Patent Application
20210168423
This application is based on the specification filed in relation to New Zealand Patent Application No. 741270, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods for delivery of a service—more particularly delivery of advertiser subsidised digital multimedia content.
Numerous platforms are available for the consumption of multimedia content, but typically take two approaches to compensation for access to that content.
The first option is to have advertising interspersed between the content being consumed, at a rate specified by the owners of the platform from which the content is delivered. The advertising is generally geared as much as possible to the type of consumer that is assumed to be receiving particular media content. This type of content is commonly free-to-air, with the advertising compensating for the price of delivering the content.
Such advertising is interruptive and forced upon customers using increasingly intrusive methods, for example advertising popups and interruptive ad video inlays. This creates consumer frustration, and a lack of interest to engage in a meaningful way with the advertiser, reducing the value of such advertising to the customer and advertiser. This has seen the growth in the use of ad skipping and blocking technologies—at times encouraged by content providers in order to lower consumer disengagement or abandonment of content. While counter intuitive to the business model of content providers and advertisers that support them, some consider it necessary to stay competitive under current ad-content delivery models.
The interruption of content by advertisements results in increasing the amount of time required to consume the content, and much of the advertising being shown is not relevant, or of little interest, to the consumer. Hence, advertisers have a limited number of consumers that are active participants in any consumption of the advertising, and subsequently the advertiser receives limited returns on their advertising investment. Low levels of “emotional purchasing” due to advertising overload, interruptive disengagement and/or complacency around advertising as a requirement for the consumer to get to the content.
The other option is paid content which is free of advertising, or at least heavily reduced. Many consumers feel unable to access content at an affordable price point, which has contributed to the growth of piracy of content. This advertisement free option is of no benefit to the advertisers as they are missing opportunities to promote their goods and services to potential customers. For content creators, there is a risk of consumers being unwilling to expand their content consumption through additional expenditure of disposable income—particularly casual or fringe buyers of content.
Further, these models have resulted in little to no opportunity for low to mid-level content (such as local sporting events, or created by less established musical artists or other producers of artistic content) to promote and monetize their particular genre effectively, outside of cluttered low return markets such as YouTube or Dailymotion etc.
It is an object of the present invention to address at least one of the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.
Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise”, “comprising”, and the like, are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense, that is to say, in the sense of “including, but not limited to”.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.
According to an aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a method including the steps of:
According to an aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a method including the steps of:
According to an aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a method including the steps of:
According to another aspect of the present disclosure there is provided computer executable instructions for performing one or more of the methods as described herein.
According to another aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a system configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the methods as described herein.
According to one aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a system for delivery of a service to a consumer, the system comprising at least one processing means configured to:
According to another aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a consumer device configured to interact with the system in accordance with one or more of the methods as described herein.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided at least one user interface to interact with the system in accordance with one or more of the methods as described herein.
The present disclosure can relate to a variety of services, but it is envisaged that exemplary embodiments may have particular application to services provided on digital computer-based systems. More particularly, it is envisaged that the service may relate to the provision of multimedia content combining different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, video and interactive content (for example, games)—although it should be appreciated that this is not intended to be limiting to all embodiments. In exemplary embodiments, the service may relate to transmission of video content—whether pre-recorded, or from a live event.
The “user device” may include any suitable device capable of display of content and the requisite user input, for example: mobile devices, cell phones, gaming consoles, personal computers (whether desktop, laptop, or tablets), televisions, and the like. It should be appreciated that individual steps of the methods disclosed herein involving input from (or output to) a user device may be performed across multiple devices. For example, a service package may be presented to a consumer on one device (such as a mobile phone), and the service subsequently delivered to a second device (such as a television).
Reference to a “consumption value” should be understood to mean the value ascribed to a service by the service provider. Reference to the “consumption cost” of a service should be understood to mean a cost to be paid by the consumer in order to meet the consumption value. By way of example, in the case of a traditional broadcast of live events, the consumption cost may equivalent to a pay-per-view cost.
