Patent Application
20070219896
The present invention relates generally to online media and more particularly to methods and systems for investing in the buying and selling of value generated through consumer interest in online media.
According to some estimates consumers spent over $100 billion making online purchases in 2004, buying products and services over the Internet. It has been further estimated that advertisers spend almost $10 billion per year in placing online advertisements. Indeed, many online retail business models rely heavily on paid advertising and/or commissions for sales made through online advertisements. The reader will thus appreciate that online markets, such as those supported by the Internet, represent a substantial source of heavily advertised retail opportunities.
Online media assets comprise electronic indicia used on electronic networks, for example the Internet, as advertisements for attracting customers. Online media assets can take many forms, including keywords, banners, traditional advertisements, graphical inserts, e-mail, domain names and others as are known to the reader. Online media assets are purchased by media buyers on behalf of online retailers and, as described above, used in Internet advertising to attract customers for the purpose of initiating online sales. Owning the appropriate online media assets can be critical to attracting online customers and consummating sales. By their nature, however, online media assets are limited in availability. A single banner ad, for example, can only be purchased at any given time by a single user. Similarly, advertising opportunities and graphical space within web pages are by their nature limited in availability.
Commercial online search engines Yahoo™ and Google™ both operate online keyword auction services. The Yahoo® Search Marketing service and the Google™ online auction service are well known to online media buyers. Google™ alone is estimated to have generated over $1 billion in advertising revenue in 2004. Valuable keywords and advertising media assets may sell for upwards of $150 per customer click-through.
The sale and purchase of online media assets, while necessary to a successful e-commerce market, poses many challenges to both buyers and sellers. Volatile demand for online media assets makes the management of inventory difficult for publishers, often generating uneven or unpredictable cash flow and resulting financial difficulties. Similarly, advertisers find the online media asset market to be complicated and inefficient.
One reason that online media assets are difficult to value is because the online media asset marketplace is fractured and inefficient. There is no central price discovery mechanism for comparing prices of ad impressions, paid search clicks, and direct response leads across multiple networks and marketplaces. A number of direct response agencies are beginning to acquire online media assets on a principal basis in an attempt to take advantage of the spread between the purchase costs and sales value of online media assets, as well as to provide some discipline. Most such agencies have been launched within the past 3-5 years. The reader is directed, for example, to Adteractive™, Azoogleads™, LeadClick™, NetBlue™ and Quin Street™ for examples of companies purchasing and reselling online media assets. The reader may consider right media™ as an example of a company that auctions advertising impressions and bluelith!um™ as an example of a company that helps advertisers and publishers optimize their advertising opportunities.
These agencies act as intermediaries between online publishers and online advertisers. In operation, they purchase online media assets from publishers, for example click—through advertisements and keywords, and resell them to advertisers. The agencies may purchase online media assets from publishers, for example, on an impression basis, while resale to advertisers may be priced, for example, on a CPA, or cost per action, basis. These agencies are currently generating substantial returns on their media costs by converting online traffic into customers more effectively than advertisers themselves. Publishers thus benefit through more efficient and cost-effective sales of online media assets, while advertisers benefit through the more cost-effective purchase of the same assets.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the operation of the above described online media resellers constitutes arbitrage. That is, these resellers purchase and sell inventory at substantially the same time, profiting from the margins between the buying price and the selling price.
Because of the structure of these online media asset resellers, it will be further appreciated by the reader that any efficiencies provided by the online media asset resellers are limited to those efficiencies that can be generated through the conventional supply and demand dynamics of the online media asset market. That is, the efficiencies are generally limited by conventional retail dynamics as determined by the profitability of privately and publicly traded online media asset resellers. In their current form these online media asset resellers fail to provide to investors the ability to invest directly in online media assets, limiting investment opportunities to those that may be available in the operating companies.
While online media asset resellers provide some efficiency and improvements to the online media asset market, the market still suffers from much significant inefficiency. Volatility of buyer/advertiser demand for online media assets makes the efficient sale of online advertising difficult for sellers/publishers, while an inefficient, fractured market makes appropriate valuation difficult for advertisers.
