Patent Application
20090006195
The present invention relates to systems for targeting communications, such as advertisements, to individuals, and in particular to a system for targeting communications, such as advertisements, to individuals based on their media interaction/usage habits which maintains such information in a confidential manner and does not disclose such information to the sending parties.
For many reasons, an entity such a corporation or some other organization or an individual would like to able to track the media interaction habits, such as the Internet browsing habits or television watching habits, of individuals such as consumers. For example, a marketer of a product or service would often like to be able to monitor and track the web sites and web pages that are viewed by individuals at their homes and/or offices so that such information can be used to provide targeted communications (e.g., product or service advertisements by mail or email) to selected appropriate ones of those individuals. However, it is currently difficult for interested entities to obtain such information. For instance, in the case of Internet browsing habits, it is not possible for an interested entity to obtain such information without explicitly asking website visitors to fill out an online form which identifies the individual. For privacy reasons, the majority of web site visitors prefer not to complete such online forms, and therefore the data collected for a particular web site is most often incomplete. In addition, that information, if collected, would only then be available to the interested entity for web sites operated by or on the behalf of the interested party (and not for unrelated third party web sites). Thus, there is a need for a system for enabling interested entities to send targeted communications to individuals based on their media interaction habits which at the same time preserves the privacy of that information so as to make individuals more likely to participate in such a system.
The present invention provides a method of sending a targeted communication on behalf of an interested party, such as a company or individual that markets a product or service, to one or more of a plurality of individuals that access media content, such as, without limitation, a number of web sites/web pages or television programs, through a media service provider such as an Internet service provider or a television service provider like a cable company or a satellite television company. The method includes receiving information regarding particular media content accessed by each of the individuals from the associated media service providers, storing that information in a secure manner wherein the information is not available to or accessible by the interested party, establishing one or more criteria for identifying desired recipients of the targeted communication, identifying selected ones of the individuals to receive the targeted communication based on the one or more criteria and the information regarding the particular media content of each of the individuals, and causing the targeted communication to be sent to the selected ones of the individuals by one of one or more communication methods, such as physical mail or electronic mail.
In one embodiment, the establishing step includes receiving a request from the interested party that includes the one or more criteria. Alternatively, the establishing step may include receiving information from the interested party regarding one or more types of individuals that the interested party would like to have receive the targeted communication, and determining the one or more criteria based on that information. As still a further alternative, the establishing step includes analyzing a plurality of current customers of the interested party and determining the one or more criteria based on that analysis.
The method may include working in cooperation with the interested party to create the targeted communication. Alternatively, the method may include receiving the targeted communication from the interested party.
The method may also further include receiving demographic information for each of the individuals. In this embodiment, the storing step includes storing the information regarding the media particular media content and the demographic information for each of the individuals, and the identifying step includes identifying selected ones of the individuals to receive the targeted communication based on the one or more criteria, the information regarding the particular media content of each of the individuals and the demographic information of each of the individuals.
In an alternative embodiment, the invention provides a method of sending a targeted communication on behalf of an interested party to one or more of a plurality of individuals, each of said individuals accessing one or more web pages through a respective associated fire wall and a respective Internet service provider. The method in this embodiment includes receiving information regarding particular web pages accessed by each of said individuals from the respective associated fire wall and storing the information regarding the media particular web pages in a secure manner wherein the information is not available to or accessible by the interested party. The method further includes establishing one or more criteria for identifying desired recipients of the targeted communication, identifying selected ones of the individuals to receive the targeted communication based on the one or more criteria and the information regarding the particular web pages of each of the individuals, and causing the targeted communication to be sent to the selected ones of the individuals by one of one or more communication methods.
Therefore, it should now be apparent that the invention substantially achieves all the above aspects and advantages. Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Moreover, the aspects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
The accompanying drawings illustrate presently preferred embodiments of the invention, and together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention. As shown throughout the drawings, like reference numerals designate like or corresponding parts.
As seen in
As seen in
Referring to
At step 55, the third party service provider 30 periodically collects the browsing activity information for each of the individuals that have opted-in in step 40 from each of the Internet service provider 15. Preferably, the third party service provider 30 will at the same time collect certain demographic information relating to each individual that has been provided to the associated Internet service provider 15 (typically when the account is established). In addition, the third party service provider 30 securely stores the browsing activity information that it has collected in the database 35. Typically, the third party service provider 30 perform these steps by securely contacting each Internet service provider 15 through the Internet 20 and securely receiving the above described information from the Internet service provider 15 through the Internet 20. Upon receiving that information, the third party service provider will store such information in the database 35.
