The invention disclosed broadly relates to the field of information processing and more particularly relates to the field of digital advertisement and fulfillment of orders for goods and services.
Many persons producing events (herein defined as “Event Holders”) have trouble selling all the tickets of the facility where the event is held because they cannot afford to spend enough on marketing or because they do not want to discount their ticket prices because that would condition the public to wait for the discount. Therefore there is a need for a method and system for advertising and selling tickets to an event that overcome these shortcomings.
Briefly, according to an embodiment of the invention a method allows event holders to set their own advertising rates to compete on an advertising network by providing advertisements based on a projected rate of return in a risk free manner to the event holder. The method can optionally be implemented as one or more server machines connected to a network of marketing sites. The method and system eliminate the risk of paying for ineffective advertising by an Event Holder because the Event Holder only pays for advertisements that directly or indirectly lead to sales.
The following terms shall be defined as follows only for purposes of the description of the illustrative embodiment and examples. When these and similar terms are used in the claims their meaning may vary in scope in a manner commensurate with the scope of the claimed invention.
Definitions:
Advertising Network Member—Any Web site that chooses to provide advertising space for events using an Online Marketing System (OMS) according to an embodiment of the invention.
Advertisement Network—A network of Advertising Network Members who participate in the OMS.
Advertising Fee—an amount set by the Event Holder whether as a percentage or an absolute dollar amount per ticket or group of tickets sold or both to be paid to the Online Marketing System for all ticket orders from the Online Marketing System. The Advertising Fee amounts can also be limited by an absolute total dollar amount, by passage of time, or by limiting it to specific tickets to market, at the Event Holder's choosing. There are two types of Advertising Fees, Direct and Indirect. Direct Advertising Fees are Advertising Fees paid for advertisements that lead directly to a sale. To earn a Direct Advertising Fee, a Consumer 112 (see
Application Programming Interface (API)—a group of functions that allow event Advertising Network Members to send Limiting Criteria, Behavioral, demographic and geographic data to the Online Marketing System which will enable the Online Marketing System to display advertisements on the Advertising Network Members Web sites through the use of HTML code on the part of the Advertising Network Member.
Behavioral data—Any data or information concerning any and all aspects of consumer behavior of one or more individuals, online or offline, including, but not limited to: order history, consumer preferences, consumer response to advertisements both to specific advertisements and advertisements in general, etc.
Billing, Transmit a Bill—Both Billing and Transmit a Bill includes the concept of deducting the amount of the Advertising Fee directly from an order and distributing the remaining proceeds to the appropriate parties, and as done in the traditional sense of the concept.
Browser—a software program which allows people to view sites on the Internet.
Consumer—a person who visits an Advertising Network Member's Web site and views an advertisement on OMS and may potentially make a purchase.
Content (also called Site Content or Content Information)—Any media, information, topics discussed and languages that an Advertising Network Member displays to its users in general as well as any specific media, information, topics discussed and languages shown to a Consumer at the time an advertisement is requested.
Cookie—Popular means by which Web sites store and track information about Consumers 112 to their Web sites.
Event Data—Any data that is entered in the online marketing system database that includes but is not limited to: 1) Event type; 2) Event location; 3) Ticket pricing; 4) Discounts or promotions (% or $); 5) Advertising Fee; 6) Event date; 7) Event pitch; 8) Event title; 9) Number of tickets available; and 10) Seating chart.
Event Holders—Any entity that creates and/or hosts and/or promotes a live event.
HTML code—Hypertext Markup Language, the standard mark-up language used for creating Web sites on the Internet.
Internet Protocol Address (IP Address)—a number assigned to a device using the Internet to be used as a unique identifier.
Limiting Criteria—the criteria Advertising Network Members use to limit the scope of advertisements that appear on their Web site. Limiting Criteria can include but are not limited to: choosing a specific advertisement or a specific event or both, choosing one or more events by type, location, subject matter, content, performer, duration, reviews, price, etc.