In an exemplary embodiment, the consumption value or cost may be determined on the basis of the service relating to a discrete event (for example, a transmission of a singular live event, or content such as a movie), similar to a pay per view arrangement. In an exemplary embodiment, the consumption value or cost may be determined on the basis of ongoing access to a service (for example, a season pass to a plurality of live events, or a library of content to be accessed on-demand), in a subscription-type arrangement.
Reference to an advertising level of a service package should be understood to mean a variable characteristic of advertising to be delivered to the consumer in the course of delivering the service.
By way of example, the advertising level may relate to one or more of: timing of delivery of the advertising (for example, one or more of: prior, during, or subsequent to delivery of the service), a quantity of the advertising (for example, one or more of: length of the advertising, or number of advertising instances), the frequency at which advertising is delivered during provision of the service, location or prominence of the advertising, and type of advertising.
Reference to an advertising condition should be understood to mean an action to be satisfied in order to meet predetermined requirements for the consumer to receive the benefit of an associated subsidy value. For example, an advertising condition may be the viewing of one or more advertisements from a particular advertiser. In exemplary embodiments, satisfying the advertising condition may require manual confirmation from a consumer that an advertisement has been viewed or otherwise engaged with. In an exemplary embodiment, the advertising conditions may be displayed to the consumer in a user interface provided on the user device—for example, within selectable tiles.
It is envisaged that the advertising level or meeting of advertising conditions, will at least partially contribute to meeting the consumption value. In an exemplary embodiment, the consumer may be presented with a plurality of selectable advertising conditions, each condition having an associated subsidy value. Selection of an advertising condition will set the associated value against the consumption value, to determine the consumption cost.
In exemplary embodiments, the consumer may be required to select an advertising level which fully meets the consumption value—i.e. the consumption cost to the consumer is nil in terms of cash outlay.
In exemplary embodiments, the consumer may select an advertising level which does not meet the consumption value, and pay the residual consumption cost. In doing so, the consumer is provided with an opportunity to at least partially determine the value of the service that they wish to pay for. An alternative way to view this is that the consumer is choosing how much of the service is going to be subsidised by the accompanying advertisement level—i.e. the consumption value is adjusted through the partial payment. It is envisaged that in exemplary embodiments the consumer may be given the option to pay a consumption cost equal to the consumption value. It should be appreciated that payment of the consumption cost may be provided by any suitable means in the art, for example customer account, credit card, Internet banking, online payment systems, and so on.
In some embodiments, the customer may in turn choose the advertisement level wanted in respect of a particular service package which will then determine consumption cost. There may be a sliding scale for the consumption cost, which in combination with a sliding scale of advertisement level, can provide a multitude of effective service packages. In an exemplary embodiment, the consumer may choose a ratio of paid to subsidized value they wish to receive (for example, 80:20, 60:40; 50:40, 40:60, 20:80).
In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the level of advertising (or advertising conditions) may be determined based on the selected ratio and the consumption value. This may be achieved using an algorithm, or based on discrete service packages (for example, having an associated entry in a look-up table).
It should be appreciated that the relationship between the advertising level and the consumption cost is not necessarily inversely proportional. However, it is envisaged that a lower consumption cost may result in a higher advertising level, while a higher consumption cost may result in fewer advertisements. It is envisaged that in exemplary embodiments, the advertising content may be influenced by the elected consumption cost—with consumers electing higher consumption costs being delivered advertising directed to higher value products in comparison with those wishing to have a lower consumption cost.
In an exemplary embodiment, a service delivery interface is provided, through which a consumer accesses a service. In an exemplary embodiment the interface may include a service portion, in which the service is displayed, and an active advertising area through which advertising offers are presented during delivery of the service. By way of example, the service portion may be a video player, a game interface, or a web application interface.
It should be appreciated that while it is envisaged that the active advertising area may be used in conjunction with exemplary embodiments in which consumers select a service package and/or advertising conditions, this is not intended to be limiting to all embodiments. It is expressly contemplated that the active advertising area and associated functionality described herein may be utilised in conjunction with other service delivery systems. By way of non-limiting example, the active advertising area may be provided with known streaming or broadcast services.
