IES20060178A2 - A method of monitoring online banner activity - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of monitoring online banner activity in a system (1) comprising a plurality of user computing devices (3) each having browser software loaded thereon to permit the viewing of web pages, an advertisement server (5) and a collection server (7). The plurality of user computing devices, the advertisement server and the collection server are all connected by way of a communications network (9). Each of the user computing devices (3) transmits web page viewing requests to the advertisement server (5). The advertisement sever transmits web pages containing banner advertisements to the user computing devices in response to the requests. When the user computing device displays the advertisement, the user computing device collates tag data relating to each of the banner advertisements and transmits the tag data to the collection server (7) in a single server request message. <Figure 1>

Description

This invention relates to a method of monitoring online banner activity in a system comprising a plurality of user computing devices each having browser software loaded thereon to enable viewing of web pages, each of the web pages containing a plurality of banners, the system further comprising an advertisement server and a collection server, the plurality of user computing devices, the advertisement server and the collection server all being connected by way of a communications network.

One of the most significant technological advances over the last number of years has been the introduction of the internet and the World Wide Web. This new technology has had many wide-ranging implications for businesses and in particular the manner in which they carry out their business on a day-to-day basis. In most industries, it is considered essential for a company to have at least some presence on the World Wide Web. In addition to providing a company web site, many companies, such as manufacturers and the like, advertise their goods and or services on the web sites of other companies. These advertisements are commonly referred to throughout the 0 industry as banners.

One typical example of such practise would be a clothing or shoe manufacturer such as Nike (Registered Trade Mark) advertising their goods which may be a new range of Tiger Woods golf clothing, on the web site of a large sports clothing retailer or golf equipment retailer. Typically, the banner will include some identification of the new Nike goods for sale in the shop along with any particular deal being offered. Another example of such banner advertising would be a company such as a building contractor or a company offering plumbing services providing a banner advertisement advertising their services on the web site of a bathroom supplier’s outlet.

Typically, the companies or individuals that wish to place the banner advertisement on the web site of the third party pay a fee to the third party or another party hosting the web site to allow them to do so. When paying for this privilege, it is most important that the parties come to an agreement regarding a fair remuneration or IE 0 6 0 1 7 8 consideration for the service. Normally, if a banner is posted on a particular web page the parties agree a fee that is paid for each individual that uses the web page upon which the advertisement banner is placed. This is otherwise referred to as the number of “clicks” on a particular website or web page and the charge may be based on the number of “clicks” on that web page. There are however numerous problems with this system.

First of all, it is extremely difficult for the parties posting the banner ads to determine how effective the banner placed on a particular web site is in attracting customers for the advertiser’s goods. Secondly, it is extremely difficult to determine whether that banner has persuaded a potential customer to make further enquiries or indeed to make a purchase of the advertiser’s goods. Furthermore, using the known systems it is virtually impossible for the parties placing the banner to determine how many unique visitors there have been that have viewed that banner and how many visitors are return visitors that have already seen the banner. An additional problem with this is that the parties posting the banners may have various separate banners spread across various different web pages of different web sites. Therefore, the same individuals may visit different web pages and view the banner of one company a number of times on each of the web pages and never make a purchase from that company. In the course of visiting the various different web pages they may view the same banner a number of times and therefore it is important for the party posting the banner that they are aware of whether an individual viewing the banner is a unique visitor, in other words a first time viewer of that banner, or whether the individual is a repeat visitor to that web page and has previously viewed the banner on that web page or whether they have viewed the banner on a different web page. Currently with the known systems there is no way of determining this. Without knowing the number of unique visitors to their banners, it is extremely difficult for the parties posting the banners to analyse the effectiveness of their banner advertising in a meaningful way.

Another major problem when dealing with banner information collection is that the process of collecting banner information is envisaged to be extremely computationally inefficient. When viewing a web page having a number of banners thereon, a server request message may be created for each banner on the web page and sent to the ΙΕ ο 6 0 1 7 8 - 3 server for processing. This is highly inefficient and in some instances there may be ten or more banner advertisements on a single web page. Each of the banner advertisements would in turn require a server request message to transmit information to a server relating to the banner and/or the individual viewing the banner. This would take up considerable communications bandwidth not to mention requiring an excessive processing overhead.

Finally, using the present systems, parties posting banners on web sites have very little direct feedback regarding the effectiveness of their banners as well as the demographic information relating to the individuals viewing the banners. This demographic information can be of the utmost importance when deciding on advertising campaigns and strategies. Without this information it is virtually impossible for parties posting banner advertisements to accurately target their desired markets and obtain the best value for money for their advertising spend.

