Mobile marketing application

• US 8,196,095 B2
• Filed: 02/05/2008
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gupta, Arvind, Tiwari, Ashutosh, Venkatraman, Gopalakrishnan, Cheung, Dominic, Bennett, Stacy R., Koen, Douglas B.
• Primary Examiner(s): WANG, RONGFA PHILIP
• Application Number:
  US12/026,515
• Publication Number:
  US 20090197580A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,582 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for facilitating quick mobile website creation by mobile advertisers, including providing access to an advertiser of a mobile marketing application that interfaces with an ad server, wherein the advertiser is authenticated for access to the ad server; enabling the advertiser to input to an interface of the application a plurality of content items selected from the group consisting of a descriptive text, an image, a phone number, and a hyperlink; presenting the advertiser with a go live option; automatically creating the mobile website to include the submitted content items when the go live option is selected, wherein the application facilitates rapid creation by the advertiser of a mobile website having a plurality of web pages, and the mobile website is optimized for mobile delivery; subjecting the created mobile website to a plurality of error checks; and publishing the mobile website to a network through a mobile service provider system.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating quick mobile website creation by mobile advertisers, the method executable by a computer having at least one processor and memory, the method comprising:

providing to an advertiser, using the computer, access to a mobile marketing application that interfaces with an ad server and is executable by the at least one processor;

authenticating the advertiser, using the at least one processor, for access to the application through an advertisement creation screen of the ad server with which the advertiser is already authenticated and from which the advertiser links to arrive at the application;

receiving from the advertiser, through an interface of the application, a plurality of content items selected from a group consisting of a descriptive text, an image, a phone number, and a hyperlink;

presenting the advertiser with a go live option through the interface;

receiving a selection of the go live option through the interface;

creating, using the at least one processor, the mobile website to include the received content items in response to selection of the go live option, wherein the application facilitates rapid creation by the advertiser of a mobile website having a plurality of web pages, and the mobile website is optimized for mobile delivery;

subjecting, using the at least one processor, the created mobile website to a plurality of error checks; and

publishing the mobile website, using the at least one processor, to a network through a mobile service provider system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the hyperlink provides a connection to another Web page within the mobile website.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the at least one processor:

receiving modifications to the mobile website from the advertiser through the interface of the application; and

publishing the mobile website with the modifications upon detection of selection of the go live option through the interface.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prompting the advertiser with a login screen; and

authenticating the advertiser for access to the application in response to an advertiser-matched input of a user identification and a password.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the at least one processor:

providing an application access option accessible through the advertisement creation screen of the ad server; and

authenticating the advertiser for access to the application when the application access option is selected.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each page of the created mobile website comprises one or more of:

a name provided to identify the page;

a title to be used as a title tag in a markup generated when the page is created;

a size limit;

a capability to display an image and to make the image linkable; and

a capability to display descriptive text and to make the text linkable.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the at least one processor:

creating a destination uniform resource locator (URL) to be for affiliation with the created mobile website; and

displaying the destination URL to the advertiser.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

generating a display URL based on the destination URL according to one or more of the following criteria;

a domain name of the display URL coincides with that of the service provider;

a name affiliated with the advertiser is suffixed to the domain name;

the mobile website name is included in the display URL;

the display URL is valid; and

the display URL is unique among a plurality of URLs affiliated with a plurality of advertiser mobile sites of the service provider system; and

displaying the display URL to the advertiser.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

enabling the advertiser to copy and paste the destination and display URLs into a user interface (UI) of the ad server used to create an advertisement that links to the mobile website.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein each web page of the mobile website is laid out such that a link leading back to a home page of the mobile website is presented at the top and bottom thereof and in between which is located the image and the descriptive text.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a phone number is received as part of the descriptive text, the method further comprising:

enabling the advertiser to select and hyperlink the phone number so that, when a mobile device user clicks on the phone hyperlink, the mobile device initiates a phone call to that phone number.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the mobile website includes generating a markup that can lookup in a database a device characteristic, and deliver content to a mobile device comprising a version of the mobile website that is compatible with the device characteristic.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the device characteristic comprises one or more of:

a screen size, a font, a color, and another screen attribute, the method further comprising;

displaying a mobile website page preview to the advertiser before receiving a selection of the go live option, wherein the page preview includes an emulation of the mobile website as displayed on the mobile device.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

creating multiple mobile websites for the advertiser within a given session of the advertiser accessing the application.

