Patent Application
20110078006
Advertising is a form of communication used to help sell products and/or services. Typically, advertising communicates a message that includes a name of the product and/or service and some reason how that product and/or service would benefit, or otherwise be desirable to, the consumer. On-line advertising systems host advertisements that may advertise various products and/or services. Such advertisements may typically be presented to users accessing documents hosted by the advertising system, or to users issuing search queries for searching a corpus of documents.
The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers in different drawings may identify the same or similar elements. The following detailed description does not limit the invention.
The user may “follow” breadcrumb 110 by using the received phone number to call in to a call-in center that may provide an advertisement 120 as a pre-recorded audio message. The user may, for example, use a POTS phone or cell phone to receive the pre-recorded audio message. Advertisement 120 may include a second breadcrumb 125 and a second multi-stage coupon 130. Breadcrumb 125 may include a pre-recorded audio message which may include audio information that enables the user to locate a television (TV) advertisement. Such information may include, for example, a day and time during which the advertisement may be broadcast on a certain channel. Such information may alternatively include information directing the user to turn on their STB and TV so that the advertisement may be shown (i.e., pre-empting regular television programming during the duration of the advertisement). Multi-stage coupon 130 may include a second modular coupon. The modular coupon may include, for example, a second portion of a code (e.g., a portion of the digits of the code).
The user may then “follow” breadcrumb 125 by watching the user's television. The user may use the user's STB and television to watch an advertisement 135. Advertisement 135 may include a breadcrumb 140 and a multi-stage coupon 145. Breadcrumb 140 may include television audio, video and/or textual information that may further include information that will enable the user to access a webpage hosted on the Internet. For example, breadcrumb 140 may include a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associate with the webpage. Multi-stage coupon 145 may include a third modular coupon in the series of modular coupons. The third modular coupon may include, for example, a third portion of a code (e.g., a portion of the digits of the code).
The user may then further “follow” breadcrumb 140 to access the webpage via the user's computer. The webpage may, for example, enable the user to use coupons 115, 130 and 145 to obtain a discount on a product and/or service. Thus, to obtain the discount for the product and/or service the user must progress through the “trail-of-breadcrumbs” advertising campaign obtaining each multi-stage coupon, and then entering each multi-stage coupon into the webpage to receive the discount. For example, the web page may include multiple entry fields for each portion of a code that corresponds to each multi-stage coupon 115, 130 and 145.
The number of “breadcrumbs” and multi-stage coupons, and the number and types of media delivery devices, depicted in
Processor 420 may include, for example, a processor, microprocessor, and/or processing logic that may interpret and execute instructions. In some implementations, processor 420 may include multiple processors (e.g., parallel processors). Main memory 430 may include a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storage device that may store information and instructions for execution by processor 420. ROM 440 may include a ROM device or another type of static storage device that may store static information and instructions for use by processor 420. Storage device 450 may include a magnetic and/or optical recording medium and its corresponding drive.
Input device(s) 460 may include one or more mechanisms that permit an operator to input information to server 220, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pen, voice recognition and/or biometric mechanisms, etc. Output device(s) 270 may include one or more mechanisms that output information to the operator, including a display, a printer, a speaker, etc. Communication interface 280 may include any transceiver-like mechanism that enables server 220 to communicate with other devices and/or systems. For example, communication interface 280 may include mechanisms for communicating with another device or system via network 200.
Server 220 may perform certain operations or processes, as will be described in detail below. Server 220 may perform these operations in response to processor 420 executing software instructions contained in a computer-readable medium, such as memory 430. A computer-readable medium may be defined as a physical or logical memory device. A logical memory device may include memory space within a single physical memory device or spread across multiple physical memory devices.
The software instructions may be read into memory 430 from another computer-readable medium, such as storage device 450, or from another device via communication interface 480. The software instructions contained in memory 430 may cause processor 420 to perform operations or processes that will be described later. Alternatively, hardwired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement processes consistent with the principles of the invention. Thus, exemplary implementations are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.
