Patent Application
20170236156
The present invention relates to the field of personalization, and in particular to techniques for providing personalized offers based on location and prior activity.
For many years, advertisers have delivered advertisements to prospective customers. Traditionally, advertisements have been targeted to audience groups, but have been delivered to the general populace, resulting in much advertising spend being wasted. One merchant in the early 20th century famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.”
In recent years, attempts have been made to improve advertising effectiveness by personalizing the advertisements using various techniques. But such techniques have been limited because of the information available for use in the personalization process. Better personalization techniques would be desirable.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate an implementation of apparatus and methods consistent with the present invention and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain advantages and principles consistent with the invention. In the drawings,
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, structure and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the invention. References to numbers without subscripts are understood to reference all instance of subscripts corresponding to the referenced number. Moreover, the language used in this disclosure has been principally selected for readability and instructional purposes, and may not have been selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter, resort to the claims being necessary to determine such inventive subject matter. Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or to “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments is included in at least one embodiment of the invention, and multiple references to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” should not be understood as necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
Although some of the following description is written in terms that relate to software or firmware, embodiments can implement the features and functionality described herein in software, firmware, or hardware as desired, including any combination of software, firmware, and hardware. References to daemons, drivers, engines, modules, or routines should not be considered as suggesting a limitation of the embodiment to any type of implementation.
As used herein, a “machine readable medium” means either a single physical medium or a collection of physical media that together store the contents described as being stored on the medium.
As used herein, a “computer system” means either a single computer system or a collection of computer systems that together function to perform the techniques described as being performed by the computer system. A computer system may be implemented as any type of programmable device, using any convenient technology that is known to the art, and may be implemented as physical, virtual, or a mixture of physical and virtual devices as desired.
As used herein, a “mobile device” means any type of programmable device designed for carrying or otherwise moving from place to place, such as a mobile phone, a table, a laptop computer, etc., including vehicles or other devices in which the programmable device may be embedded or otherwise incorporated. The mobile device may incorporate functionality for a single purpose or multiple purposes.
As used herein, a “database” means any type of data storage, using any convenient or desired format, including relational databases, hierarchical databases, and other forms of data storage, including simple text files. The database may be implemented using any desired storage devices, including multiple storage devices, and physical, virtual, or a mixture of physical and virtual devices as desired.
As used here, a “server” means a computer system generally used for receiving, storing, or transmitting information. A server may be used as a personal workstation by a user or may be provide services without direct user interaction.
As used herein, a “network” means any system for communicating data between two or more devices and may include local area networks, wide area networks, and any other type of network known to the art. The network may operate according to any desired networking protocols, including any version of the Internet Protocol (IP). A network may include a single network or any number of interconnected private or public networks, including cellular data networks.
As used herein, a “beacon” means a device that delivers information to devices that enter into range of the beacon, using any desired protocol for communication. The beacon may provide information that devices communicating with the beacon may use to obtain information from website or other network-connected systems. The type and amount of information provided by the beacon depends upon the type of beacon and the protocol used for communication, such as the EDDYSTONE™ and IBEACON™ protocols. (EDDYSTONE is a trademark of Google, Inc.; IBEACON is a trademark of Apple Inc.)
As used herein, an “offer” is any type of advertisement, discount, coupon, promotional code, etc. that may be offered to a consumer to as an incentive to perform a desired activity, such as a purchase. The offer may be delivered in any desired form, including email message, text message, banner advertisement, pop-up window, etc. The offer may be in the form of text or graphic information, including still images, animations, or other types of video, and including any combination of media. The offer may be configured for display by a particular app installed on the mobile device. The offer may be delivered for automatic display by the mobile device or may be configured as a notification that may be displayed only upon an action by the user to cause the display to occur, such as by the user visiting a specific website.
According to one scenario, a user 105 carrying the mobile device 110 walks or otherwise moves within range of beacon 125, which in this example is located at point of interest 120. The beacon 125 may be located within or exterior to the point of interest 120 as desired, and multiple beacons 125 may be provisioned at that location, providing the same or different information to mobile devices that come within range. The beacon 125 may use a protocol such as one of the BLUETOOTH® protocols, but may use any desired protocol. (BLUETOOTH is a registered certification mark of BLUETOOTH SIG, INC.) Most commonly, the beacon 125 may use BLUETOOTH low energy techniques. Non-BLUETOOTH technology that may be used includes Near Field Communication (NFC) technology as well as other wireless networking protocols. The beacon 125 may thus be used to determine that the mobile device 110 is proximal to a predetermined location, that of the point of interest 120 associated with the beacon 125.
When in range of the beacon 125, the mobile device 110 communicates with the beacon 125 to obtain information from the beacon. The type of information may vary depending on the type of beacon, and may involve communication with a beacon registry (not illustrated in
The mobile device 110 then communicates via a network to server 130. This may be by using the URL or other information associated with the beacon or may be independent of the information provided by the beacon. The location of the beacon 125 may be obtained from the beacon 125 or may be derived from the information provided by the beacon 125. Alternately, location services provided by hardware and software of the mobile device 110 may be used to provide location information defining a geolocation of the mobile device 110. The location information is communicated by the mobile device 110 to the server 130 or may be derived by the server 130 based on the information provided by the mobile device 110. The location information obtained by the server 130 may then be used to identify the relative location of the mobile device 110 to the point of interest 120.
The point of interest 120 may be any type of point of interest, including retailers and other commercial establishments. Non-commercial establishments, such as government offices, may also be points of interest that use beacons 125. In one simple example, a user 105 carrying the mobile device 110 may enter or approach a retail store location that uses a beacon 125. Upon detecting the beacon 125, in addition to taking any normal beacon-triggered action, the mobile device 110 may communicate with the server 130 who obtains location information and uses that location information to generate a personalized offer for the user 105.
