JP2001265807A - Method and system for advertisement distribution by computer network - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and a system for advertisement distribution on a network which can select in detail and distribute advertisement information that each advertisement recipient requires without requesting the advertisement recipient to do complicated operation. SOLUTION: The advertisement distribution system 10 is equipped with an advertisement database 24, an advertisement screen database 26, and a purchaser database 28. In the advertisement database 24, the article genres that respective advertisement providers handle and their location area numbers, etc., are recorded and in the advertisement screen database 26, advertisement screen data are recorded. In the purchaser database, distribution-unneeded genres and desired distribution area numbers (area number of location of a provider for desired distributed advertisement) of respective newspaper subscribers as the advertisement recipients are recorded. To each subscriber, advertisement complying with the distribution-unneeded genres and desirable distribution area number is selected and distributed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an advertisement distribution method and an advertisement distribution system on a computer network, and more particularly, to an advertisement distribution method and an advertisement distribution system capable of distributing an advertisement suitable for each advertisement recipient.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the rapid spread of the Internet, various publications are being distributed over a network. It is anticipated that newspapers currently delivered manually to each household will be distributed over the network as electronic newspapers in the future. By the way, various advertisement flyers are inserted in newspapers delivered to each home, and such insert advertisements have usefulness closely related to the area, such as supermarket special sale information and real estate information in the area. Many are expensive. Therefore, it is desirable to secure a system that distributes, to each home, advertising information closely related to the same area as the current insertion advertisement even when newspaper distribution is performed over the network. As a system for distributing an advertisement on a network, for example, Japanese Patent No. 2756483
An advertisement distribution system disclosed in JP-A-10-240828 and JP-A-10-240828 is known.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Patent No. 2756483
In the advertisement distribution system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H11-260, map information is displayed on a user computer, and advertisement information of a store or the like associated with a region clicked on the map information is presented on the user computer. However, the area where the user desires to distribute the advertisement information is often a wide range of living areas including, for example, around the user's home, around the work place, and along the commuting route. Therefore, in the advertisement distribution system of the above-mentioned publication, in order for the user to obtain the advertisement information in such a living area, the user has to select a region on the map information many times to search for the advertisement information of a desired store or the like. Operation is complicated. In addition, since a store is displayed by selecting a region, and furthermore, a product handled at the store is displayed by selecting a store, the user finds useful information such as bargain sale information where. It is very difficult to understand. Also, when a store is newly renovated and the user wants to attract the user's attention especially, the information is not presented to the user until the user clicks the store display. is there.

Further, the advertisement distribution system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-240828 attempts to distribute an advertisement suitable for a user by judging the user's preference based on the history of a WEB site accessed by the user. Is what you do. However, in recent years, products handled by one store have become diversified, for example, a pharmacy sells soft drinks and daily necessities, and an eyeglass store sells mobile phones. It is difficult to judge. For this reason, even if the advertisement of the store selected based on the history of the browsed WEB site is delivered, the information that the user really wants (for example, the special sale information of the desired product) is not always included. .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a method for selecting and distributing advertisement information required by each advertisement recipient without requiring complicated operations to the advertisement recipient. It is an object of the present invention to provide an advertisement distribution method and an advertisement distribution system on a network capable of performing the above.

[0006]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an advertisement distribution method for distributing an advertisement by a server computer connected to a computer network. An advertisement registration step of registering information for each advertisement provider together with supplementary information including location information relating to the location of the advertisement provider, and a recipient that specifies an advertisement that each advertisement recipient desires to deliver based on the location information Receiving side information obtaining step for obtaining side information, receiving side information registering step for registering the obtained receiver side information for each advertisement receiver, and receiving each advertisement based on the registered receiver side information. An advertisement selection step of selecting an advertisement to be delivered to a user from the advertisement information registered in the advertisement registration step, and a user computer of each advertisement recipient. Characterized in that it comprises a advertisement transmitting step of transmitting the advertisement information selected for the advertisement recipient.

[0007] According to the first aspect of the present invention, the information on the recipient that specifies the advertisement that the advertisement recipient wants to distribute is registered, and the advertisement is distributed to each advertisement recipient based on the registered information on the recipient. The advertisement to be selected is selected from the advertisement information registered for each advertisement provider. For this reason, it is possible to distribute an advertisement to each advertisement recipient according to each request only by registering the recipient side information in advance. Further, the advertisement delivered to each advertisement recipient is selected based on the location of the provider of the advertisement information desired by the advertisement recipient. For this reason, useful advertisements close to the area corresponding to each living area can be delivered to the advertisement recipient. Furthermore, since the registration of the advertisement information is performed for each advertisement provider, it is possible to distribute advertisements with a high level of listing for products and the like handled by each advertisement provider.