It will be understood from the foregoing and from the remainder of the specification that this application is directly solely towards the monitoring of banner advertisements and the numbers of viewers of those banner advertisements, and in particular the number of unique viewers of those banner advertisements that are served from a website, whether they be on Web Pages, Streaming Media, Audio or Video File downloads and the like. This invention is not intended to encompass systems and methods for monitoring web page access and the like which are well known and do not form part of the present invention. What must be clear is that it is the banner advertisements and their monitoring that the invention is particularly interested in and directed towards and not the web pages themselves which is altogether outside the scope of this specification.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of monitoring online banner activity that overcomes at least some of the above-mentioned difficulties, that is simple and efficient to operate and relatively simple to implement. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of monitoring online banner activity that reduces the computational overhead of the known systems while at the same time providing a more comprehensive analysis of online banner activity than was heretofore possible.

IE 0 6 0 1 7 8 - 4 Statements of Invention According to the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in a system comprising a collection server, a remote advertisement server and a plurality of remote user computing devices, the collection server, the remote advertisement server and the plurality of remote user computing devices being connected by way of a communication network, the remote advertisement server having a plurality of web pages stored thereon, each of the plurality of remote user computing devices having web browser software loaded thereon to allow downloading and viewing of web pages on the user computing device, the method comprising the steps of: one of the remote user computing devices sending a web page access request to the remote advertisement server; the remote advertisement server transmitting the requested web page to the remote user computing device, the requested web page containing a plurality of banners therein, at least some of the banners having a banner tag associated therewith containing banner data including one or more of the banner name, banner location, banner i.d., banner campaign, banner type and media creator; on downloading of the web page, the remote user computing device collating the banner data of each of the plurality of banner tags contained in the requested web page into a single server request message; the remote user computing device transmitting the single server request message containing banner data relating to each of the plurality of banner tags to the collection server; and the collection server receiving the server request message and thereafter storing and analysing the banner tag data contained therein. ΙΕ ο 6 0 1 7 8 - 5 By having such a method it will be possible to monitor online banner activity in a simple and efficient manner. Furthermore, by placing tags associated with each banner in the code of the web page, it will be possible to track the banner viewings with relative ease. By collating all the information from the individual banner tags it will further be possible to significantly reduce the computational overhead and communication overhead required in the known systems as a single server request message may be made to transmit ail of the banner tag data. In many cases, there may be twenty or more banners on any individual web page. Previously, a communication that a banner had been shown on a web page would have to have been sent for each individual banner. By having the banner tags and then collating all of the banner tag information together, the tag information relating to all of the banners may be placed into a single server request communication to the collection server whereafter the collection server may monitor and analyse the data appropriately. This significantly simplifies the transfer and subsequent management of data and significantly reduces the processing requirements on the collection server. It will be understood that not all of the banners in a particular web page will have banner tags associated therewith but it is envisaged that at least two or more banners will have banner tags associated therewith per web page.

In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of the remote user computing device transmitting device identifier data to the collection server. Preferably, the device identifier data will be cookie data. By having the device identifier data, the collection server will not only be able to determine the number of times that a particular banner has been seen but will also be able to determine who has seen that banner and whether that person has seen the banner before which is particularly useful to the operator of the system, and whether that person has seen the same advertisement on a different website which is particularly useful to the advertiser. The cookie data is seen as a simple way to monitor the activity of separate remote user computing devices.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the device identifier data is transmitted to the collection server together with the banner data in the single server request message. This is seen as a IE 0 6 0 1 7 8 - 6 particularly simple and efficient way of transmitting the device identifier data to the collection server for analysis that reduces the bandwidth and computational overhead requirement on the method as only one piece of device identifier information is sent with multiple banners.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the step of analysing the banner tag data further comprises the steps of: the collection server comparing the banner tag data and device identifier data with other banner tag data and or device identifier data stored in memory: and determining whether or not the remote user computing device is a unique visitor to a particular banner.

This is seen as a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention and most important as the parties placing banner advertisements in web pages, may now accurately determine how many unique visitors have viewed their banner. Therefore, it is now possible for these parties placing the banner advertisements to accurately measure the effectiveness of their banner advertisements. Previously, they may only have known that various banner advertisements of theirs were seen a total of 200,000 times across a number of different web pages, but this information would only tell them how many times their banner had been served and not how many times it was seen by unique visitors. However, it is not inconceivable that previously, and in fact it is extremely likely, that the same individuals were viewing the same banner over a number of different web pages of one web site as well as a number of different web pages on different web sites. The same individuals may have viewed a particular banner ten or more times. Therefore instead of actually advertising to 200,000 people and paying a royalty on that rate they may have only been advertising to 20,000 people. Therefore a far more equitable way of calculating appropriate royalties may be determined as well as a far more accurate way of determining the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. This was previously impossible and is seen as a major benefit of the system and method. ΙΕ ο 6 ο 1 7 8 In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the step of the collection server analysing the banner tag data further comprises the collection server determining the number of unique visitors to a specified banner shown over a plurality of web pages. By determining the number of unique visitors over a number of web pages, the parties will be able to even more accurately determine the number of truly unique visitors to a particular banner and agree an equitable remuneration based on that calculation. Furthermore, it will now be easier to determine the true number of unique viewers of a particular banner and therefore it will be possible to determine the effectiveness of a particular campaign more thoroughly and comprehensively than was previously the case.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the step of the collection server analysing the banner tag data further comprises the collection server monitoring banner tag data and device identifier data over a plurality of disparate technologies and thereafter determining the number of unique visitors to a particular banner shown over the range of technologies. In this way, it will be possible for the collection server to determine whether an individual has viewed a particular banner advertisement over a number of different technologies such as over the internet and a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) page. This will enable the user to determine whether the viewer is a unique viewer or whether they have seen the banner over another technology platform.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of the collection server determining, for those remote user computing devices that are not new unique visitors to a particular banner, the number of times that remote user computing device has visited a particular banner. This is further seen as advantageous as the collection server may determine the effectiveness of a particular advertisement banner based on the activity of a particular user computing device subsequent to seeing the banner advertisement a number of times.

