Patent Application
20110213666
The present disclosure relates generally to a system and method for delivery and display of an advertisement or a sales promotion offer on a communication device, and more specifically to a system and method for delivering and displaying the advertisement or sales promotion while the user of the communication device is otherwise engaged.
With the proliferation of communication devices, commercial advertisers are constantly looking for new ways and mediums to communicate their messages to a large number of users. Ensuring that an advertisement delivered to a mobile communication device will be fully reviewed and considered by the user becomes a challenge, because once users become accustomed to a given communication venue, they may tend to ignore or skip the messages. Especially given the relatively widespread usage of handheld wireless devices, advertisers would be desirous of providing advertisements in a manner that enhances the chances of the advertisement actually being reviewed and considered.
Embodiments are illustrated by way of example only and not limitation, with reference to the following drawings in which like reference numerals indicate corresponding or similar elements, and in which:
Accordingly, there is a need for providing messages in venues such as communication devices in such a way that users will be motivated to listen to or review the messages, including viewing of images, video and text. If provided with regard to the degree of intrusiveness of the messages, users may be less likely to skip or ignore the messages. Especially if a user is permitted to specify an acceptable degree of intrusiveness, such as by indicating a status as to his/her preferred conditions for accepting the advertisement message, for example, style of delivery and timing of the advertisement message, a user will be less likely to skip or ignore the messages.
There is provided a computer implemented method in a processor of communication device for delivery and display of an advertisement message. The method comprises receiving, at the communication device, an advertisement message; determining whether a status indicator mode is active; upon determining that the status indicator mode is active, determining a reconfiguration rule for applying to the advertisement message; reconfiguring the advertisement message according to the determined reconfiguration rule; and presenting the reconfigured advertisement message at the communication device.
In a further embodiment, the determined reconfiguration rule comprises reconfiguration to a silent mode screen display including graphical effects.
In yet another exemplary variation, the determined reconfiguration rule comprises reconfiguration to an audible advertisement message.
In another aspect, reconfiguring the advertisement message comprises accessing a calendar application of the communication device; identifying a next available time slot of the calendar application; and delaying presentation of the advertisement message at the communication device until a time during the next available time slot.
In another embodiment, the next available time slot comprises a next available time slot for displaying advertisements.
In yet another embodiment, the advertisement message is received from a merchant source, the merchant source being listed in an application of the communication device.
In a further exemplary variation, the advertisement message is presented at the communication device only if a predefined condition associated with the merchant source is satisfied.
In another embodiment, the predefined condition associated with the merchant source comprises opening hours of a business entity of the merchant source.
There is also provided a computer program product storing instructions and data to configure a processor to perform the above described methods.
There is further provided a communication device for displaying an advertisement message. The communication device comprises a processor and a memory coupled thereto, the memory storing instructions and data configuring the processor to perform the above described methods.
In further embodiment, the communication device comprises a wireless handheld communication device.
There is further provided a communication device for displaying an advertisement message based on an indicated status mode at the communication device. The communication device comprises a processor; a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising instructions which, when executed in the processor, provide a status indicator monitor module to indicate an active mode; an advertisement filter module to determine a reconfiguration rule to apply to the advertisement message when the active mode is indicated; and an advertisement reconfiguration module to reconfigure the advertisement, according to the determined reconfiguration rule, for presentation at a display of the communication device, the display being coupled to the processor and to the memory.
In one exemplary variation, the reconfiguration module reconfigures the advertisement message for presentation in a silent mode screen display including graphical effects.
In yet another exemplary variation, the reconfiguration module reconfigures the advertisement message for presentation as an audible advertisement message.
In yet another embodiment, the communication device further comprises a calendar application, the calendar application including a next available time slot wherein the presentation of the advertisement message at the communication device is delayed until a time during the next available time slot.
In yet another exemplary variation, the next available time slot comprises a next available time slot for displaying advertisements.
In another embodiment, the communication device further comprises an address book application having an address book list, the address book list including a merchant source for the advertisement message.
