AU2010101543A4

AU2010101543A4 - Method and apparatus for controlling the presentation of contextual advertisements

Info

Publication number: AU2010101543A4
Application number: AU2010101543A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Aaron Green; Stephen Heaney
Original assignee: PROSCALES Pty Ltd
Current assignee: PROSCALES Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2009-06-15
Filing date: 2010-06-15
Publication date: 2016-11-03
Anticipated expiration: 2018-06-15
Also published as: AU2010262744A1; WO2010144949A1

Abstract

An apparatus and method of presenting a store receipt having a purchase listing and at least one contextual advertisement wherein a keyword is selected from a first database, the keyword being either present in the purchase listing or related to a term in the purchase listing, cross-referencing the keyword with a second database containing a plurality of advertisements, and selecting one of said advertisements based upon, at least, said keyword and a geographic location and presenting the relevant contextual advertisement in conjunction with said store receipt. The receipt may be either a printed receipt or an electronic store receipt. Advertisements containing proscribed information are excluded from being presented in conjunction with an electronic receipt or being printed on a paper receipt.

Description

WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jim 2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 1

Method and apparatus for controlling the presentation of contextual advertisements FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of providing relevant advertisements, and in one aspect relates to the printing of a point-of-sale (POS) receipt that includes contextual advertisements based, in part, on the items purchased.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are various methods used to advertise goods and services to potential customers. One marketing method commonly used involves advertisements of unrelated commercial entities placed on a store receipt.

Typically advertisements on store receipts are either pre-printed or preprogrammed into the point-of-saie (POS) printing device. Such methods include advertisements pre-printed on one side of a paper roll that is used to produce store receipts. The pre-printed roll is mounted in the POS printing device of a participating store and information relating to the products being purchased from the store is printed on the opposing Wank side of the receipt.

One of the problems with existing pre-printed receipts is that the same series of advertising messages are printed on all receipts for a particular paper roll, irrespective of the type of purchase made by the customer. Accordingly, many of the advertising messages are not relevant to a particular customer and are largely ignored.

There are also a number of online search engine marketing (SEM) systems that analyse user search queries to determine appropriate advertisements. These marketing methods use keyword advertising and, more recently to a lesser degree, meta tags to have web pages listed prominently on the search engine results page. Advertising is in response to specific search phrases or words contained within the search queries of an Internet user.

One popular search engine marketing program is the Google Adwords™ . administered by Google Corporation that allows a website owner to create WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jim 2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 2 advertising text using their own keywords and a cost-per-click (CPC) pricing. An advertisement's position on a search results page is dynamically determined based on a combination of the CPC the owner has set and the advertisement’s performance, measured by its dick through rate (CTR). This advertising method means that more successful advertisements are given greater visibility on the search results page.

There are systems suggested in peper publications that utilise a database containing advertising information that is cross-referenced against the nature of the goods to determine the type of advertising printed on a label. There are however no systems known to the applicant that disdose the use of dynamic results, such as those produced by search engine marketing methods, to produce printed advertising on store receipts. Furthermore, the prior art does not disclose the use of prohibited or excluded terms to determine appropriate advertising for printing on a store receipt. it should be appreciated that any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification is included solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention and should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art was widely known or formed part of the common general knowledge in the field as it existed before the priority date of the application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with an aspect of thé invention, but not necessarily the broadest or only aspect, there is proposed a method of presenting a store receipt having a purchase listing and at least one contextual advertisement, including the steps of: selecting a keyword from a first database, said keyword being either contained within the purchase listing or related to a term in the purchase listing; cross-referencing the keyword with a second database containing a plurality of advertisements; selecting one of said advertisements based upon. at least, said keyword and a geographic location; and presenting the relevant contextual advertisement In conjunction with said store receipt WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15Jun2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 3

