MATCHING ADVERTISING TO GAME PLAY CONTENT

• US 20120252573A1
• Filed: 09/26/2011
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zynga Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Zynga Incorporated
• Inventors: Chow, Michael, Rouse, Justin, Holme, Kevin
• Granted Patent: US 9,373,125 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality

Abstract

An advertisement is associated with a particular user move in a gaming environment where playing of the user move by a user results in the advertisement being displayed at the user'"'"'s gaming device. With multiple users, each play of a unique user move results in a corresponding uniquely targeted advertisement being displayed at the respective gaming device of each user. User moves and associated advertisements are bound to one another based on a frequency of use of the user move in game play and the desirability of the advertiser to associate the advertisement with the user move.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining a characteristic of an advertisement message as a candidate for inclusion within an online game;

determining a characteristic of a play performed according to a player of the online game;

associating the advertisement message with the play based on the characteristic of the advertisement message corresponding with the characteristic of the play;

promoting the play to at least one user of the online game;

receiving an indication of at least one user of the online game having played the promoted play; and

responsive to the indication of the promoted play having been played, transmitting the advertisement message associated with the promoted play to a device of the at least one user.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to the determining the characteristic of each play, retrieving a frequency of use of an element corresponding to each play;

determining that each frequency of use of a respective element satisfies a frequency condition of the element;

offering a selected play to an advertiser as a candidate advertisement trigger when a frequency of use of the respective element in the selected play satisfies the frequency condition of the element; and

from the advertiser, receiving a purchase indication associated with the selected play.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the frequency condition is a frequency of use of the element that is equal to or greater than a predetermined minimum threshold frequency value.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the associating the advertisement message includes associating at least one advertisement message with at least one play.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic of the advertisement message matches the characteristic of the play.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a play includes a move from one or more players for one or more instances of an online game.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein associating the advertisement message with the play being carried out by an advertiser or a gaming provider.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising storing the plurality of plays of the online game in a storage device.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the characteristic of the advertisement message including at least one of a term, a phrase, a symbol, and a graphic depiction.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the play from the player along with a link in to a data structure, wherein the link being operative to locate the advertisement message.

5. (canceled)

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium embodying a set of instructions, that when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

determining a characteristic of an advertisement message as a candidate for inclusion within an online game;

determining a characteristic of a play performed according to a player of the online game;

associating the advertisement message with the play based on the characteristic of the advertisement message corresponding with the characteristic of the play;

promoting the play to at least one user of the online game;

receiving an indication of at least one user of the online game having played the promoted play; and

responsive to the indication of the promoted play having been played, transmitting the advertisement message associated with the promoted play to a device of the at least one user.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the operations further comprising:

responsive to the determining the characteristic of each play, retrieving a frequency of use of an element corresponding to each play;

determining that each frequency of use of a respective element satisfies a frequency condition of the element;

offering a selected play to an advertiser as a candidate advertisement trigger when a frequency of use of the respective element in the selected play satisfies the frequency condition of the element; and

from the advertiser, receiving a purchase indication associated with the selected play.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the frequency condition is a frequency of use of the element that is equal to or greater than a predetermined minimum threshold frequency value.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the associating the advertisement message includes associating at least one advertisement message with at least one play.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the characteristic of the advertisement message matches the characteristic of the play.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein a play includes a move from one or more players for one or more instances of an online game.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein associating the advertisement message with the play being carried out by an advertiser or a gaming provider.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable method of claim 11, the operations further comprising storing the plurality of plays of the online game in a storage device.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, the operations further comprising:

storing the play from the player along with a link in to a data structure, wherein the being operative to locate the advertisement message.

15. (canceled)

20. A system comprising:

a game play server configured to provide game play interaction through a network connection to at least one client machine;

a game data storage module configured to store game play data associated with an online game session with the at least one client machine;

a determination module configured to determine characteristics of advertisement messages and plays from online games;

a promotion module configured to promote plays to users of an online game; and

an association module configured to associate an advertisement message with plays based on a characteristic of the advertisement message and a characteristic of a respective play.