Patent Application
20080065481
The subject matter is now described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the subject matter. It may be evident, however, that subject matter embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing the embodiments.
As used in this application, the term “component” is intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a computer component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.
Monetization schemes are provided that utilize mechanisms which incorporate users of a networked platform as well as advertisers and the networked platform itself. Instances allow users to be rewarded for the selection of an advertisement conditional on their performance in the platform. These rewards make platform use more fun for the users and increase the value of advertisements for advertisers by giving them a chance to associate their brand name with successful users. Online settings permit micro-payments by advertisers and, thus, allow for sponsorship/endorsement enticements to users of the platform based on performance, increasing market share and revenue of the platform while enhancing the user experience.
Typically, users with advantageous qualities have greater exposure to other users and/or audiences. For example, people tend to watch highly skilled players in games to cheer them on to win. If the best player utilizes an object in the game with a particular advertiser's advertisement, the advertiser then gains more exposure due to the player's skills (e.g., the player plays longer and thus exposes the advertisement longer, etc.) and/or popularity. In some instances, the interactive advertising component 102 can provide the platform 106 with several advertisements to entice a valuable user. Displaying of the advertisement to a targeted user is called an impression. The interactive advertising component 102 can charge the potential advertisers 104 based on the number of impressions or the number of times the user is exposed to their advertisement. If the user actually selects an advertiser's advertisement, the interactive advertising component 102 can also charge the advertiser for the selection. The interactive advertising component 102 can also track the user's performance and charge an advertiser for the success of the advertisement. Revenue can also take into account the skill of the user.
To motivate users to select their advertisements, advertisers can agree to pay a reward or “micro-endorsement” payment when a certain level of performance is met by the user. The reward can be a monetary reward, a platform associated reward (e.g., extended playing time, etc.), and/or a product discount reward and the like. The payments can also escalate based on each successful performance of an endorsed user. Payments can also incorporate loyalty by tracking the number of times a user selects a particular advertiser and the like and offering increased payments. Users who are successful with a given platform often generate larger audiences and have more friends (i.e., larger social circles). The micro-endorsements by the advertisers can help generate greater exposure both through exposure to larger audiences and also through word-of-mouth advertising initiated by the micro-endorsement payments as users tell others about their winnings.
The interactive advertising component 102 can reside locally and/or remotely to the platform 106. In a remote instance, the interactive advertising component 102 can reside, for example, in an advertisement server that utilizes the Internet to communicate with the platform 106 and/or the potential advertisers 104. In this instance, payments can be made by the potential advertisers 104 to the interactive advertising component 102. The interactive advertising component 102 can then pay incentives to the user based on their performance from the monies collected from the advertisers. Thus, the micro-endorsement payments can be a percentage of the advertising monies charged by the interactive advertising component 102. In a local instance, the interactive advertising component 102 can reside within the platform 106. This can enable the platform 106 to interact directly with the potential advertisers 104. This allows the platform 106 to become a self-contained advertising revenue generating entity.
Another example of an interactive advertising system 200 is shown in
The platform interface component 210 provides an interface service to allow the advertising component 208 to interact with the platform 206. In some instances, the advertising component 208 can interface with potential advertisers 204 for a variety of platforms. The platform interface component 210 can be duplicated or altered to perform with a given platform, allowing the advertising component 208 to provide services to many different platforms. In yet other instances, the functions of the platform interface component 210 can reside within and/or in proximity of the platform 206. This allows the advertising component 208 to reside externally and interact directly with the platform 206 containing the platform interface component 210, substantially increasing the flexibility of the interactive advertising system 200.
Another instance of an interactive advertising system 300 is illustrated in
The payment component 312 can utilize various monetization schemes to determine micro-endorsement payments owed to the user of the platform 306. Parameters required for this can include, but are not limited to, demographics of the user, success of the user, which advertiser the user has selected for endorsement payments, loyalty (e.g., prior relationships with a particular advertiser), and/or potential skill of the user and the like. The payment component 312 can also base payments, for example, on the total percentage allotted to micro-endorsements based on revenues collected from the advertiser and the like. Depending on the sophistication of the payment algorithms, some of the functionality of the payment component 312 can reside within the advertising component 308. Separation of the payment component 312 can allow it to be updated frequently as pricing schemes change while not disturbing the auction capabilities of the advertising component 308. It also allows the payment component 312 to reside at a location remote from the interactive advertising component 302.
As an example implementation,
The interactive advertising component 402 alerts potential advertisers 406 to the availability of an advertising location within the networked game 408 and also performance information regarding the user 410. The potential advertisers 406 can assess whether or not to bid on placing their advertisements in association with this particular user 410. The potential advertisers 406 can make their choices based on the user's past loyalty, the user's potential skills in the networked game 408 and/or the likelihood that this particular user 410 might select their advertisement and the like. For example, if the user 410 is female, it is unlikely that this user 410 would select an advertisement for male clothing and the like. Interested potential advertisers 406 then bid on the advertisement placement in association with the user 410.
In this example, the networked game 408 contains fictional characters from which the user 410 can select a character of their choice. This character selection 416 is presented to the user 410, for example, at the beginning of the networked game 408. For this example, each character wears a t-shirt with advertising from different advertisers. The user 410 selects a character from the character selection 416 presented to them by the networked game 408. As a further incentive to entice the user 410 to select their character and advertisement, the advertisers can optionally post an amount of micro-endorsement pay with their advertisements. Larger rewards for performance can draw the attention of the user 410 and influence their selection.