The contextual advertisement may be printed on a paper receipt or may be linked to an electronic store receipt A plurality of contextual advertisements may be presented in conjunction with the store receipt, each advertisement corresponding to a keyword selected from, or relating to, one or more items contained within said purchase listing. The contextual advertisements may be selected from a group containing, but not limited to, advertising for related goods or services, vouchers for related goods or services, incentive information or relevant website information. In this way the contextual advertisements printed on die receipt can be tailored to the specific products or services being purchased. This means that entities advertising their goods or services can target customers that are likely to require or be at least interested in their advertisement

In one form the contextual advertisements may be positioned on one side of the paper receipt and the purchase listings including price may be positioned on the opposing side of the paper receipt, in this way a plurality of advertisements may be printed on one side of the receipt, wherein each of the advertisements relate to a product or service being purchased.

The keyword may be either present in the purchase listing or be related to a , word in the purchase listing. In this way a systems administrator can control the terms that are used to undertake the search of the second database. For instance the term "dog food* in the purchase listing may be linked to keyword "canine* that is consider a more suitable term for undertaking the search. In this way the search terms can be filtered or modified, in much that same way as an Internet search, to select the best terms for undertaking the search.

The length of the paper receipt may be used to determine how many advertisements are printed on the receipt. Thë available space determines the number of keywords selected. In a preferred form the allowable space for each advertisement is the same, however, the see of different advertisements may be different and this information would be used in determining the number of advertisements printed on the receipt. Each space on the reoeipt can therefore be sold for advertising purposes. WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jun2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 4

The first database may contain possible product keywords that may be used to determine what contextual advertisements are presented on the receipt The possible product keywords may be weighted such that particular words, if identified within the purchase listings, are given priority. The first database may include limiting factors, including that advertising must be from a range of sources. Preferences may also be attached to particular keywords, for instance that particular services are advertised if a predetermined word is located within the purchase listing. There may also be preferences set for particular keywords and for particular times of the day. The selection of the advertisements may be also based upon further information, including time of the day, total price of purchase, range of products purchased, or other customer profile information such as specific items purchase for instance baby products.

Certain terms may be banned from being selected as keywords, for instance, items of personal hygiene may be banned as they may lead to embarrassment of the customer. The system administrator or the store management may set a list of banned terms.

The second database contains a plurality of advertisements. The advertisements can be ranked such that the point-of-sale (POS) device will print or present electronically the higher ranked advertisements more regularly. The ranking may be linked to Internet success, such that the entity whose website is highest on the ranking for a particular search engine will have their advertisements printed on tiie in-store receipts more frequently. Alternatively the ranking may be based on the highest price paid or bidding price set by an entity.

Generally it can be understood the second database contains a dynamic list of advertisements controlled by a search engine service provider, however other types of database, including those uploaded onto a store’s POS device, could be used.

The advertisements may be selected from the second database based upon the keyword or keywords and the geographic location of said POS device. The selected contextual advertisements are then printed on the rear of the receipt or presented in conjunction with an electronic receipt. The physical location of the POS device may be determined by the postcode of the store, or a POS unique identifier WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jun2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 5 such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address, or a geographical location associated with the customer. The geographical location associated with the customer may be based on his or her location, such as country, region/state, city, postcode/metro code/zip code, location determined by a GPS of a mobile telecommunications device, IP address of a personal computer-, ISP or other criteria.

The method may include an intermediate step of analysing the selected contextual advertisements based on proscribed information. This intermediate step allows the store that owns the POS device to determine if a particular advertisement should be presented. The proscribed information may be contained within a third database or alternatively the second database may expressly exclude any advertisement that contains thé proscribed information. In this way the advertisements are filtered to ensure that proscribed information is not presented in conjunction with the store’s receipt.

The proscribed information may be selected from a group containing a list of . competitors, particular group of services providers or prohibited goods. This will inhibit advertisements from competing entities being printed on a particular store's receipt. It will also inhibit advertising of inappropriate services or goods, such as adult escort services, on supermarket receipts.