In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the method comprises the step of the collection server ΙΕ ο 6 Ο 1 7 8 - 8 monitoring the click-through activity of the remote user computing devices accessing a particular banner. This will further enable the collection server to determine the usefulness and effectiveness of the banner advertisement and will allow the collection server to provide statistical data based on a particular banner advertisement which may include data relating to its position on a page and how many click-through that similar banners in that position achieved as opposed to similar banners placed elsewhere for example.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the method comprises the initial step of the advertisement server generating banner tags for a plurality of banner advertisements in a web page and encoding those banner tags into the web page code. This is seen as a simple way of inserting the banner tags into the web page code and allows for all of the web pages stored on a particular advertisement server to be adjusted to contain the banner tags to allow comprehensive monitoring of the banners.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the step of the advertisement server generating banner tags and encoding the banner tags into a web page further comprises the advertisement server inserting banner tags in streaming media, those banner tags being capable of reporting events in the streaming media.

In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of storing device identifier data along with demographic data relating to the proprietors of that device identifier data and comparing the device identifier data received from the user computing device with the stored device identifier data and demographic data to determine a demographic profile, if matching device identifier data is found, of a visitor to a banner. In this way, a demographic profile may be attributed to a viewer of a banner advertisement and stored to allow the collection server determine the average demographic profile of the viewers of a particular banner advertisement.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of combining the ΙΕ ο 6 Ο 1 7 8 - 9 demographic data of the matching device identifier data with the banner data to build a demographic profile for a particular banner advertisement. Similarly, the collection server may generate a profile that may be attributed to a particular banner advertisement i.e. that it is viewed predominantly by individuals in a particular socioeconomic group and therefore the advertisers may target their banner advertisement campaigns more accurately towards particular user groups.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the method further comprises the steps of: obtaining the device identifier data and related demographic data of a plurality of operators of user computing devices that have accessed a specified sample web page; comparing the device identifier data of the user computing devices that have accessed the specified sample web page with the device identifier data of user computing devices that have accessed a web page containing a particular banner; determining the matching device identifier data and from the matching device identifier data building a demographic profile for the operators of the user computing devices that have accessed the particular banner.

This is seen as a particularly efficient way of gathering demographic data in relation to the viewers of a particular banner advertisement. By using the sample web page where the demographic data of a number of device identifier data owners is known, it is possible to determine to a high degree of accuracy the demographic profile of the viewers of a particular banner advertisement which allows advertisers to further refine their advertisements to the users.

This is further seen as a highly important aspect of the invention. By providing a method such as this, it will be possible for the companies posting banner advertisements to determine the demographic information of individuals viewing their banners. This is seen as particularly advantageous as the individuals posting ΙΕ ο 6 0 1 7 8 - 10 the banner advertisements on web pages may more accurately target their advertising campaigns to those individuals that are viewing the banners most frequently through this medium. For example, certain companies such as a telecoms provider may have a very wide customer base including customers anywhere from 18 to 80 years of age. The majority of the customers viewing their banner advertisements on the web on selected web pages may however be in the 18-30 age bracket. Therefore, the advertisers may target their online banner advertisement campaigns on these web pages to the 18-30 age bracket and provide more effective advertising through that media. Furthermore, by combining the demographic data and the banner advertisement data in this manner the companies placing the banner advertisements may determine that the vast majority of their unique visitors through a particular web page are female and aged 25 or under. In the case of a car insurance company, they may place their prominent rates for lady drive policies on those web pages in order to obtain the maximum exposure of their banner advertisements. This has been heretofore impossible.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which the demographic data relating to the users of a particular sample web page is obtained from the operators of that sample web page. This demographic data may be provided by the web page operator who may have received the name, sex and age of the web page user during a login or signing-up procedure. Therefore they can provide very accurate demographic details to the collection server which can therefore provide a much more accurate demographic analysis. Alternatively, it is envisaged that the demographic data provided by the operators of that sample web page may further comprise the probability of the user being of a particular demographic category. This is a further alternative when no definite data regarding the actual visitors of a web page is available, it may be possible to ascertain with a high degree of probability i.e. over 80%, the demographic profile of an individual viewing a particular web page. For example, in a web site containing a number of web pages with various different topics such as that run by RTE News (Registered Trade Mark), there are various web pages dedicated to business, sport, health, general news and lifestyle topics. Through research it may be determined that the vast majority, i.e. 80% of people reading the sports pages are in fact male aged 18 to 35 whereas the majority of people reading the health and lifestyle pages are ΙΕ ο 6 0 1 7 8 - 11 women in the age category of 30 to 45. Therefore, by knowing the probability of the viewers of the web pages being in a particular demographic category, the operators of the sample web page may give the probability that a user is of a particular category and therefore further allowing the suppliers of advertising banner content to target their audiences more appropriately. This is a particularly useful way of carrying out the invention without requiring extensive, time consuming and expensive market research.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online banner activity comprising a collection server, a remote advertisement server and a plurality of remote user computing devices, the collection server, the remote advertisement server and the plurality of remote user computing devices all being connected by way of a communications network; the remote advertisement server having memory for storage of web pages, each web page containing a plurality of banner advertisements therein, at least some of the banners having a banner tag associated therewith containing banner data including one or more of the banner name, the banner location, the banner i.d., the banner campaign, the banner type and the media creator; the plurality of remote user computing devices each having browser software loaded thereon to allow access to and downloading of web pages from the advertising server for viewing on the user computing device, the remote user computing device further comprising a processor to collate the plurality of banner tags associated with the banners contained in a downloaded web page into a single server request message and the remote user computing device having a transmitter to transmit the single server request message to the collection server over the communications network; the collection server having a receiver to receive a server request message containing data relating to a plurality of banner tags from the remote user computing devices, memory for storing information received from the remote user computing devices, and a processor to analyse the banner tag data ΙΕ ο δ 0 1 7 8 contained in the server request messages.