15. A method of integrating third party applications for rapid mobile website creation by mobile advertisers, the method executable by a computer having at least one processor and memory, the method comprising:

providing, using the computer, a mobile marketing application from a third party provider different than a mobile service provider;

integrating, using the at least one processor, an advertiser interface of the mobile marketing application with a user interface (UI) of an ad server of the mobile service provider;

receiving, using the at least one processor, a same set of login credentials as used for access to the ad server from an advertiser through the UI of the ad server;

authenticating, using the at least one processor, the advertiser with the login credentials for access to the advertiser interface of the mobile marketing application;

receiving from the advertiser, through the advertiser interface of the mobile marketing application, a plurality of content items to create a mobile website that displays the content items and that is optimized for mobile delivery;

creating, using the at least one processor, the mobile website with the plurality of content items; and

creating, using the at least one processor, an advertisement from the UI of the ad server that links to the mobile website created by the mobile marketing application.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

creating a destination uniform resource locator (URL) to be affiliated with the created mobile website;

generating a display URL based on the destination URL according to one or more of the following criteria;

a domain name of the display URL coincides with that of the service provider;

a name affiliated with the advertiser is suffixed to the domain name;

the mobile website name is included in the display URL;

the display URL is valid; and

the display URL is unique among a plurality of URLs affiliated with a plurality of advertiser mobile sites of the service provider system; and

transmitting the destination and display URLs to the ad server to create the advertisement that links to mobile website.

17. A system for facilitating quick mobile website creation by mobile advertisers, the system comprising:

a memory to store instructions of a mobile marketing application, a mobile website data, and a mobile carrier data;

an interface operatively connected to the memory to communicate with advertisers that use a mobile device or a web-based computer; and

a processor operatively connected to the memory and the interface and configured to execute the instructions to integrate the interface with an advertiser user interface (UI) of an ad server;

the processor further configured to;

provide to an advertiser access to a mobile marketing application that interfaces with the ad server;

authenticate the advertiser for access to the application through an advertisement creation screen of the UI with which the advertiser is already authenticated and from which the advertiser links to arrive at the application;

receive from the advertiser, through the interface, a plurality of content items selected from a group consisting of a descriptive text, an image, a phone number, and a hyperlink;

present the advertiser with a go live option through the interface;

receive a selection of the go live option through the interface;

create the mobile website to include the received content items in response to selection of the go live option, wherein the application facilitates rapid creation by the advertiser of a mobile website having a plurality of web pages, and the mobile website is optimized for mobile delivery;

subject the created mobile website to a plurality of error checks; and

publish the mobile website to a network through a mobile service provider system.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the mobile marketing application comprises a third party application designed according to a plurality of criteria that enables third-party integration of the interface with the ad server and with the advertiser UI.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to:

transmit carrier selection data from the advertiser UI to the interface.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to:

authenticate an advertiser through receipt of a selection by the advertiser of a link provided through the advertiser UI or through a separate login screen that prompts the advertiser for a username and password.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to:

enable modification of the mobile website through the interface.

22. The system of claim 17, further comprising:

a device database to store a plurality of device characteristics of one or more mobile devices;

wherein, upon creation of the mobile website, the processor generates a markup that can lookup a device characteristic in the device database, and deliver content to a mobile device including a version of the mobile website that is compatible with the device characteristic.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the device characteristic comprises one or more of:

a screen size, a font, a color, and another screen attribute, wherein the processor is further configured to;

display a mobile website page preview to the advertiser before selection of the go live option, wherein the page preview includes an emulation of the mobile website as displayed on the mobile device.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein the created mobile website comprises a plurality of pages each comprising one or more of:

a name provided to identify the page;

a title to be used as a title tag in a markup generated when the page is created;

a size limit;

a capability to display an image and to make the image linkable; and

a capability to display descriptive text and to make the text linkable;

wherein each web page of the mobile website is laid out such that a link leading back to a home page of the mobile website is presented at the top and bottom thereof and in between which is located the image and the descriptive text.

25. The system of claim 17, where the processor is further configured to:

create a destination uniform resource locator (URL) to be affiliated with the mobile website;

generate a display URL based on the destination URL; and

transmit the destination and display URLs to the ad server to enable creation of a mobile advertisement that operably links to the mobile website.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive advertisement data from a mobile service provider system including current activity status, whether a campaign is active, or statistics related to user response to the mobile advertisement.