The interactive advertising component 402 tracks both the display of the advertisement to the user 410 (i.e., impressions) and which advertisement/character is chosen (i.e., selections). The networked game 408 typically has an ability to expose game play to an audience 412. The user 410 can be motivated to perform in order to look good in front of this audience 412. The micro-endorsements by the advertisers can also influence the user 410 to perform well, motivated by the micro-endorsement reward. The motivation provided by the micro-endorsement also helps the advertiser to get more exposure when they can associate their advertisement with successful players. These types of players typically draw larger audiences. But, the advertising exposure does not necessarily end with just this type of exposure.
The user 410 who successfully performs and receives micro-endorsement rewards is likely to talk to their friends 414 online and/or offline about how lucrative certain advertiser endorsements can be. This can lead to the advertiser becoming a popular choice among better users, increasing the likelihood of exposure for that particular advertiser. It can be appreciated that the networked game 408 is merely representative of a platform that can utilize instances disclosed herein. Any schema where a user's performance can be ascertained and advertisements can be exposed can utilize these instances. This includes, but is not limited to, online social networks where a user can be determined to be popular based on the number of friends in their social circle and the like.
The actual dynamic auction mechanism can be based on several different types of implementations. In one implementation, each advertiser i submits two bids to the auction: an impression bid bi1, and a selection bid bi2. The advertiser also has the option to offer a reward to a user. This may be in the form of micropayments, coupons, and/or other type of perk and the like. The auction mechanism then estimates pi, the probability that the player selects the advertiser with the given reward. Note that pi is a function of the reward, and so the advertisers can exert some control over this variable. Advertisers are then assigned a rank score Ri equal to bi1+pi*bi2, i.e., the expected bid per impression.
Advertising slots are then assigned to advertisers in a priority ordering defined by decreasing rank score. A payment scheme is then enacted such that the expected payment of advertiser i in slot k is equal to the rank score of advertiser j in slot k+1. One such payment scheme charges advertiser I, (Rj/Ri)*bi1 for an impression, and (Rj/Ri)*bi2 when they are selected. All payments are transferred to the platform. Upon a win, the user additionally receives the designated reward from the advertiser.
Although the above implementation has the virtue of simplicity, from a game-theoretic perspective, it can also be desirable to directly consider the side-payments in the auction itself in order to allocate the advertisement space to the advertisers who value it the most. In such a system, each advertiser i now submits three bids to the auction: an impression bid bi1, a selection bid bi2, and a success bid bi3. The success bid represents the value to an advertiser of having his product associated with a successful platform user, and can be a function of the skill rating of the user involved. The auction computes an expected bid per impression for each advertiser by estimating the selection probability pi and the success probability qi that the user is successful given that they selected i. The rank score (expected bid per impression) is then Ri=bi1+pi*bi2+pi*qi*bi3. Advertising space is allocated according to this ranking.
Advertisers are then charged according to a payment rule which satisfies the property described above, the expected payment of advertiser i in slot k is equal to the rank score of advertiser j in slot k+1. Again, one such payment scheme charges advertiser i, (Rj/Ri)*bi1 for an impression, (Rj/Ri)*bi2 when they are selected, and (Rj/Ri)*bi3 when the user is successful. If the user is not successful, the platform retains all the advertiser payments. However, when the user succeeds, the platform and the user share the revenue obtained from the selected advertiser i. Any division of the revenue is feasible. However, divisions which give the user at most maxi[(Rj/Ri)*pi*qi*bi3] and the platform at most maxi [(Rj/Ri)*bi1+(Rj/Ri)*pi*bi2] are game-theoretically more stable.
In view of the exemplary systems shown and described above, methodologies that may be implemented in accordance with the embodiments will be better appreciated with reference to the flow charts of
The embodiments may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, executed by one or more components. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various instances of the embodiments.
In
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Advertisers like to be associated with successful players and can increase their micro-endorsement rewards for continuously successful users and/or loyal users. The more often that particular advertisers are selected, the more exposure their products and/or services receive with their target audience. The micro-endorsement rewards themselves can be monetary and/or non-monetary. For example, in lieu of monies, an advertiser can utilize a mechanism to extend game play in a networked game and/or provide free passes to an entertainment invent based on the user's success on a given platform (e.g., tickets to a concert to increase their popularity in an online social network, etc.). The micro-endorsements serve to enlarge exposure of the advertisement to target audiences and also to increase advertisement exposure through word-of-mouth by the user to their friends, fans, and/or family.
Looking at
For example, if the platform is a networked game, weapons used in the game can have different advertising on them. The user of the game can then select which weapon to use in the game and at the same time they are selecting a particular advertiser for endorsements. Thus, the advertisement placement can be seamless to the platform. As an example, when the weapons are displayed to the user, that is an occurrence of an impression or showing of the advertiser to a desired user that the advertisers want to be associated with. When the user selects a particular weapon that is a selection of the advertisement. And when the user succeeds in some fashion (e.g. beating other players, winning the game, or some other performance measure, etc.) that is a success. Advertisers can then be charged for these measures based upon bids submitted for each type of measure. Some schemes utilize the second highest bidder values instead of the winning advertiser's bids and the like. Two dynamic auction implementations have been described supra, but other variations can be employed as well to determine revenue from various measures.
It is to be appreciated that the systems and/or methods of the embodiments can be utilized in advertising placement facilitating computer components and non-computer related components alike. Further, those skilled in the art will recognize that the systems and/or methods of the embodiments are employable in a vast array of electronic related technologies, including, but not limited to, computers, servers and/or handheld electronic devices, and the like.
What has been described above includes examples of the embodiments. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the embodiments, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the embodiments are possible. Accordingly, the subject matter is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.