In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online banner activity in which the collection server further comprises means to receive device identifier data in addition to the server request message and the collection server’s processor has means to compare the received device identifier data and banner tag data of a server request message with other device identifier data and banner tag data stored in memory.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online banner activity in which the collection server processor has means to determine the number of unique visitors to a banner.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online banner activity in which the collection server has means to determine the number of unique visitors to a banner advertisement over a plurality of web pages.

In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online banner activity in which the collection server has means to receive server request messages and device identifier data for a plurality of disparate technologies and has means to determine the number of unique visitors to a banner advertisement over the range of disparate technologies.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online banner activity in which the collection server has device identifier data and demographic data relating to the proprietors of that device identifier data stored in memory, the collection server having means to compare received device identifier data with the stored device identifier data and ascertain a demographic profile, if matching device identifier data is found, to viewers of a particular banner based on the comparison of the device identifier data.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online banner activity in which the demographic data further comprises the probability of a device identifier belonging to a particular demographic category. ΙΕ ο 6 0 1 7 8 - 13 In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online banner activity in which the collection server has means to combine the demographic data of matching device identifier data with the banner tag data and attribute a demographic profile for a particular banner advertisement.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online banner activity in which the remote advertisement server further comprises a processor for generating banner tags for the banner advertisements and inserting the banner tags for a plurality of banner advertisements into the web page’s code.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in a system comprising a collection server, a remote advertisement server and a plurality of remote user computing devices, the collection server, the remote advertisement server and the plurality of remote user computing devices all being connected by way of a communications network, the remote advertisement server having a plurality of web pages stored thereon containing banner advertisements, at least some of the banner advertisements on each web page having banner tag data relating to the banner advertisement contained in the code of the web page, each of the remote user computing devices having browser software stored thereon to allow the user computing devices download and view web pages on the remote user computing device, the method comprising the steps of: the collection server receiving a server request message containing banner tag data relating to a plurality of banners therein from a remote user computing device; the collection server parsing the server request message containing banner tag data relating to a plurality of banners therein and thereafter analysing the banner tag data; and storing the banner tag data in memory.

This is seen as an efficient way for the collection server to operate in such a method IE 0 6 0 1 7 8 - 14 and system. The collection server can collect data relating to the viewers of banner advertisements in an unobtrusive manner and furthermore will be able to reduce the computational burden and communication overhead required to monitor the banner tag data by collecting the data in this way.

In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of the collection server receiving device identifier data in addition to the server request message and analysing the device identifier data and banner tag data by comparing it with other device identifier data and associated banner tag data stored in memory.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity as in which the step of the collection server analysing the device identifier data and the banner tag data further comprises the step of the collection server determining whether or not the remote user computing device is a unique visitor to a particular banner.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the step of the collection server analysing the device identifier data and the banner tag data further comprises the step of the collection server determining the number of unique visitors to a particular banner over a plurality of web pages.

In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the step of the collection server analysing the device identifier data and the banner tag data further comprises the step of the collection server monitoring banner tag data over a plurality of disparate technologies and thereafter determining the number of unique visitors to a particular banner over the range of technologies.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the collection server determines for those remote user computing devices that are not new unique visitors to a particular banner, the number of times that remote user computing device has visited a particular banner. ΙΕ ο β 0 1 7 8 In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the collection server monitors the click-through activity of the viewers of a particular banner.