Online Marketing System (also called Online Marketplace System or OMS)—the system used to create an online marketplace which combines marketing and sales wherein advertisement is provided on a reduced risk or risk-free basis.
Operator—the party that implements the Online Marketing System discussed herein and manages all the required systems and business relationships to do so.
Projected Rate of Return—The standard by which the Online Marketing System determines the most profitable advertisements to display on an Advertising Network Member's Web site at any given time to a Consumer. The Projected Rate of Return is based upon the projected rate at which the advertisement will generate Direct and Indirect Advertising Fees, which is in turn, based upon general and specific Behavioral, geographic and demographic data about Consumers, the specific advertisements as well as the type of advertisements already seen by the Consumer as well as when these advertisements were seen, Content Information about the Advertising Network Member's Web site, Event Data, the Advertising Fee structure, the ticket pricing and the success rate of the advertisement leading to a sale leading to Direct and/or Indirect Advertising Fees being earned by Online Marketing System. The lower the Projected Rate of Return, the less an advertisement would be shown, thus forcing Event Holders to compete against each other to offer a higher Projected Rate of Return for their advertisements.
Rate of Return—The total Direct and Indirect Advertising Fees collected for a given advertising run divided by the number of times the advertisement was displayed.
Universal Resource Locator (URL)—the means by which Consumers use the World Wide Web to navigate Web sites.
The Online Marketplace:
Referring to
An Event Holder 101 is also connected to the network 105. The Event Holder 101 has a plurality (e.g., hundreds or thousands) of tickets to an event that it has to sell to users of the systems such as Consumers 112. In order to sell those tickets, the Event Holder 101 may use an existing relationship (or establish a new relationship) with the Operator of the system 100 or the server 102. Once a relationship exists, the Event Holder 101 can receive a user ID and a password to communicate with the server 102. In this embodiment, the system 100 is used to sell tickets but other embodiments may use the system 100 to sell any other goods or services in a manner similar to that discussed herein.
Referring to
This marketplace system 100 creates an incentive for Event Holders 101 to compete with each other to place risk-free advertisements on an advertising network of Advertising Network Members by providing the Online Marketing System 100 with a higher Projected Rate of Return. The system 100 includes an Advertising Network that is a combined marketing and fulfillment network. The vertical integration of the sales and marketing network allows the system 100 to offer Event Holders 101 risk-free advertisements because Event Holders 101 only pay Advertising Fees on the specific advertisements that directly or indirectly led to specific orders from Consumers 112.
The marketplace system 100 described above can be implemented by maintaining a database of Event Data 103 that can be updated (e.g., in real-time), an interface 107 for Event Holders to set and change Advertising Fees (e.g., in real-time), and a method for Advertising Network Members, through an API 106, to request advertisements from the Online Marketing System API. According to another embodiment, the server 102 uses a method to determine the proper advertisement to display. According to yet another embodiment, the server 102 uses a mechanism to Transmit a Bill to the Event Holders and distribute the Advertising Fees. These embodiments are discussed in detail herein.
A Network of Advertising Network Members.
The system 100 uses an advertisement creation system that can create advertisements (e.g., in real-time) or use an advertisement that was created earlier. The system 100 also uses an advertisement Projected Rate of Return algorithm to determine which advertisements to display to a given Consumer 112 (e.g. in real-time).
An advertisement rule system allows Advertising Network Members 104 to request advertisements, based on Limiting Criteria (e.g in real-time).
The system 100 uses an advertisement display system which is based on the Projected Rate of Return for a specific Consumer 112 of an Advertising Network Member Web Site and the Limiting Criteria chosen by the Advertising Network Member.
The system 100 also comprises a tracking mechanism 114 to track which Advertising Network Member 104 and/or which specific advertisement on the OMS directly led to a Consumer 112 purchasing tickets, or which Advertising Network Members 104 and/or which advertisements on the OMS led to the occurrence of an Indirect Advertising Fee.
