Geotargeted news and advertisement delivery system

• US 8,903,426 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2011
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nexstar Broadcasting Incorporated (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nexstar Broadcasting Incorporated (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tholkes, Michael, Boike, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Behnamian, Shahriar
• Application Number:
  US13/340,927
• Publication Number:
  US 20120225672A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 345/419, 345/473, 701/117, 701/420, 701/532
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/52 of users
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A system that provides content and/or ad publishers the ability to sell and target content, including “deals,” to mobile devices of users when those users and their mobile devices are located within the defined geographic zone. The content may be targeted and mass distributed to all mobile devices having a registered address within the defined geographic area. The content creator and/or content distributor can manually define the regions where they desire to distribute content by plotting vertices on a map to form a polygon enclosing a geographic region. Regions may be defined by population, retail locations, content and/or ad categories and other relevant criteria. The System User can manage the type of message delivered based upon the time of day and day of the week. Such options provide the content creator with granular management of its content based upon the defined regions established by the content creator and/or content distributor.

Claims

1. A system for providing content comprising:

a database for storing content provided by a content creator in an electronic memory;

a content manager for rendering a digital map of a geographic area and accepting geographic location inputs as vertices of a polygon on said map, said polygon defining boundaries of a geographic region, where the content is associated with said geographic region; and

said content manager including a processor for comparing said geographic region with geographic location data received from an end user electronic device, and transmitting the content associated with the geographic region to the end user electronic device when said geographic location data is within said geographic region;

wherein an app residing on the end user electronic device is in communication with the content manager via a network, receives the transmitted content and displays said content; and

wherein said app transmits the location of the end user electronic device to said content manager at set intervals.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the digital map is interactive, allowing a system user to input vertices by clicking on the desired vertex locations on said map.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the vertices are input by latitude and longitude coordinates.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the content is associated with more than one geographic region.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein a first geographic region at least partially overlaps a second geographic region.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein said content manager accepts a priority level input for each of the overlapping first and second regions.

7. A content manager system for providing content comprising:

a geofence creation subsystem for providing a digital map of a geographic area and accepting geographic location inputs as vertices of a polygon on said map, said polygon defining boundaries of a geographic region;

an advertiser selection subsystem for allowing a content creator to associate content with at least a geographic region;

a geolocation analysis subsystem for receiving geographic location data from an end user electronic device and comparing same with a geographic region; and

a content transmission system for transmitting the content associated with the at least one geographic region to the end user electronic device when said geographic location data is within the at least one geographic region;

wherein an app residing on the end user electronic device is in communication with the geolocation analysis subsystem via a network, receives the transmitted content and displays said content; and

wherein said app transmits the location of the end user electronic device to said geolocation analysis subsystem at set intervals.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the digital map is interactive, allowing a system user to input vertices by clicking on the desired vertex locations on said map.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the vertices are input by latitude and longitude coordinates.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein the content is associated with more than one geographic region.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein a first geographic region at least partially overlaps a second geographic region.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the advertiser selection subsystem accepts a priority level input for each of the overlapping first and second regions.

13. A method for transmitting content to a targeted geographic area comprising the steps of:

providing, via a processor, a digital map of a geographic area;

accepting inputs of geographic locations as vertices of a polygon on said map, said polygon defining boundaries of a geographic region, and storing said inputs and geographic regions in electronic memory of a database;

accepting content from a content creator, and storing same in the electronic memory of the database;

associating said content with at least one said geographic region;

receiving geographic location data from an end user electronic device;

comparing, via a processor, the geographic location data of the end user electronic device with a said geographic region; and

transmitting said content associated with said at least one geographic region to said end user electronic device when said geographic location data from said end user electronic device is within said at least one geographic region;

wherein an app residing on the end user electronic device is in communication with the content creator, receives the transmitted content via a network and displays said content; and

wherein said app transmits the location of the end user electronic device to said content creator at set intervals.