It could be generally understood, that in one particular aspect, the invention relates to a point-of-sale receipt arrangement for printing on two parts of a reoelpt, a first part being printed with one or more listings of purchased items, and a second part being printed with one or more advertisements selected in the context of one or more of said listings.

The contextual advertising may be printed on a paper receipt concurrently with the purchase listing. In an alternate form the method includes the additional step of analysing the printed receipt using optical character recognition and then using the information to determine the contextual advertisements to be printed on the receipt by a secondary printer.

Preset advertising may be presented on, or in conjunction with, the receipt if insufficient keywords are identified to provide advertising fo fill the available space, such as advertising for the search engine provider or advertising administrator. The WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jim 2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 6 preset advertising may also comprise the participating store advertising or promotions. The preset advertising may be printed at specified positions on the paper receipt, such as the top, bottom or for instance every fifth advertising sparse

When referring to the contextual information presented “in conjunction" with the store receipt it should be appreciated that this refers to the advertisement being printed on the same paper receipt, or linked in some way to an electronic receipt. Furthermore the advertisement may be printed on a separate sheet or sent to an electronic device at the same time that the store receipt is being printed.

In one form the receipt may be provided in an electronic format and be accessible by way of a computer, mobile telecommunications device or other display means. The contextual advertisements, that is presented in conjunction with the receipt, may be selected from a group containing, but not limited to, hyperlinks, popup advertisements, web banners, in-text advertising, interactive media, pdf documents, audiovisual advertisements, SMS, MMS, and voice recorded messages.

In the immediately preceding form the contextual advertisement may include a unique code that could be entered on an advertiser’s webpage to access promotions or disoounts, thereby improving the ranking of the advertiser’s website.

The method is preferably a computer-implemented method that utilises designated software to undertake the above steps.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is proposed an apparatus for presenting a store recent having a purchase listing and at least one contextual advertisement including, a point-of-sale device having a product Identification means, a processor for analysing product information received from said product identification means and selecting a keyword from a first database, said keyword being either contained within the product information or related to a word in the product information, said processor In communication with a second database containing a plurality of advertisements, wherein, at least, said keyword, a geographical location and a list of proscribed information are used to determine the relevant contextual advertisement to be presented in conjunction with the store receipt, and a means for displaying the store receipt. WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jim 2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 7

The store receipt and contextual advertisements may be presented in an electronic format and accessible by a customer using a computer, telecommunications device or any other type of electronic display means.

In accordance with an alternate form said means for displaying the store receipt may be a paper receipt The point-of-sale device may therefore include a printer means for printing said paper receipt. The purchase listing may be printed on a first side of the receipt and the contextual advertisements may be printed on a second side of the receipt. in one form of the preceding apparatus more than one advertisement is printed on a paper receipt or presented in conjunction with the receipt on an electronic display means. The advertisements may be from commercial entities that are different from that which owns the point-of-sale device.

The first database may be stored on a storage device connected to the point-of-sale (POS) device. The processor analyses the purchase listing received from the POS device with reference to the first database.

The second database may be stored on a server of a search engine provider. Accordingly once the keywords are selected, the processor contacts the server to determine which of the plurality of advertisements will be printed on the receipt. The communication between the processor and server may be completed via a modem device.

In another form the second database may be stored as a cache on the POS device or a print server. The cache may be periodically replenished and updated from the computer network or search engine server.

In one form a POS printer is configured to print both the purchase listing and contextual advertisements. In an alternate form an optical character recognition device is attached to the POS printer, the optical character recognition device analyses the printed receipt and the processor uses this information to determine the contextual advertisements to be printed on the receipt A secondary printer would then print the contextual advertisements on the rear of the receipt. This means that the apparatus including an optical character recognition (OCR) device can be retrofitted to an existing store POS device. WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jim 2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 8

In another form the printed receipt that includes the product information is fed through an OCR and printing device that is not attached to the FOS device. In this way contextual advertising, prizes, discounts or promotions can be printed on the back of the receipt at a location distant from the POS device.

