METHOD AND A SYSTEM FOR DELIVERING MESSAGES

• US 20110202408A1
• Filed: 04/28/2011
• Published: 08/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CVON
• Original Assignee: CVON
• Inventors: Kalliola, Janne
• Granted Patent: US 8,799,123 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.64
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices

Abstract

A system for generating a schedule for use in triggering transmission of message content in a telecommunications network is provided. The system comprises a store for storing profiles of a plurality of recipients, and a plurality of message delivery campaigns with one or more criteria. The campaigns to be executed in relation to a given inventory, which may relate to a predetermined time period, may be arranged into one or more campaign clusters. A suitable allocation method may be used individually for each of said plurality of campaign clusters to allocate, among the plurality of recipients, target recipients for each of the campaign clusters based on campaign criteria and the profiles. The allocation process may be repeated to obtain, for example as high a number of messages as possible with the network resources available without exceeding a predetermined maximum number of messages per any given recipient. After the allocation process is completed, the campaign messages are delivered to the allocated target recipients via a communications network.

Claims

1. A method for delivering messages via a communications system, comprising:

storing, in a database, user profiles of a plurality of users, each user profile profiling a user for message delivery purposes,

defining, for a plurality of message providers, a plurality of message delivery campaigns with a plurality of parameters, each campaign being individually defined to be carried out during one or more message delivery time window,

and for a desired message delivery time window;

a) grouping said plurality of message delivery campaigns into a plurality of campaign groups according to at least one similarity criterion,

b) determining a message delivery order of said plurality of campaigns based at least partly on said grouping,

c) selecting individually for each of said plurality of campaign groups a reservation method among a plurality of reservation methods,

d) reserving, among said plurality of users, target users for each of said plurality of campaign groups approximately simultaneously with the selected individual reservation methods based on said plurality of parameters and said user profiles, such that as high number of messages as possible with the network resources available within the given message delivery time window can be delivered without exceeding a predetermined maximum number of message per any given user,

e) optimising the reservation by repeating at least steps c) and d) until target users for all of said plurality of delivery campaigns are reserved, and/or the reservation cannot be changed anymore to include more target users, and/or a time available for the reservation has expired, and/or changes do not produce significantly better results, and

f) delivering messages of said plurality of message delivery campaigns to the reserved target users via a communications network in said determined order during said given message delivery time window.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

storing information on the grouping of said delivery campaigns, said selected reservation methods and results of the reservations to provide a learning database,

using information previously stored in the learning database in at least one of steps a), b), c) and d).

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:

receiving from the target users or from other instances a direct or indirect feedback regarding the delivered messages, and

storing said feedback information in said learning database to form at least part of said results of said reservations.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein said direct feedback information comprises a response by a user to a direct question in a delivered message.

5. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein said indirect feedback information comprises information on that a user has purchased of a good or a service advertised in a delivered message, or that a user has used a coupon provided in a delivered message.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least one similarity criterion comprises one or more of following:

a priority of an advertiser, a number of target users, strictness of campaign criteria, and requirements set for user equipment.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of said user profiles comprises one or more of:

a sociological background of a user;

age;

sex;

a target telephone type;

an income level;

status of a user;

a location of a user;

historical data of a user'"'"'s behavior;

information of sent direct advertisement to a user;

information of content vouchers or coupons sent to a user;

codes of vouchers or coupons sent to a user;

lifestyle and interest related;

behavior;

demographics;

education;

marital status;

zip code;

preferred times for advertisements.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein one or more of the following pieces of information is used in the reservation of said target users for a message delivery campaign:

a user profile;

preferences of when to send messages;

to which target group an advertisement is sent;

on which format an advertisement is sent;

a target price level of an advertisement;

a target feedback level of the advertisement;

a target audience;

demographics of a target audience;

a duration of a advertisement campaign, cost per an advertisement;

type of an advertisement;

a sociological background of a target audience;

age;

sex;

a target telephone type;

an income level;

status of a user;

a location of a user;

historical data of a user'"'"'s behavior;

historical data on a behavior of a profile of users;

information of sent direct advertisement to a user;

information of content vouchers or coupons sent to a user;

codes of vouchers or coupons sent to a user;

a time of a day or a week or a month or a date;

alpha and omega scores, other calculated values from user behavior or user mass analysis.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the messages comprises one or more of message types:

multimedia message service based advertisements;

short message service based advertisements;

message tagging based advertisements;

wireless application protocol based push advertisements;

banner advertisements;

search related advertisements;

interactive advertisements;

video advertisements;

audio advertisements.

