at the receiver module, for each of the flexible advertisements.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, further comprising generating the display frequency for the committed advertisements before the flexible advertisements.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising selecting the advertisements based upon the display frequency of the committed advertisements and the flexible advertisements.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein receiving the at least one data file comprises periodically, sporadically, or continuously receiving the at least one data file.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising selecting advertisements for display using target information, the target being defined by zero or more viewer demographic characteristics.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein selecting advertisements comprises:

defining a list of available advertisements from the committed advertisements and the flexible advertisements; and

selecting the advertisements from the list of available advertisements based upon the display frequency.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, further comprising removing advertisements from the list of available advertisements where the target values of said advertisements are not valid for the chosen display area and viewer demographics.

9. A method as recited in claim 5, further comprising displaying the selected advertisements within a document displayable through the receiver module and removing the selected advertisements from the list of available advertisements.

10. A method as recited in claim 6, further comprising removing the selected advertisements from the list of available advertisements for subsequent requests for advertisements within the current instance of the document.

11. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising generating a log of the advertisements displayed to the viewer.

12. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising transmitting the log to a control module.

13. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising generating a log of the advertisements interacted with by the viewer.