The present inventors have determined that it would be desirable and beneficial for both the online media asset market and investors to provide the ability for investors to participate directly in the function of the online media market. This is accomplished by providing methods and systems for securitizing online media assets, the media assets in the form generally of consumer interest, for financial investment by investors. It is believed that the efficiencies generated by investor-driven dynamics would improve the online media asset market, resulting in a more efficient market for both publishers and advertisers, and creates new opportunities for investors.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there are shown methods and systems for facilitating investment in consumer interest in online media assets, a system comprising: a trading system for buying and selling online media assets, the online media assets used to generate consumer interest; means for securitizing the consumer interest; and means for enabling investments in the securitized consumer interest.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there are shown methods and systems for facilitating investment in consumer interest in online media assets, a method comprising: establishing a trading system for buying and selling online media assets; generating consumer interest from consumer selections of the online media assets; the trading system further operative to buy and sell the consumer interest; establishing a management company to operate the trading system; establishing a limited partnership to invest funds for management by the management company in the operation of the trading system; and receiving investor funds into the limited partnership; whereby investors in the limited partnership own a financial interest in the consumer interest.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, there are shown methods and systems for enabling investors to invest in consumer interest in online media assets, a method comprising: means for arbitraging real-time online consumer leads to generate an arbitrage value; means for securitizing the arbitrage value of the real-time online consumer leads; and means for using investor funds to purchase an interest in the arbitrage value of the real-time online consumer leads.
Through the securitization of Internet customer preferences and ‘intent to purchase’ using a Wall Street-like trading discipline, the present invention brings significant efficiencies to the online media asset and market, while providing investors the ability to recognize investments and return in this same market.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from a consideration of the following Detailed Description of the Invention, when considered in cooperation with the drawing Figures, in which:
The present invention shows an online media trading system wherein the online media assets are securitized for investment by investors. In the described embodiments of the invention, the online media assets are in the form of consumer interest, also described as consumer leads, for example as indicated by a consumer selection or ‘click-through’ of an advertising impression. The invention enables direct investment in the relative performance of online advertising, directly relating the return in an investment securitized by media assets to the to the generation of consumer interest in those assets, thereby bringing the disciplines and benefits of a Wall Street—type investment structure to the field of online media buying and selling.
As used herein, the term “securitization” and variants thereof is meant in the conventional sense as a process of creating a financial instrument by combining financial assets for marketing to investors. The reader will appreciate that the underlying financial assets described and securitized herein comprises the value associated with consumer interest in the online media asset inventory managed by the online media trading system.
Further as used herein, the term “media assets” and variants thereof means keywords, banners, traditional advertisements, graphical inserts, e-mail, domain names and others as are known to the reader.
Further as used herein, the terms “consumer interest,” “consumer leads,” and variants thereof mean demonstrated consumer response to an online media asset, for example the selection or “click—through” of an online media asset. As described in further detail below the present invention recognizes that there is real, securitizable value associated with consumer interest in online media assets.
With reference now to
Continuing with reference to
It will be appreciated that media trading platform 102 can comprise conventional system components situated and programmed to perform the described elements of the present invention. Processor 104 can comprise, for example, a conventional network server with a conventional microprocessor and operating system. User terminal 106 can comprise a conventional keyboard and display device. Database 110 can comprise a conventional arrangement of memory, for example an appropriate combination of semiconductor, magnetic and optical storage. As is further described below, landing page 108 is seen to comprise a specialized, customer—accessible web page, for example assembled and stored in database 110 and managed appropriately by processor 104. It will be understood by the reader that while online media asset trading platform 102 has been shown in simplified form, in actual construction it can comprise one of many known configurations, for example a centralized system and/or a decentralized system comprising the described components in multiple and/or decentralized configurations.
Publishers 116 comprise online content publishers, many of which are known to the reader. Advertisers 114 comprise online advertisers, for example retail advertisers, who desire to purchase online media for the purpose of placing advertisements through publishers 116 for display to customers 120. It will be understood by the reader that in many instances a single entity can comprise both a publisher and an advertiser. Amazon.com™, for example, is a well-known online retailer who both publishes content pages including advertising as well as purchases advertising from others.
