JP2013058077A - Content providing system and content providing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve promotion of provision of contents as well as sales promotion.SOLUTION: Access made by using information included in an advertisement of an article is accepted from a user terminal, a first content which includes acquisition information for acquiring a second content related to the first content is provided for the user terminal in response to the access, and when acquisition of the second content is selected by the user terminal based upon the acquisition information, the second content stored in a content storage part is provided for the user terminal.

Description

  The present invention relates to a content providing system and a content providing method.

  For the purpose of promoting sales of products such as soft drinks, products may be sold with extra prizes (for example, Patent Document 1). Such premiums attached to products are also called “sticky advertisements”, and examples include figures of various characters appearing in anime and movies. Recently, instead of sticking premiums to merchandise, stickers that include information such as QR codes and URLs to access are affixed to merchandise, and such information is used to promote sales. A sales promotion method of providing contents such as prizes and advertisements by accessing the site may be adopted.

JP 2001-58642 A

  As described above, there is a method for providing premiums and advertisements by using QR codes, etc., but this method only provides content for the purpose of promoting sales of products. No consideration is given.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to promote provision of content in addition to sales promotion.

  A content providing system according to an aspect of the present invention is stored in a content storage unit in response to an access receiving unit that receives access generated from a user terminal by using information included in an advertisement for a product. A first content providing unit for providing a first content to the user terminal, the first content including acquisition information for acquiring the second content related to the first content, the user terminal; A second content providing unit that provides the user terminal with the second content stored in the content storage unit when acquisition of the second content is selected based on the acquired information.

  In the present invention, the “part” does not simply mean a physical means, but includes a case where the function of the “part” is realized by software. Also, even if the functions of one “unit” or device are realized by two or more physical means or devices, the functions of two or more “units” or devices are realized by one physical means or device. May be.

  According to the present invention, provision of contents can be promoted in addition to sales promotion.

It is a figure which shows the advertising model in this embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the flow at the time of acquiring a content from an electronic book site. It is a figure which shows the structural example of an information processing system. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen displayed when browsing free content. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen displayed when browsing a related content. It is a flowchart which shows an example of a provision process of free content. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the provision process of arbitrary content.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an advertisement model in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the entities appearing in the advertising model include consumers, manufacturers, advertising companies, and content providers. A consumer is a person who purchases a product provided by a manufacturer, and is also called a user in this embodiment. A manufacturer is a person who provides goods to consumers. In actual physical distribution and commercial distribution, there are many cases where an intermediate trader such as a wholesaler exists between the manufacturer and the consumer, but the intermediate trader is not shown here for the sake of simplicity. An advertising company is a person who undertakes advertising business for products provided by manufacturers. A content provider is a person who provides content such as an electronic book to a consumer.

  With reference to FIG. 1, the advertisement model in this embodiment is demonstrated. First, advertisement information for promoting sales of products is provided to the manufacturer from the advertising company (P1). The advertisement information includes, for example, a QR code, a serial code, and the like, and can be provided by a seal that can be attached to a product. The consumer purchases a product with advertisement information from a manufacturer (P2). The consumer uses this advertisement information to access the advertisement site provided by the content provider (P3). The content provider provides, for example, the first episode of the electronic book work to the consumer free of charge (P4). The advertisement site is provided as part of an electronic book site operated by a content provider, for example.

  When the consumer finishes reading the first episode, for example, an option for selecting whether to continue reading is presented (P5). For example, information for selecting whether to read the second story is included in the last page of the content of the first story. When the consumer chooses to read the second episode, the user is directed to the content provider's electronic book site (P6). The content provider causes the consumer who chooses to read the second episode to register account information necessary for acquiring any content in the electronic book site (P7). Then, the content provider provides the second episode to the consumer (P8) and charges for the second episode (P9).

  Furthermore, the content provider distributes a part of the sales of the second story to the manufacturer and the advertising company when the second story is purchased by the guidance from the sales promotion content (here, the free first story). (P10).

  In the example shown in FIG. 1, the first episode is provided as the content for sales promotion, and the second episode is provided as the content related to the first episode. However, the relevance of the content is limited to this. I can't.