In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of storing device identifier data along with demographic data relating to the proprietors of that device identifier data and comparing the device identifier data received from the user computing device with the stored device identifier data and demographic data and determining the demographic profile, if matching device identifier data is found, of a visitor to a banner.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity as in which the method further comprises the step of combining the demographic data of the matching device identifier data with the banner data to determine the demographic profile for a particular banner advertisement.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the method further comprises the steps of: obtaining the device identifier data and related demographic data of a plurality of operators of user computing devices that have accessed a specified sample web page; comparing the device identifier data of the user computing devices that have accessed the sample web page with the device identifier data of user computing devices that have accessed a web page containing a particular banner; determining the matching device identifier data and from the matching device identifier data building a demographic profile for the operators of the user computing devices that have accessed the particular banner. ΙΕ ο 6 ο 1 7 8 - 16 In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the demographic data is provided by the operators of the sample web page.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the demographic data provided further comprises the probability of the operator of a user computing device accessing the sample web page being of a particular demographic category.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in a system comprising an advertisement server, a remote collection server and a plurality of remote user computing devices, the advertisement server, the remote collection server and the plurality of remote user computing devices all being connected by way of a communications network, each of the plurality of remote user computing devices having browser software loaded thereon to allow downloading and viewing of web pages on the remote user computing device, the remote collection server further comprising a processor for analysing server request messages relating to web page accesses sent by individual user computing devices on executing a web page, the method comprising the steps of: the advertising server obtaining the code for a particular web page containing a plurality of banners; the advertisement server inserting a banner tag containing one or more of the banner name, the banner type, the banner i.d., the banner location, the campaign name and the media creator in the code of the web page for a plurality of the banners in the web page; the advertisement server storing the web page code complete with banner tags in memory for subsequent access by remote user computing devices; and on receiving a web page access request from one of the remote user ΙΕ ο 6 ο 1 7 8 - 17 computing devices, transmitting the web page code complete with banner tag data to the remote user computing device.

This is seen as a particularly useful way for the advertisement server to operate in such a method. The advertisement server will be able to insert the banner tags into the code of the web pages themselves in a simple and efficient manner with the minimum of difficulty as well as in a non-obtrusive manner. This will allow the banner tag data to be downloaded by the user computing devices without requiring additional permissions or actions to be carried out by the user computing device operators.

In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the advertising server places banner tags in streaming media content and subsequently stores the streaming media content complete with banner tags in advertisement server memory for subsequent access by remote user computing devices.

In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in a system comprising a user computing device, a remote collection server and a remote advertisement server, the remote advertisement server having a plurality of web pages stored thereon, each of the web pages having a plurality of banners therein, at least some of the banners having banner tags associated therewith containing banner data including one or more of the banner name, the banner location, the banner i.d., the banner campaign, the banner type and the media creator, the remote collection server further comprising a processor for processing data received from the user computing device, the user computing device having web browser software loaded thereon to allow downloading and viewing of web pages on the user computing device, the method comprising the steps of; the user computing device sending a web page access request to the remote advertisement server and thereafter downloading the requested web page; the user computing device collating all of the banner tag data contained in the web page into a single server request message; and IE 0 6 0 1 7 β - 18 the user computing device transmitting the single server request message to the collection server for analysis.

In this way, the user computing device will operate in a very efficient manner allowing the method of monitoring online banner activity to be carried out in a simple, seamless manner. The banner tags from two or more banner advertisements will be collated into a single server request message that may be sent to a collection server for further processing. The user computing device will automatically create and transmit the server request message without requiring additional input from the operator of the device and the steps are carried out unbeknownst to the operator of the user computing device.

In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the method comprises the step of the user computing device transmitting a device identifier to the collection server.

In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner activity in which the user computing device transmits the device identifier to the collection server together with the banner tag data in the single server request message.

Detailed Description of the Invention The invention will now be more clearly understood from the following description of some embodiments thereof given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which; Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of the system in which the method according to the invention is performed.

Referring to Fig. 1 there is shown a system in which the method may be carried out, indicated generally by the reference numeral 1, comprising a plurality of user computing devices 3 each having browser software loaded thereon to enable viewing of web pages, an advertisement server 5 and a collection server 7. The plurality of ΙΕ ο 6 0 1 7 8 - 19 user computing devices 3, the advertisement server 5 and the collection server 7 are all connected by way of communications network 9. The user computing devices each access web pages through the communication network. Each of the web pages contains a plurality of banners (not shown). The collection server has access to a database and memory 8. There is further provided alternative user computing devices 3 in the form of a mobile telephone 11 and a PDA 13.