[0008] The invention described in claim 2 is the first invention.
In the advertisement distribution method described in the above, in the recipient information obtaining step, map information is transmitted from a user computer to an advertisement recipient who has accessed through a computer network, and is selected on the map information in the user computer. The receiver side information is obtained based on a region where the information is received.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the advertisement recipient can easily specify an advertisement to be distributed by selecting a region on the map information.

[0010] Further, the invention according to claim 3 is based on claim 1.
Or the advertisement distribution method according to 2, wherein the supplementary information further includes genre information relating to a genre of an advertisement object related to the advertisement information, and the recipient-side information is based on the genre information in addition to the location information. It is characterized in that a delivery desired advertisement is specified.

[0011] The invention described in claim 4 is the same as the claim 3.
In the above described advertisement distribution method, the recipient information includes information on a genre that the advertisement recipient does not want to distribute.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the advertisement information to be delivered to the advertisement recipient is selected based on the genre that the advertisement recipient does not want to distribute. For this reason, an advertisement of a genre that is not particularly interested by the advertisement recipient is distributed unless the genre is specified as a genre that does not want to be distributed. Accordingly, advertisements in a wide range of genres can be distributed to each advertisement recipient except for those genres that the advertisement recipient considers unnecessary.

The invention described in claims 5 to 8 is:
A system for performing the method according to claims 1 to 4.

[0014]

FIG. 1 is a network configuration diagram including an advertisement distribution system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the advertisement distribution system 10 is operated by an electronic newspaper publisher and distributes advertisements to electronic newspaper subscribers. The advertisement distribution system 10 is configured by a computer system having a communication interface, a large-capacity data storage device, and the like. The central processing unit 12 reads a program recorded in a storage unit such as a hard disk device 14, and reads data according to the program. Various functions are realized by executing the processing. In addition, the advertisement distribution system 10 may be provided as a common one all over Japan, or may be provided in each fixed region (for example, each region such as the Kanto region and the Chubu region).

[0024] A number of user computers 20 are connected to the advertisement distribution system 10 via the Internet 18. FIG. 1 shows only one of the user computers 20. The advertisement distribution system 10 is provided with a predetermined digital document description language (HTML: Hy in this embodiment).
The advertisement screen data described in perText Markup Language) is transmitted to the user computer 20.

The advertisement distribution system 10 is provided with a unique URL, and this URL is notified to newspaper subscribers and businesses that can be advertisement providers. Thereby, the newspaper subscriber and the business can access the advertisement distribution system 10 and perform various registration operations as described below.

As shown in FIG. 1, the advertisement distribution system 10 includes an advertisement database 24, an advertisement screen database 26, and an advertisement recipient database 28.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of data registered in the advertisement database 24. As shown in FIG. 2, the advertisement database 24 stores, for each of the businesses that are advertisement providers, an advertisement provider name (store name), an advertisement provider ID, a password, a handled item genre, a location, a telephone number, and a region. A number, an advertisement screen data file name, and an advertisement distribution deadline are registered. The handling item genre is a category in which the items handled by each store are categorized according to a predetermined category. For example, a plurality of genres are set for pharmacy A, such as (pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, daily goods, foodstuffs). It is possible to The area number is a number indicating the section to which the location of the business belongs when the area is sectioned on a map. As will be described later, a newspaper subscriber who is an advertisement recipient specifies the location of a business that wants to distribute an advertisement by using this area code. The advertisement screen database 26 records advertisement screen data of an advertisement to be distributed, and the advertisement screen data file name indicates the file name of the advertisement screen data recorded in the advertisement screen database 26. Further, the advertisement distribution period indicates a period during which the registered advertisement is to be distributed.

A business operator who wants to distribute an advertisement by the advertisement distribution system 10 can use the advertisement distribution system 10
To obtain an advertisement provider ID and a password by making a contract with the operator. When the advertisement distribution contract is concluded, the advertisement distribution system 10 stores the store name, ID (advertisement provider ID), password, handling item genre,
The location, telephone number, and area number are registered in the advertisement database 24. In addition, the contract of the advertisement distribution may be made such that the business operator can access the advertisement distribution system 10 via the Internet and transmit predetermined items to the advertisement distribution system 10 without human intervention, or A contract may be made in writing between the operator of the advertisement distribution system 10 and the business operator.

