JP2002092473A - Advertisement distribution method and system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate charging of a communication fee related to distribution of advertisement on a user of a portable telephone set in distributing advertisement to the portable telephone set. SOLUTION: This system is provided with an advertisement storage part 11 to store advertisement information for advertisement of which distribution is entrusted by an advertiser, and a communication processing part 15 to distribute advertisement information stored in the advertisement information storage part 11 to a user in order through a portable telephone communication network. The communication fee related to distribution of advertisement information is not charged on the user 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an advertisement distribution method and an advertisement distribution system in a mobile communication system.
In particular, the present invention relates to a method and system for distributing advertisements to a mobile phone or a PHS (Personal Handy Phone System) phone. In this specification, a mobile phone includes a PHS telephone and the like, and a mobile telephone communication network also includes a PHS network and the like, unless otherwise specified.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Cellular phones and PHS used to handle only voice calls, but have recently been widely used for various data communications. Furthermore, by enabling the mobile phone itself to function as a data processing terminal, the mobile phone itself can send and receive text messages and e-mails, connect to the Internet, browse various contents, provide various information Services are becoming available. At present, it is possible to perform online ticket reservations and fund settlements at banks using a mobile phone. Here, communication for transmitting and receiving e-mails, browsing contents, and using information providing services is referred to as non-voice data communication.

[0003] In this type of non-voice data communication, data to be transmitted usually occurs intermittently or in a burst, so that the utilization efficiency of the communication network is increased and the generated communication charge (so-called call charge) is reduced. Therefore, communication in the packet communication mode is widely used. Examples of communication services in a packet communication mode using a mobile phone include “i-mode” (trademark) of NTT DOCOMO Group, “EZweb / EZaccess” (trademark) of DDI Cellular Group / IDO / Tuka Group, and J
-"J-sky" (trademark) of the Phone Group, etc. These communication services not only send and receive e-mails, but also provide users with various contents and services including contents on the Internet. And various character information and image information can be distributed to the mobile phone. One of the major features of these communication services is that, on behalf of the content provider, the communication service provider (generally, a telecommunications carrier (mobile operator) that operates a mobile phone communication network) uses the content. There is a mechanism for collecting fees from users (users of mobile phones). Therefore, the user is charged by the mobile phone company as a monthly payment for the communication fee (particularly the packet communication fee) and the usage fee for the used content.

[0004] As the transmission and reception of e-mails and the browsing of contents by mobile phones have become popular, the value of mobile phones as advertising media has increased. When a mobile phone is used as an advertising medium, characters and / or characters are transmitted from the network side by the non-voice data communication service described above.
Alternatively, advertising information (which may include a sound component) composed of an image is delivered to the mobile phone.

When a non-voice data communication service is used by a portable telephone, a user pays a communication charge (typically, a packet communication charge). Therefore, the user needs to pay a communication fee according to the data amount of the advertisement information even when trying to view the distributed advertisement. For example, when a user tries to browse an advertisement with a mobile phone as a way to kill the waiting time for a meeting with a person (a voice call, an e-mail, a short message, or the like by a mobile phone may be used to contact the person for a meeting). It is a common practice to use it, and it is not unnatural to assume such an advertisement browsing situation, and it is a common sight to be using a mobile phone to kill time ), If you browse different advertisements on your mobile phone as if you were watching one after another on an electronic bulletin board at the station, you will not be able to view advertisements that should be available for free. Therefore, a communication fee exceeding expectation is charged.

[0006]

As described above, when the advertisement information is distributed to a mobile phone or the like so that the user can browse the advertisement, when the advertisement information is distributed to the user's mobile phone, Since the user bears the communication fee generated in the above, the usability of the mobile phone as an advertisement medium is deteriorated, and the spread of such advertisement distribution has been hindered.

[0007] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an advertisement distribution method and system in which, when an advertisement is distributed to a mobile phone, a communication fee related to the advertisement distribution does not burden the user of the mobile phone. is there.

[0008]

According to the present invention, advertisement information of an advertisement entrusted by a publisher is stored, and the stored advertisement information is sequentially distributed to a user via a mobile telephone communication network. . At this time, the communication fee related to the distribution of the advertisement information is not collected from the user. In addition, detailed information related to the advertisement information is stored in advance, and when a user who browses the distributed advertisement obtains the corresponding detailed information via a mobile phone communication network, the detailed information is not distributed. It is preferable to charge the user for such a communication fee.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an advertisement distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The advertisement distribution system 1 includes a mobile phone communication network 2
To distribute advertisements and provide various contents to the portable telephone 4 carried by the user 5 through the portable telephone communication network 2 as non-voice data communication. The communication with the mobile phone 4 is performed using the packet communication mode as described above. Companies (publishers 3) who want to distribute advertisements to user 5
It connects to the advertisement distribution system 1 and entrusts the distribution of the advertisement to the advertisement distribution system 1.