The database 35 will thus comprise a store of information that includes for each individual the identification of the individual, preferably certain demographic information relating to the individual, and the identification of each of (and preferably the accessing time of) the web sites and web pages that were accessed by the individual during a selected time period (e.g., since last time the information was collected). It is this store of information that is maintained in the database 35 that the third party service provider 30 uses as the basis of its targeted communication service. In particular, as described below, the third party service provider 30 enables interested parties, such as an interested marketer, to request that targeted communications be provided to certain individuals that are identified based upon certain predetermined criteria (which in the current embodiment is supplied by the interested party) and on the information stored in the database 35. Thus, at step 60, an interested party such as an interested marketer that desires to use the service sends a service request to the third party service provider 30. That service request will inform the third party service provider 30 that the interested party wishes to have a targeted communication sent to certain types of individuals. In the particular embodiment shown in
Next, at step 65, after receiving the request from the interested party, the third party service provider 30 searches the database 35 to determine, based on the stored browsing activity information, which of the opted-in individuals match up with the criteria that was provided in the received request. Once particular ones of the opted-in individuals have been identified, the third party service provider prepares a targeted communication for and sends the targeted communication to each of the opted-in individuals that were determined to match up with the criteria of the request. That targeted communication may, for example, be in the form of a direct mailing (e.g. a brochure or other marketing materials) to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service or in the form of a marketing email to be provided through the Internet 20 by electronic mail through each computing device 10. In the case of the latter, each individual's email address will preferably be obtained by the third party service provider 30 during the opt-in procedure described at step 40.
In one particular embodiment, the specifics of the targeted communication that is to be sent in step 70 are established by the interested party and are provided to the third party service provider 30. In such a case, the third party service provider 30 does not participate in the establishment of the specifics of the communication. In an alternate embodiment, the third party service provider 30 may provide additional services in which the third party service provider 30 works with the interested party to produce the appropriate communication, such as a brochure or some other type of advertisement media. In still other embodiments, the third party service provider 30 participates more actively in the process of establishing the criteria upon which opted-in individuals are to be identified. In particular, in one embodiment, the third party service provider 30 may query the interested party for information relating to the type of individual that the interested party is attempting to reach with the communication. Based upon that information, the third party service provider 30 then determines an appropriate methodology for identifying the appropriate opted-in individuals based upon the information stored in the database 35. In yet another embodiment where the interested party is a marketer that markets particular products or services to customers, the third party service provider 30 will conduct an analysis of the interested party's current customers to determine appropriate criteria for selecting the appropriate opted-in individuals from the database 35. In this case, that criteria will be the criteria that is used to determine which opted-in individuals are to receive the targeted communication (step 65).
In an alternative embodiment, rather than having an opt-in procedure as described above, the third party service provider 30 may automatically enroll individuals in the tracking service and provide individuals the opportunity to opt-out of the tracking service if they do not desire to receive targeted communications from the interested parties. In this embodiment, step 40 in
In another alternative embodiment, rather than having the ISPs 15 track and store information relating to the browsing activities of each individual, that task may be performed by the internal fire wall 12 or external fire wall 14, as the case may be, that is associated with each individual's computing device 10. In this embodiment, step 50 in
As noted elsewhere herein, the present invention is not limited to targeting communications based upon Internet browsing habits of individuals, but instead may be based upon other media interaction habits. For example, the third party service provider 30 may receive and store information regarding the television viewing habits of individuals, including the particular channels and/or programs that are watched by the individuals. This information may be obtained by the third party service provider 30 from the cable operator and/or satellite television operator that provides television service to the individuals that have opted-in to the tracking system. Again, in such a case, the opt-in procedure will provide the authorization for the particular cable operator and/or satellite television operator to release the television watching information to the third party service provider 30.
Thus, the present invention provides a system wherein interested parties are able to target communications to appropriate individuals without the individuals private information being disclosed to those interested parties. Instead, that information is maintained in confidence by the third party service provider 30, and thus is unlikely to be improperly disclosed and/or abused. As a result, individuals are more likely to be willing to participate in such a system and more willing to receive the targeted communications.
While preferred embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated above, it should be understood that these are exemplary of the invention and are not to be considered as limiting. Additions, deletions, substitutions, and other modifications can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be considered as limited by the foregoing description but is only limited by the scope of the appended claims.
