Patent Application
20110106633
This disclosure relates to the provision of unsolicited data to a device over a high latency communication network and more particularly to systems and methods for delivering advertising material to a user's device in conjunction with the delivery of other data to the device.
It has become common practice to deliver to a computer user non-solicited data, such as an advertising banner, in conjunction with data solicited by the user. By way of example, when using the Internet to retrieve a desired piece of information, the computer user often receives an advertisement pertaining to desired information. Thus, assuming the user has requested information on a particular make of automobile, a banner ad would appear at the same time that the desired information is received, the theory being that a user would be more receptive of an ad for a car dealer (or for some other aspect of automobiles) than he/she would be at some random time. The popularity of such banner or pop-up ads attests to their perceived effectiveness.
Problems exist, however, in situations such as occurs with wireless devices where bandwidth is limited in that delivering the advertisement at the proper time is troublesome at best and in many situations not practical. Latency in wireless is but one problem in that by the time the proper ad arrives the user is beyond the point where the ad is effective. Often the ad is delivered in conjunction with the wrong user request thus becoming annoying instead of being effective.
The reasons for such latency are many, but often it is a result of the fact that when the original data request by the user from a high latency device (cell phone, Blackberry, etc.) over a wireless connection, such as the cellular network, the system then must forward the request to a third party so that the third party can match the solicited information against a database of potential advertisements that “match” the solicited material. Then the non-solicited matched material (usually an advertisement in a similar category) must be transmitted to the device user. In high speed networks this latency can be reduced to millisecond range, making this an acceptable approach. However, when latency becomes a factor, (usually greater than 0.3 seconds) the unsolicited information arrives at the user's device at unpredictable and often inconvenient times.
Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to a system and method which by calculating in advance what material is to be sent to a particular device and under what conditions that material is to be delivered, the material can be delivered ahead of time and used when the conditions are met. In one embodiment, a server is used to download to certain mobile devices (or to other devices having a limited bandwidth) a portion of an advertisement campaign together with the rules for displaying the various advertisements at the mobile device. The server can, if desired, keep track of the downloaded advertisements to all of the mobile devices so that the demographics of the advertising campaign are met within the desired time frame. The server can make use of the captured information, including demographics, to select ads for delivery to the mobile client that will be more likely to be acted upon by user, or more likely to meet future criteria and be shown.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present invention.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The campaign goals can be specific to a particular campaign or generic to a plurality of campaigns. One goal of a campaign, for example, is to establish when an item, such as a particular advertisement, is allowed to run. For example, the rule could be that a particular advertisement, or set of advertisements, can only run, for example, between the 1st and the end of June. A global rule, usually established by contract for a period of time, could be that this items must be shown at least (or no more than) 20,000 times.
Processor 15, based upon demographic information gathered (or downloaded to it), divides the availably inventory into portions earmarked for particular users. The demographics can be generated by processor 15 based on prior usage of the devices or from data obtained from data gathering services external to server 101. One such external source can be, for example, surveys taken by survey firms, or from telephone or other records. The demographics could, for example, reflect a particular user's actual device operations, as determined from monitored usage. Such monitored usage could be via communication control 16 and user usage storage 17. Also, such demographics can be gathered based upon a user's reaction to a presentation of an advertisement (or other unsolicited data). Some of the information could come from information collected at user signup, user interaction with device, device characteristics, application performance characteristics, device state, or network performance characteristics. Included would be, for example, their age, their gender, their location, language, and probably some things about their interests.
The unsolicited data can be, for example, graphics, text, video, sound, streaming data, images, and data and could be presented to the user on the user's device, such as cell phone 14-1. Such a presentation can be a display on a screen and/or a voice message. Note that while the material that is presented to the user is being referred to herein as “unsolicited” material, the term unsolicited refers to the fact that the material is being presented to the user at time not controlled by the user directly but rather is being presented based upon an operation (request for data, or the usage of the device) initiated by the user, or by the passage of time. In fact, the material can be solicited by the user in that the user can sign up for certain material or certain types of material at a time not associated with a particular data request with the knowledge that the “unsolicited” material will not be presented until some other event occurs. An example of “pre-solicited” material would be specifications for certain types of items. Thus, if a user anticipates a project (remodeling a home, having a dinner party) the user would pre-solicit (register) such a project. Then the system, as will be described, will download for storage on the user's device relevant specifications, menus, tips, etc. to be presented to the user at times based upon other requests the user makes with respect to his/her communication device.
The division of data to a particular user is based, at least in part, on how many impressions are anticipated will be deliverable to a particular user in the time frame allocated. Different champagnes are in different champagne spaces (subject matters) and since the allocated material is a reflection of anticipated delivery possibilities, the allocations for a particular device will be different for each campaign. A certain set of the overall campaign material is allocated until it is all exhausted. This procedure is followed for any arbitrary number of clients, any arbitrary number of campaign goals, and any arbitrary number of impressions. The allocated number of information packets for any one user is small so that it can be stored on the device itself and downloaded via communication control 16 at a time convenient to the network and to the device (i.e., when the device is not otherwise busy). The downloading includes the rules for when a particular piece of information is to be presented to the user.
When the cell phone is in use and the user performs a certain function, for example, the user browses the Internet looking for an item, the device loaded rules then determines if the item is one that would trigger a particular unsolicited message. If so, then the message is presented (either visually or audibly) to the user. This actual usage is then collected and sent back to server 101 via communication control 16 for storage in user inventory usage memory 17. This then allows processor 15 to determine, from all of the feedback, if the campaign is running ahead or behind schedule and to adjust, if necessary, the downloaded data items, and perhaps even the rules so as to accomplish the mission.
The above description assumes all of the users use the applications equally. But, in actual practice, that isn't necessarily the case. Assume a goal of 20,000 impressions (presentations) are desired in the month of June. And assume that any one presentation is not to be shown it to any user more than ten times. Also, no user is to receive the same message less than five times. Thus, it is important to know how active each user is predicted to be so that the goals will be meet easily without a lot of rearranging. Once the campaign for a user is cached on a device, the system continues to evaluate the original allocation decision to be sure that the ads (or other material) are being presented to users at the predicted pace. Any reallocation can be hourly, daily, weekly, or any other period desired, and can serve to adjust the number of subsets and/or the frequency with which the subsets are delivered to the device.
Process 204 determines if sorting of the campaign material is complete. When it is, process 205 distributes the material to the various devices. This distribution will occur at a different time with respect to each device, depending upon the best time to distribute the material. All of the material for a particular device need not be downloaded at the same time depending upon bandwidth of the network and memory capacity of the device.
Process 307 determines if another message or action needs to be taken and if so trigger the presentation of the additional message(s).
Note that while the concepts disclosed herein have been discussed in terms of advertising, any dynamics content can be cached in this manner and shown in response to rules evaluated at a future point in time.
Although the present invention and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present invention. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.