The processor may determine the length of the receipt, which is dependent upon the number of purchases, to thereby calculate how many advertisements can be printed on the second side of the receipt.

The communication between the POS device, processor and second database can be via a communication interface using an appropriate communication channel such as a modem communication path, a computer network such as a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN)/lntemet or fixed cables.

Security protocols and authentication may also be used to ensure secure communication between the POS device and the search engine server.

In still yet another aspect of the invention there is proposed a software program for controlling the operation of the preceding apparatus and for the application of the preceding methods.

The software program may be implemented as one or more modules for undertaking the steps of the present invention. The modules may include packaged functional hardware units for use with other components or modules.

The apparatus may include embedded software or firmware with corresponding hardware that is designed to perform one or more dedicated functions of the present invention.

In one form the apparatus includes at least one POS computer having memory in the form of random access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM), a central processing unit or units, input/output (10) interfaces and at least one data storage device.

Application software may be stored in a computer readable medium on the storage device. The storage device may be a, hard drive, magneto-optical disk drive. WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jim 2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 9 CD-ROM, magnetic tape, integrated circuit, computer readable card such as a PCMCIA card, flash drive or any other of the number of non-volatile storage devices.

The foregoing is merely exemplary of relevant computer hardware and software and other computer and telecommunications systems may be practiced without departing from the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate implementations of the invention and, together with the description and claims, serve to explain the advantages and principles of the invention. In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a flow chart illustrating a method of presenting contextual advertisements in conjunction with a receipt of the present invention:

Figure 2 is a flow chart of the method of figure 1 illustrating the use of three databases to identify appropriate advertising;

Figure 3 Is a schematic view of a first embodiment of an apparatus used to implement the method of figure 1;

Figure 4 is a flow chart Illustrating the steps taken by the apparatus of figure 3 to print the receipt;

Figure 5 is a plan view of botii sides of the receipt printed by the apparatus of figure 3;

Figure 6 is a schematic view of a second embodiment of the apparatus used to implement the method of figure 1; and

Figure 7 is a second embodiment of the method of presenting contextual advertisements in conjunction with a receipt of the present invention illustrating an electronic receipt

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED AND EXEMPLIFIED EMBODIMENTS WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jim 2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 10

There are numerous specific details set forth in the following description. However, from the disclosure, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and/or substitutions may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. In some circumstance specific details may have been omitted so as not to obscure the invention. Similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts and steps throughout the drawings.

Referring to the drawings for a more detailed description, a method and apparatus for controlling contextual advertising presented on a receipt is illustrated, demonstrating by way of examples arrangements in which the principles of the present invention may be employed. Figure 1, illustrates a first embodiment of a method 10 of printing a store receipt containing a purchase listing and contextual advertising that includes the steps of. • identifying 12 at least one product being purchased using a point-of-sale (POS) device; • analysing 14 purchase listing to select 16 at least one keyword from a first database, said keyword being either present in the purchase listing or related to a word in the purchase listing; • cross-referencing 18 said keyword with a second database containing a plurality of advertisements; • selecting an advertisement 20 based upon, at least, the keyword and the geographic location of said point-of-sale device; and • printing 22 a relevant contextual advertisement on said receipt.

The contextual advertisements printed on the receipt each correspond to a keyword selected from tire purchase listing. In this way the advertising printed on the receipt relates to the actual purchase made by the customer. This means that retailers and service providers can target their advertising to consumers that are likely to be interested in their goods or services.

