Passive mining of usage information in a location-based services system

• US 8,738,437 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2004
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Gailey, Michael L., Portman, Eric A., Burgiss, Michael J., Holmes, Chad S., Smith, Angela King
• Primary Examiner(s): CHAMPAGNE, DONALD
• Application Number:
  US11/007,761
• Publication Number:
  US 20050102180A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,457 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14, 705/14.41, 705/14.53, 705/14.58, 705/14.64, 705/14.66
• US Class Current: 705/14.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• 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 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0639 Item locations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 : specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 : using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 : using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 : wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/15 : Information service where the information is dependent on the location of the subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 : Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42204 : Arrangements at the exchange for service or number selection by voice at the terminal H04M1/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42348 : Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4936 : Speech interaction details speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 : using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/23 : for mobile advertising

Abstract

A method and system for providing advertising effectiveness searching capabilities, predictive modeling capabilities and usage mining in a location-based services system is disclosed. During operation of the location-based services system, usage information for advertising campaigns placed on the location-based services system is stored. Advertisers are provided with the ability to enter a search request form on a remote terminal to mine the usage information. The search request is then transmitted to an application that searches usage information to generate a response to said search request.

Claims

1. A system to predict advertising effectiveness related to wireless mobile devices, the system comprising:

a location gateway server configured to provide geographical indicators indicative of respective current geographic locations of wireless mobile devices that are operable as portable transceivers to both transmit and receive data;

a location based application server in communication with the location gateway server, the location based application server configured to provide location based advertising campaigns to wireless mobile devices located anywhere in a geographic area defined by a respective location based advertising campaign, the location based application server adapted to determine which wireless mobile devices to include in the location based advertising campaigns by comparison of the defined geographic area with respective current geographic locations of the wireless mobile devices based on the geographical indicators provided by the location gateway server;

a database in communication with the location based application server, the database configured to store consumer usage data collected during performance of consumer transactions, the usage data comprising a time and date that a respective location based advertising campaign was run, and the consumer transactions being performed with wireless mobile devices in response to said advertising campaigns and profile data specific to a consumer operating a respective wireless mobile device that is capable of communication with the location based application server; and

an advertising portal server in communication with the location based application server, the advertising portal server comprising a predictive modeling application, the advertising portal server configured to generate a predictive analysis to forecast the effectiveness of a proposed future location based advertising campaign based on the profile data and the usage data collected during performance of consumer transactions;

the advertising portal server further configured to generate the predictive analysis with the predictive modeling application in response to an advertising analysis request from a user that includes a business rule comprising an incentive or restriction and a potential offer of a product or a service included in the proposed future location based advertising campaign;

the advertising portal server further comprising an advertising effectiveness analysis application and a data scoring application, the advertising portal server further configured to determine components of the database to access with the advertising effectiveness analysis application based on the advertising analysis request;

the advertising portal server further configured to reformat into a predetermined format information retrieved from the database in response to the advertising analysis request, the information reformatted in the predetermined format with the data scoring application to form analysis results; and