In an exemplary embodiment, the advertising offer may be presented as an icon within the active advertising area. In an exemplary embodiment, selection of the advertising offer icon may display an expanded advertising interface for interaction with the consumer—for example providing details of the offer, and buttons or fields for acceptance or rejection of the offer.
In an exemplary embodiment, the expanded advertising interface may be displayed over at least a portion of the service portion—for example, in an overlay. However, it should be appreciated that this is not intended to be limited to all embodiments—for example, the expanded advertising interface may be displayed within the active advertising area, or the size of the service portion reduced to accommodate the expanded advertising interface without impinging on the view of the service portion.
In an exemplary embodiment, an advertising offer may be designated as being selectable by the consumer for a limited period of time—i.e. the offer expires after a pre-determined period of time. In an exemplary embodiment, one or more of the advertising offer icon, and the expanded advertising interface, may include an indication of the remaining time available to select the offer.
In an exemplary embodiment, presentation of an advertising offer may be initiated by an operator. It is envisaged that this may provide advertisers with an opportunity to actively gauge the likely state of engagement of a consumer based on current conditions within the delivery of the service, and allow for decision making around timing and focus of the advertising offer accordingly. It is envisaged that this may assist with delivery of the offers at times more likely to have a higher value perception, and strengthen the brand bond between the consumer and advertiser. For example, during a sporting event, an advertising offer may be presented to consumers having a geolocation more likely to be affiliated with one of the teams, following a positive event for that team.
In an exemplary embodiment, the advertising offer may be delivered to a subset of the total consumer base for a particular service—for example, based on pre-entered characteristics of the consumer such as demographic information, location, affiliations, or other preferences.
In an exemplary embodiment, timing of presentation of an advertising offer may be pre-determined. In an exemplary embodiment, presentation of an advertising offer may be initiated on an event occurrence. For example, for a sporting event, an advertising offer may be presented during a break in play—whether pre-programmed, initiated by triggers provided by the content provider, or automated event recognition by the service delivery platform operator. In exemplary embodiments in which an indication of remaining time to accept the offer is available, the period of time may be manually designated by an operator. In exemplary embodiments, the period of time may be automatically determined based on the known or projected length of the event occurrence.
In an exemplary embodiment the system may include an application programming interface (API) module configured to manage interfacing with external services. The API module may manage the respective authentication, authorisation, and encryption protocols required for the system to interface with the respective APIs of the services.
For a firmware and/or software (also known as a computer program) implementation, the techniques of the present disclosure may be implemented as instructions (for example, procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described. It should be appreciated that the present disclosure is not described with reference to any particular programming language, and that a variety of programming languages could be used to implement the present invention. The firmware and/or software codes may be stored in a memory, or embodied in any other processor readable medium, and executed by a processor or processors. The memory may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor.
A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, for example, a combination of a digital signal processor (DSP) and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. The processors may function in conjunction with servers, whether cloud based or dedicated, and network connections as known in the art.
In various embodiments, one or more cloud computing environments may be used to create, and/or deploy, and/or operate at least part of the software system that can be any form of cloud computing environment, for example: a public cloud, a private cloud, a virtual private network (VPN), a subnet, a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), or any other cloud-based infrastructure known in the art. It should be appreciated that a service may utilize, and interface with, multiple cloud computing environments.
The steps of a method, process, or algorithm described in connection with the present disclosure may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by one or more processors, or in a combination of the two. The various steps or acts in a method or process may be performed in the order shown, or may be performed in another order. Additionally, one or more process or method steps may be omitted or one or more process or method steps may be added to the methods and processes. An additional step, block, or action may be added in the beginning, end, or intervening existing elements of the methods and processes.
Further aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description which is given by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
The exemplary embodiments described herein will be discussed in the context of delivery of multimedia content, and more particularly video content. However, it should be appreciated that this is not intended to be limiting to all implementations of the present disclosure, as delivery of other services is expressly contemplated, as previously discussed.