The method 10, illustrated in figure 2, utilises three databases to determine which advertisements should be printed on the receipt. The list of products 24 being purchased is compared to a first database 26 that contains all possible keywords. The purchase keywords 16 are identified and these are compared to a second database 30 containing possible advertisements to identify and select 20 possible contextual advertisements. WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jim 2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 11

These contextual advertisements are compared to a third database 34 containing proscribed or prohibited contextual information. This proscribed information may be a list of competitors, particular group of services providers or prohibited goods. Furthermore this will inhibit advertisements from competing entities being printed on a store’s receipt. It will also inhibit advertising of inappropriate services or goods, such as adult escort services on supermarket receipts. A systems administrator or store management may set the proscribed information. if the advertisement contains prohibited material or is from a proscribed entity 36, the second database 30 is consulted so that an alternate advertisement can be selected. In the event the advertisements are allowable 33 they will then be printed 22 on the store receipt.

It should however be appreciated that the contents of the second database may expressly exclude any advertisements that contain proscribed information. This pre-filtering of the second database may be undertaken prior to access by the point-of-sale (POS) device for indentifying and selecting 20 possible contextual advertisements.

The first database 26 contains possible product keywords that may be used to determine what contextual advertisements are printed on thé receipt. The possible product keywords may be weighted such that particular words, if identified within the purchase listing, are given priority. The first database may include limiting factors, including, that advertising must be from a range of sources, or excluded terms that can be set by the store management. There may also be preference set for particular times of the day, for instanoe video stores may wish to promote their services towards the end of the day if pre-prepared meals are purchased by the customer.

The second database contains a plurality of advertisements. The advertisements can be ranked such that the point-of-sale (POS) device will print the higher ranked advertisements more regularly. The ranking may be linked to Internet success, such that the entities whose website is highest on the ranking for a particular search engine will have their advertisements printed on the in-store receipts. The ranking may also be determined by the price paid by the entity, time of WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jim 2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 12 day, or entity's advertising strategy, in one form the entity pays for a maximum number of advertisements to be printed on the receipts for a set period of time. Once the limit has been reached no further advertisements for that entity will be printed until the next time period begins, such as the next trading day. Other traditional and non-traditional advertising strategies could also be incorporated into the present method.

The method 10 is preferably a computer-implemented method that utilises hardware and software to undertake the various steps. In one possible embodiment, as illustrated in figure 3, the computer-implemented method is undertaken using a point-of-sale device 40 in communication 42 with a computer network 44. It is envisage that the computer network 44 will be the Internet, howèver, other computer networks could be used. The computer network 44 includes a number of linked individual computers 46, and a search engine provider 48 that facilitate searching 50 of information contained within the network 44.

The POS device includes a user interface 62, product identification means 54 and printer 56 connected by cables 58. The product identification means 54 in the present example is a scanner configured to recognise the barcode 60 attached to a product 62. The printer 56 is configured to print a receipt 64 based upon the information received from the user interface 52. In the present example the printer 56 is configured to print the purchase listing 66, Including product description, price, store information, time and location on one side of a paper receipt 64 and the contextual advertisements 68 on the opposing side of the paper receipt 64.

The user interface 52 includes a processor 70 for analysing purchase listing received from said product identification means-54 and identifying keywords based upon the first database 26 of possible keywords that is stored on an attached storage device such as a hard-drive (not shown). The processor 70 is also used to communicate with the computer network 44 and compare the advertisements with a third database 34 containing proscribed or prohibited contextual information that is stored on the storage device. The storage device may also store the second database 30 as a cache that is updated frequently from the computer network 44.

The processor 70 may Include a general processing unit, multiple units, dedicated circuitry or other systems. The steps of the method 10 can be undertaken WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jim 2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 13 in “real time", “batch mode" or “offline". Furthermore the steps of the method 10 may be performed at different times and locations by a number of different processing systems.

The geographical location of said POS device can be determined using a postcode reference, or the IP address of the POS devioe or a computer attached thereto. The postcode reference may be the postcode of the store having the POS device or alternatively the customer’s postcode may be entered.

The processor determines the length of the receipt, which is dependent upon the number of purchases, to thereby calculate how many advertisements can be printed on the second side of the receipt.