the advertising portal server further configured to provide the analysis results in a viewable output for display on a remote terminal.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising portal server is further configured to generate with the predictive modeling application a forecast of a statistical probability of success of the proposed future location based advertising campaign and provide the forecast in the viewable output for display on the remote terminal.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein generation of the predictive analysis of the effectiveness of a proposed location based advertising campaign comprises the advertising portal server further configured to generate with the predictive modeling application model information that forecasts a type and number of consumers likely to respond to the proposed future location based advertising campaign, and the advertising portal server further configured to provide the model, information in the viewable output for display on the remote terminal.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein generation of the predictive analysis of the effectiveness of a proposed location based advertising campaign comprises the advertising portal server further configured to generate with the predictive modeling application model information that forecasts projected locations and peak times of day that demand will occur in response to the proposed future location based advertising campaign, and the advertising portal server further configured to provide the model information in the viewable output for display on the remote terminal.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising portal server is further configured to build a search query based on the advertising analysis request, the advertising portal server further configured to search the consumer usage data and the profile data to find data elements that match the search query.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising portal server further comprises a business rules application, the advertising portal server further configured to extract parameters from the advertising analysis request and formulate a search query with the business rules application.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising portal server further comprises a data access component, the advertising portal server further configured to search the database with the data access component, the advertising portal server further configured to generate a forecast of the statistical probability of success of the proposed future location based advertising campaign with the data scoring application based on information identified in the database with the data access component.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising portal server is further configured to generate a search parameter entry form in a web based interface, wherein the advertising analysis request is received by the advertising portal server as data contained within the search parameter entry form.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising portal server is further configured to retrieve from the database information that includes consumer usage data comprising a location at which a respective location based advertising campaign was accessed with a wireless mobile device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising portal server is further configured to retrieve information from the database that includes consumer usage data comprising a total number of consumers who received a respective location based advertising campaign with a respective wireless mobile device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising portal server is further configured to retrieve information from the database that includes consumer usage data comprising a total number of consumers who responded to a respective location based advertising campaign received with a respective wireless mobile device.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising portal server is further configured to retrieve information from the database that includes consumer usage data comprising a product listing for a respective location based advertising campaign.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertising portal server is further configured to retrieve information from the database that includes consumer usage data comprising a service listing for a respective location based advertising campaign.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the profile data upon which the advertising portal server is configured to base generation of a predictive analysis to forecast the effectiveness of a proposed future location based advertising campaign comprises demographic information of a consumer of a respective wireless mobile device.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the profile data upon which the advertising portal server is configured to base generation of a predictive analysis to forecast the effectiveness of a proposed future location based advertising campaign comprises privacy preferences of a consumer that uses a respective wireless mobile device.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the profile data upon which the advertising portal server is configured to base generation of a predictive analysis to forecast the effectiveness of a proposed future location based advertising campaign comprises service subscriptions of a consumer that uses a respective wireless mobile device.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the profile data upon which the advertising portal server is configured to base generation of a predictive analysis to forecast the effectiveness of a proposed future location based advertising campaign comprises consumer goods and services preferences of a consumer that uses a respective wireless mobile device.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the mobile devices includes a respective unique identifier, and the location gateway server is further configured to provide the geographical indicators to the location based application server in association with the respective unique identifier, the location based application server configured to receive the respective unique identifier from each of the mobile devices for use in determination of which wireless mobile devices to include in the location based advertising campaigns.

19. A system to predict advertising effectiveness related to wireless mobile devices, the system comprising:

a location gateway server configured to provide geographical indicators indicative of respective current geographic locations of wireless mobile devices that are operable as transceivers to both transmit and receive data;

a location based application server in communication with the location gateway server, the location based application server configured to provide deployed location based advertising campaigns to wireless mobile devices located anywhere in a defined geographic area,

the location based application server operable to determine which wireless mobile devices to include in the location based advertising campaigns by comparison of the defined geographic area with the current geographic locations of the respective wireless mobile devices;

a database in communication with the location based application server, the database configured to collect consumer usage data during performance of consumer transactions by a plurality of consumers, business data, and profile data;

said consumer usage data is related to consumer transactions previously performed with wireless mobile devices in response to said advertising campaigns, said business data is related to businesses involved in the consumer transactions said profile data is specific to a consumer who operates a wireless mobile device capable of communication with the location based application server; and

an advertising portal server in communication with the location based application server, the advertising portal server configured to analyze deployed advertising campaigns with an advertising effectiveness application and forecast a possible future advertising campaign for the plurality of consumers with a predictive modeling application based on the usage data collected during performance of consumer transactions by the plurality of consumers;

the advertising portal server further configured, in response to an analysis request comprising a plurality of user entered search parameters, and based on independent user selection of one of the advertising effectiveness application and the predictive modeling application to access said data to generate a respective advertising effectiveness analysis and a predicted probability of success analysis related to the possible future advertising campaign for the plurality of consumers.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the analysis request is a request for a forecast of an effectiveness of a proposed location based advertising campaign, the analysis request includes business rules comprising an incentive or restriction and a description of a potential offer of a product or a service in the proposed location based advertising campaign, and the advertising portal server is configured to access the usage data and the profile data to predict a statistical probability of success of the proposed advertising campaign based on the business rules comprising the incentive or restriction and the description of the potential offer of the product or the service.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the analysis request is a request for analysis of the effectiveness of a deployed location based advertising campaign previously provided by the location based application server, and the advertising portal server is configured to access the usage data and the business data, generate an analysis of an effectiveness of the deployed location based advertising campaign, and provide the effectiveness of the deployed location based advertising campaign as analysis results in a viewable output for display on a remote terminal.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the business data includes a business name, a business address and a business product or service for each of a plurality of businesses.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the advertising portal server is also configured to include a data access component and a data scoring application, wherein the advertising portal server is configured to run a search in the database based on the analysis request with the data access component, format search results to a predetermined format with the data scoring application, and provide the formatted search results in a viewable output for display on a remote terminal.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the advertising portal server is configured to determine with the data scoring application, based on the search results, a statistical probability of success of a proposed advertising campaign included in the analysis and provide the statistical probability of success as part of the viewable output for display on the remote terminal.