10. A message delivery management system for managing a delivery of messages via a communications system, comprising:

a database configured to store user profiles of a plurality of users, each user profile profiling a user for message delivery purposes,

a management interface providing a plurality of message providers with an access to the system to define a plurality of message delivery campaigns with a plurality of parameters, each campaign being individually defined to be carried out during one or more message delivery time window,

and for a given message delivery time window

a) said message delivery management system is configured to group said plurality of message delivery campaigns into a plurality of campaign groups according to at least one similarity criterion,

b) said message delivery management system is configured to determine a message delivery order based said plurality of campaign groups,

c) said message delivery management system is configured to select individually for each of said plurality of campaign groups a reservation method among a plurality of reservation methods,

d) said message delivery management system is configured to reserve, among said plurality of users, target users for each of said plurality of campaign groups approximately simultaneously with the selected individual reservation methods based on said plurality of parameters and said user profiles, such that as high number of messages as possible with the network resources available within the given message delivery time window can be delivered without exceeding a predetermined maximum number of message per any given user,

e) said message delivery management system is configured to optimise the reservation by repeating at least steps c) and d) until target users for all of said plurality of delivery campaigns are reserved, and/or the reservation cannot be changed anymore to include more target users, and/or a time available for the reservation has expired, and/or changes do not produce significantly better results, and

f) said message delivery management system is configured to deliver messages of said plurality of message delivery campaigns to the reserved target users via a communications network in said determined order during said given message delivery time window.

11. A system as claimed in claim 10, wherein

said message delivery management system is configured to store information on the grouping of said delivery campaigns, said selected reservation methods and results of the reservations to provide a learning database, and to

said message delivery management system is configured to use information previously stored in the learning database in at least one of the configured operations a), b), c) and d).

12. A system as claimed in claim 11, comprising:

said message delivery management system is configured to receive from the target users or from other instances a direct or indirect feedback regarding the delivered messages, and

said message delivery management system is configured to store said feedback information in said learning database to form at least part of said results of said reservations.

13. A system as claimed in claim 12, wherein said direct feedback information comprises a response by a user to a direct question in a delivered message.

14. A system as claimed in claim 12, wherein said indirect feedback information comprises information on that a user has purchased of a good or a service advertised in a delivered message, or that a user has used a coupon provided in a delivered message.

15. A system as claimed in claim 10, wherein said at least one similarity criterion comprises one or more of following:

a priority of a message provider, a number of target users, strictness of campaign criteria, and requirements set for user equipment.

16. A system as claimed in claim 10, wherein at least one of said user profiles comprises one or more of:

a sociological background of a user;

age;

sex;

a target telephone type;

an income level;

status of a user;

a location of a user;

historical data of a user'"'"'s behavior;

information of sent direct advertisement to a user;

information of content vouchers or coupons sent to a user;

codes of vouchers or coupons sent to a user;

lifestyle and interest related;

behavior;

demographics;

education;

marital status;

zip code;

preferred times for advertisements.

17. A system as claimed in claim 10, wherein one or more of the following pieces of information is used in the reservation of said target users for a message delivery campaign:

a user profile;

preferences of when to send messages;

to which target group an advertisement is sent;

on which format an advertisement is sent;

a target price level of an advertisement;

a target feedback level of the advertisement;

a target audience;

demographics of a target audience;

a duration of a advertisement campaign, cost per an advertisement;

type of an advertisement;

a sociological background of a target audience;

age;

sex;

a target telephone type;

an income level;

status of a user;

a location of a user;

historical data of a user'"'"'s behavior;

historical data on a behavior of a profile of users;

information of sent direct advertisement to a user;

information of content vouchers or coupons sent to a user;

codes of vouchers or coupons sent to a user;

a time of a day or a week or a month or a date.