In use, the advertisement server 5 generates a banner tag containing information specific to a particular banner including one or more of the banner name, the banner type, the banner ID, the banner location, the campaign name and the media creator, for at least some of the banners in a web page and inserts the banner tags into the code for that web page on generation of the web page. The user computing devices 3 transmit web page access requests to the advertisement server through the communication network 9 and web pages are downloaded to the user computing devices 3. The web pages downloaded have a plurality of banners therein along with their associated banner tags. On downloading of the web page to the user computing device, the user computing device collates all the information from the banner tags and sends the collated information relating to all the banner tags along with a device identifier identifying the user computing device 3 to the collection server 7 in a server request message. In this instance the device identifier data comprises a cookie. The collection server monitors and analyses the banner activity from the received collated information. In this way the banner information taken from banner tags of a number of banners on any given page are transmitted simultaneously to the collection server. A single server request message is sufficient to transfer information relating to a number of different banners and this reduces the computational and communication overheads of the system. Once the collection server receives the collated information the collection server may carry out various statistical analysis on the information retrieved.

One of the most important aspects of the present invention is the ability of the collection server to determine the number of unique visitors (UV) to a particular banner. In this way, it is possible for the advertisers of goods using banners to determine how many separate individuals have been subjected to their banners across a number of different web pages. This is achieved by the collection server ΙΕ ο 6 0 1 7 8 - 20 obtaining device identifier information relating to a specific user computing device 3 and one or more specified web pages. It is envisaged that these specified web pages will have a banner of an advertising entity thereon. For each banner that has been served through the site, the collection server will hold a list of device identifiers from all devices that have been served that particular banner. When the new device identifier information is received in the request, the collection server will identify each banner included in the request, and then compare the device identifier in the request with the list of device identifiers stored in memory for this banner to determine if the device has seen the banner before or not. If not, it will include it in the list of device identifiers for further reference. Once the device identifier information has been compared in this manner the collection server may then determine the number of unique visitors that have viewed a particular banner displayed on one or more specified web pages as they will know from the banner information whether a particular user computer device has accessed a banner and thereafter from the device identifier information they will be able to determine whether that user has visited a number of web pages each containing a particular banner. This is extremely useful to the parties that post banner advertisements as it allows them to more comprehensively analyse the accesses to their banners and the benefit that they are obtaining from that advertising.

Another highly important aspect of the present invention is the ability of the method to combine demographic data and associate that with advertising banners. This is achieved by the collection server obtaining demographic data relating to users of a particular sample web page. The collection server then obtains the device identifier data of the user computing devices that have accessed that sample web page. Once the demographic data and the device identifiers data of the user computing devices have been obtained, the collection server may then build a database 8 of user computing devices device identifier data with associated demographic data. This device identifier data of the user computing devices that have accessed the sample web page may be compared with the device identifier data of users that accessed a web page with a particular banner. Therefore the collection server may then provide demographic data of that banner based on the comparison of the device identifier data of the user computing devices that have accessed the sample web page with the device identifier data of users who have accessed the web page containing the ΙΕ ο 6 0 1 7 8 - 21 banner.

There are many ways in which the collection server may obtain the demographic data. In many instances the operators of the sample web page will have full demographic data details of the users of that sample web page. For instance the users of the sample web page may be required to insert various personal data before joining the sample web page as a member. In this instance the operator of the sample web page may transmit directly all of the relevant information to the collection server. Alternatively, in certain circumstances the operator of the sample web page may know with a reasonably high level of probability (in the region of 80% or above) that the users of a particular page would be in a certain demographic grouping. For instance, on a web site of an online retailer that sells various different types of music, DVDs, videos and computer games, it may be reasonable for the operator of the web page to ascertain that over 80% of all accesses to a games section web page are made by males in the age group of 15 to 24. Alternatively those web pages relating to classical or jazz music are predominantly accessed by both males and females in the age bracket 55 and above. Therefore the operator of the web page(s) may provide statistical analysts of their web pages which may be used by the collection server in their analysis of the banner tags and demographic data. Both of these methods are seen as providing vast improvements on the existing methods and systems for monitoring and analysing banner advertisements on web pages.

Throughout this specification reference has been made to web pages and web sites. It will be understood that the banner information may also be contained in an online stream of data such as radio or video streams, and also in video and audio files that are available for download from a website onto iPod’s or other similar mobile phones or PDA devices, and that these web sites could be computer accessible web sites on the world wide web, mobile web sites or indeed could be through other streaming media. In addition to providing the number of accesses to a particular banner it would be possible for the method to also determine the click through activity and the number of unique visitors that see a particular banner. Furthermore, it is possible for the collection server to determine the number of users as well as the unique users over multiple domains, i.e. web pages and mobile web pages. ΙΕ ο 6 Ο 1 7 β - 22 The tags that are provided are inserted into the HTML code which creates the web page. Various different versions of these tags may also allow identification measurement of banner ads in streaming media such as audio or visual streams. These banner tags in streaming media also make it possible to see how much of the ad is being viewed by a listener or a viewer. It will be understood throughout the specification that although reference has been made generally to viewing a web page this should also include viewing a page, listening to items from the page or downloading items on that page generally. Frequently, the stream of data would be an audio stream rather than a visual stream such as a radio programme broadcast online. In order to track the streaming data over the internet it is possible to measure the advertisements contained in the streams. This is achieved by placing HTML tags into the web pages from which the streams of data are accessed and these web tags are able to pick up identification data from the streams (for Real player or Windows player data streams or QuickTime {Apple’s player}) (Registered Trade Marks) and when these data streams are activated in the player on the client’s machine it is possible to track all the events that occur in the data stream such as the start, stop or pause action. For example, if somebody is listening to the morning radio show on their user computer device, in this case a PC, using streaming technology, then during a break in the morning shown when the banner advertisements come on it is possible to have a tag in the stream data which could signal the start of a number of banner ads and the banner ads can then be measured and it can be determined who’s listening to the ads.

