JP2006048262A - Advertisement method using electronic mail and electronic mail transmission system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an advertisement method using an electronic mail for presenting an advertisement so that its contents are viewed by a person with a high probability and an electronic mail transmission system allowing a user to send this kind of an electronic mail without any complicated procedure. <P>SOLUTION: In this advertisement method using electronic mails, a management device 1 connected to the Internet L and the electronic mails in a plurality of public use type terminals 2 connected to the management device 1 via a communication line M are used, and an advertisement is displayed as a part of a sending mail on an electronic mail creation screen. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an advertisement method using an electronic mail and an electronic mail transmission system. More specifically, the present invention relates to an advertising method using an electronic mail for advertising mainly using an electronic mail sender as an advertising target, and an electronic mail transmission system used for such an advertising method.

  Conventionally, installed in airports, hotel lobbies, stations, hospital waiting rooms, etc. When coins are inserted into the attached billing device, you can browse and view predetermined information (news, music, images, etc.) according to the amount of money inserted. Public use type terminals that can be used for acquisition or the like are known (for example, @Station (At Station, registered trademark of Toyo Electronics Industry Co., Ltd.)).

  Such a public use terminal, for example, reads an article on a topic of interest during a flight waiting time, downloads music data or the like from a dedicated server, records it on a predetermined recording medium, or via the Internet. It is mainly used to send e-mails.

  However, e-mail communication via the Internet supports not only when receiving e-mails but also when sending e-mails, domain names that identify mail servers, or global IP addresses, and individual users. Communication is not possible without using an email address that is a combination of the accounts you use. For this reason, even when an electronic mail is transmitted using the public use type terminal as described above, it is necessary to register an account prior to that, and there is a problem that operations and procedures become complicated.

  In recent years, with the expansion of the use of e-mail, advertising by e-mail has been actively performed. E-mail is attracting attention as an inexpensive advertising medium because the cost does not increase in proportion to the increase in the amount of shipment. However, the advantage of such e-mail is also the cause of the spread of so-called junk e-mails called junk e-mails and spam e-mails. However, there is a problem that the advertising effect is reduced.

  The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art, and an advertising method using an e-mail for presenting an advertisement so that a person can look through the content with high probability, and such an e-mail. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic mail transmission system that allows a user to easily transmit regardless of complicated procedures.

  The advertising method using e-mail of the present invention is an advertising method using e-mail in a public-use terminal, and displays an advertisement on the e-mail creation screen so as to form part of the transmitted e-mail. Features.

  In the advertising method using electronic mail according to the present invention, it is preferable that the language of the advertisement is matched with the language used by the mail sender.

  In the advertisement method using the electronic mail according to the present invention, it is preferable that the displayed advertisement can be switched by the mail sender, or the advertisement can be deleted by the mail sender.

  Furthermore, in the advertising method using electronic mail according to the present invention, it is preferable to take statistics of transmitted advertisements.

  The e-mail transmission system of the present invention is an e-mail transmission system comprising a management device connected to the Internet and a plurality of public-use terminals connected to the management device via communication lines, The management device includes a dedicated mail server, a main language mail processing unit, a different language mail processing unit, and an advertisement storage unit, and the terminal includes an operating system, a dedicated browser, a billing processing unit, and an input And a display device, and the operating system includes a main language IME and another language IME, and a language displayed on the screen displayed on the display device by the dedicated browser and the selected language. An operation unit adapted to make an e-mail creation request according to the above is provided, and an advertisement display field is provided on the e-mail creation screen.

  In the e-mail transmission system of the present invention, it is preferable that the e-mail creation screen is provided with a switching button for switching advertisements to be displayed or a deletion button for deleting advertisements.

  In the electronic mail transmission system according to the present invention, it is preferable that the management device includes a statistical unit that takes statistics of displayed advertisements.

  According to the present invention, since the advertisement is displayed on the e-mail creation screen, an excellent effect of improving the advertisement effect can be obtained.