When a business operator who has made a contract for advertisement distribution actually distributes advertisements, the user computer 20 of the business operator accesses the advertisement distribution system 10 by designating the URL of the advertisement distribution system 10. In response, the advertisement distribution system 10
0, the input of the advertisement provider ID and the password is requested, and if the advertisement provider ID and the password input by the user computer 20 are appropriate, an advertisement distribution period and a data registration screen for transmitting the advertisement screen data Is transmitted to the user computer 20. In this data registration screen, the advertisement distribution period can be transmitted to the advertisement distribution system 10 by entering it in a predetermined entry column. The screen data can be transmitted (uploaded) to the advertisement distribution system 10.

The advertisement distribution system 10 registers the received advertisement screen data in the advertisement screen database 26, and records the screen data file name and the received advertisement distribution period in the corresponding columns of the advertisement database 24, respectively. However, the advertisement is in the form of a paper advertisement.
In the case where the advertisement is provided to the operator 0, the system operator creates the advertisement screen data by reading the provided paper advertisement with a scanner and registers the advertisement screen data in the advertisement database 24 and the advertisement screen database 26. Is also good. Further, in the above description, the business operator can newly register only the advertisement distribution period and the advertisement screen data. However, the item genre may be updated each time according to the advertisement content. As described later, the advertisement distribution system 1
0 distributes the advertisement to the advertisement recipient when the supplementary information such as the area number and the genre registered in the advertisement database 24 matches the desire of the advertisement recipient.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the configuration of data registered in the advertisement recipient database 28. As shown in FIG.
In the advertisement recipient database 28, for each advertisement recipient, an advertisement recipient name, an address, an advertisement recipient ID, a password, a mail address, a distribution unnecessary genre, and a distribution desired area are registered. Among them, as the advertisement recipient ID and the password, for example, those assigned to each subscriber when subscribing to the electronic newspaper can be used. The e-mail address may be the one specified by each subscriber at the time of the subscription contract as the distribution destination of the electronic newspaper, or may be such that the subscriber can specify an e-mail address different from the distribution destination of the electronic newspaper . Further, the distribution unnecessary genre is an item genre that each user does not want to distribute the advertisement, and the distribution desired area is an area number of a region where a business entity to which each user desires the advertisement distribution exists.

The registration in the advertisement recipient database 28 may be performed in response to an application from a subscriber of the electronic newspaper, or may be performed automatically at the time of a subscription contract for all the subscribers. . In the latter case, a predetermined default value (for example, “none” for unnecessary distribution genre, and a region including the subscriber's home address is used as the initial value of the distribution unnecessary genre and the desired distribution area) is used. , Advertisement recipient database 28
Can be shared with a database of electronic newspaper subscribers.

An advertisement recipient who newly registers in the advertisement recipient database 28 or wants to change the registered content can specify the URL of the advertisement distribution system 10 on the user computer 20 to thereby specify the advertisement distribution system 1.
Access 0. In response, the advertisement distribution system 10 informs the user computer 20 of the advertisement recipient I.
Require D and password input. If the advertisement recipient ID and the password input by the user computer 20 are appropriate, the user computer 20 displays screen data for changing the distribution unnecessary genre or the distribution desired area in response to a request from the user computer 20. Send to As can be seen from the above description,
The response process of the advertisement distribution system 10 is different between the case where access is made from the user computer 20 of the advertisement provider and the case where access is made from the user computer 20 of the advertisement recipient. May be determined based on the input ID value, or the URL for the advertisement provider and the URL for the advertisement recipient may be set separately.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a region designation screen for designating a desired distribution region on the user computer 20. As shown in FIG. 4, a map 50 of a range including the home address of the advertisement recipient is displayed on the area designation screen. Map 50
Are subdivided into predetermined sections, and each section is assigned the above-mentioned area number. Advertisers receive the map 50
By clicking on a desired section with a mouse, a desired distribution area can be designated. Further, by clicking the “enlarge” button 52 or the “reduce” button 54, the scale of the map can be switched. In the example illustrated in FIG. 4, hatching indicates that the vicinity of the home of the advertisement recipient (Fujimi City), the vicinity of the work location (Ikebukuro), and the vicinity of the commuting route (Tobu Tojo Line) are designated. In this way, by designating the living area including the vicinity of the work place and the area along the commuting route as the distribution desired area, it is possible to receive various useful advertisements related to the entire living area.

When the "Send" button 56 is clicked after the desired delivery area is selected on the map as described above, the area number of the selected desired delivery area is displayed in the advertisement delivery system 1.
0 and is registered in the advertisement recipient database 28 as the distribution desired area of the advertisement recipient.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, the area is divided into a grid, but the area is not limited to this.
(District, town, etc.), or may be partitioned according to the delivery area when paper-based newspaper delivery is performed. In addition to specifying the distribution desired area by selecting a section, for example, a range specification such as a radius within a certain distance from a predetermined point or a range such as a width within a predetermined railway line, a bus line, or a national road within a distance of several kilometers. It may be performed by designation.

