System for advertisement selection, placement and delivery within a multiple-tenant voice interaction service system

• US 7,697,673 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2005
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HTC Corporation
• Original Assignee: Apptera Incorporated
• Inventors: Chiu, Leo, Loukianoff, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): SING, SIMON P
• Application Number:
  US11/087,030
• Publication Number:
  US 20050180549A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,849 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88.17, 379/114.13
• US Class Current: 379/114.13
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML

Abstract

An advertisement delivery system for publishing a voice-enabled advertisement chosen among multiple voice-enabled advertisements to a specific voice application version chosen among multiple voice application versions available to the system has a telephony interface for enabling voice interactive access to at least one running version of the chosen voice application; and a matching service application for determining selection of the advertisement, the voice application version to host the advertisement, and at least one advertisement position in the voice application version for presenting the advertisement.

Claims

1. An advertisement delivery system comprising:

a multi-tenant voice application system running a plurality of tenant-specific voice applications;

a plurality of voice-enabled advertisements;

a publisher configuration manager to enable tenants to create and register voice applications in the system, and to configure advertisement publishing conditions and constraints, including price constraints; and

a service application executing in the multi-tenant voice application system, wherein the service application includes a configuration manager to enable advertisers to register advertisements in the system and to configure advertisement parameters, including price constraints, wherein if a vacant advertisement position exists in a running voice application, the service application selects an advertisement from the plurality of voice-enabled advertisements, and causes the selected advertisement to be played in the voice application, wherein the advertisement is selected based on;

content relevancy of the advertisement to the voice application;

a plurality of selections entered by a user during a current user session navigating the voice application; and

results of an advertisement competition among a plurality of advertisers.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the voice-enabled advertisement is a voice extensible markup language text string or a voice extensible markup language executable object.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the voice-enabled advertisement is one or a collection of pre-recorded voice files and voice extensible markup language executable code.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the voice application versions are enterprise-specific variants constructed over common voice application architecture.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein text-to-speech voice synthesis is used to play the advertisement.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the advertisement competition includes recognition of a highest bid by an advertiser.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein if a vacant advertisement position does not exist in the running voice application, the service application omits selection of an advertisement and omits playing an advertisement in the voice application.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein each running voice application has a single advertisement position.

9. A service application comprising:

a publisher configuration manager enabling creation and registration of voice applications in a system, the publisher configuration manager further to configure advertisement publishing conditions and constraints, including price constraints;

a configuration manager enabling advertisers to register advertisements in the system and to configure advertisement parameters, including price constraints;

an application interface enabling receipt of data about caller selections entered during a current session while a caller navigated a tenant-specific voice application among a plurality of tenant-specific applications in a multi-tenant center, and further enabling receipt of data about individual advertisements among a plurality of advertiser-specific advertisements accessible in the multi-tenant center, the data about individual advertisements including advertisement price constraints; and

a processor processing the data about the caller selections and the data about the advertisements, considering constraints and conditions, and selecting as a result of the processing one advertisement to place in the voice application.

10. The application of claim 9 wherein the advertisement is voice-enabled in the form of a voice extensible markup language text string or a voice extensible markup language executable object.

11. The application of claim 9 wherein the advertisement is voice-enabled in the form of one or a collection of pre-recorded voice files and voice extensible markup language executable code.

12. The application of claim 9 further comprising enabling receipt of data describing one or a combination of profiled attributes of the caller acquired during one or more previous interactions with the caller.

13. The application of claim 9 wherein the voice applications are enterprise-specific variants constructed over common voice application architecture.

14. The application of claim 9 wherein the constraints and conditions are configured by advertisers and tenants.

15. The application of claim 9 wherein interaction by a caller with an advertisement placed in the voice application with which the caller interacts includes caller receipt of some acknowledgement, confirmation, or indication of product or service participation.

16. A method for selecting an advertisement to be presented to a caller interacting with a voice application comprising:

identifying an incoming call and the caller;

connecting the identified call to a tenant-specific voice application from among a plurality of tenant-specific voice applications in a multi-tenant center, wherein the plurality of tenant-specific voice applications are created and registered by a plurality of tenants;

identifying advertisements approved for consideration for placement in the identified voice application, wherein the advertisements are registered and configured by a plurality of advertisers, and wherein the advertisements have associated publishing conditions and constraints, including price constraints, determined by the advertisers;

accessing data about caller selections entered during a current navigation session;

accessing data about the advertisements including results of a competition among the advertisements approved for consideration; and

determining a specific advertisement to place in the voice application based on caller selections entered during a current navigation session and data about the advertisements.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising accessing data about the caller regarding caller historical activity and caller profile attributes.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the results of the competition among the advertisements approved for consideration includes considering a bid amount for placement of the advertisement.