In such an advertisement distribution system 1, an advertisement information storage unit 11 for storing data (advertisement information) constituting an advertisement entrusted by each publisher 3 and a detailed information storage unit 12 for storing detailed information And a charge database 13 for managing charges for each user 5 and each publisher 3
A billing processing unit 14 for performing a billing process for each user 5 and each publisher 3 and storing the result in a billing database 13; and an advertisement information storage unit in response to a request from the mobile phone communication network 2 side. 11 and the detailed information in the detailed information storage unit 12 is transmitted to the mobile phone communication network 2 side, and the transmitted data amount (packet amount) is measured and the measurement result is charged for the charging process. A communication processing unit 15 for transmitting the data to the processing unit 14 is provided. The advertisement information is typically constituted by character data and / or image data constituting the advertisement. The detailed information includes a telephone number and an e-mail address of an advertiser (advertiser) 3 of the advertisement, a detailed description of a product or a service in the advertisement, and the like, which is linked from the advertisement information. Things. In addition, ordinary contents may be stored in the detailed information storage unit 12 as detailed information.

When sending the advertisement information stored in the advertisement information storage unit 11 to the user 5, the accounting unit 14 transmits a communication charge (packet communication charge) generated when the advertisement information is transmitted. When the detailed information and the content data stored in the detailed information storage unit 12 are sent to the user 5, the communication fee related to the transmission is charged to the user 3. A charging process is performed so as to charge 5. If the content data is so-called paid content, the charging processing unit 14 charges the user 5 for an amount corresponding to the usage fee of the content.

Although not shown here, the advertisement distribution system 1 is connected to another network such as the Internet, and the advertisement distribution system 1 communicates between the connected network and the mobile phone 4 of the user 5. You can also relay. In that case, the communication fee or the like generated in connection with this communication is charged to the user 5.

Since such an advertisement distribution system involves communication fee charging processing, it is typically installed by a communication company that operates the mobile telephone communication network 2. However, in the present invention, the installer and the operator of the advertisement distribution system are not limited to the telecommunications carriers, but may be other persons. The advertisement information storage unit 11 and the detailed information storage unit 1
2 may be provided as a single storage unit instead of being provided separately.

Next, an advertisement distribution process using the advertisement distribution system will be described with reference to FIG.

First, a company (publisher 3) who wants to distribute an advertisement entrusts the distribution of the advertisement to the advertisement distribution system 1, and transmits the data (advertisement information) of the advertisement to be distributed to the advertisement information of the advertisement distribution system 1. It is stored in the storage unit 11 ([1] in the figure). The advertisement distribution system 1 transmits the advertisement information stored in the advertisement information storage unit 11 to the user 5 when the user 5 accesses. The user 5 can access at any time. In this system,
Since it is conceivable that there is an unspecified number of users 5 and there is also a large number of advertisement information to be distributed, the advertisement distribution system 1 actually stores the advertisement information in the advertisement information When the user 5 accesses the advertisement distribution system 1, the advertisement information transmitted at that time is sequentially distributed to the communication network 2 ([2] in the figure). The communication fee for distributing the advertisement information to the user 5 is charged to the publisher 3 of the advertisement information. The publisher 3 is also charged a fee for using the advertisement distribution system 1 and a fee for advertisement distribution (separate from the communication fee). Alternatively, the advertisement distribution system 1 may receive the advertisement distribution fee from the publisher 3 including the communication fee. In this case, since it is not necessary to perform individual billing processing for the advertisement information, it is not necessary to measure the amount of individually transmitted data. Should be executed. Specifically, only the billing process corresponding to the data amount transmitted from the detailed information storage unit 12 needs to be executed.

The user 5 browses the sequentially delivered advertisements by using the mobile phone 4. If the user 5 finds an interesting one among the advertisements, the user 5 designates the link in the advertisement. As a result, the mobile phone 4 obtains and downloads, as necessary information for the user 5, detailed information related to the advertisement (contact information of the publisher 3, detailed description of the product, etc.) (illustration). [3]). The communication fee for distributing the detailed information is charged to the user 5. The detailed information includes, in addition to the information listed here, if a sweepstakes or a lottery-related campaign is performed in connection with the product, a question sentence of the sweepstakes or a lottery number. The user 5 can register these detailed information in his / her mobile phone 4 by a simple operation, and can make a telephone call, send an e-mail, or read it again when necessary. Therefore, the user 5 can access the publisher 3 by using the registered telephone number and mail address ([4] in the figure).

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing details of the above-described processing.

First, the user 5 operates the mobile phone 4 (for example, presses a button for starting a data service in the packet communication mode) and accesses the advertisement distribution system 1 (step 101). As a result, distribution of the advertisement from the advertisement distribution system 1 to the mobile phone 4 of the user 5 starts (step 102), and the user 5 browses the sequentially transmitted advertisements. If there is an interesting advertisement in the advertisement (step 103), detailed information is obtained and downloaded by a method such as designating a link in the advertisement (step 104). If the user stops viewing the advertisement (step 105), the mobile phone 4
Is operated to release the connection with the advertisement distribution system (step 106), and otherwise returns to step 103.

