Patent Application
20120296728
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system, method, and computer program product for delivering content using digital media while providing security and solution interoperability.
2. Description of the Related Art
The delivery of content using digital media has become the primary means of content distribution. Content of all types—audio, video, graphic, textual, etc.—is now primarily delivered using digital media. Many organizations wish to deliver content using digital media, but have encountered a number of problems. For example, a typical catalog of digital content may include millions of individual digital content items. Each digital content item may have a particular monetary value, which must be paid when the content is delivered. Further, many organizations want to deliver content without specific reference to the monetary value. For example, it may be desired that the content be delivered as a reward or prize in loyalty or frequent user programs. In such programs, it may be desired that value be counted in points or other non-monetary quantities. It may be desired that each program's points may represent a different monetary amount. Even within one program, it may be desired that the represented monetary amount may vary based on a number of factors.
A need arises for a technique by which diverse organizations, with differing point schemes, can deliver a wide variety of digital content easily and inexpensively.
A system, method, and computer program product delivers content using digital media while providing security and solution interoperability. Using this technology, diverse organizations, with differing point schemes, can deliver a wide variety of digital content easily and inexpensively.
For example, a method for delivering digital content comprises receiving information relating to a user of a loyalty program, the information including a non-monetary balance of the user and a loyalty program status of the user, computing non-monetary prices for a plurality of digital content items based on a monetary value of each digital content item, the loyalty program, and the loyalty program status of the user, and transmitting for display on a user device information representing a digital marketplace, wherein the digital marketplace has been configured to match a look and feel of a loyalty program, and wherein the information representing the digital marketplace includes information relating to at least one digital content item and the information relating to at least one digital content item includes a non-monetary price of the digital content item. The method may further comprise receiving a selection of a digital content item from among the digital content items displayed in the digital marketplace, delivering the selected digital content item, and deducting from the non-monetary balance of the user the non-monetary price of the selected digital content item. The non-monetary prices may be computed by determining at least one of a user's level segment and tier based on the loyalty program and based on at least one of the user's non-monetary balance in the loyalty program, the user's lifetime non-monetary earnings in the loyalty program, the user's annual non-monetary earnings in the loyalty program, the user's years in the loyalty program, the user's membership type in the loyalty program, and the user's elite loyalty program segment, determining a monetary values to non-monetary prices conversion rate for a user session based on the determined user's level segment, tier, or both, and converting monetary values of each of the plurality of digital content items to non-monetary prices using the determined conversion rate. The digital marketplace may be configured to match a look and feel of the loyalty program by configuring aspects of the digital marketplace design, including at least one of colors, shapes, layout, and typefaces of the digital marketplace design to match corresponding aspects of the loyalty program, and by configuring aspects behavior of dynamic elements of the digital marketplace including at least one of buttons, boxes, and menus to match corresponding aspects of the loyalty program.
The details of the present invention, both as to its structure and operation, can best be understood by referring to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numbers and designations refer to like elements.
A system, method, and computer program product delivers content using digital media while providing security and solution interoperability. Using this technology, diverse organizations, with differing point schemes, can deliver a wide variety of digital content easily and inexpensively.
An exemplary flow diagram of a process 100 of content delivery using digital media is shown in
In step 108, the user proceeds to redeem some or all of the points/miles in their account online, using the website or application of the loyalty program. Typical points/miles redemption rewards or prizes include in program rewards, such as flights from an airline loyalty program, merchandise, gift cards, digital content, etc. These are merely examples of possible redemption rewards. The present invention contemplates any and all types of redemption rewards that may be offered. In the case that the user selects a redemption reward of digital content, the user that is logged in to the website or application of the loyalty program is directed to a website or application that is provided by the digital content delivery system. The website or application may hosted on the digital content delivery system, or the website or application may be hosted on a system of the loyalty program provider, which communicates with the digital content delivery system.