In yet another embodiment, the advertisement message is presented at the communication device only if a predefined condition associated with the merchant source is satisfied.
There is further provided a method implemented in a processor of a server computer for delivery and display of an advertisement message at a communication device, the server computer communicatively coupled to the communication device over a communication network. The method comprises determining whether a status indicator mode of the communication device is active, when the advertisement message is received at the communication device; upon determining that the status indicator mode is active, receiving the advertising message at the server computer, determining a reconfiguration rule for applying to the advertisement message; reconfiguring the advertisement message according to the determined reconfiguration rule; and forwarding the reconfigured advertisement message for presentation at the communication device.
In a further exemplary embodiment, the step of forwarding the advertisement message to the communication device further comprises accessing a calendar application of the communication device; identifying a next available time slot of the calendar application; and delaying presentation of the advertisement message at the communication device until a time during the next available time slot.
Referring to
In yet another variation on the embodiment of the communication system depicted in
It will be understood by a person skilled in the art that the communication system 100 of
The communication devices 101, 102 are in communication with computer server 108 via the communication network 106, the base station 104, and internet service provider 105. Accordingly, the communication network 106 may include several components such as a wireless network, a relay, a corporate server 110 and/or a mobile data server (MDS) for relaying data between the base station 104 and the carrier system 108. The communication network 106 may also be configured to support data and voice communications under the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) scheme.
Communication system 100 is configured to deliver and display one or more advertisement messages to communication devices 101, 102. Optionally, the communication system 100 may be configured to track usage of the advertisement messages and to provide financial compensation to a user of the communication devices 101, 102 via the billing system 114 for allowing the messages to be outputted on the communication device 101, 102. For example, the financial compensation may be provided proportionate to the cumulative time of playing the advertisement messages over a given billing cycle. The messages may be accessed by communication device 101 either directly via the advertisement delivery manager 190 or indirectly via the carrier system server 108 to the communication devices 101, 102.
Wireless communication services are typically provided on a service contract basis where the communication device user enters a service contract with a wireless carrier to have wireless service provided to the communication device 101. Accordingly, the carrier system 108 may be configured to store information such as the communication device 101 user(s) name and billing information, wireless service plan, equipment type, and any other pertinent information to facilitate wireless communication for the communication device 101. The carrier system 108 is a further coupled for communication with carrier infrastructure including a billing system 114. The billing system 114 comprises a subscription module 116, and a billing tracker 118. Subscription module 116 stores information related to communication services which the communication device is enrolled into. Billing tracker 118 may be configured to track and store billing information for the communication device 101 based on the services plan and usage of various advertisement message services available to the communication device 101.
Referring again to
It will be appreciated by a person of ordinary skill in the art that the communication system 100 described herein is exemplary and that changes may be made to one or more components to accommodate different network configurations without affecting the scope of the disclosure herein. Further, although the present description may specifically recite a communication device 101, it will be appreciated that other types of devices, including both wired and wireless devices, may be employed.
Referring to
The communication device 101 includes a wireless communication subsystem 211, which includes a receiver 212, a transmitter 214, and associated components, such as one or more embedded or internal antenna elements 216 and 218, local oscillators (LOs) 213, and a processing module such as a digital signal processor (DSP) 220. As will be apparent to those skilled in field of communications, the particular design of the communication subsystem 211 depends on the communication network in which communication device 101 is intended to operate.
The communication device 101 includes a microprocessor 238 which controls general operation of the communication device 101. The microprocessor 238 also interacts with additional device subsystems such as a display 222, a flash memory 224, a random access memory (RAM) 226, auxiliary input/output (I/O) subsystems 228, a serial port 230, a keyboard 232, a speaker 234 for presentation of audible output, a microphone 236, a short-range communications subsystem 240 such as Bluetooth™ for example, and any other device subsystems or peripheral devices generally designated at 242. The communication device 101 may also include a positioning device 244, such as a GPS receiver for example, for receiving positioning information
Operating system software used by the microprocessor 238 may be stored in a persistent store of memory such as the flash memory 224, which may alternatively be a read-only memory (ROM) or similar storage element (not shown). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the operating system, specific device applications, or parts thereof, may be temporarily loaded into a volatile store of memory such as RAM 226.