18. A system as claimed in any claim 10, wherein the messages comprises one or more of message types:

multimedia message service based advertisements;

short message service based advertisements;

message tagging based advertisements;

wireless application protocol based push advertisements;

banner advertisements;

search related advertisements;

interactive advertisements;

video advertisements;

audio advertisements.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, comprising program code which, when run on a computer, causes execution of a procedure comprising:

storing, in a database, user profiles of a plurality of users, each user profile profiling a user for message delivery purposes,

defining, for a plurality of message providers, a plurality of message delivery campaigns with a plurality of parameters, each campaign being individually defined to be carried out during one or more message delivery time window,

and for a given message delivery time window;

a) grouping said plurality of message delivery campaigns into a plurality of campaign groups according to at least one similarity criterion,

b) determining a message delivery order based on said plurality of campaign groups,

c) selecting individually for each of said plurality of campaign groups a reservation method among a plurality of reservation methods,

d) reserving, among said plurality of users, target users for each of said plurality of campaign groups approximately simultaneously with the selected individual reservation methods based on said plurality of parameters and said user profiles, such that as high number of messages as possible with the network resources available within the given message delivery time window can be delivered without exceeding a predetermined maximum number of message per any given user,

e) optimising the reservation by repeating at least steps c) and d) until target users for all of said plurality of delivery campaigns are reserved, and/or the reservation cannot be changed anymore to include more target users, and/or a time available for the reservation has expired, and/or changes do not produce significantly better results, and

f) delivering messages of said plurality of message delivery campaigns to the reserved target users via a communications network in said determined order during said given message delivery time window.

20. A computer readable storage medium according to claim 19, wherein said program code, when run on a computer, further causes:

storing information on the grouping of said delivery campaigns, said selected reservation methods and results of the reservations to provide a learning database,

using information previously stored in the learning database in at least one of steps a), b), c) and d).

21. A computer readable storage medium according to claim 20, wherein said program code, when run on a computer, further causes:

receiving from the target users or from other instances a direct or indirect feedback regarding the delivered messages, and

storing said feedback information in said learning database to form at least part of said results of said reservations.

22. A message delivery management system for managing a delivery of messages via a communications system, comprising:

a database configured to store user profiles of a plurality of users, each user profile profiling a user for message delivery purposes,

a management interface providing a plurality of message providers with an access to the system to define a plurality of message delivery campaigns with a plurality of parameters, each campaign being individually defined to be carried out during one or more message delivery time window,

and for a given message delivery time window

a) means for grouping said plurality of message delivery campaigns into a plurality of campaign groups according to at least one similarity criterion,

b) means for determining a message delivery order based on said plurality of campaign groups,

c) means for selecting individually for each of said plurality of campaign groups a reservation method among a plurality of reservation methods,

d) means for reserving, among said plurality of users, target users for each of said plurality of campaign groups approximately simultaneously with the selected individual reservation methods based on said plurality of parameters and said user profiles, such that as high number of messages as possible with the network resources available within the given message delivery time window can be delivered without exceeding a predetermined maximum number of message per any given user,

e) means for optimising the reservation by repeating at least steps c) and d) until target users for all of said plurality of delivery campaigns are reserved, and/or the reservation cannot be changed anymore to include more target users, and/or a time available for the reservation has expired and/or changes do not produce significantly better results,

f) means for delivering said plurality of message delivery campaigns to the reserved target users via a communications network in said determined order during said given message delivery time window.

23. A system as claimed in claim 22, comprising:

means for storing information on the grouping of said delivery campaigns, said selected reservation methods and results of the reservations to provide a learning database, and to

said message delivery management system is configured to use information previously stored in the learning database in at least one of the configured operations a), b), c) and d).

24. A system as claimed in claim 23, comprising:

means for receiving from the target users or from other instances a direct or indirect feedback regarding the delivered messages, and

means for storing said feedback information in said learning database to form at least part of said results of said reservations.