By way of example, the cloud server of the content delivery service 102 may have processing facilities represented by processor functionality 104, memory functionality 106, and other components typically present in such computing environments. In the exemplary embodiment illustrated the memory 106 stores information accessible by processor 104, the information including instructions 108 that may be executed by the processor 104 and data 110 that may be retrieved, manipulated or stored by the processor 104. The memory 106 may be of any suitable means known in the art, capable of storing information in a manner accessible by the processor, including a computer-readable medium, or other medium that stores data that may be read with the aid of an electronic device. The processor 104 may be any suitable device known to a person skilled in the art. Although the processor 104 and memory 106 are illustrated as being within a single unit, it should be appreciated that this is not intended to be limiting, and that the functionality of each as herein described may be performed by multiple processors and memories, that may or may not be remote from each other. The instructions 108 may include any set of instructions suitable for execution by the processor 104. For example, the instructions 108 may be stored as computer code on the computer-readable medium. The instructions may be stored in any suitable computer language or format. Data 110 may be retrieved, stored or modified by processor 104 in accordance with the instructions 108. The data 110 may also be formatted in any suitable computer readable format. Again, while the data is illustrated as being contained at a single location, it should be appreciated that this is not intended to be limiting—the data may be stored in multiple memories or locations. The data 110 stored on server may include databases 112.
The content delivery service 102 may communicate with external database services 114, content providers 116, and content processing services 118, via a network 120. As will be described further below, the external database services 114 may be used to store and access content, advertising material, and other data associated with the content delivery service 102. Content providers 116 may include, for example, a media file delivery service provider (such as a content delivery network, media streaming service provider, cloud data services provider, or other third-party media file delivery service provider)—whether pre-recorded content, or a transmission from a live event. It is also envisaged that the content delivery service 102 may also include a library of original or platform specific content, rather than receiving content from external sources. Content processing services 118 may include, for example, video processing and player management services—such as those offered by Brightcove, Inc.
The network 120 may comprise various configurations and protocols including the Internet, intranets, virtual private networks, wide area networks, local networks, private networks using communication protocols proprietary to one or more companies—whether wired or wireless, or a combination thereof. The content delivery service 102 may communicate with user devices via the network 116, for example an advertiser workstation 122, a consumer smartphone 124a, a consumer tablet computer 124b, or consumer smart television 124c to provide access to the functionality of the content delivery service 102.
A websocket module 210 is provided for establishing persistent client-server connections, with the objective of reducing undesirable characteristics such as delay and/or latency, which is envisaged as being of particular importance in the delivery of video content. A load balancing module 212 is provided for distributing traffic across multiple virtual server instances as required by current load on the system. A content distribution module 214 is provided for managing spatial distribution of content to end consumers.
The content delivery service 102 includes a web application module 216 for provision of a consumer facing web application through which applicable content and functions of the service are accessed. The web application module 216 may include an interface module 218 for delivery of user interfaces by which a user may access data and functionality of the service 102. For example, the interface module 218 may include a consumer interface engine 220 to deliver one or more interfaces through which a consumer may establish terms of delivery of the content, and receive that content. The interface module 218 may include an advertiser interface engine 222 to deliver one or more interfaces through which an advertiser may establish a campaign to be delivered with content, implement a campaign, and monitor progression of that campaign. It should be appreciated that the system may utilise other storage means in addition to the external database services 114, for example cloud instance storage 224.
An advertiser portal 314 provides an interface by which advertisers establish, implement, and monitor campaigns. A web application (for example using Vue.js) is hosted using a cloud object storage service 316 (for example, Amazon S3), providing an interface for consumers. A content distribution service 318 (for example, Amazon CloudFront), and Domain Name System (DNS) service 320 (for example, Amazon Route 53) facilitate traffic to and from the system, and advertisers 122 and consumers 124. A load balancer 322 is provided to distribute traffic across the instance servers 304a-n. In addition to provision of a video player for the consumer interface, and delivery of the content, the content processing service 118 manages authentication of advertising and content feeds, to reduce the risk of illegitimate and potentially illegal content feeds being delivered.
In this exemplary embodiment, the external database services 114 are replaced by public cloud storage services 352, including a cloud object storage service 354 (for example, Amazon S3) storing images and advertising, a read only relational database 356 (for example a first Amazon RDS), a write only relational database 358 (for example a second Amazon RDS), and a NoSQL database 360 (for example, Amazon DynamoDB) for storing and retrieving logs.