  Hereinafter, although the present invention is explained based on an embodiment, referring to an accompanying drawing, the present invention is not limited only to this embodiment.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an electronic mail transmission system to which an advertising method using electronic mail according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the e-mail transmission system K includes a management device 1 connected to the Internet L and one or more terminals 2 connected to the management device 1 via a communication line M. As prepared. Here, the communication line M is composed of, for example, a dedicated line using a telephone network or a virtual dedicated line (VPN) using the Internet.

  The management apparatus 1 includes a dedicated Web server 11, a dedicated mail server 12, a main language mail processing unit 13, a different language mail processing unit 14, and an advertisement storage unit 15. Note that the management apparatus 1 may include a statistical unit that takes statistics of advertisements to be displayed.

  The terminal 2 includes an operating system 21, a dedicated browser 22, and a charging processing unit 23. The terminal 2 is connected to an input device 31 such as a mouse and a keyboard and an output device 32 such as a monitor (display device), a printer, and an information writing device for information recording media.

  The management device 1 and the terminal 2 are each composed of a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a computer including a memory and an input / output device, and an auxiliary storage device such as a hard disk drive. By executing the program, the function of each unit as described later is realized.

  The dedicated Web server 11 of the management apparatus 1 transmits content (news, image data, music data, etc.) prepared by the administrator to the terminal 2 via the communication line M in response to a request from the dedicated browser 22 of the terminal 2. It has the function to do. The content transmitted to the terminal 2 is output by being displayed on a monitor as the output device 32 by the dedicated browser 22.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the dedicated mail server 12 is transmitted by an e-mail transmission unit 16 that transmits an e-mail created in a procedure described later to an address designated via the Internet L, and the e-mail transmission unit 16. A source address generation unit 17 that automatically generates a source address of the e-mail.

  Here, the source address generation unit 17 creates a temporary account from the user's name or handle name input by an e-mail creation interface 40 (see FIG. 5), which will be described later, and creates this account in the management device 1. A source address is automatically generated in combination with a domain name or a global IP address. For this reason, the user can easily send an e-mail in his own name without taking a complicated procedure such as registration of a mail account.

  When the dedicated mail server 12 receives a process start request for creating an email from the dedicated browser 22, the dedicated mail server 12 activates either the main language mail processing unit 13 or the other language mail processing unit 14.

  The main language mail processing unit 13 is configured as one of CGI programs (Common Gateway Interface program) that is activated by the dedicated Web server 11 in response to a request from the dedicated browser 22, and creates a main language e-mail described later. The dedicated mail server 12 has the function of displaying the interface 40 (40A) (see FIG. 5) on the monitor of the terminal 2 and the e-mail created by the user using the main-language e-mail creating interface 40A. So that it can be transmitted via a predetermined character code system (for example, ISO-2022-JP (so-called JIS code)).

  The mail processing unit 14 for other languages is configured as one of CGI programs (Common Gateway Interface program) that is activated by the dedicated Web server 11 in response to a request from the dedicated browser 21, and creates an email for other languages described later. The dedicated mail server 12 has the function of displaying the interface 40 (40B) (see FIG. 5) on the monitor of the terminal 2 and the e-mail created by the user using the e-mail creating interface 40B for other languages. So that it can be transmitted via a predetermined character code system (for example, UTF-8 (8-bit UCS Transformation Format)).

  The advertisement storage unit 15 stores a text format or HTML format advertisement prepared in advance by an administrator in an auxiliary storage device such as the hard disk drive. The advertisement stored in the advertisement storage unit 15 is read by the dedicated mail server 12, transmitted to the terminal 2, and displayed on the main language e-mail creation interface 40A or the other language e-mail creation interface 40B.

  Next, each part of the terminal 2 will be described in detail.

  The operating system 21 of the terminal 2 has a function of assisting communication between the dedicated Web server 11 and the dedicated browser 22, as well as functions of assisting communication between the dedicated browser 22 and the input device 31 and the output device 32, and the input device. The keyboard 31 has a function for inputting sentences in various languages.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the operating system 21 includes a main language IME (Imput Method Editor) 51 and another language IME 52. The main language IME 51 has a function of performing kana-kanji conversion processing and the like necessary for inputting Japanese sentences into program software such as the dedicated browser 22 operating on the terminal 2. The IME 52 for other languages has a function of performing processing required when inputting a sentence in a predetermined language (for example, Chinese, Korean) other than Japanese and English. Note that English sentences are input by disabling the operation of the IMEs 51 and 52 and switching to direct input, or by using the English alphabet input function of the main language IME 51.