25. A method, comprising:

storing, in a database, user profiles of a plurality of users, each user profile profiling a user for message delivery purposes, and

defining, for a plurality of message providers, a plurality of message delivery campaigns with a plurality of parameters, each campaign being individually defined to be carried out during one or more message delivery time window,

and for a desired message delivery time window;

a) grouping said plurality of message delivery campaigns into a plurality of campaign groups according to at least one similarity criterion,

b) determining a message delivery order of said plurality of campaigns based at least partly on said grouping,

c) selecting individually for each of said plurality of campaign groups a reservation method among a plurality of reservation methods,

d) reserving, among said plurality of users, target users for each of said plurality of campaign groups approximately simultaneously with the selected individual reservation methods based on said plurality of parameters and said user profiles, such that as high number of messages as possible with the network resources available within the given message delivery time window can be delivered without exceeding a predetermined maximum number of message per any given user, and

e) optimising the reservation by repeating at least steps c) and d) until target users for all of said plurality of delivery campaigns are reserved, and/or the reservation cannot be changed anymore to include more target users, and/or a time available for the reservation has expired, and/or changes do not produce significantly better results.

26. A system, comprising:

a database configured to store user profiles of a plurality of users, each user profile profiling a user for message delivery purposes, and

a management interface providing a plurality of message providers with an access to the system to define a plurality of message delivery campaigns with a plurality of parameters, each campaign being individually defined to be carried out during one or more message delivery time window,

and for a given message delivery time window

a) said system is configured to group said plurality of message delivery campaigns into a plurality of campaign groups according to at least one similarity criterion,

b) said system is configured to determine a message delivery order based said plurality of campaign groups,

c) said system is configured to select individually for each of said plurality of campaign groups a reservation method among a plurality of reservation methods,

d) said system is configured to reserve, among said plurality of users, target users for each of said plurality of campaign groups approximately simultaneously with the selected individual reservation methods based on said plurality of parameters and said user profiles, such that as high number of messages as possible with the network resources available within the given message delivery time window can be delivered without exceeding a predetermined maximum number of message per any given user, and

e) said system is configured to optimise the reservation by repeating at least steps c) and d) until target users for all of said plurality of delivery campaigns are reserved, and/or the reservation cannot be changed anymore to include more target users, and/or a time available for the reservation has expired, and/or changes do not produce significantly better results.

27. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, comprising program code which, when run on a computer, causes execution of a procedure comprising:

storing, in a database, user profiles of a plurality of users, each user profile profiling a user for message delivery purposes, and

defining, for a plurality of message providers, a plurality of message delivery campaigns with a plurality of parameters, each campaign being individually defined to be carried out during one or more message delivery time window,

and for a given message delivery time window;

a) grouping said plurality of message delivery campaigns into a plurality of campaign groups according to at least one similarity criterion,

b) determining a message delivery order based on said plurality of campaign groups,

c) selecting individually for each of said plurality of campaign groups a reservation method among a plurality of reservation methods,

d) reserving, among said plurality of users, target users for each of said plurality of campaign groups approximately simultaneously with the selected individual reservation methods based on said plurality of parameters and said user profiles, such that as high number of messages as possible with the network resources available within the given message delivery time window can be delivered without exceeding a predetermined maximum number of message per any given user, and

e) optimising the reservation by repeating at least steps c) and d) until target users for all of said plurality of delivery campaigns are reserved, and/or the reservation cannot be changed anymore to include more target users, and/or a time available for the reservation has expired, and/or changes do not produce significantly better results.

28. A system, comprising

a database configured to store user profiles of a plurality of users, each user profile profiling a user for message delivery purposes,

a management interface providing a plurality of message providers with an access to the system to define a plurality of message delivery campaigns with a plurality of parameters, each campaign being individually defined to be carried out during one or more message delivery time window,

and for a given message delivery time window

a) means for grouping said plurality of message delivery campaigns into a plurality of campaign groups according to at least one similarity criterion,

b) means for determining a message delivery order based on said plurality of campaign groups,

c) means for selecting individually for each of said plurality of campaign groups a reservation method among a plurality of reservation methods,

d) means for reserving, among said plurality of users, target users for each of said plurality of campaign groups approximately simultaneously with the selected individual reservation methods based on said plurality of parameters and said user profiles, such that as high number of messages as possible with the network resources available within the given message delivery time window can be delivered without exceeding a predetermined maximum number of message per any given user,

e) means for optimising the reservation by repeating at least steps c) and d) until target users for all of said plurality of delivery campaigns are reserved, and/or the reservation cannot be changed anymore to include more target users, and/or a time available for the reservation has expired, and/or changes do not produce significantly better results.