An order fulfillment 116 system logs which advertisement led to a purchase. A fee collection system 118 assures that payment is received from the purchaser. An Advertising Fee distribution system distributes the correct portion of the Advertising Fees to the appropriate parties.
When the components discussed above are combined in the system 100, the system enables: (1) Event Holders to update their Event Data (e.g., in real-time) and choose the specific amount of money to spend in order to obtain a specific level of sales (e.g., in real-time), and (2) an Online Marketing System to determine and display appropriate advertisements (e.g., in real-time) to individual Consumers 112 on the Advertising Network Members' Web sites; (3) an Online Marketing System to collect and distribute fees from the Event Holders and to Advertising Network Members after an order for tickets takes place through a Billing system. This will allow Event Holders to continually improve the attractiveness of their advertisements (particularly by adjusting the Advertising Fee amount or rate) to the Advertisement Network.
Marketing has been traditionally considered a selling, general, and administrative expense because Event Holders are unable to directly attribute a marketing dollar spent to the sale of one or more tickets. The OMS changes the nature of a marketing expense to a cost of goods sold as Event Holders are now able to directly correlate every marketing dollar spent on the OMS system to ticket sales.
The intense competition between Event Holders to have their advertisements shown on the limited number of advertisement space provided by an OMS Network of Marketing Web sites combined with the risk-free nature of the advertising spending to the Event Holders 101 (Advertising Fees are linked to sales), increases profits to the Advertising Network as well as the competitiveness of this advertising system to more traditional advertising, and thus more Web 108 sites throughout the Internet become part of the Advertising Network.
Online Marketing Process:
Event Holders 101 can link their on-line advertising budget directly to ticket sales by using the Online Marketing System 100. Event Holders 101 enter their Event Data into a database 103. In addition to the detailed event information, the Event Holders will also enter the Advertising Fee structure for any tickets they choose to advertise on the OMS. The Advertising Fee structure can be specific to one or more individual tickets or any structural superset (group of tickets, individual or group of rows, individual or group of sections, individual or group of levels, and the like). The Advertising Fee can also be limited to a total dollar amount or total percentage amount of sales for the entire event. Event Holders 101 can further customize their specific OMS advertising campaign by setting date and time parameters for the advertisements to display.
The system 100 combines all of the event, Content and consumer information in the database 103 with the Advertising Fee structures for each individual event with the Limiting Criteria, Content and consumer information provided by the Advertising Network Members 104. The Limiting Criteria and consumer information are passed to the Online Marketing System 100 through arguments in the URL that requests the advertisement, or stored on Online Marketing System's 100 database 103 by the Advertising Network Member 104 when they add their site to the OMS Network, to be shown to a specific Consumer 112 on an Advertising Network Member's Web site 108. The Online Marketing System 100 then serves an advertisement 109 to the Consumer 112 on the Advertising Network Member's Web site 108 based upon the Projected Rate of Return to the Online Marketing System 100 for that specific Consumer 112 which falls into the parameters of the Advertising Network Member's Limiting Criteria.
Each advertisement is associated with the Consumer 112 through either storing data on the browser (e.g., a cookie) or storing the fact that the advertisement was shown to that specific Consumer 112 in the Event Doctor's database. If the Online Marketing System's database 103 is used to store the fact than an advertisement was displayed to a specific Consumer 112, then the Online Marketing System places a unique key in the browser (e.g., a cookie) to identify the Consumer 112 to Online Marketing System's database 103. In addition, when a Consumer 112 clicks an advertisement, Online Marketing System associates the fact that they clicked on the advertisement in the same manner described above for associating a Consumer 112 with viewing the advertisement that the Online Marketing System's order handling system will use during the ordering process to identify the advertisement and the Advertising Network Member who enabled the sale of the tickets. If the Consumer 112 then proceeds to make a purchase through the Online Marketing System's ordering system servers 102, the Online Marketing System 100 splits the Advertising Fee specified by the Event Holder for that ticket with the Advertising Network Member.
