The accompanying figures, where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views and which together with the detailed description below are incorporated in and form part of the specification, serve to further illustrate various embodiments and to explain various principles and advantages all in accordance with the present invention.
Before describing in detail embodiments that are in accordance with the present invention, it should be observed that the embodiments reside primarily in combinations of method steps and apparatus components related to a system and method of managing an advertising campaign over an internet protocol based television network. Accordingly, the apparatus components and method steps have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein. Thus, it will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, common and well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment may not be depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments.
In this document, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”, “having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. The terms “substantially”, “essentially”, “approximately”, “about” or any other version thereof, are defined as being close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and in one non-limiting embodiment the term is defined to be within 10%, in another embodiment within 5%, in another embodiment within 1% and in another embodiment within 0.5%. The term “coupled” as used herein is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” in a certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways that are not listed.
It will be appreciated that embodiments of the invention described herein may be comprised of one or more conventional processors and unique stored program instructions that control the one or more processors to implement, in conjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of the system and method of managing an advertising campaign over an internet protocol based television network described herein. The non-processor circuits may include, but are not limited to, a radio receiver, a radio transmitter, signal drivers, clock circuits, power source circuits, and user input devices. As such, these functions may be interpreted as steps of a method of managing an advertising campaign over an internet protocol based television network described herein. Alternatively, some or all functions could be implemented by a state machine that has no stored program instructions, or in one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certain of the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, a combination of the two approaches could be used. Thus, methods and means for these functions have been described herein. Further, it is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.
Generally speaking, pursuant to the various embodiments, the invention provides a system and method of managing an advertising campaign over an internet protocol based television network. An internet protocol (IP) based television (TV) network can be any broadband network that allows for and facilitates the delivery of video content over IP as well as on IP-based broadband devices such as a PC, a mobile, etc. An IP based television network is a full duplex communication network that provides a feedback loop based on the number of users connected to the communication network. An advertisement can comprise at least one of a video, an audio, a graphic overlay (jpeg, gif, etc.) that is overlaid on the video stream and a text stream. While displaying the video content, the advertisement can be inserted, for instance in a timeslot before display of the video content, a predetermined timeslot during display of video content or even a timeslot after the display of video content. As per one embodiment, managing an advertising campaign over an internet protocol based television network entails, creating a customized advertising campaign, controlling the mechanism of modifying the advertising campaigns periodically and displaying the advertisements to a client on a real-time basis based on the advertising campaign. The advertising campaign can be defined as a set of rules such as a plurality of customization parameters or a plurality of budgeting parameters associated with the delivery of the advertisement; for example, when the advertisement should run, where it should run, on which content, in which region, etc. and the dates when it should run. Thus a feedback loop, which is due to the inherent full duplex communication in a broadband network, provides the ability of getting information from the users on a real time basis. The real time being a time where the advertiser can get feedback as to the number of users watching the content/the type of content etc. and he can instantly target his advertisement campaign based on the data received.
The present invention, thus, attempts to produce an experience of targeted and dynamic advertising on a real time basis for video content delivered through an internet protocol based television network as well as IP-based broadband devices such as a PC, a mobile, etc. Those skilled in the art will realize that the above recognized advantages and other advantages described herein are merely exemplary and are not meant to be a complete rendering of all of the advantages of the various embodiments of the present invention.
Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to
The display devices 115, 120 and 125 can be devices that are capable of displaying any audio, video or audio-video content along with an advertisement. Such display devices can comprise a television (TV), a personal computer (PC), a laptop, a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA). The advertisement comprises at least one of a video, an audio, a graphic overlay (jpeg, gif, etc.) that is overlaid on the video stream and a text stream. The server 105 is configured for managing the advertising campaign over the internet protocol based television network. The server 105 enables modifying the advertising campaigns periodically, customizing the advertising campaigns based predetermined parameters and sending the advertisements to display devices 115, 120 and 125 on a real-time basis. The server 105 can be part of an existing content providers internal network or may even be provided by a third party service provider. For instance, the server 105 can be part of a cable operator's television network and advertisers wishing to provide customized advertisements can access the server 105 and customize the advertising campaign. The cable operator can dynamically insert the advertisements based on the advertisers preferences in the content and display the content with the advertisements to the end users display device via the IP based television network. The content to which the advertisements are inserted can reside on the server 105 or can be coming from a server 110 that is residing anywhere on the IP broadband network. The content can be completely independent from the advertisement and can be downloaded or streamed from any location. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the delivery of the content is independent from the delivery of the advertisement that is the content can be coming from any other server residing anywhere on the IP broadband network.
