1. Field
The present embodiments relate to advertising and, more particularly, to advertising in a mobile device.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
Advertisements may be sent to a mobile device such as a mobile communication terminal as, for example, short message service (SMS) or multimedia message service (MMS) messages. A network operator or advertiser may include a reply phone number and/or forwarding web link into the message so that the user may respond to the ad when the ad is opened. However, when advertisements are sent to the mobile device via SMSI MMS or other type of message there is no guarantee that a user of the device will read or even look at the ads. There is also very little user interaction with the SMS or MMS advertising messages even though the phone number and/or forwarding web link are added into both message types.
Advertisements that are downloaded for display as a background on a display of the device or as screen savers may also been known but are not widely deployed.
There is a need to display an advertisement so that the advertisement is presented to the user during normal operation of the mobile device in such a way so the user is not frustrated by the presentment of the advertisement.
In one embodiment, a method is provided. The method includes displaying at least one user interface feature on a display, receiving at least a first information related to at least one advertisement and displaying the at least first information related to the at least one advertisement in place of at least one of the at least one user interface feature when the at least one user interface feature is visible on the display.
In one embodiment, an apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes a display configured to display at least one user interface feature, a receiver configured to receive at least a first information related to at least one advertisement and a processor configured to display the at least first information related to the at least one advertisement in place of at least one of the at least one user interface feature when the at least one user interface feature is visible on the display.
In another embodiment, a computer program product is provided. The computer program product includes a computer useable medium having computer readable code means embodied therein for causing a computer to display at least a first information related to at least one advertisement. The computer readable code means in the computer program product includes computer readable code means for causing a computer to display at least one user interface feature on a display, computer readable code means for causing a computer to receive at least a first information related to at least one advertisement and computer readable code means for causing a computer to display the at least first information related to the at least one advertisement in place of at least one of the at least one user interface feature when the at least one user interface feature is visible on the display.
The foregoing aspects and other features of the present embodiments are explained in the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The number of mobile communication devices in use around the world is ever increasing. As such, mobile communication devices present a significant opportunity for any suitable companies such as advertising companies and the like to present information to a broad range of individuals. Any suitable message or advertising data (i.e. the advertisement) may be sent to the mobile communication devices from any suitable communications interface such as, for example, another mobile device, local devices, or an internet server or internet client. The advertisements may include any suitable informational content such as, for example, items or services for sale, information not related to any type of solicitation, meeting times, public service announcements, employment opportunities and the like. The advertisement may be any suitable advertisement such as advertisements for goods, services and the like. It would be advantageous to provide mobile communication devices and methods for providing the advertisements to users of the mobile devices in such a way so as not to hinder the use of the device. It would also be advantageous to display the advertising information to a user in such a way so the user will be curious as to what information is being presented thereby increasing the efficiency of the advertising.
In the telecommunication system of
The mobile terminals 100, 106 may be connected to a mobile telecommunications network 110 through radio frequency (RF) links 102, 108 via base stations 104, 109. The mobile telecommunications network 110 may be in compliance with any commercially available mobile telecommunications standard such as GSM, UMTS, D-AMPS, CDMA2000, FOMA and TD-SCDMA.
The mobile telecommunications network 110 may be operatively connected to a wide area network 120, which may be the internet or a part thereof. An internet server 122 has data storage 124 and is connected to the wide area network 120, as is an internet client computer 126. The server 122 may host a www/hap server capable of serving www/hap content to the mobile terminal 100.
For example, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 130 may be connected to the mobile telecommunications network 110 in a familiar manner. Various telephone terminals, including the stationary telephone 132, may be connected to the PSTN 130.
The mobile terminal 100 is also capable of communicating locally via a local link 101 to one or more local devices 103. The local link 101 may be any suitable type of link with a limited range, such as for example Bluetooth, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) link, a wireless Universal Serial Bus (WUSB) link, an IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN) link, an RS-232 serial link, etc. The local devices 103 can, for example, be various sensors that can communicate measurement values to the mobile terminal 100 over the local link 101. The above examples are not intended to be limiting, and any suitable type of link may be utilized. The local devices 103 may be antennas and supporting equipment forming a WLAN implementing Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX, IEEE 802.16), WiFi (IEEE 802.11x) or other communication protocols. The WLAN may be connected to the internet. The mobile terminal 100 may thus have multi-radio capability for connecting wirelessly using mobile communications network 110, WLAN or both. Communication with the mobile telecommunications network 110 may also be implemented using WiFi, WiMax, or any other suitable protocols, and such communication may utilize unlicensed portions of the radio spectrum (e.g. unlicensed mobile access (UMA)).
One example of a terminal 100 is illustrated in more detail in
In one example, the device 100, may be for example, a PDA style device 300 illustrated in
Referring now to
The mobile device 400 may be configured to receive any suitable information related to an advertisement(s) from any suitable source as described above. The mobile terminal 400 may be configured to receive or download 460 the advertisement information or a portion of the advertisement information through for example, any suitable communications protocols such as cellular protocols, internet protocols, SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, infrared, video, digital/analog, etc. Information related to the advertisement(s) may be displayed in any suitable area of the display 420 including, but not limited to, over an icon, text, graphic or symbol located on the display 420, in the background of the display 420 and the like. The information related to the advertisement may include, but is not limited to, an ad identifier or indicator, the advertisement itself, information on which icon or text, if any, the ad will replace on the display and for what duration of time the advertisement will remain visible on the display. Examples pertaining to the display of the advertising information will be described in greater detail below.