The Event Holders 101 using OMS to market their events only have to pay for advertising that leads to an order of one or more tickets. Therefore, they will no longer need to set a budget for advertising. Furthermore, Event Holders 101 must compete on the OMS Network to provide advertisements and Advertising Fee structures that generate a higher Projected Rate of Return on the Advertising Network or their advertisement will not display frequently.
OMS from the Event Holder's Point of View:
The Event Holder 101 enters detailed Event Data into the database 103. The OMS 100 uses the Event Data to determine whether a given event falls within the Limiting Criteria provided by each individual Advertising Network Member and it also helps in determining the Projected Rate of Return for given advertisements at a specific time. For example, if an event is located in Alaska, it would not provide a high Projected Rate of Return to display an advertisement for this event to a Consumer 112 in New York.
One of the critical pieces of the Event Data entered by the Event Holder is the Advertising Fee rate on tickets they have available for sale. Once the Event Holder 101 chooses one or more tickets to advertise on the OMS, an advertisement is created (if it was not created already by hand or automatically by the OMS system), it is then placed on a list of advertisements to be displayed. When a Consumer 112 visits an Advertising Network Member's Web site 108, the Event Holder's advertisement 109 will be displayed based on the Projected Rate of Return for that advertisement 109 to that Consumer 112 at that time. A preferable scenario for the Online Marketing System 100 is, once a ticket is sold through OMS, the Online Marketing System 100 collects the gross ticket amount, deducts, the appropriate Advertising Fee entered by the Event Holder and distributes the remaining proceeds to the Event Holder. Alternatively, the Online Marketing System 100 can bill the Event Holder depending on the nature of the sale and the business arrangement between Online Marketing System and the Event Holder. In the case where the Online Marketing System 100 collects the receipts from the ticket sales, the Event Holder 101 is never prepaying for marketing as Advertising Fees are deducted only after an order is placed. Alternatively, if Online Marketing System 100 is billing the Event Holder 101 for the Advertising Fees, the Online Marketing System 100 could request a deposit depending on the business arrangement between the Event Holder 101 and Online Marketing System 100.
There are two types of Advertising Fees that the Event Holder may enter into the system, Direct Advertising Fees and Indirect Advertising Fees. The Event Holder may enter either Direct or Indirect Advertising Fees or both for a given advertisement.
If a Direct Advertising Fee is earned for an event, no Indirect Advertising Fees are paid out. An Indirect Advertising fee would be paid out, for example, if the Consumer 112 saw three advertisements on three Different Advertising Network Members' Web sites that said go to XYZ's concert but did not click on any of the advertisements, then independently went to XYZ's Web site to purchase tickets, Online Marketing System 100 would collect the Indirect Advertising Fee upon the placement of the order, if the Event Holder chose to offer Indirect Advertising Fees for this advertisement.
Whether the Advertising Fee paid is Direct or Indirect, the liability for payment of the Advertising Fee occurs only after an order has been placed and payment funds have been collected, allowing the Event Holder to advertise in a risk-free manner.
OMS from the Advertising Network Member's Point of View:
Advertising Network Members 104 place HTML code on their sites 108 which causes a Consumer's Web browser 112 to request an advertisement for an event from the server(s) 102 based upon the Limiting Criteria of the Advertising Network Member 104, in addition to specific and general data about the Advertising Network Member's site and the Consumer 112 in order to help the OMS determine the optimal advertisement to show to the Consumer 112. The type of data provided by the Advertising Network Member includes but is not limited to one or more of the following: (1) specific event types or one or more specific individual events; (2) events in one or more specific geographical locations; (3) general and specific Behavioral, demographic and geographic information of the browser currently visiting the Advertising Network Member's Web site (generally from a cookie); (4) general and specific Behavioral, demographic, and geographic data on the site's users; (5) any information gained from EP addresses (geographic and otherwise) of Consumers 112 who visit the Web site; (6) the Content of the Web site; (7) the number of advertisements requested; and (8) the dimensions and placement of the advertisement(s).