The microprocessor 238, in addition to its operating system functions, typically enables execution of software applications on the communication device 101. A predetermined set of applications, which control basic device operations, is installed on the communication device 101 during its manufacture. These basic operations typically include data and voice communication applications, such as calendar and address book applications, for example. Additionally, applications may also be loaded onto the communication device 101 through the network 106, an auxiliary I/O subsystem 228, serial port 230, short-range communications subsystem 240, or any other suitable subsystem 242, and installed by a user in RAM 226, or the persistent store 224, for execution by the microprocessor 238. Such flexibility in application installation increases the functionality of the communication device 101 and may provide enhanced on-device features, communication-related features, or both.
The display screen 222 is used to visually present an application's graphical user interface (GUI) to the user. The user can manipulate application data by modifying information on the GUI using an input device such as the keyboard 232 for example. Depending on the type of communication device 101, the user may be provided with other types of input devices, such as, for example, a scroll wheel, trackball, optical sensor-based input device including a light pen, a camera or a touch sensitive display screen.
Referring again to
Status monitor indicator module 290 may comprise any combination of software, firmware and hardware to monitor a mode setting by a user of communication device 101. For example, an active mode of status indicator module 290 may be selected or activated by a user to indicate a preference for having advertisement messages to be filtered prior to their presentation to the user at communication device 101. For instance, where a user expects to be occupied, whether in a meeting or driving in busy traffic in a long commute home, the user may select the active mode to exercise full control over the timing of when the ad is presented, and also the style of presentation of the ad.
Advertisement filter module 291 may comprise any combination of software, firmware and hardware to determine an appropriate rule for reconfiguring the ad. For instance, if the user expects to be driving in busy traffic in a long commute home, he/she may establish a rule that during commute times, ads presented should be audibly presented, such as via a musical “jingle” or melody that might be associated with the product or service being advertised. It is contemplated that once a user establishes a rule, application of that rule may also be automated by the communication device. It is further contemplated that if the advertisement message is received in a text form, one rule might be that it be presented audibly, including via ring tones or speech via the speaker 234 of communication device 101, or it may be presented graphically such as via video.
Another rule might result in an ad being presented via a silent mode, but with various graphical effects at the display screen 222 of the communication device 101. Or further still, the ad being presented in a specific location, such as a specific scroll bar location on display screen 222. Such a rule might be of value to a user where audible presentation of the ad might be disruptive, for example while in a meeting, but yet silent presentation of the ad would be acceptable to the user.
It is contemplated that a calendar application and address book applications of communication device 100 would be data-accessible to status monitor indicator module 290, advertisement filter module 291 and advertisement reconfiguration module 292 via memory 224, 226 and processor 238. Yet another rule might be specified that when a user is busy, as identified by an event occupying a time duration in the calendar application, the presentation of the ad would be delayed until the next available time slot in the user's calendar becomes current, the available time slot being a free time slot where no event or activity occupies any time duration. In still yet another variation, the user might even specify that an ad may only be permitted to be presented during a specially designated time slot, such as between 9 pm and 10 pm in the evenings, for example.
Advertisement reconfiguration module 292 may comprise any combination of software, firmware and hardware to reconfigure the ad for presentation to the user at communication device 101. For instance, the rule to be applied is determined to be silent presentation of the ad, then advertisement reconfiguration module 292 would employ display screen 222 and processor 238 to present the ad appropriately, for example as depicted in
It is also contemplated that any one or several of the steps depicted in
It is contemplated that communication device 101 may include an address book application or a calendar application, the contents being data-accessible by ad delivery manager 190 via processor 238 and memory 224, 226.
Referring again to the exemplary variation depicted at
Although various embodiments have been described in the disclosure herein, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that further variations may be made without departing from the scope of the appended claims.
