Interactive product placement system and method therefor

• US 9,338,500 B2
• Filed: 07/24/2015
• Issued: 05/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aibuy Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cinsay Incorporated
• Inventors: Briggs, Christian, McBurnett, Heath, Galindo, Delfino Jr., Knuth, Freddy
• Primary Examiner(s): CORBO, NICHOLAS T
• Application Number:
  US14/808,789
• Publication Number:
  US 20160029070A1
• Time in Patent Office: 291 Days
• Field of Search: 725 32- 37
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/237 Communication with additional data server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2393 involving handling client requests scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2542 for selling goods, e.g. TV shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26603 for automatically generating descriptors from content, e.g. when it is not made available by its provider, using content analysis techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47217 for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8547 involving timestamps for synchronizing content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot

Abstract

A method for presenting advertisements for commercial products in video productions, whereby the commercial product is placed in the video production as an element of the video production. A viewer is enabled to interact with the video production to select the product. Information is then displayed about the selected product; and the viewer is enabled to purchase the selected product.

Claims

1. A method for advertising in video productions, the method comprising:

transmitting, from one or more servers, a video production to a video player, the transmitted video production associated with at least one pre-defined cue point and containing one or more products or services;

participating in transmission, to the video player, of an interactive advertising feature separate from the video production, the interactive advertising feature relating to the one or more products or services and including a selection enabled portion that allows a viewer of the video player to interactively retrieve information about the one or more products or services;

wherein the video player is configured to display the video production;

wherein the video player is configured upon a triggering of the at least one pre-defined cue point to initiate display of the interactive advertising feature, and

wherein the interactive advertising feature is configured to allow the viewer to retrieve further information not previously displayed about the one or more products or services, at least some of the further information configured to be displayed as an overlay over the video production adjacent at least one edge of a displayable area of the video production without regard to a location or presence of the one or more products or services displayed within the video production.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the overlay is at least partially transparent.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising facilitating purchase of the one or more products or services.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the overlay partially obscures the video production underneath it.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection enabled portion of the interactive advertising feature is further configured to enable the viewer to purchase the one or more products or services.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the overlay is configured to be transparent in portions to allow display of the video production.

7. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by at least one processor, the code comprising code to:

transmit, from at least one server, a video production to a video player, the transmitted video production associated with at least one pre-defined cue point and including a representation of one or more products or services; and

facilitate transmission, to the video player, of an interactive advertisement separate from the video production, the interactive advertisement relating to the one or more products or services and including a user interface configured to provide information about the one or more products or services, display of the interactive advertisement initiated based on a triggering of the at least one pre-defined cue point during display of the video production, the interactive advertisement configured provide additional information not previously displayed about the one or more products or services in response to viewer interaction with the user interface, at least some of the additional information configured to be displayed as an overlay over the video production and abutting at least one edge of a displayable area of the video production without regard to a location or presence of the representation of one or more of products or services within the display of the video production.

8. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 7, further comprising code to:

enable purchase of the one or more products or services.

9. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the interactive advertisement is further configured to facilitate purchase of the one or more products or services.

10. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the overlay is transparent in portions to allow display of the video production.

11. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the interactive advertisement is further configured to be displayed for a predetermined time period.

12. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the overlay partially obscures display of the video production.

13. A processor-implemented method, comprising:

transmitting, from at least one server, a video production to a compute device configured to display the video production to a user, the transmitted video production associated with at least one pre-defined cue point and including a representation of at least one product or service; and

facilitating transmission to the compute device of an interactive advertisement that is separate from the video production, the interactive advertisement having a user interface, the interactive advertisement associated with the at least one product or service and configured to provide information about the at least one product or service in response to user input;

display of the interactive advertisement at the compute device being initiated based on the at least one pre-defined cue point, and

the interactive advertisement being configured to provide further information about the at least one product or service, the further information not previously displayed to the user during the display of video production, at least some of the further information configured to be displayed as an overlay over the video production and abutting at least one edge of a displayable area of the video production without regard to a location or presence of the representation of the at least one product or service displayed within the video production.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the overlay is configured to be at least partially transparent.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising enabling purchase of the at least one product or service by the user.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the overlay is configured to partially obscure display of the video production.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the interactive advertisement is further configured to be displayed for a predetermined time period after initiation.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the interactive advertisement is configured to expire after having been displayed for the predetermined time period without receiving user input.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the interactive advertisement is further configured to facilitate purchase of the at least one product or service by the user.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the overlay is transparent in portions to allow display of the video production.