In use, as illustrated in figures 3 and 4, the products are identified 72 using the POS scanner 54. The processor 70 then identifies Keywords 74 base upon the first database. The POS device 40 then communicates 76 with the Internet search engine provider 48. Finally the keywords and a geographical location, such as that of the POS device, are used to determine 78 what advertising is printed 22 on the receipt 64.

As illustrated in figure 5 the receipt 64 includes a first printed side 80 on which the purchase fisting 66, including product description 62, price 84, store information 86, and location 86 are printed. The second printed side 90 includes the various contextual advertisements 68 that have been selected using the location 88 and identified keywords 92. In the present example the keywords: "dief, “dog food', “bolognaise" and “water" were identified from the purchase listing 66 as indicated in figure 6. These keywords 92 are used to identify advertisements from the area that may be of interest to the customer.

Alternatively the terms “dog food’ and “bolognaise" may be linked to other suitable keywords such as “canine" and 'Italian cuisine" that are considered more suitable terms for undertaking the search to identify contextual advertising.

In another embodiment, as illustrated in figure 6, an optical character recognition and printing device 94 is attached to file POS printer 56. The optical character recognition and printing device 94 analyses the printed receipt 64 and the processor 70 attached thereto uses this information to determine the contextual WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jun2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 14 advertisements 68 to be printed on the receipt 64. This means that the apparatus including an optical character recognition (OCR) device can be retrofitted to existing POS devices, as indicated by arrows 96, which means that the existing POS system does not need to be completely replaced.

The communication between the POS device, processor and second database can be via a communication interface using an appropriate communication channel such as a modem communication path, a computer network such as a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN)/lnternet or fixed cables. . The invention is performed using a designated software program for controlling the operation of the preceding POS device and for the application of the preceding method. The software program may be implemented as one or more modules for undertaking the steps of the present invention.

In a further embodiment, as illustrated in figure 7, the contextual advertisements are linked to an electronic store receipt. The point-of-sale device 40 is in communication 42 with the Internet 44 that indudes a search engine provider48 that is linked to a network of individual computers 46. A personal computer 100 is in communication 102 with the Internet 44 and is configured to display the electronic receipt 104 and contextual advertising 106. In the present embodiment the receipt 104 and advertising 106 are accessible through a designated webpage 108. It should however be appreciated that the receipt and linked advertising could be send via other means such as text or email. Furthermore the display means could be a mobile telecommunications device or other display means. The contextual advertisements may be selected from a group containing, but not limited to, hyperlinks, pop-up advertisements, web banners, in-text advertising, interactive media, pdf documents, audiovisual advertisements, SMS, MMS, and voice recorded messages.

The skilled addressee will now appreciate the many advantages of the illustrated invention. In one embodiment the invention provides a method and apparatus for printing relevant advertisements on a store receipt dependent upon purchases made by the customer. In this way a retailer or service provider can target their advertising to customers that are likely to be interested in their goods and services. In another embodiment the contextual advertisements are presented in WO 2010/144949 2010101543 15 Jim 2010 PCT/AU2010/000731 15 conjunction with an electronic receipt. This increases the types of promotional methods available to advertisers, including the use of hyperlinks, interactive media, SMS, MMS, and the like.

The invention, in one embodiment, enables an advertiser's search engine marketing to be tailor to include the printing or presentation of their advertising in conjunction with store receipts, in this way the higher their ranking on the search engine results page the more likely they are to have their advertising printed on, or in conjunction with, the store receipt. Advertisers can also use the store reoeipt to direct customers to their website by way of incentives or through the use of hyperlinks associated with an electronic receipt.

Various features of the invention have been particularly shown and described in connection with the exemplified embodiments of the invention, however, it must be understood that these particular arrangements merely illustrate and that the invention is not limited thereto. Accordingly the Invention can include various modifications, which fall within the spirit and scope of the invention. It should be further understood that for the purpose of the specification the word “comprise* or “comprising* means “including but not limited to*.