  The dedicated browser 22 requests the dedicated Web server 11 to transmit content in accordance with a user operation using the input device 31, and the transmitted content is displayed on a browser window 60 on the monitor as the output device 32 (see FIG. 4). ). In addition, the dedicated browser 22 may be provided with a playback function for playing back music / audio data and moving image data.

  FIG. 4 shows a browser window 60 displayed on the monitor by the dedicated browser 22. The browser window 60 includes a content display unit 61 that displays the content, and an operation unit 62 for performing various operations. The operation unit 62 has buttons (such as a “back” button and a “forward” button) that are almost the same as a commercially available general browser (for example, Internet Explorer (registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation)), and a language selection button. 63 and a mail creation button 64.

  The language selection button 63 is a button for switching the language of the content displayed on the content display unit 61 between a main language (for example, Japanese) and another language (for example, Korean or Chinese). The switching method is toggle type or selection type.

  The mail creation button 64 is a button for issuing a request to the dedicated mail server 12 to activate the mail processing units 13 and 14 corresponding to the language selected by the language selection button 63.

  That is, when the mail creation button 64 is operated in a state where the main language (for example, Japanese) is selected by the language selection button 63, the main language mail processing unit 13 is activated from the dedicated browser 22 to the dedicated mail server 12. The main language e-mail processing unit 13 is thereby activated, and the main language e-mail creation interface 40 (40A) is displayed on the monitor.

  Further, when the mail creation button 64 is operated in a state where another language (for example, Korean or Chinese) is selected by the language selection button 63, the mail processing unit 14 for other languages is sent from the dedicated browser 22 to the dedicated mail server 12. The other language mail processing unit 14 is activated, and the other language e-mail creation interface 40 (40B) is displayed on the monitor.

  FIG. 5 shows details of the e-mail creation interface 40. As shown in FIG. 5, the e-mail creation interface 40 includes a mail content display unit 41, a subject name input unit 42, a send button 43, and an advertisement content switching button 44. It should be noted that the main language e-mail creation interface 40A and the other language e-mail creation interface 40B differ only in that the display of buttons and the like is in the main language or another language.

  The mail content display box 41 includes a requirement description column 45 and an advertisement display column 46. The requirement description column 45 is an area where the text of the e-mail, the name of the user, and the like are input and displayed. The advertisement display field 46 is an area in which advertisements received from the dedicated mail server 12 are displayed.

  Here, the requirement description column 45 is provided with a user name input column 47 in which the user inputs his / her name and handle name in English alphabetical Roman alphabet. As described above, the name entered in the user name input field 47 is used when the transmission source address generation unit 17 automatically generates a transmission source address.

  The advertisement displayed in the advertisement display field 46 has contents corresponding to the language selected by the language selection button 63. The advertisement displayed in the advertisement display field 46 can be deleted by, for example, the “Delete” key on the keyboard. For this reason, the user checks the contents of the advertisement and decides whether to send an e-mail with the advertisement attached or to delete the advertisement and send an e-mail. A delete button may be provided.

  Therefore, since the user sees the contents of the advertisement anyway, the advertisement can be presented so that the user looks through the contents with a high probability. Further, when the advertisement is not deleted, the recipient of the e-mail also looks through the advertisement with a high probability, so that a higher advertising effect can be obtained.

  The advertisement content switching button 44 is a button for switching so that advertisements prepared in advance are sequentially displayed in the advertisement display field 45. That is, every time an operation such as a mouse click is performed on the advertisement content switching button 44, the advertisement displayed in the advertisement display column 46 is sequentially switched, for example, at random. If there is something interesting, it is possible to create and send an e-mail while displaying it in the advertisement display field 45.

