Methods, Systems, And Computer Program Products For Selecting And Inserting Advertising Into Slots In Broadcast Content

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

0001The present invention relates generally to advertising and, more particularly, to methods, apparatus, and computer program products for selecting and placing advertising.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

0002Consumers may not be receptive to advertising (e.g., broadcast advertising received via television, advertising transmitted via the web, etc.) for products/services that are of little interest or that have little or no entertainment value. For example, some consumers may not care to view advertising related to automobile or beer sales. Some consumers may be receptive to any advertising that is somewhat entertaining, etc.

0003In advertising, it is considered highly desirable to target advertisements and other promotional efforts to specific consumers (often referred to as “direct marketing”), rather than to broadcast advertisements to consumers in general. By targeting advertising to individual consumers, the likelihood may be increased that a consumer will read and act upon the advertising. Successful direct marketing campaigns typically require specific information about consumers that are being targeted. Unfortunately, obtaining information sufficient to conduct effective direct marketing campaigns via television and the web may be difficult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

0004Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products that facilitate selecting advertisements for insertion into advertisement slots in broadcast content, such as television programming, radio programming, programming broadcast via a computer network, etc. According to some embodiments of the present invention, a method of inserting an advertisement into an advertising slot within content broadcast to viewers, includes identifying broadcast criteria for the content and viewer criteria, wherein broadcast criteria comprises information about the content and wherein viewer criteria comprises information about viewers to whom the content is targeted, and retrieving information from a plurality of tags attached to a respective plurality of stored advertisements that are available for insertion into the advertising slot. Each tag includes information about a respective advertisement. An advertisement having tag information that is compatible with identified broadcast criteria and viewer criteria is selected and inserted into the advertising slot. Various information about the selected advertisement, what criteria was used to select the advertisement, etc., may be recorded via a log file.

0005Broadcast criteria may include time of day information that content is to be broadcast to viewers and/or information about types of viewers to whom the broadcast content is targeted. Viewer criteria may include viewer preference information regarding broadcast content, viewer preference information regarding advertisements, viewer personal characteristics, and/or viewer demographic information. Tag information includes information regarding advertisement type and category, targeted viewers, advertisement rating, advertisement duration and repetition, advertisement style, and/or advertisement interactivity.

0006Other methods, apparatus and/or computer program products according to embodiments of the invention will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art upon review of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional methods, apparatus, and/or computer program products be included within this description, be within the scope of the present invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

0007The accompanying drawings, which form a part of the specification, illustrate key embodiments of the present invention. The drawings and description together serve to fully explain the invention.

0008<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> is a block diagram that illustrates a tag attached to respective advertisement, according to some embodiments of the present invention.

0009<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref> is a block diagram that illustrates exemplary information contained within the tag of <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref>.

0010<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref> is a block diagram that illustrates a decision engine for selecting advertisements for insertion into advertising slots in broadcast content, according to some embodiments of the present invention.

0011<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIGS. 4-5</figref> are flow charts that illustrate exemplary operations for selecting advertisements for insertion into advertising slots in broadcast content, according to some embodiments of the present invention.

0012<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref> is a block diagram that illustrates a processor and a memory hosted by a device that serves the function of a decision engine and that may be used in embodiments of methods, systems, and computer program products for selecting advertisements for insertion into advertising slots in broadcast content, such as television programming, according to some embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

0013While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims. Like reference numbers signify like elements throughout the description of the figures.

0014As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless expressly stated otherwise. It should be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising” when used in this specification is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected” or “coupled” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. Furthermore, “connected” or “coupled” as used herein may include wirelessly connected or coupled. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

0015Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

0016The present invention may be embodied as methods, systems, and/or computer program products. Accordingly, the present invention may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.). Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium having computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

0017The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM). Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.

0018Computer program code for carrying out operations of data processing systems discussed herein may be written in a high-level programming language, such as Java, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript), C, and/or C++, for development convenience. In addition, computer program code for carrying out operations of embodiments of the present invention may also be written in other programming languages, such as, but not limited to, interpreted languages. Some modules or routines may be written in assembly language or even micro-code to enhance performance and/or memory usage. Embodiments of the present invention are not limited to a particular programming language. It will be further appreciated that the functionality of any or all of the program modules may also be implemented using discrete hardware components, one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or a programmed digital signal processor or microcontroller.

0019The present invention is described herein with reference to flowchart and/or block diagram illustrations of methods, systems, and computer program products in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the invention. These flowchart and/or block diagrams further illustrate exemplary operations for selecting advertisements for insertion into advertising slots in broadcast content, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart and/or block diagram illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart and/or block diagram illustrations, may be implemented by computer program instructions and/or hardware operations. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means and/or circuits for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

0020These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer usable or computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instructions that implement the function specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

0021The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

0022As used herein, the term “advertisement” is intended to mean any type of advertisement delivered in any type of media broadcast to viewers. For example, an advertisement may be in the form of an audio file, a video file, and audio-video file, a text file, etc., that can be delivered and/or performed/displayed via a device. For example, an advertisement may be delivered via radio, television, computer (e.g., via the internet or other network). An advertisement may be inserted in slots located in various portions of a radio program, a television program, a movie, on a web page, etc.