The exemplary process of
The provision of an advertisement with a next breadcrumb and a next multi-stage coupon to the user may be facilitated based on whether the user followed the previous breadcrumb (block 505). For example, referring back to the example of
It may be determined if the breadcrumb trail continues (block 505). The “trail-of-breadcrumbs” advertising campaign may include a series of multiple advertisements (e.g. two or more), each having a breadcrumb and a multi-stage coupon. If the breadcrumb trail continues (YES-block 510), then the exemplary process may return to block 505. Blocks 505 and 510 may be selectively repeated for each advertisement, breadcrumb and multi-stage coupon in the “trail-of-breadcrumbs” advertising campaign. Referring back to the example of
Returning to block 510, if the breadcrumb trail does not continue (NO-block 510), then the multi-stage coupons may be received from the user (block 515). Referring back to the example of
A discount on a product or service may be provided to the user based on the one or more received multi-stage coupons (block 520). The amount of the discount may, in some implementations, depend on the number of multi-stage coupons collected by the user (i.e., how far the user progressed in the “trail-of-breadcrumbs” advertising campaign). In other implementations, a discount may only be provided if the user progressed through the entire “trail-of-breadcrumbs” advertising campaign and supplied the codes associated with all of the multi-stage coupons. The discount may be provided to the user, for example, at the time that the user “checks out” when purchasing a product and/or service on-line. When “checking-out,” the user may enter the codes associated with the multi-stage coupons to have the discount subtracted from the total cost of the user's on-line order.
An extent of user progression in the trail of breadcrumbs ad campaign may be determined (block 525). Ad/coupon server 220, either alone or in conjunction with other devices, may keep a record of user 240's progress through the “trail-of-breadcrumbs” advertising campaign. Ad/coupon server 220 may further determine which advertisement media delivery transitions are the most effective. The advertisement transitions may include, for example, an advertisement and breadcrumb sent to the user via a wireless network followed by the transition to an advertisement and breadcrumb sent to the user via a cable television optical network. Ad/coupon server 220 may analyze whether the user follows each provided breadcrumb to determine which media delivery transitions are the most effective. The analysis may include, for example, the determination of a “drop-off” percentage for each stage of the “trail-of-breadcrumbs” advertising campaign. For example, the analysis may determine that X % of users fail to continue to follow the “trail-of-breadcrumbs” when the trail leads from access to media via a cellular phone to access to media via a POTS phone. As another example, the analysis may determine that Y % of users fail to continue to the follow the “trail-of-breadcrumbs” when the trail leads from access to media via a POTS phone to access to media via a STB and television.
The exemplary process of
Exemplary embodiments described herein may enable “trail-of-breadcrumbs” advertising campaigns to be conducted that involve providing a series of advertisements to a user via multiple different media delivery networks and via respective, different media presentation devices. Each of the advertisements in the series of advertisements may include a “breadcrumb” that the user may follow to receive a subsequent advertisement, possibly via a different media delivery network and media presentation device, where the advertisement may further include a multi-stage, modular coupon. The user may collect each modular coupon of the multi-stage modular coupons as the user progresses through each stage of the “trail-of-breadcrumbs.” The collected coupons may subsequently be used to purchase a product or service at a discount at some point in the “trail-of-breadcrumbs” (e.g., at the end, or at some intermediate stage).
The foregoing description of implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention. For example, while series of blocks have been described with regard to
Variations of exemplary embodiments described herein may include a capability of the user to opt-in or opt-out of “trail-of-breadcrumb” advertising. Variations of exemplary embodiments may additionally include enabling the user to set ad preferences and/or to join particular advertising campaigns.
It will be apparent that embodiments, as described above, may be implemented in many different forms of software, firmware, and hardware in the implementations illustrated in the figures. The actual software code or specialized control hardware used to implement embodiments is not limiting of the invention. Thus, the operation and behavior of the embodiments have been described without reference to the specific software code, it being understood that software and control hardware may be designed based on the description herein.
Further, certain portions of the invention may be implemented as “logic” that performs one or more functions. This logic may include hardware, such as an application specific integrated circuit or a field programmable gate array, or a combination of hardware and software.
Even though particular combinations of features are recited in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification, these combinations are not intended to limit the invention. In fact, many of these features may be combined in ways not specifically recited in the claims and/or disclosed in the specification.
No element, act, or instruction used in the present application should be construed as critical or essential to the invention unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, the article “a” is intended to include one or more items. Where only one item is intended, the term “one” or similar language is used. Further, the phrase “based on” is intended to mean “based, at least in part, on” unless explicitly stated otherwise.