  It is also possible to use the statistics of the advertisements selected and transmitted in such a manner by the statistical means so as to create a new advertisement by referring to the statistics. It is also possible to use the advertising fee so that it is collected from the sponsor based on the statistics.

  The billing processing unit 23 allows the user to use the terminal 2 for a time corresponding to the amount of coins (for example, 100 yen coins) inserted in a coin counter (not shown) attached to the terminal 2. Only the process according to the instruction of the user is displayed on the monitor.

  As described above, according to the e-mail transmission system K of this embodiment, the user can acquire a temporary e-mail account and transmit an e-mail by simply inputting a name or the like through the e-mail creation interface 40. Therefore, it is possible to easily send an e-mail even from a destination without being particularly conscious of e-mail account registration.

  For this reason, for example, it is possible to use a method of downloading favorite music data from the terminal 2 and transmitting it as an attached file to a mail address that is regularly used by the user. Thus, favorite data can be acquired without using a storage medium.

  Further, according to the e-mail transmission system K of the present embodiment, an advertisement is displayed on the e-mail creation interface 40 so as to form a part of the created e-mail. In this case, the user determines whether to send an e-mail with the displayed advertisement attached. Therefore, it is possible to present an advertisement so that the user reads the content at a high rate.

  In addition, when the user sends an e-mail with an advertisement attached, unlike a so-called junk e-mail, the e-mail is an authentic mail from an acquaintance, so the recipients also read the contents of the advertisement at a high rate. Therefore, an advertisement can be presented more effectively.

  As mentioned above, although this invention has been demonstrated based on embodiment, this invention is not limited only to this embodiment, A various change is possible. For example, in this embodiment, charging is performed by a coin insertion method, but a prepaid card method may be used.

  The present invention can be applied mainly to a terminal that is used for public use and can present an advertisement so that a high percentage of people read the content.

1 is a functional block diagram showing an e-mail transmission system to which an advertising method using e-mail according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. It is a functional block diagram which shows the detail of the exclusive mail server integrated in the management apparatus which comprises the system. It is a functional block diagram which shows the detail of the operating system incorporated in the terminal which comprises the system. It is a top view which shows typically the browser window of the exclusive browser integrated in the terminal which comprises the system. It is a top view which shows typically the interface for an e-mail preparation displayed on the display apparatus as an output device of the terminal which comprises the system.

Explanation of symbols

K Email transmission system 1 Management device 2 Terminal 12 Dedicated mail server 13 Mail processing unit for main language 14 Mail processing unit for other languages 15 Advertisement storage unit 17 Source address generation unit 40 Interface for creating email

Claims (9)

  An advertising method using electronic mail in a public-use terminal, wherein an advertisement is displayed on an electronic mail creation screen so as to form part of an outgoing mail.   The advertisement method using electronic mail according to claim 1, wherein the language of the advertisement is matched with the language used by the mail sender.   2. The advertisement method using electronic mail according to claim 1, wherein the displayed advertisement can be switched by the mail sender.   The advertisement method using electronic mail according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement can be deleted by a mail sender.   The advertisement method using electronic mail according to claim 1, wherein statistics of transmitted advertisements are collected. An e-mail transmission system comprising a management device connected to the Internet and a plurality of public-use terminals connected to the management device via a communication line,
The management device includes a dedicated mail server, a main language mail processing unit, a different language mail processing unit, and an advertisement storage unit,
The terminal includes an operating system, a dedicated browser, a charging processing unit, an input device, and a display device.
The operating system has a main language IME and another language IME,
The screen displayed on the display device by the dedicated browser is provided with an operation unit adapted to be able to make a request for language selection and e-mail creation in the selected language,
An e-mail transmission system, wherein an e-mail creation screen is provided with an advertisement display field.   The e-mail transmission system according to claim 6, wherein the e-mail creation screen includes a switching button for switching advertisements to be displayed.   The e-mail transmission system according to claim 6, further comprising a delete button for deleting an advertisement from the e-mail creation screen.   The e-mail transmission system according to claim 6, wherein the management device includes a statistic unit that takes statistics of the displayed advertisement.

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