The mobile terminal 400 may be configured to receive or download the advertising information at any suitable time. Examples of when the terminal 400 may receive or download the advertising information include, but are not limited to when the terminal is in use or in an idle state, when the terminal is in an active state (e.g. in use) or upon request from a user of the terminal. The mobile terminal 400 may also be configured to store any suitable number of downloaded advertisements in the memory 250 of the mobile terminal 400 (Block 640,
In one embodiment, at least a portion of the advertising information or an indication of the advertising information is downloaded to the device. The background lighting of the display and keys can be used to inform the user that an advertising information has been received in the mobile terminal 400. In another embodiment, the background lighting such as, for example, the back-lighting of the keys on the keypad 410 of the mobile terminal may be turned off while the mobile terminal is inactive and the partial mode advertisement is presented. In still another embodiment the background lighting may be turned on or may flash for a predetermined amount of time to indicate an advertisement has been received and is being displayed over, for example, an icon or text shown in the display 420. In alternate embodiments an audible indicator may sound to alert the user to the receipt of the advertisements in the mobile terminal.
A portion of the advertisement or a descriptive aspect related to the advertisement (e.g. an advertisement indicator) can be displayed or presented to the user. For example, in one embodiment an advertising message is downloaded to the terminal 400 at any suitable time. An indicator of the advertising information may be displayed to the user as shown in
The terminal 400 may include any suitable hardware or software for processing the received or downloaded advertising information for presentment to a user. In one embodiment, the processor 240 may process the downloaded advertisement information and extract information from, for example, any suitable part of the advertising message (e.g. the message header, the body of the message, etc.) for display on the terminal 400. In one embodiment, the advertising information such as the indicator or a more complete version of the advertisement may be displayed by the terminal 400 in any suitable area of the display such as, for example, over a visible feature of the user interface presented on the display 420, in a status bar, as a soft key function and the like. In the example shown in
In another embodiment, the advertising messages may be linked to a certain type of device function or application (e.g. advertising directed to a certain market). As can be seen in
The advertisement information may be displayed at any suitable time such as when the advertisement is downloaded, the device function or application is activated or upon request by the user. In one example, as shown in
In one embodiment, the user of the mobile terminal may, for example select or activate a device function 600 such as a music player of the terminal 400 via an icon or link, such as icon 469. Advertisement information 610 (e.g. the indicator or preview) related to the advertising message(s) may be displayed on the display 420 of the device 400, for example, for a predetermined period of time (e.g. the preview period). The predetermined amount of time may be set in any suitable manner. For example, the predetermined period of time may be user definable or it may be specified in part of the advertising information received or downloaded by the terminal 400.
Where the user selects the advertisement information 610, the additional advertising information 620 may be displayed on the display 420. When the additional advertising information 620 is displayed the user may use, for example, the soft keys 432, 431 to select the customized functions, as described above, associated with the additional advertising information 620 to obtain more information about the advertising offer (Block 680,
In another embodiment, the advertising information or a portion of the advertising information may be automatically displayed by the terminal 400 when, for example any suitable event occurs. The events may include, but are not limited to the downloading of the advertisement, the press of a key on the keypad, the receipt of a call or message, activating the terminal from an idle mode, etc. The events that automatically trigger the display of the advertisement or a portion of the advertisement may be user definable such as through a setting menu, they may be preset during manufacture or a combination thereof. In still other embodiments, information related to the advertisement may be displayed after a delay. The delay may be user settable, defined in the advertising message, or defined by a system administrator (e.g. mobile communications operator, web site operator, etc.). In alternate embodiments the delay may be specified in any suitable manner.
As described above, the user interface of the mobile terminal 400 may include a settings menu so that the user may define the amount of time the indicator or any suitable portion of the advertising information is displayed on the device. The menu of the user interfaces described herein may also include user settings for controlling the number of times the advertisements are displayed and for the types of advertisements to be displayed. For example, a user may adjust the settings so that each advertisement is displayed, for example, three times. In alternate embodiments the user may be able to specify the number of times a certain type or category of ad is displayed. For example, advertisements pertaining to sports may be displayed three times while advertisements the advertisements pertaining to traveling are displayed once. The user may also adjust the menu settings so that the advertisements are presented during a certain time period. For example, the menu setting may be adjusted so that all ads are displayed between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. In alternate embodiments the setting may be adjusted so that, for example, music CD or DVD related ads are displayed between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m., radio related ads are displayed between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., internet related ads are displayed between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. and television related ads are displayed between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. In other alternate embodiments the setting may be adjusted to associate an ad with a particular time slot, for example, an ad for a television show that starts at 7:00 p.m. may be displayed on the mobile device when or just before the show starts. In other alternate embodiments the number of times the ads are displayed and the time period the ads are display may be set via the advertising message, by the manufacturer of the mobile device or by a system administrator such as, for example, a mobile communications operator or web site operator.
The user interface may also include a menu in which the user can customize how the advertisements are presented. For example, the user may specify where the advertisement information is presented (e.g. over which icon, text, image, etc. the ad is placed) or the user may select which available customized functions may be associated with the soft keys 432, 431.
The disclosed embodiments may also include software and computer programs incorporating the process steps and instructions described above that are executed in different computers.
Computer systems 1002 and 1004 may also include a microprocessor for executing stored programs. Computer 1002 may include a data storage device 1008 on its program storage device for the storage of information and data. The computer program or software incorporating the processes and method steps incorporating features of the present invention may be stored in one or more computers 1002 and 1004 on an otherwise conventional program storage device. In one embodiment, computers 1002 and 1004 may include a user interface 1010, and a display interface 1012 from which features of the present invention can be accessed. The user interface 1010 and the display interface 1012 can be adapted to allow the input of queries and commands to the system, as well as present the results of the commands and queries.
It should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the embodiments. Various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the embodiments. Accordingly, the present embodiments are intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variances that fall within the scope of the appended claims.