For instance, a movie ‘X’ is being shown in two different locations, location ‘A’ and location ‘B’. In such a scenario the advertiser may customize the advertising campaign for each location. Location ‘A’ shall view the movie ‘X’ along with advertisements that are local to location ‘A’. While the same movie ‘X’ shall be displayed with a set of advertisements that are local to location ‘B’, which are different from the advertisements displayed in location ‘A’. As stated earlier real time being the time where the advertiser can get feedback as to the number of users watching the content/the type of content etc. and he can instantly target his advertisement campaign based on the data received. In the example stated above the advertisement can be one of a video, an audio, a graphic overlay (jpeg, gif, etc.) that is overlaid on the video stream and a text stream that is local to location ‘A’ or ‘B’ which are associated with the movie ‘X’ at the time of display. Whereas the advertisement campaign on which is based the display of advertisement, is a set of rules such as a plurality of customization parameters or a plurality of budgeting parameters which in this example is ‘location where the advertisement is to be displayed’. Since the IP based television network provides a feedback loop, dynamic customization of the advertising campaign based on several factors is enabled.
Turning now to
Referring now to
The server system 205 is coupled to a budgeting system 220 that is configured to provide budgeting information for the advertising campaign based on budgeting parameters. The budgeting system 220 is configured such that it displays a cost per view (CPV) estimate based on the predetermined customization parameters. The advertiser of the advertising campaign is provided with the ability to modify the CPV based on the budgeting parameters. The budgeting parameters are an advertising estimate chosen by an advertiser of the advertisement. For instance, an advertiser may wish to spend a limited amount on the advertising campaign and may pay based on the number of end-users actually viewing the advertisement. The system provides such information to the user based on the previous viewership or number of end-users that have requested for a particular content to be viewed, or based on the number of end-users watching the content on a real-time basis. Additionally, the budgeting parameters can also be based on at least one of a time slot for the advertisement, competition for the time slot, a date range for which the advertisement is valid, a maximum CPV desired to be spent by the advertiser; responses to the advertisement received by the advertiser. As per one embodiment of the present invention the budgeting system 220 can be a part of the server system 205.
The system for managing the advertising the advertising campaign over the internet protocol based television network further comprises the client system 225. The client system is present at the advertiser's end where the customization parameters are displayed. For instance, the advertiser can user a web browser to access the server and customize the advertising campaign via the web browser. Once the advertiser has selected the customization parameters and provided the advertising campaign, the advertisement is dynamically inserted with the content and the advertisement along with the content is displayed to an end user display system 230 over the internet protocol based television network as well as on IP-based broadband devices such as a PC, a mobile, etc. As per another embodiment of the present invention the advertisement can be displayed based on a bidding mechanism prior to displaying the content with the advertisement or in real-time during playback of the content. Those skilled in the art shall recognize that the advertising campaign can be modified continuously in real-time based on responses received from viewers of the advertisement as a result of the feedback loop, which is due to the inherent full duplex communication in a broadband network.
Turning now to
Upon creating the advertising campaign and selecting the content for the advertising campaign, the method for managing the advertising campaign over the internet protocol based television network comprises at step 305, customizing or targeting the advertising campaign based on predetermined customization parameters which are a set of rules associated with the advertisement at the time of display. The predetermined customization parameters comprise a geography for the advertisement, a number of viewers of the advertisement, a psychographic information of viewers of the advertisement, a demographic information of viewers of the advertisement, a timeslot for displaying the advertisement, a plurality of dates for displaying the advertisement, a content for displaying the advertisement, a plurality of responses received from viewers of the advertisement and a budgeting parameters for the advertisement.
For example, targeting the advertising campaign based on a set of rules such as predetermined customization parameter of targeting by geography is when the advertiser specifies that he wants to telecast the advertisement for only those people in San Jose, Calif. within a particular pin code and people in Fremont Calif. within a particular pin code. In an embodiment of the present invention the data that is mined for providing the information for targeting the advertising campaign can be generated by having a questionnaire filled in by subscribers of the service thereby providing the advertisers with different kind of information for targeting the advertising campaign. Also information on the subscribers is captured at the time the subscriber uses his/her credit card for subscribing for the services. Thus customization of the advertising campaign can be enabled by providing the subscribers with a user interface with check boxes or drop down selection box, text box etc to be able to select various options from the predetermined customization parameters associated with the delivery of the advertisement; for example, a time slot when the advertisement should run, geographic information of where the advertisement should run (on which content, in which region, etc.) and the dates when it should run etc.
Another example can be customizing the advertising campaign of an ABC airlines based on predetermined customization parameter of the geography for the advertisement. The ABC airlines advertisement video can be played in India for travel to destinations via the ABC airline in all India Vs Pakistan cricket matches. Customization of the video track of the ABC airlines advertisement can be done by customizing the audio track or the text track of the advertisement to flash on the screen while the video track is being played with the flight tariff details of Mumbai to the destination of the cricket match for viewers in Mumbai and the flight tariff details of Bangalore to the destination of the cricket match for viewers in Bangalore for the same video track. In the above example the ABC airline video with the customized audio track and text track is the actual advertisement that is displayed based on the advertising campaign which is in turn based on the set of rules such as a plurality of predetermined customization parameters for example, the geography of the advertisement to be played in this case, is associated with the advertisement at the time of display.