25. The system of claim 19, wherein the advertising portal server is configured to allow modification, addition and deletion of advertising campaigns.

26. A system to predict advertising effectiveness related to wireless mobile devices, the system comprising:

a location gateway server configured to provide indications of respective current geographic locations of wireless mobile devices;

a location based application server in communication with the location gateway server, the location based application server configured to supply location based advertising campaigns to wireless mobile devices based on the respective current geographic locations of the wireless mobile devices being within a geographic area defined by a respective location based advertising campaign;

a database in communication with the location based application server, the database configured to collect consumer usage data during performance of consumer transactions with wireless mobile devices in response to the advertising campaigns, and to collect business information related to businesses involved in the consumer transactions; and

an advertising portal server in communication with the location based application server, the advertising portal server configured to generate an analysis of the effectiveness of location based advertising in response to receipt of an advertising analysis request from a remote terminal, the advertising analysis request comprising a plurality of request parameters that include location information and a time period;

the advertising portal server further configured to perform the analysis of the effectiveness of location based advertising by a search of the consumer usage data collected during the performance of consumer transactions and the collected business information included in the database to identify search results in accordance with the location information and the time period that match the advertising analysis request; and

the advertising portal server further configured to generate a viewable output of the search results, the viewable output provided to the remote terminal,

wherein the advertising portal server comprises an advertising effectiveness analysis application and a data scoring application, the advertising portal server configured to determine components of the database to access with the advertising effectiveness analysis application based on the advertising analysis request, and the advertising portal server configured to reformat into a predetermined format with the data scoring application information that is retrieved from the database in response to the advertising analysis request.

27. A method of predicting advertising effectiveness related to wireless mobile devices, the method comprising:

defining geographic target areas with respective deployed advertising campaigns;

receiving current geographic locations of respective wireless mobile devices that are operable as transceivers to both transmit and receive data;

comparing the geographic target area of respective deployed advertising campaigns with the current geographic locations of the respective wireless mobile devices with a location-based application server to determine whether the wireless mobile devices are currently located within the target area of the respective deployed advertising campaigns;

transmitting advertisements for goods or services from the deployed advertising campaigns to the wireless mobile devices with the location-based application server in response to respective current geographic locations of the wireless mobile devices being located within geographic target areas of the respective deployed advertising campaigns;

tracking consumer transactions performed with the wireless devices related to the deployed advertising campaigns with the location-based application server;

determining a geographic location of a business associated with the deployed advertising campaign with the location-based application server;

receiving at an advertising portal server a search request for advertising analysis comprising a plurality of search parameters entered by a user in a user interface of a remote terminal;

determining the effectiveness of one of the deployed advertising campaigns with the advertising portal server based on the tracked consumer transactions when the search request is for an advertising effectiveness analysis, the search parameters comprising identification of the one of the deployed advertising campaigns; and

forecasting the success of a proposed future advertising campaign for the business associated with the deployed advertising campaign with the advertising portal server based on the tracked consumer transactions, the determined geographic location of the business associated with the deployed advertising campaign, and user profiles of the users of the wireless devices, when the search request is for a proposed product or service to be offered and a proposed incentive related to the product or service, the search parameters including a description of the proposed product or service and the proposed incentive,

the proposed future advertising campaign being different than the deployed advertisement campaigns.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein forecasting the success of a proposed future advertising campaign comprises the advertising portal server predicting a statistical probability of success of the proposed future advertising campaign, and the advertising portal server providing the statistical probability of success as viewable output to the remote terminal.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein tracking consumer transactions performed comprises the location-based application server tracking a geographic location where each of the consumer transactions is performed.

30. The method of claim 27, further comprising providing the effectiveness of one of the deployed advertising campaigns or the forecasted success of a proposed future advertising campaign as a viewable output in the user interface of the remote terminal in response to the search request.