METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISEMENTS WITH MEDIA

• US 20080249986A1
• Filed: 04/06/2007
• Published: 10/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 41 Ads, Inc., Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kalaboukis, Chris, Clarke-Martin, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 7,739,596 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

Systems and methods have been developed for displaying contextually relevant advertisements to users as media objects are being rendered. One or more data sources with contextual information for different portions of each media object are maintained. From this contextual information, keywords may be generated and used to locate contextually-related advertisements. The advertisements are selected based on contextual information about the media object in order to match or otherwise be contextually relevant with the media content being rendered. As the subject matter of the media object changes during rendering, different advertisements related to the new context are provided that replace the prior advertisement. The advertisements are displayed in an area that could be used for other purposes when the rendering device is not rendering media objects.

Claims

1. A method for selecting an advertisement for display to a user, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a media module associated with the user, the request identifying a media file;

streaming a first portion of the media file to the media module;

generating a first set of one or more keywords associated with the first portion of the media file;

selecting, based on the first set of one or more keywords associated with the first portion, a first advertisement; and

transmitting the first advertisement and first information associating the first advertisement with the first portion of the media file to the media module for display to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, by the media module while receiving the streaming first portion, the first advertisement; and

concurrently rendering, by the media module, the first portion of the media file and the first advertisement.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

streaming a second portion of the media file to the media module;

generating a second set of one or more keywords associated with the second portion of the media file;

selecting, based on the second set of one or more keywords associated with the second portion, a second advertisement; and

transmitting the second advertisement and second information associating the first advertisement with the first portion of the media file to the media module.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein generating a first set of one or more keywords comprises:

retrieving metadata associated with the first portion from a metadata database; and

selecting at least one keyword in the metadata for inclusion in the first set of one or more keywords.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein generating a first set of one or more keywords comprises:

retrieving lyrics associated with the first portion from a lyric database; and

selecting at least one keyword from the lyrics for inclusion in the first set of one or more keywords.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein generating a first set of one or more keywords comprises:

retrieving closed captions associated with the first portion from a closed caption database; and

selecting at least one keyword from the closed captions for inclusion in the first set of one or more keywords.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein generating a first set of one or more keywords comprises:

retrieving time tags associated with the first portion from a time tag database; and

selecting at least one keyword from the time tags for inclusion in the first set of one or more keywords.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein generating a first set of one or more keywords comprises:

associating a user identifier with the request; and

retrieving demographic information associated with the user identifier from a user information database.

9. A system comprising:

a media module that retrieves a requested media file from a media file database and streams the requested media file to a requesting rendering device, the requested media file requested by the requesting rendering device; and

an advertisement selection module that accesses at least one data source containing contextual information describing portions of the requested media file, selects a different advertisement for each of at least two different portions of the requested media file based on the contextual information describing the at least two different portions, and transmits the different advertisements to the requesting rendering device.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

the requesting rendering device that receives the media file and the at least two different advertisements and renders the media file; and

wherein, while rendering each of the at least two different portions, the requesting rendering device displays the different advertisement for the respective different portion being rendered.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the requesting rendering device is a rendering device executing a media player application and the different advertisements are displayed in a graphical user interface created by the media player application that controls the rendering of the media file.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the at least one data source includes:

a metadata database containing keywords describing different portions of the media file.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the requested media file is an audio file containing music and the at least one data source includes:

a lyric database containing lyrics of the music.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the requested media file is a video file containing verbal communications and the at least one data source includes:

a closed caption database containing a transcript of the verbal communications associated with different portions of the media file.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the at least one data source includes:

a time tag database containing keywords associated with different points within the media file.

16. The system of claim 9 wherein the at least one data source includes:

an advertisement database containing advertisements and associating the advertisements with one or more keywords.

17. A method of displaying advertisements on a media player comprising:

requesting, in response to a user input received via a graphical user interface on the media player, an audio stream;

receiving the audio stream, the audio stream including a first portion associated with a first keyword followed by a second portion associated with a second keyword;

rendering the audio stream;

while rendering the first portion, displaying, on the graphical user interface, a first advertisement associated with the first keyword; and

while rendering the second portion, replacing, on the graphical user interface, the first advertisement with a second advertisement associated with the second keyword.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

receiving the first advertisement prior to receiving the first portion of the audio stream; and

receiving the second advertisement prior to receiving the second portion of the audio stream.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

receiving the first keyword and the second keyword;

requesting an advertisement associated with the first keyword; and

requesting an advertisement associated with the second keyword.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein rendering further comprises:

initiating the rendering of the audio stream before all of the audio stream has been received.

21. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

receiving the first advertisement is a first communication at a first time; and

receiving the second advertisement in a second communication at a second time after the first communication is received.

22. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

in response to receiving the first advertisement, replacing, on the graphical user interface, a first display with the first advertisement associated with the first keyword, wherein the first display includes information generated by the media player prior to requesting the audio stream.