Claims

THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. A method of presenting a receipt having a purchase listing and at least one contextual advertisement, including the steps of: selecting a keyword from a first database; said keyword being either contained within the purchase listing or related to a term in the purchase listing; cross-referencing the keyword with a second database containing a plurality of advertisements; selecting one of said advertisements based upon, at least, said keyword and a geographic location; and presenting the relevant contextual advertisement in conjunction with said receipt.
2. The method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the contextual advertisement is printed on a paper store receipt or is linked to an electronic store receipt
3. The method in accordance with claim 1 or 2 wherein the contextual advertisement may be selected from a group containing, printed advertisements, hyperlinks, pop-up advertisements, web banners, in-text advertising, interactive media, pdf documents, audiovisual advertisements, SMS, MMS, and voice recorded messages.
4. The method in accordance with any one of the above claims wherein the first database contains possible product keywords that may be used to determine which contextual advertisements are presented in conjunction with the receipt, the possible product keywords may be weighted such that particular words, if identified within the purchase listings, are given priority.
5. The method in accordance with any one of the above claims wherein the . plurality of advertisements contained within the second database being ranked, such that higher ranked advertisements will be presented to customers with greater frequency.
6. The method in accordance with any one of the above ciaims wherein advertisements containing proscribed information are excluded, the proscribed information being selected from a group containing, a list of competitors, particular group of services providers and prohibited goods.
7. The method in accordance with claim 6 including a step of analysing the selected advertisements to identify any proscribed information therein, the proscribed information being contained within a third database and editable by a systems administrator, wherein advertisements that contain proscribed information are excluded from being presented in conjunction with the receipt.
8. The method in accordance with any one of the above claims wherein said geographic location may be selected from a group containing the geographical location of the POS device determined by GPS, the postcode of the store, a POS unique identifier such as an IP address, and a geographical location associated with the customer being based on said customer’s country of residence, region/state, city, postcode/metro code/zip code, location determined by a GPS of a mobile telecommunications device, IP address of a computing device, ISP address or other criteria.
9. An apparatus for presenting a receipt having a purchase listing and at jeast one contextual advertisement including, a point-of-sale device having a product identification means, a processor for analysing product information received from said product identification means and selecting a keyword from a first database, said keyword being either contained within the product information or related to a term in the product Information, said processor in communication with a second database containing a plurality of advertisements, wherein, at least, said keyword, a geographical location and a list of proscribed information are used to determine the relevant contextual advertisement to be presented in conjunction with the receipt, and a means for displaying the purchase listing and contextual advertisement.
10. The apparatus in accordance with claim S wherein the store receipt and contextual advertisements are presented in an electronic format
11. The apparatus in accordance with claim 9 wherein the point-of-sale device includes a printer means, wherein the product information and relevant contextual advertisement being printed on a paper receipt.
12. The apparatus in accordance with any one of claims 9-11 wherein said geographical location may be selected from a group containing the geographical location of the POS device determined by GPS, the postcode of the store, a POS unique identifier such as an IP address, and a geographical location associated with the customer being based on said customer’s country of residence, region/state, city, postcode/metro code/zip code, location determined by a GPS of a mobile telecommunications device, IP address of a computing device, ISP address or other criteria.
13. The apparatus in accordance with any one of claims 9 to 12 wherein the first database may be stored on a storage device connected to said POS device.
14. The apparatus in accordance with any one of claims 9 to 13 wherein the second database is stored on a server of a search engine provider and communication between the processor and server is completed via a modem device.
15. The apparatus in accordance with any one of claims 11 to 14 wherein the point-of-sale device being configured to print both the purchase listing-and contextual advertisements on the receipt, or the apparatus including an optical character recognition device being configured to analyses the printed receipt for determining the contextual advertisements to be printed thereon by a secondary printer.