When a Consumer 112 visits the Advertising Network Member's Web site 108, the Consumers Browser 112 requests the URL for the advertisement. The arguments, IP Address, cookies and all other data are communicated to the Online Marketing System servers 102 along with the above URL request. This allows the OMS to combine information provided above with the information the Online Marketing Network has in its database 103 to allow it to send any number of advertisements requested based upon the Projected Rate of Return. If the Consumer 112 to the Advertising Network Member's site clicks on a Web site Advertisement 109, the OMS enters an identifier, generally a cookie into the Consumer's browser 112 with a unique identifier of the Advertising Network Member and/or the specific advertisement, which allows the Online Marketing System 100 to determine with whom to split the Advertising Fee for the sale of the ticket(s). Once the purchase is made, the Online Marketing System 100 distributes its portion of the Advertising Fees to the Advertising Network Member 104 according to the business arrangement made with the Advertising Network Member 104.
OMS from Online Marketing System's Point of View:
Once Event Holders 101 choose to use OMS, the OMS combines the event information, Advertising Fee structures, and success rates of the advertisements stored in database 103 with the information provided by the Advertising Network Member 104 (Limiting Criteria, Content Information, general Behavioral, demographic and geographic information, and Behavioral, demographic and geographic information of the specific Consumer 112 to the site at the time that specific Consumer 112 is using the site) with data that the Online Marketing System 100 provides about the Consumer 112, to determine the advertisement to display to the specific user of the Advertising Network Member 104. During this process, the Online Marketing System 100 will also record the advertisement, the Consumer 112 and the Advertising Network Member 104 in its system, or the Online Marketing System 100 can send a cookie or other identifier to the Consumer's browser 112 which will store the advertisement(s) and the Advertising Network Members 104 who showed them, so that in the case that the Event Holder is offering Indirect Advertising Fees, the Indirect Advertising Fee will be appropriately distributed if no Direct Advertising Fee is paid on the event. Once the Consumer 112 clicks on an advertisement, the Online Marketing System 100 then uses an identifier, generally a cookie or stores in the Online Marketing System database 103 that a given advertisement was clicked, which contains the unique identifier of the Advertising Network Member 104, and/or the specific advertisement displayed, so the Advertising Network Member 104 can be credited with any sale that may happen through the Online Marketing System 100 transaction system. If an advertisement leads directly to an order, the Online Marketing System 100 collects the entire payment for the order and deducts the Advertising Fee specified for that ticket by the Event Holder 101. If one or more advertisements leads to an Indirect Advertising Fee, and the Online Marketing System 100 collects the entire order amount, the Online Marketing System 100 deducts the entire Indirect Advertising Fee amount and then splits the Indirect Advertising Fee between the Online Marketing System 100 and the Advertising Network Members 104 who showed the Advertisements that qualified for the Indirect Advertising Fee and the remaining amount, less any service or processing fees that do not go to the Event Holder 101, are distributed to the Event Holder 101.
In the case where the Online Marketing System 100 collects the receipts from the ticket sales, the Event Holder is never prepaying for advertisement because Advertising Fees are deducted only after an order is placed and the money is collected. Alternatively, if the Online Marketing System 100 is billing the Event Holder 101 for the Advertising Fees, the Online Marketing System 100 can request a deposit depending on the business arrangement between the Event Holder 101 and the Online Marketing System 100.
In either case, appropriate distributions are made according to the business arrangements of the various parties involved. Another option to track order placement is where the Online Marketing System 100 is simply notified that a purchase has taken place as a result of an advertisement sent from the Online Marketing System servers 102. Online Marketing System 100 can then receive its Advertising Fee through billing the Event Holder 101 or through a direct deposit. The Online Marketing server 102 would be notified of the sale through a third-party transaction system and the Event Holder has an incentive to notify the Online Marketing System 100 of the sale or the Projected Rate of Return on the advertisement would decrease and the advertisement would be shown less on the network.
Referring to
Therefore, while there has been described what is presently considered to be the preferred embodiment, it will understood by those skilled in the art that other modifications can be made within the spirit of the invention.