Therefore there is provided a system of monitoring online banner activity that will allow advertisers to accurately determine the number of unique visitors to their banner as well as the demographics of the audience that they are reaching across a variety of media on different pages. This greatly enhances the ability of the advertisers to advertise their goods and services.

In the embodiments described, the advertisement server and the collection server are connected to each other over the communication network. It is envisaged that in some instances the advertisement server and the collection server may in fact form part of the same apparatus and they have been shown separately for reasons of clarity. In this instance they would simply be separate parts of a processing device ΙΕ ο 6 0 1 7 8 - 23 such as a server. Furthermore, although there is shown a connection between the collection server through the communications network to the advertisement server, it is envisaged that there may in fact be a dedicated connection therebetween.

In the embodiments shown, the communications network is generally provided by way of the internet and the invention has been discussed predominantly in terms of the internet and banner advertisements on web pages. It will be understood however that this is not the only communications network available and when web pages are referred to and the communication network is referred to, this is in no way intended to limit the embodiments to web based networks and pages but also covers telecommunications networks and banners such as banner advertisements shown on WAP pages and the like.

Throughout the specification, reference has been made to banners and in particular to advertisement banners displayed on web pages. It will be understood that these could comprise simple banners for ordinary PC usage, or rich media banners and advertisements meant to be viewed as streaming media, File Download or IPod downloads on either PC, mobile phones or mobile computing devices, all of which will be initially accessed or downloaded from a website.

In order to monitor streaming media, such as that streaming media available on a html web page with a Media Player (RTM) module embedded therein, the user accessing the stream through the Media Player module in the page, there is provided a tag comprising a piece of JavaScript code in the web page containing the Media Player module. The JavaScript code is used to monitor the activity of the media player module. When an event relating to the player module happens, i.e. a stream is requested and it starts, a stream is paused etc, the JavaScript code catches the event and all of the details associated with the event and through the ordinary tag at the end of the web page, which is used to measure the web page generally, the captured data is sent to the server. This is a very simple and efficient way of monitoring the streaming media.

It is envisaged that in certain circumstances, the advertising content tags cannot be individually highlighted as with the live stream. In this case, in order to monitor the IE 0 6 0 1 7 β - 24 advertisements, the above described method is performed with the additional step of having the broadcasting company that creates the stream include separate data in the stream which essentially comprises the play list for the advertisements of that program which is to be streamed. This play list information is then captured and associated with the stream before being transmitted to the server. Preferably, the advertisement play list information is included with the start event of the stream.

It will be further understood that the phrase “advertisement server” has been used throughout this specification to mean a server that transmits web pages that contain banner advertisements on request to a user. Another term that is sometimes used for this type of server is a web server which typically serves web pages and other media and inserts banners into pages and in some instances calls for an advertisement to be put into a web page by a separate, dedicated advertisement server that deals solely with the provision of advertisements and inserting those advertisements into web pages when requested to do so. The term advertisement server as used throughout the specification is intended to cover both a web server within the recognised meaning of the word as well as an advertisement server within the normally recognised meaning of the word. The advertisement server as described throughout the specification may have the function of primarily inserting the banners into web pages or may have the function of sending the entire web pages and at least some or all of the advertisements in the web page to a user computing device.

In many cases, strictly speaking, the operation of building a web page may involve a number of advertisement servers or a combination of what are sometimes referred to as web servers and advertisement servers working together to build the web page. The initial server to whom the web page access request is sent, which may be an advertisement server or a web server within a more strict definition of the term, may transmit a web page containing one or more advertisement banners contained therein to the user computing device. However, this web page may also contain routine calls to other advertisement servers that are called to insert particular advertisements into the web page also. These advertisements may not have been available on the original web server that received the request. Although these banner advertisements may come from other physically separate advertisement servers or web servers, it is intended that when there is a step of an advertisement server ΙΕ ο 6 0 1 7 8 - 25 transmitting a web page with a number of banners to a user computing device and a number of advertisement servers are involved or a combination of web servers and advertisement servers are involved, the specification is intended to cover the scenario where multiple servers are used to build the web page, all of which act on the instructions issued by the advertisement server to whom the request was made and therefore, when a step is said to be carried out by an advertisement server, it will be understood that this step may in fact be carried out by a number of advertisement servers and/or web servers which together constitute the advertisement server carrying out the step.