The location information obtained by the server 130 may be stored in a location information database 140 for any desired purpose, including generating a location history for the mobile device 110.
In addition, the server 130 may communicate with the activity history database 150. In one implementation, the server 130 may attempt to identify a person, such as the user 105, associated with the mobile device 110, then use the person identification to obtain the relevant activity associated with that person in the activity history database 150. In other implementations, the activity history database 150 contains data that is associated with the mobile device 110, rather than a specific person. The activity history database 150 contains data about both online and offline activities associated with the person 105 or mobile device 110. Online activity as used herein means activities that are performed via computer systems, such as activities performed via websites. Offline activity as used herein means activities that are not performed via computer systems, such as activities performed at a retail establishment. By using both online and office activity histories, a more complete picture of the activity of the person 105 may be obtained. Although illustrated in
One example of the type of activities that may be maintained by the activity history database may be purchase activities. By combining both online and offline purchasing history information, a more complete purchase history of the person 105 may be obtained, which can lead to better personalization of offers. For example, the person 105 may use the mobile device 110 or another computer system (not shown in
Merely generating offers based on activity history information would be a form of personalization, but would be less useful than personalized offers that include location information. For example, a system that generated personalized offers based only on online and offline purchasing history without localizing the offer might generate an offer that is unusable by the person 105 at his or her present location. Advertising that is both timely and person-appropriate typically is more effective than advertising that is either timely or person-appropriate, but not both. For example, an offer that provides a discount on ski equipment that is provided in July when the person 105 visits a gym is less likely to be acted upon by the person 105 than the same discount on ski equipment when the person 105 visits a retailer offering ski equipment.
By combining location information and activity history, personalized offers may be provided that are both timely and person-appropriate. For example, if the person 105 has previously purchased organic produce from a grocery store, an offer that provides a coupon for organic carrots may be provided when the person 105 enters or approaches a grocery store, which need not be the grocery store where the previous organic purchase occurred. Depending on the granularity of the location information, different offers may be selected and provided based on the location within the point of interest.
In some implementations, preexisting offers are obtained from offer database 160. In other implementations, personalized offers may be generated by the server 130, either on the fly or by modifying un-personalized offers obtained from the offers database 160 with selected personalized information to produce a personalized offer. In some implementations, the personalizations may also be obtained from the offers database 160. Any desired technique may be used for generating or selecting a personalized offer based on location information and online and offline activity information may be used.
The offers need not directly relate to the activity history. For example, the person 105 may have a purchasing history that includes membership in a gym. Upon detecting that the person 105 is entering a clothing store, the person 105 may be provided an offer that relates to the purchase of workout apparel, even if the person 105 has never purchased workout apparel before. Similarly, a person who has recently purchased workout apparel (whether online or offline) may be offered a promotion on a gym membership when walking past a health club. The promotion may not be for the health club near the person, but may even be for a competitor health club.
In an alternate scenario illustrated in
In block 450, the offer may be transmitted to the mobile device 450. In some implementations, the offer may be sent without delay. In other implementations, the offer may be delayed until some other trigger event occurs, such as a time of day, or the person 105 returning home or leaving work as determined by other location information obtained by the server 130. For example, the server 130 may recognize that the person 105 visited point of interest 120 prior to going to work, then generate or select a personalized offer to be delivered when the person 105 leaves work to return home.
In block 460, the offer may be displayed on the mobile device 110, using any desired technique for display. In some embodiments, the offer may contain within the offer information defining how, when, or where it should be displayed on the mobile device 110.
As described above, much of the activity is performed by the server 130, based on information obtained from the various databases and the mobile device 110, with the offer pushed from the server 130 to the mobile device 110. In another implementation, an app or service running on the mobile device 110 may obtain location information and request a personalized offer from the server 130 based on the location information and activity history maintained by the server 130. Upon the server 130 selecting an offer, the mobile device 110 may pull or fetch the personalized offer from the server 130 and take the necessary actions to display the offer on the mobile device 110 to the person 105. Cookies may be stored on the mobile device 110 as part of the procedure.
Although only a single mobile device 110 is illustrated associated with person 105 in
As described above, the personalized offer is developed and transmitted to the mobile device 110. As described in the discussion of
In another scenario, the personalized offer may be sent to any device associated with person 105 (or family or group member 107), including devices not defined as mobile devices. For example, the location of mobile device 110 and online and offline activity of person 105 may be used to send personalized offers to a desktop computer also associated with person 105.
Referring now to
In the system illustrated in
An advertising campaign 750 may then define attributes that should be associated with the campaign for choosing what offers to send to prospective customers. The campaign setup 750 creates a database 755 of qualified offers that are associated with one or more attributes. The ad server 740 may then use the qualified offers database 755 and the user attribute 735 to select personalized qualified offers for the user 105, sending the offers to the mobile device 110. In some scenarios, the ad server may also use a location database 745 to select ads or offers to send to the user 105 and mobile device 110, based on the location of the mobile device 110 near or at a point of interest 120 that is relevant to the ad.
The architecture illustrated in
By using both location information obtained relative to a mobile device and both online and offline activity history for the mobile device or person associated with the mobile device, personalized offers may be generated or selected that provide better personalization than has been possible with personalization that is only location-based, or which only includes online activity history. Such better personalization can provide a better user experience as well as provide more effective advertising or promotional capabilities, making promotional activities more efficient and less annoying to users.
While certain exemplary embodiments have been described in details and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of and not devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, which is determined by the claims that follow.