0023As used herein, the terms “content” and “broadcast content” are interchangeable and are intended to mean any type of content broadcast to viewers. For example, broadcast content may include television programs, radio programs, movies, voice messages, music and other audio files, electronic mail/messages, web pages, etc. Any type of broadcast content having a slot that an advertisement can be inserted into may be considered content, according to embodiments of the present invention. Although embodiments of the present invention described herein are directed to broadcast television program content and advertising inserted therein, it is understood that other types of content and advertising directed to those other types of content are intended to be included within embodiments of the present invention.

0024<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 1</figref> is a block diagram that illustrates a tag <b>10</b> attached to an advertisement, according to some embodiments of the present invention. The tag <b>10</b> may be any type of tag that can be attached to a file such as, for example an XML (Extensible Markup Language) tag or an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) meta tag. XML tags and HTML meta tags are well known to those skilled in the art and need not be described herein.

0025Stored within the tag <b>10</b> can be various types of information about the advertisement <b>12</b> to which the tag is attached. For example, as illustrated in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 2</figref>, the tag <b>10</b> may include information about the type and category of the advertisement <b>12</b>. Advertisement type/category may include, but is not limited to, whether the advertisement relates to a new product or an existing product, whether the advertisement is a public service, whether the advertisement relates to such things as sports, leisure, travel, entertainment, apparel, food, medical products/services, home electronics, automotive, career, etc. The tag <b>10</b> may include a description of the target audience to whom the advertisement <b>12</b> should be directed. The tag <b>10</b> may include some type of rating (e.g., is the advertisement more suitable for mature audiences, family audiences, etc.).

0026The tag <b>10</b> may indicate the duration of the advertisement (e.g., the time length of the advertisement in seconds and/or minutes). The tag <b>10</b> may also indicate the number of times that the advertisement <b>12</b> is to be played within, for example, a time period. This may include the total number of times in a particular time period and/or an overall total number of times. Advertisement insertion rules may be implemented to covers various time/duration issues. For example, an advertisement may be time sensitive and may be assigned an expiration date and/or a duration time period. An advertisement may be assigned a maximum number of times that it can be inserted into content slots over a period of time (e.g., an advertisement may be limited to two slots in a week, etc.). Advertisement insertion rules may regulate the time of placement of an advertisement in a slot (e.g., daytime, evening, weekend, etc.).

0027The tag <b>10</b> may indicate the preferred media or broadcaster (e.g., preferred TV shows or networks, etc.). The tag <b>10</b> may indicate device or media viewing requirements (e.g., screen size, stereo, interactive, etc.). The tag <b>10</b> may indicate slot timing within the content (e.g., none, beginning only, end only, dramatic moment or scene change, etc.)

0028The tag <b>10</b> may indicate the style of the advertisement <b>12</b> (e.g., whether the advertisement <b>12</b> is whimsical and lighthearted, whether the advertisement <b>12</b> relates to a serious topic, etc.). The tag <b>10</b> may also indicate whether the advertisement <b>12</b> is interactive (i.e., can be interacted with by a viewer).

0029Referring to <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 3</figref>, a decision engine <b>16</b> that is configured to select advertisements for insertion into advertising slots of broadcast content, such as television program slots, is illustrated. The decision engine <b>16</b> is configured to select advertisements <b>12</b> by analyzing tags <b>10</b> attached to advertisements <b>12</b> and by applying various rules or criteria associated with the broadcast content, viewers of the broadcast content, and/or the environment. Exemplary broadcast criteria <b>18</b> includes information about the broadcast content that an advertisement is to be selected for. In the context of a television program, this may include, but is not limited to, whether the television program is broadcast in prime time or non-prime time, whether the television program is directed to a mature audience, a family audience, etc. Other decision engine insertion criteria include, but are not limited to, the time of day of advertisement insertion, the urgency of the advertisement, other audience characteristics (if known), whether the advertisement format matches with media being played (comedy based advertisements placed within entertainment content, serious advertisements placed within dramatic content, travel advertisements, fitness advertisements, apparel advertisements and entertainment advertisements placed within sports content, etc.). Decision engine insertion criteria may include viewing location or device information (e.g., family room, vs. portable player, vs. kitchen; size and/or style of TV (e.g., big screen LCD vs. 7″ portable player), etc.).

0030Other exemplary criteria utilized by the decision engine <b>16</b> may include viewer criteria <b>20</b>. Viewer criteria <b>20</b> may include, but is not limited to, personal viewer preferences, other viewer information. Viewer preferences and information may be for a group of viewers and/or may be for individual viewers where available. Exemplary personal preferences and information includes, but is not limited to, information such as a viewer's likes and dislikes (e.g., the viewer is a sports fan, the viewer does not like opera, etc.), the viewer's habits (e.g., the viewer drinks beer, smokes cigars, etc.), age, sex, marital status, political affiliation, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, culture, location, residence, etc. Viewer criteria <b>20</b> may also include advertising preferences (e.g., the viewer likes funny advertisements, does not like truck advertisements, etc.).