Referring to
Referring to
In step 608, a plurality of advertising conditions are displayed to the consumer for selection, each advertising condition have an associated value contributing towards meeting the consumption value for the event. For example, in
In step 610 of
Following selection of the advertising confirmation button 720, a watch advertisement button 724 is provided in the consumer access interface 700 (as seen in
It is envisaged that this arrangement may avoid interruptive “push-through” advertising methods, because the consumer is using a “pull-through” method to select advertising in order to consume the content. That is, advertising is being used as a currency to buy content. Subsequently, negative emotive responses to intrusive and interruptive advertising are removed (i.e. shifting the consumer towards an engaged and positive buying emotion) in preparation for sale qualification and closure.
Referring to
By providing a means for consumers to gain access to the content at what they deem to be an acceptable consumption cost, it is envisaged that the temptation for consumers to seek out illegal content, and infringe upon the creative, unique or original content of others may be reduced. This is envisaged as lowering legal recourse and prosecutions by content providers and creators, and keeping a healthier consumer-content provider market balance in place. It is further envisaged that the risk profile of content consumption may be reduced, particularly for consumers making purchase decisions with disposable income.
In step 804, the content is delivered to the consumer. For example,
In step 806, advertising offers are delivered to the consumer during delivery of the content. The consumer content player 904 includes a real-time advertising bar 908 in which advertiser icons (for example, first advertiser icon 910a and second advertiser icon 910b) are displayed. In exemplary embodiments, one or more of the advertising icons may be persistent throughout viewing of the content. A newly received offer associated with an advertiser icon may be indicated by visually emphasising the icon (for example, highlighting the icon, or adding a counter next to the icon). In exemplary embodiments, one or more of the advertising icons may only be presented on initiation of an advertising offer.
In an exemplary embodiment, an advertising offer may have a limited availability period. For example, in
In step 808, selection of the adverting offer is received, and an expanded advertising interface is displayed. For example, referring to
In step 1006 of the method 1000 of
In step 1204, advertising offers are created—for example, using offer template 1312 presented to the advertiser on selection of the offer button 1310. The offer template 1312 may include an offer message field 1314 for entry of a message to be presented to a consumer on initial selection of an offer, an explanation field 1316 for entry of a description of how to redeem the offer, an image uploader 1318, and expiry date selector 1320, a countdown timer selector 1322, a coupon type drop-down menu 1324, coupon code uploader 1326, and redeem message drop down menu 1328.
Referring to
In an exemplary embodiment the method 400 may be modified to allow a consumer to pay at least part of the consumption value—more particularly prior to display and selection of advertising conditions in step 608 and step 610 of process 600.
Following selection of the partial payment button 1504 or the purchase button 1506, a payment interface is displayed (for example, a credit card payment portal, or internet banking portal). Purchase effectively progresses the consumer through to completion of step 614 of process 600—i.e. ready for step 800 of method 400. On receipt of partial payment of the consumption value in step 1402 of method 1400, the remaining balance of the consumption value is determined and set for the user in step 1404. Subsequently, on selection of the advertiser selection button 1502 to initiate process 600 from step 606, the consumer is only required to select advertising conditions to meet the balance of the consumption value. This allows the consumer to self-determine the relative value they place on the event, against the need to engage with advertising.
The invention may also be said broadly to consist in the parts, elements and features referred to or indicated in the specification of the application, individually or collectively, in any or all combinations of two or more of said parts, elements or features.
Where in the foregoing description reference has been made to integers or components having known equivalents thereof, those integers are herein incorporated as if individually set forth.
It should be noted that various changes and modifications to the presently preferred embodiments described herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and without diminishing its attendant advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be included within the present invention.
Aspects of the present invention have been described by way of example only and it should be appreciated that modifications and additions may be made thereto without departing from the scope thereof as defined in the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 741270 | Apr 2018 | NZ | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/NZ2019/050034 | 4/3/2019 | WO | 00 |