In any case, in step 110, the look and feel of the digital marketplace that is presented to the user is configured to the requirements of the loyalty program provider. The look and feel of the digital marketplace relates to the graphical user interface of the digital marketplace and comprises aspects of its design, including elements such as colors, shapes, layout, and typefaces (the “look”), as well as the behavior of dynamic elements such as buttons, boxes, and menus (the “feel”). The digital marketplace may be configured to match the look and feel of the website or application of the loyalty program provider; it may be configured to some other specified look and feel, or it may be configured to the default look and feel of the digital marketplace.
In step 112, the monetary values of the content are converted to non-monetary values such as points/miles prices. This may be done using a simple conversion factor, or it may be done using tiering based on the user's level, the user's point balance, ongoing promotions, etc. In step 114, the user uses the website or application to browse, search for, and sample content presented by the digital content delivery system. A variety of information about digital content item may be presented to the user, including information such as the point/miles price of the content, the title, the creators, the artists, the genre, graphics associated with the content, etc.
In step 116, the user selects one or more digital content items for which to redeem their points. This may be done, for example, using a conventional shopping cart mechanism, but in which the prices and totals due are in points/miles, rather than in monetary units. In step 118, step 118, the content is delivered to the user, the loyalty program is billed for the content delivered, and the point/miles are deducted from the user's account with the loyalty program. For example, the content may delivered to the user by direct download from the digital content delivery system, or by other means, such as an emailed link, etc. The loyalty program may be billed, for example, upon delivery of each digital content item, or, the loyalty program may be billed periodically or when the amount due exceeds a threshold. In order to deduct points/miles from the user's loyalty program account, the process goes to step 120, which performs the necessary processing to access the user's loyalty program account and cause update step 106 to deduct the correct amount of points/miles from the user's loyalty program account.
In the case that the process has started with step 102B, the process continues with step 114. Optionally, step 110 may be performed before step 114, in order to configure the look and feel of the digital marketplace to the requirements of the loyalty program provider.
An exemplary overview of a digital content delivery system is shown in
The digital marketplace 202 is one or more implementations of an online store where users will be able to browse and sample the available digital content. Typically, digital marketplace 202 is accessed via a click thru from the host incentive program e.g. ‘redeem points for movies, music, Apps’. The experience will be seamless in that the user will not be aware that they have left the site of the incentive program, as shown in
In the exemplary implementation shown in
Other tabs display similar information. For example, TV Shows tab 304 displays similar information to movie tab 302. In addition, TV channel/network e.g. NBC, ABC, CBS, etc. information is displayed. Programs are available as individual episodes, seasons, or entire series. Special Interest tab displays similar information, but covers special interest subjects such as sport, nature, concerts, etc. Music tab 308 displays similar information, such as a further series of tabs by genre—rock, dance, country, etc. Under genres there is a visual of the album cover plus title. The user can click thru to the titles under any of these genres. Clicking on a specific album will display a visual of the album, a text description (artist, title, date, director, label, etc.). There are also a view by Top 20 genres, latest releases, most popular, etc., reviews—voting on 5 stars plus written comments, short samples of the tracks, options for downloading—by track, the entire album or video, point cost for each item, controls to select and purchase the content, etc. There is also a search functionality by key word—genre, artist, song, etc.
Another example of a tab is Apps tab 310, which displays an application store, such as the Android Marketplace or the like. The application store may display information, such as a series of further tabs, such as a Featured tab, a Top Paid tab, a Top Free tab, and a search by genre tab (e.g. Games, Business, Travel, etc), and individual apps. Clicking on an App may display more tabs, such as an Overview tab, a User Reviews tab, an App screenshots tab, and an About this App tab. Pricing in points/miles would be displayed. Upon the user selecting to install and App, a confirmation message with points to be deducted would be displayed, optionally with follow up email confirmation.
Additional exemplary tabs may include Games tab 312, which may include games not already included under Apps tab 310, Book tab 314, which may include eBooks & audiobooks, Periodicals tab 316, which may include magazines, newspapers, etc., and other tabs, not shown, such as an Instructional tab, which may include instructional videos, such as golf, tennis, speaking a new language, etc.