Another example can be of customizing the advertising campaign and dynamically inserting the advertisement in the content to be displayed. For instance, an online bookstore may wish to display advertisements regarding the books that the bookstore sells. In such situations, while broadcasting a movie such as ‘Jurassic Park’, a scrolling text of books pertaining to dinosaurs can be displayed when images of dinosaurs are being shown. Displaying the advertisement at such times provides context to the viewer of the content and may lead to greater conversions. Conventionally, advertisements could only be displayed at predetermined time slots within the content and not dynamically at specific instances within the move content. In the above example the bookstore advertisement with the customized scrolling text of books pertaining to dinosaurs is the actual advertisement that is displayed based on the advertising campaign which is in turn based on the set of rules such as a plurality of predetermined customization parameters, for example, the context of the content which is the ‘Jurassic park’ movie in this case, is associated with the advertisement at the time of display.
Another example can be of customization of pizza shop advertisement for customizing or targeting the advertising campaign is based on predetermined customization parameter of the time slot for displaying the advertisement. The pizza shop advertiser wants the pizza advertisement to flash in the content of a movie played between 8 pm to 9 pm for all those subscribing to the service within 2 sq mile area of the pizza shop. This advertisement can be further customized by dynamically adding a text crawler offering a discount on the pizza's ordered during 8 pm to 9 pm, for the viewers in the 2 sq mile area of the pizza shop. Thus by customizing the audio track or the text track for the same video track enables the advertiser in deciding where the advertisements should be played for the total content selected for playing the advertisements. It will be appreciated that the advertising campaign can be modified continuously in real-time based on responses received from viewers of the advertisement. The IP based television network enables the ability to obtain such information of the end-user and dynamically insert such advertisements on a real-time basis within the content. As stated earlier a feedback loop, which is due to the inherent full duplex communication in a broadband network enables in getting information from the users on a real time basis.
Upon customizing or targeting the advertising campaign based on as a set of rules such as a plurality of predetermined customization parameters or a plurality of predetermined budgeting parameters, the method for managing the advertising campaign over the internet protocol based television network comprises at step 310, providing a budgeting information for the advertising campaign based on budgeting parameters. The budgeting parameters are an advertising estimate chosen by an advertiser of the advertisement. Having selected the options based on the budgeting parameters, at step 315 the content is displayed with the advertisement to the end-user display device via the IP based television network.
Turning now to
The budgeting parameters are an advertising estimate chosen by an advertiser of the advertisement. The budgeting parameters can be based on at least one of a time slot for the advertisement, competition for the time slot, a date range for which the advertisement is valid, a maximum CPV desired to be spent by the advertiser; responses to the advertisement received by the advertiser. The advertisement can be inserted in at least one of a timeslot before display of content, a predetermined timeslot during display of content, a timeslot after display of content. The advertisement can be displayed based on a bidding mechanism just prior to displaying the content with the advertisement or in real-time during playback of the content. This enables auctioning the advertisement slot at the time of playing content or a movie.
An example of the bidding mechanism is explained herein below. As stated earlier an estimate of the number of people going to watch a particular content on a particular day can be data mined from the database. The information regarding the advertisement slots available for a particular content, for example a half hour show for that particular day is provided. For instance, there are three advertisement slots before the half hour serial, a graphic overlay (jpeg, gif, etc.) that is overlaid on the video stream, branding slot that is overlaid during the serial and there are two advertisement slots in the middle of the half hour serial. Based on the bidding, for example the highest CPV entered by advertisers for the advertising slot for the half hour serial, the advertisement slots are auctioned. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the advertisement can be displayed based on a bidding mechanism just prior to displaying the content with the advertisement or in real-time during playback of the content.
The present invention provides a method and system of managing an advertising campaign over an internet protocol based television network. It further enables managing the advertising campaign over the internet protocol based television network includes a controlling the mechanism of modifying the advertising campaigns continuously and sending the advertisements to a client in real-time basis and provides online performance reports 24/7 in the account. Additionally, ensures no monthly minimum spending limit or time commitment and only a minimal fee to set up your account. Also the cost-per-view (CPV) pricing ensures that the advertiser pays only for the viewers who have seen the advertisement at a price he has set. The present invention, thus, attempts to produce an experience of targeted and dynamic advertising in a real time basis.
In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments of the present invention have been described. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of present invention. The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.
This application claims priority under 35 USC 119 (e)(1) of provisional application No. 60/823100, Filed on 22 Aug. 2006
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
60823100 | Aug 2006 | US |