At a predetermined distribution time every day, the advertisement distribution system 10 distributes an advertisement to an advertisement recipient based on the data content registered in each database. Specifically, the distribution unnecessary genre and the distribution desired area of each advertisement recipient are read from the advertisement recipient database 28. Then, with reference to the advertisement database 24, the handled item genre includes a genre other than the distribution unnecessary genre of the advertisement recipient, the area number corresponds to any of the distribution desired areas of the advertisement recipient, and The advertisement screen file name of the advertisement within the advertisement distribution period is obtained, the advertisement screen file specified by the advertisement screen file name is read from the advertisement screen database 26, and transmitted to the e-mail address of the advertisement recipient.

A link to image data can be set for each element of the advertisement screen data described in HTML.
By transmitting the linked image data together with the advertisement screen data to the user computer 20, an advertisement screen including a graphic image such as a photograph or an illustration can be displayed on the user computer 20. In addition, HTM
A link to a URL can be set for each element of the advertisement screen data described in L. So, for example,
By setting a link to the URL of the homepage of the advertisement provider, the user computer 20 can access the linked homepage just by clicking the screen element on which the link is set with the mouse.

FIG. 5 shows an example of an advertisement screen displayed on the user computer 20. As illustrated in FIG. 5, the advertisement screen distributed to the user computer 20 includes a business name (store name), an expiration date, a special sale item name, a price, a product photograph, and the like at a glance, similarly to a newspaper insert flyer advertisement. It is configured to be understood. Further, in the advertisement screen shown in FIG. 5, a link to the homepage of this store is set in the store name display (“PQ supermarket”) 60. When the store name display 60 is clicked with a mouse, “PQ supermarket” is displayed. Jump to homepage.

In the above description, the advertisement data distributed from the advertisement distribution system 10 is described in HTML. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a text-format mail is transmitted in a predetermined format (for example, JPEG, GIF).
Etc.) may be attached and distributed. Alternatively, a dedicated browsing program may be distributed to the advertisement recipient in advance, and the advertisement data may be distributed in a data format corresponding to the browsing program.
In any case, it is possible to set a link to the homepage URL of the store related to the advertisement in the advertisement data and allow the user to access the homepage by clicking the link.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, a newspaper subscriber who is an advertisement recipient can finely specify an advertisement desired to be distributed in accordance with his / her own life zone, thereby eliminating unnecessary local advertisements. Only useful ads can be received. Also, the designation information of the advertisement desiring to be distributed is registered in the subscriber database 28, and the advertisement selected based on the registered content is distributed, so that the advertisement receiver receives the advertisement distribution system 10 in order to receive the advertisement distribution. It is unnecessary to perform operations such as access. That is, in the present embodiment,
Since a push-type service in which the advertisement is delivered to the user computer 20 by e-mail or the like is realized, the advertisement recipient can reliably obtain the advertisement without taking any positive action.

As can be seen from the example shown in FIG. 5, the advertisement distributed in the present embodiment is issued for each store (business), so that the merchandise handled there can be grasped at a glance. . That is, the advertisement recipient can very easily know necessary and important information such as the price of each product without performing an operation such as clicking the store name to obtain the product information.

Further, in the present embodiment, regarding the genre of the advertisement information to be distributed, a genre which does not need to be distributed is designated instead of a genre which is desired to be distributed. In other words, even if the advertisement recipient is not particularly in the desired genre, the advertisement of that genre is distributed unless distribution is rejected as unnecessary distribution, so that there is a possibility of finding interesting information in advertisements of genres not desired. Is obtained. For example, a user who lives in a rental condominium and has no interest in a condominium can see the advertisement of the condominium and find that there is no big difference between the rent and the monthly loan payment. Missing advertisements can provide useful information.

In the above-described embodiment, the advertisement distribution system 10 is operated by the publisher of the electronic newspaper or a person entrusted by the publisher, and distributes the advertisement only to the subscribers of the electronic newspaper. However, an advertisement may be distributed to users other than the subscriber for a fee or free of charge. Alternatively, the advertisement distribution system 10 may be a system independent of the electronic newspaper, and distribute advertisements to registered users for a fee or free of charge.

In the above embodiment, the advertisement information is distributed by e-mail or the like. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
For example, the distribution unnecessary genre and the distribution desired area are coded into a code of a predetermined number of digits, and the advertisement distribution system 10 is accessed and the above code is input, whereby the advertisement screen matching the distribution unnecessary genre and the distribution desired area can be browsed. You may do so. In this case, the subscriber needs to access the advertisement distribution system 10, but the required operation is as simple as accessing and inputting a code.