In addition to the above, throughout the specification, reference is made to both a device identifier and a cookie. The majority of the description focuses on the use of a cookie but it will be understood that any suitable device identifier that is available may be used. Typically, when dealing with computers, the device identifier will be the cookie data due to the unavailability of the computer registration data but when dealing with a mobile telephone, instead of using a cookie a phone unique device identifier is preferably used that allows for accurate identification of a device.

Furthermore, many of the components of the invention and in particular the advertisement server and the collection server and the method steps that they perform may be implemented in software. Therefore, the invention also extends to computer programs, particularly to computer programs on or in a carrier, adapted for putting the invention into practice. The program may be in a form of source code, object code, or a form intermediate source code and object code. The program may be stored on or in a carrier such as any known computer readable medium such as a floppy disc, ROM, CD ROM or DVD or other recordable medium. The carrier may be a transmissible carrier such as an electrical or optical signal, which may be conveyed via electrical or optical cable or by radio or other means. When the program is embodied on a signal, which may be conveyed directly by cable or other device, the carrier may be constituted by such a cable or other device means. It is further envisaged that the computer program may be stored in an integrated circuit.

In the specification the terms “comprise”, “comprises”, “comprised” and “comprising” and the terms “include”, “includes”, “included” and “including” are deemed totally ΙΕ ο 6 0 1 7 8 - 26 interchangeable and should be afforded the widest possible interpretation.

The invention is in no way limited to the embodiments hereinbefore described but may be varied in both construction and detail within the scope of the claims.

Claims (1)

1. A method of monitoring online banner activity in a system (1) comprising a collection server (7), a remote advertisement server (5) and a plurality of remote user computing devices (3), the collection server, the remote advertisement server and the plurality of remote user computing devices being connected by way of a communication network (9), the remote advertisement server having a plurality of web pages stored thereon, each of the plurality of remote user computing devices having web browser software loaded thereon to allow downloading and viewing of web pages on the user computing device, the method comprising the steps of: one of the remote user computing devices sending a web page access request to the remote advertisement server; the remote advertisement server transmitting the requested web page to the remote user computing device, the requested web page containing a plurality of banners therein, at least some of the banners having a banner tag associated therewith containing banner data including one or more of the banner name, banner location, banner i.d„ banner campaign, banner type and media creator; on downloading of the web page, the remote user computing device collating the banner data of each of the plurality of banner tags contained in the requested web page into a single server request message; the remote user computing device transmitting the single server request message containing banner data relating to each of the plurality of banner tags to the collection server; and the collection server receiving the server request message and thereafter storing and analysing the banner tag data contained therein. IE 0 6 0 1 7 8 - 28 A method of monitoring online banner activity as claimed in claim 1 in which the method further comprises the step of the remote user computing device (3) transmitting device identifier data to the collection server (7) and the step of analysing the banner tag data further comprises the steps of: the collection server (7) comparing the banner tag data and device identifier data with other banner tag data and or device identifier data stored in memory (8); and determining whether or not the remote user computing device (3) is a unique visitor to a particular banner. A method of monitoring online banner activity in a system (1) comprising a collection server (7), a remote advertisement server (5) and a plurality of remote user computing devices (3), the collection server, the remote advertisement server and the plurality of remote user computing devices all being connected by way of a communications network (9), the remote advertisement server (5) having a plurality of web pages stored thereon containing banner advertisements, at least some of the banner advertisements on each web page having banner tag data relating to the banner advertisement contained in the code of the web page, each of the remote user computing devices (3) having browser software stored thereon to allow the user computing devices download and view web pages on the remote user computing device, the method comprising the steps of: the collection server (7) receiving a server request message containing banner tag data relating to a plurality of banners therein from a remote user computing device; the collection server (7) parsing the server request message containing banner tag data relating to a plurality of banners therein and thereafter analysing the banner tag data; and IE 0 6 0 1 7 8 - 29 storing the banner tag data in memory (8). A method of monitoring online banner activity in a system (1) comprising an advertisement server (5), a remote collection server (7) and a plurality of remote user computing devices (3), the advertisement server, the remote collection server and the plurality of remote user computing devices all being connected by way of a communications network, each of the plurality of remote user computing devices (3) having browser software loaded thereon to allow downloading and viewing of web pages on the remote user computing device, the remote collection server (7) further comprising a processor for analysing server request messages relating to web page accesses sent by individual user computing devices on executing a web page, the method comprising the steps of: the advertising server (5) obtaining the code for a particular web page containing a plurality of banners; the advertisement server (5) inserting a banner tag containing one or more of the banner name, the banner type, the banner i.d., the banner location, the campaign name and the media creator in the code of the web page for a plurality of the banners in the web page; the advertisement server (5) storing the web page code complete with banner tags in memory for subsequent access by remote user computing devices; and on receiving a web page access request from one of the remote user computing devices (3), transmitting the web page code complete with banner tag data to the remote user computing device. A method of monitoring online banner activity substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.