Communications modules 204, shown in
Reporting modules 206, shown in
Content Management modules 208, shown in
Miscellaneous modules 208, shown in
Customer service support handles queries directly relating to content downloads, technical difficulties, etc. Customer service will captures queries relating to the host loyalty programs handed-off back to the loyalty program provider. Capabilities provided may include logging queries, with time and date stamp, maintaining action audit trails, closing queries, escalating or handing-off protocols to incentive programs, generating appropriate reports, etc. Help/FAQ's/Terms &Conditions capabilities may be provided to users to aid in using the system. DRM capabilities may be provided for that content which requires it.
Loyalty Program Integration provides functionality for integrating with loyalty programs. Such functionality may include an API and Look & Feel configuration tools. The API is software that provides a programming interface to the functionality of the digital content delivery system. a specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate. The provides the capability to connect seamlessly to loyalty programs, allowing program members to seamlessly to access the Digital Marketplace, browse and download content. Functionality provided by the API may include, upon a user making a purchase, the API ascertains whether the user has sufficient points in their account to complete the transaction, hold the points while the download is set up, and deduct the points from the member account when complete. Additional functionality may include accessing of loyalty program member database or parts of the database, and to information such as points/miles balance, email addresses, profile information, etc. to complete transactions and create promotions.
Look & Feel configuration tools provide the capability to configure the display of the Digital Marketplace website so that it looks and feels, as far as possible, like the host loyalty program site.
An IPTV widget is a light-weight app that can be downloaded to an IPTV. The widget would allow members to browse content of the Digital Marketplace directly on their IPTV's and make purchases using points from the host incentive program.
An example of an API 400 such as that shown in
In step 112, shown in
In step 506, the monetary values to point/miles prices conversion rate for the user session is determined. For example, using the user's level segment and tier determined in step 504, a database of conversion rates may be accessed to obtain the conversion rate for the user session. In step 508, the monetary content prices are converted using the conversion rate determined in step 506. These converted prices are then used in the digital marketplace for display to the user. For example, a user may be able to view available content or promotions before logging in to the loyalty program or digital content delivery system. In this case, the default or full price of the content may be displayed. Once the user logs in, the prices displayed to that user may be converted according to the process shown in
An exemplary block diagram of a computer system 600, in which a digital content delivery system may be implemented, is shown in
Input/output circuitry 604 provides the capability to input data to, or output data from, database/system 600. For example, input/output circuitry may include input devices, such as keyboards, mice, touchpads, trackballs, scanners, etc., output devices, such as video adapters, monitors, printers, etc., and input/output devices, such as, modems, etc. Network adapter 606 interfaces device 600 with network 610. Network 610 may be any standard local-area or wide-area communications or tele-communications network, whether wired or wireless, or public, private, or proprietary. Typically network 610 may include the Internet, along with one or more other networks.
Memory 608 stores program instructions that are executed by, and data that are used and processed by, CPU 602 to perform the functions of system 600. Memory 608 may include electronic memory devices, such as random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, etc., and electro-mechanical memory, such as magnetic disk drives, tape drives, optical disk drives, etc., which may use an integrated drive electronics (IDE) interface, or a variation or enhancement thereof, such as enhanced IDE (EIDE) or ultra direct memory access (UDMA), or a small computer system interface (SCSI) based interface, or a variation or enhancement thereof, such as fast-SCSI, wide-SCSI, fast and wide-SCSI, etc, or a fiber channel-arbitrated loop (FC-AL) interface.
The contents of memory 608 vary depending upon the function that system 600 is programmed to perform. In the example shown in
As shown in
It is important to note that while the present invention has been described in the context of a fully functioning data processing system, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processes of the present invention are capable of being distributed in the form of a non-transitory computer readable medium of instructions and a variety of forms and that the present invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of media actually used to carry out the distribution. Examples of non-transitory computer readable media include, but are not limited to, floppy disks, hard disk drives, CD-ROMs, DVDROMs, RAM, and, flash memory.
Although specific embodiments of the present invention have been described, it will be understood by those of skill in the art that there are other embodiments that are equivalent to the described embodiments. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited by the specific illustrated embodiments, but only by the scope of the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 61/486,607, filed May 16, 2011, the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61486607 | May 2011 | US |