[0037]

As described above, claims 1 and 5
According to the described invention, by registering the recipient information, without requiring the ad recipient to perform a complicated operation,
It is possible to distribute an advertisement according to each request to each advertisement recipient. In addition, by selecting advertisements to be delivered to each advertisement recipient based on the location of the advertisement information provider desired by the advertisement recipient, the advertisement recipients are closely contacted with the area corresponding to their living area Useful advertisements can be delivered. Furthermore, since the registration of the advertisement information is performed for each advertisement provider, it is possible to distribute advertisements with a high level of listing for products and the like handled by each advertisement provider.

According to the second and sixth aspects of the present invention, the advertisement recipient can easily specify the advertisement desired to be distributed by specifying the area on the map information.

According to the third and seventh aspects of the present invention, it is possible to select an advertisement to be distributed based on the genre of the advertisement object in addition to the location of the advertisement information provider.

According to the fourth and eighth aspects of the present invention, advertisements of a wide variety of genres can be distributed to each advertisement recipient by prohibiting only the distribution of the genre that the advertisement recipient considers unnecessary. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of data registered in an advertisement database.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of data registered in a subscriber database.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a region designation screen for designating a desired distribution region on a user computer of a subscriber.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an advertisement screen displayed on a subscriber's user computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Advertisement distribution system 18 Internet 20 User computer 24 Advertisement database 26 Advertisement screen database 28 Subscriber database

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G06F 17/60 326 G06F 17/60 326 502 502 F-term (Reference) 5B049 AA06 BB49 FF01 GG02 5B075 ND20 PP03 PP13 PQ02 PQ05 UU11 UU13 UU24 5B085 BE07 BG07 5B089 GA11 GB03 JA33 KA03 KA04 KC23 KC54 KC59 LB14

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An advertisement distribution method for distributing an advertisement by a server computer connected to a computer network, wherein advertisement information to be distributed is provided for each advertisement provider together with supplementary information including location information on the location of the advertisement provider. An advertisement registration step of registering the advertisement information, a receiver information acquisition step of acquiring information of a recipient that specifies an advertisement that each advertisement recipient desires to distribute based on the location information, and a step of acquiring the acquired information of the recipient. A receiver-side information registration step of registering for each advertisement receiver, and selecting an advertisement to be delivered to each advertisement receiver from the advertisement information registered in the advertisement registration step, based on the registered receiver-side information. An advertisement selecting step, and an advertisement transmitting step of transmitting, to a user computer of each advertisement recipient, advertisement information selected for the advertisement recipient. Ad delivery method, characterized in that it comprises Tsu and up, the. 2. In the receiver information obtaining step, map information is transmitted from a user computer to an advertisement receiver accessed via a computer network, and the user computer selects an area selected on the map information. 2. The advertisement distribution method according to claim 1, wherein the recipient information is acquired based on the information. 3. The supplementary information further includes genre information relating to a genre of an advertisement object related to the advertisement information,
3. The advertisement distribution method according to claim 1, wherein the recipient-side information specifies a desired advertisement to be distributed based on the genre information in addition to the location information. 4. 4. The advertisement distribution method according to claim 3, wherein the recipient-side information includes information on a genre that the advertisement recipient does not want to distribute. 5. An advertisement distribution system comprising a server computer connected to a computer network, wherein advertisement information to be distributed includes, for each advertisement provider, supplementary information including location information on the location of the advertisement provider. Advertisement database registered in the following, a receiver-side information obtaining means for obtaining receiver-side information for designating an advertisement which each advertisement receiver wants to deliver based on the location information, and the obtained receiver-side information Is a recipient information database registered for each advertisement recipient, and an advertisement that selects an advertisement to be delivered to each advertisement recipient from the registered advertisement information based on the registered recipient information. Selecting means; and advertisement transmitting means for transmitting, to a user computer of each advertisement recipient, advertisement information selected for the advertisement recipient. Advertisement distribution system characterized by the fact that: 6. The receiver-side information acquisition means transmits map information from a user computer to an advertisement receiver accessed via a computer network, and selects a region selected on the map information by the user computer. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 5, wherein the information on the recipient side is acquired based on the following. 7. The supplementary information further includes genre information relating to a genre of an advertisement object related to the advertisement information,
7. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 5, wherein the recipient-side information specifies an advertisement desired to be distributed based on the genre information in addition to the location information. 8. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 7, wherein the recipient-side information includes information on a genre that the advertisement recipient does not want to distribute.