The above-described advertisement distribution system can also be realized by causing a computer such as a server computer to read a computer program for realizing the advertisement distribution and executing the program. A program for causing a computer to function as the advertisement distribution system 1 is read into the computer by a recording medium such as a magnetic tape or a CD-ROM. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a computer that realizes the above-described advertisement distribution system.

This computer has a central processing unit (CPU) 2
1, a hard disk device 22 for storing programs and data, a main memory 23, an input device 24 such as a keyboard and a mouse, and a display device 25 such as a CRT.
It comprises a reading device 26 for reading a recording medium 27 such as a magnetic tape or a CD-ROM, and a communication network interface 28 serving as a connection portion with the mobile telephone communication network 2 side.
Hard disk drive 22, main memory 23, input device 2
4. The display device 25, the reading device 26, and the communication network interface 28 are all connected to the central processing unit 21 via an internal bus. This computer has a recording medium 27 storing a program for realizing an advertisement distribution system.
Is mounted on the reading device 26, the program is read from the recording medium 27 and stored in the hard disk device 22, and the central processing unit 21 executes the program stored in the hard disk device 22 to function as an advertisement distribution system. At this time, the advertisement information storage unit 11, the detailed information storage unit 12, and the charging database 13 are typically constructed on the hard disk device 22.

According to the advertisement distribution system described above,
The advertising company or publisher (publisher 3) can make the user 5 widely aware of the company and information by playing interesting advertisements and information. When the user 5 accesses, for example, an increase in orders can be expected. In addition, the operator of the advertisement distribution system can receive a commission from the publisher 3 by running an advertisement. A communication fee cannot be collected from the user for the advertisement information, but if the number of times of obtaining and downloading the detailed information increases, a communication fee (or, in some cases, a usage fee or a commission) related to the download is obtained from the user. be able to. The user 5 can view advertisements of each company free of charge (contents that are more useful for killing time), download necessary information when it flows, and access the information.

Further, special treatment (for example, distribution of lottery numbers for concert tickets and notification of special telephone numbers for ticket reservation) such as distributing information only with this advertisement distribution system, An increase in users can be expected.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, when an advertisement is delivered to a mobile phone, the communication fee for the advertisement delivery is not borne by the user of the mobile phone.
There is an effect that advertisement distribution using a mobile phone can be effectively performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an advertisement distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a flow of information among a publisher, an advertisement distribution system, and a user.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a computer system constituting the advertisement distribution system shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Advertisement distribution system 2 Mobile telephone communication network 3 Submitter 4 Mobile telephone 5 User 11 Advertisement information storage unit 12 Detailed information storage unit 13 Billing database 14 Billing processing unit 15 Communication processing unit

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) H04M 11/08 H04M 11/08 15/00 15/00 Z H04Q 7/38 H04Q 7/04 HF term (reference) 5B049 AA02 CC36 DD01 FF04 GG03 GG04 GG07 5K015 AA10 AB01 AD01 AD02 AD03 AD05 AF07 GA07 5K025 AA08 BB01 CC09 DD06 EE13 EE17 EE19 EE22 EE30 FF22 GG08 JJ04 JJ07 JJ10 JJ13 JJ18 5K011 NN12 FF18 GG18 NN04 KK

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An advertisement distribution method for distributing an advertisement to a mobile phone, comprising the steps of: accumulating advertisement information of an advertisement entrusted to be distributed by a publisher; and transmitting the stored advertisement information via a mobile telephone communication network. And a step of sequentially distributing the advertisement information to the user side, wherein a communication fee related to the distribution of the advertisement information is not collected from the user. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the user obtains the detailed information related to the advertisement information via the mobile phone communication network, the communication fee for the distribution of the detailed information is charged to the user. Ad delivery method described. 3. The advertisement distribution method according to claim 1, wherein distribution is performed in a packet communication mode. 4. An advertisement information storage unit for storing advertisement information of an advertisement entrusted to be distributed by a publisher, and transmitting the advertisement information stored in the advertisement information storage unit to a user via a mobile phone communication network. A communication processing unit for sequentially delivering;
An advertisement distribution system, comprising: a communication fee for distributing the advertisement information not collected from the user. 5. A detailed information storage unit for storing detailed information related to advertisement information, and a charging unit for executing a charging process, wherein the detailed information is obtained by a user via a mobile phone communication network. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 4, wherein in the case of performing the communication, a communication fee related to the distribution of the detailed information is charged to the user. 6. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 4, wherein distribution is performed in a packet communication mode. 7. A step of accumulating advertisement information of an advertisement entrusted to be distributed by a publisher on a computer-readable recording medium, and transmitting the stored advertisement information to the computer via a mobile phone communication network. A recording medium storing a program for executing a step of sequentially distributing the advertisement information to a user side, and a step of executing a charging process so that a communication fee related to the distribution of the advertisement information is not collected from the user.