0031Other exemplary criteria utilized by the decision engine <b>16</b> may include environment criteria <b>22</b>. Environment criteria <b>22</b> may include, but is not limited to, time of day content is broadcast to viewers, what type of viewers are most likely to be watching (e.g., children, family, older people, etc.).

0032In essence, the decision engine <b>16</b> serves as a gatekeeper and selects advertisements <b>12</b> to be inserted within television program advertising slots by analyzing information within the tags of advertisements and comparing this with various criteria (e.g., broadcast criteria, viewer criteria and environment criteria).

0033Exemplary operations for selecting advertisements for insertion within advertisement slots of broadcast content, such as television programming, according to some embodiments of the present invention, will now be described with reference to <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIGS. 4-5</figref>. A plurality of advertisements <b>12</b> are vying for insertion within advertising slots within broadcast content, such as a television program. A decision engine <b>16</b> selects an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements (Block <b>100</b>), inserts the selected advertisement within one or more advertising slots of the broadcast content (Block <b>110</b>), and logs the selection and insertion of the advertisement within one or more advertising slots of the broadcast content (Block <b>120</b>). Selection of an advertisement (Block <b>100</b>) includes identifying broadcast criteria for content, viewers, and/or environment (Block <b>102</b>), as described above, retrieving information from tags attached to advertisements as described above (Block <b>103</b>), and applying criteria to information retrieved from the advertisement tags (Block <b>104</b>).

0034<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref> illustrates a processor <b>200</b> and a memory <b>202</b> hosted by a device that serves the function of a decision engine <b>16</b> and that may be used in embodiments of methods, systems, and computer program products for selecting advertisements for insertion into advertising slots in broadcast content, such as television programming, according to some embodiments of the present invention. The processor <b>200</b> communicates with the memory <b>202</b> via an address/data bus <b>204</b>. The processor <b>200</b> may be, for example, a commercially available or custom microprocessor. The memory <b>202</b> is representative of the overall hierarchy of memory devices containing the software and data used to execute operations for selecting advertisements for insertion within content as described herein, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. The memory <b>202</b> may include, but is not limited to, the following types of devices: cache, ROM, PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash, SRAM, and DRAM.

0035As shown in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIG. 6</figref>, the memory <b>202</b> may hold various categories of software and data: an operating system <b>206</b>, tag parser <b>208</b>, criteria identifier <b>210</b>, analyzer <b>212</b>, advertisement insertion <b>214</b>, and logging application <b>216</b>. The operating system <b>206</b> controls operations of the device that serves the function of the decision engine <b>16</b>. In particular, the operating system <b>206</b> may manage a device's resources and may coordinate execution of various programs (e.g., the tag parser, criteria identifier, analyzer, advertisement insertion, and logging application, etc.) by the processor <b>200</b>.

0036The tag parser <b>208</b> comprises logic for parsing information stored within each tag of a respective advertisement so that the information can be analyzed and compared with the identified criteria. The criteria identifier <b>210</b> comprises logic for identifying criteria associated with broadcast content, viewer criteria, and/or environment criteria. The analyzer <b>212</b> comprises logic for applying identified criteria to information retrieved from the tags in order to select an advertisement. For example, the following criteria may be identified relative to a particular television program: the broadcast content is prime time content that is targeted to mature audiences, viewers of the content tend to be over fifty years old and predominantly female, and the prime time slot makes viewing by various members of a family a possibility (i.e., the time slot makes it possible that children may be viewing). Based upon the identified criteria, the analyzer <b>212</b> analyzes information parsed from the tags of available advertisements to select an appropriate advertisement. For example, an advertisement may be selected that includes tag information that indicates that the advertisement is suitable for a generally older female viewing audience and that is also suitable for all members of a family if they happen to be viewing at the time.

0037The advertisement insertion application <b>214</b> comprises logic for inserting a selected advertisement within an advertisement slot, such as a television program advertisement slot. Moreover, the advertisement insertion application <b>214</b> may be configured to insert a selected advertisement in multiple advertising slots of a television program. Advertisement insertion during a particular television program may be configured to spread the advertisement out at certain intervals, or directly place it at a particular point, for example, as follows: at the beginning, at the end, in the middle, at a major scene change only, and/or combinations of these.

0038The logging application <b>216</b> comprises logic for recording information about what advertisements the decision engine <b>16</b> selected, in what broadcast content the selected advertisements were inserted. In addition, the logging application <b>216</b> is configured to record information about viewers from the various criteria (content, viewer and environment).

0039<figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIGS. 1-6</figref> illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operations of some embodiments of methods, systems, and computer program products for selecting advertisements and inserting them within advertisement slots in broadcast content. In this regard, each block represents a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in other implementations, the function(s) noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in <figref idref="DRAWINGS">FIGS. 4-5</figref>. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending on the functionality involved.

0040Many variations and modifications can be made to the preferred embodiments without substantially departing from the principles of the present invention. All such variations and modifications are intended to be included herein within the scope of the present invention, as set forth in the following claims.