Like elements throughout the Figures are indicated by like reference numbers.
With reference now to
With reference to
Continuing with reference to
Considering now the operation of the functional elements of
Landing page 108 functions as a dynamic web site to present a customer 120 with relevant information. The landing page further functions as a point to collect possible lead information. Lead information forms 304, in the described embodiment contained within the landing page 108, provide forms for collecting customer information. Exemplary forms and information collected include: contact details, customer demographics and other lead—specific information. Numerous other customer information and appropriate forms for collecting same will now be apparent to the reader.
Considering now the operation of data mining and analytic means 204, price tracker 312 functions to gather current inventory price information, for example through public and private data sharing facilities provided by the Yahoo® and Google® keyword auction sites described above. The current inventory price information is integrated with observed conversion rates, as observed by behavior analyzer 314, to optimize online media trades. Behavior analyzer 314 functions to analyze click—stream data as observed through the consumer traffic passing through click-through gateway 302 to landing page 108, whereby to process post-landing page behavior to determine the conversion rate of consumer traffic to lead sales. The analysis is used to optimize offers displayed to landing page customers, thus optimizing the overall success and profitability of the system.
Additionally, the data developed by behavior analyzer 314 is used to match possible leads with lead purchase requests. Traffic optimizer 316 functions to reconfigure landing pages 108 to optimize conversion and lead acquisition. Internal trading application 312 presents human traders/operators of asset trading system 100 with the data developed by the tracking, analyzing and optimizing functions described above, for use in selling media to advertisers 114.
Continuing with reference to
With reference now to
Limited partnership 404 receives and invests the limited partner's investment funds. Limited partnership 404 further functions to allocate, reinvest and distribute investment profits and losses recognized by the limited partnership, among the limited partners and general partners of the limited partnership, through the investment in the assets of management company 402 and other investments as may be made by the limited partnership. As noted above, management company 402 owns the assets and resources of the trading platform and operates the trading platform, in exchange for compensation paid by the limited partnership, typically as a fee calculated as a percentage of the limited partnership assets invested under the direction of the management company.
From a consideration of the above it will be apparent to the reader that the present invention enables the direct investment by investors in the consumer interest owned and managed by asset trading system 102. It will be understood that, while limited partnership 404 is described as owning an interest in only a single management company 402, in practice it may own ownership interests in a portfolio comprising multiple operating companies or finds.
With reference now to
With the establishment and operation of trading platform 102, there is performed a process enabling investments in the consumer interest by investors (step 506).
With reference now to
Initially, research is performed regarding existing online media advertising prices (step 602), for example using the price tracking mechanism 312 from
Online consumer behavior is researched (step 604), for example using behavior analyzer 314 of
Online media assets are then purchased from publishers 116 (step 606), for example through the keyword auction sites described herein. Consumer leads are processed from the purchased online media (step 608) for example using the customer traffic capture function 202 described with respect to
Continuing with respect to
It will be understood by the reader that the above-described operation of online media asset trading system 102 is exemplary in nature. Many alternative embodiments will now be apparent to the reader. It will be understood the processing of such online media assets whereby to generate salable, securitizable consumer interest is pertinent to the ability of investors to invest in the online media as described herein above. The invention is not limited to any particular embodiment of processing online media.
With reference now to
Conventional profit and loss determinations are made with respect to management company 402 based upon the purchase and sale of online media assets and consumer interest in accordance with the above-described processes (steps 708). Based on such profits and losses, the evaluation of the limited partnership investment in the management company is periodically recalculated (step 710). Through this process, and further in consideration of the fees paid to the management company, the capital account value of the partners in limited partnership 404 is periodically re-assessed (step 712).
There have thus been provided methods and systems for facilitating private investment in online media assets, particularly in the form of consumer interest as represented by consumer leads. The present invention enables investors, for the first time, to directly own interests in the value of the consumer interest. This brings investment—type structure and uniformity to the business of online media asset trading. The invention thus provides for relative efficiency and predictability in the business of online media asset trading, providing business predictability and security to publishers and advertisers, and creates new opportunities for investors. The invention has application in the field of online advertising, and particularly in the field of Internet e-commerce.