  With such an advertising model, when providing content for sales promotion, it is possible to increase opportunities for providing other content related to the content. In addition, when other content is provided by guidance from content for sales promotion, the amount of money provided by the content provision is distributed to related companies such as manufacturers and advertising companies. Costs can be suppressed.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flow when a consumer acquires content from an electronic book site of a content provider at a timing different from the timing of acquiring sales promotion content. First, user authentication is performed by a consumer logging in to an electronic book site (P11). When the consumer selects content from the electronic book site (P12), the content provider provides the content to the consumer (P13). Further, the content provider charges for providing the content (P14).

  Furthermore, if the consumer is a user whose account information is registered when the consumer obtains the content for promotion, the content provider distributes a part of the sales of the content to the manufacturer and the advertising company. (P15). In other words, even when content that is not related to sales promotion content is provided, if the content is provided in response to the acquisition of sales promotion content, the amount obtained by providing the content will Distributed.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an information processing system for realizing the model illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. As shown in FIG. 3, the information processing system includes a user terminal 10 and a content providing system 20. The user terminal 10 is an information processing apparatus used by a consumer (user), and is a mobile phone, a mobile terminal, a personal computer, or the like. The content providing system 20 provides content to the user terminal 10 and is configured using one or a plurality of information processing apparatuses. The content providing system 20 is included in, for example, an electronic book site operated by a content provider.

  Subsequently, configurations of the user terminal 10 and the content providing system 20 will be described.

  The user terminal 10 includes a content acquisition unit 30, a content storage unit 32, and a content display unit 34. Each unit in the user terminal 10 can be realized by using a storage area such as a memory or a storage device or by executing a program stored in the storage area by a processor.

  The content acquisition unit 30 acquires content by accessing the content providing system 20 and stores the content in the content storage unit 32. For example, the content acquisition unit 30 can access the content providing system 20 through a URL (Universal Resource Locator) of the content providing system 20. This URL may be generated, for example, by reading a QR code printed on a sticker attached to a product with a camera, or may be input by a user. The content is electronic data that can be browsed on the user terminal 10, and includes various forms such as an electronic book, music data, audio data, and moving image data. In the present embodiment, an electronic book will be mainly described as one of contents.

  The content display unit 34 displays the content stored in the content storage unit 32 on the display. Further, the content display unit 34 can execute various processes such as page turning in accordance with a user operation. Note that the content storage unit 32 may not download and store data of the entire content. For example, the content may be distributed by streaming, and some data of the content may be stored in the content storage unit 32.

  The content providing system 20 includes a content storage unit 40, an access receiving unit 42, a serial code storage unit 44, a first content providing unit 46, an account registration unit 48, an account information storage unit 50, a user authentication unit 52, and a second content. The provision unit 54, the accounting data storage unit 56, the distribution rule storage unit 58, the distribution unit 60, and the distribution data storage unit 62 are configured. Each unit in the content providing system 20 can be realized by using a storage area such as a memory or a storage device or by executing a program stored in the storage area by a processor.

  Content that can be provided to the user terminal 10 is stored in the content storage unit 40 in association with content identifiers, title information, price information, and the like.

  The access receiving unit 42 receives an access from the user terminal 10 for acquiring content stored in the content storage unit 40. For example, when the access receiving unit 42 receives an access from the user terminal 10 by the URL associated with the product specified by a QR code printed on a sticker attached to the product, Information is output to the user terminal 10. Specifically, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 4A, a campaign screen for a product (for example, “ABC coffee”) is output to the user terminal 10. The access receiving unit 42 can also receive information such as a serial code necessary for acquiring content. For example, as shown in FIG. 4A, when the serial code is input on the campaign screen and the “OK” button is pressed, the input serial code is transferred from the user terminal 10 to the access receiving unit of the content providing system 20. 42.

  In the serial code storage unit 44, a serial code necessary for acquiring free content (first content) provided by the content providing system 20 is associated with information indicating that the serial code has not been used. Is remembered. For example, different serial codes are printed on stickers attached to products, and the user can acquire free content by inputting the serial code.

  In response to access from the user terminal 10, the first content providing unit 46, for example, as shown in FIG. 4B, content (title) stored in the content storage unit 40 as free content for sales promotion. This list is presented to the user terminal 10. When the free content to be acquired is selected in the user terminal 10, the first content providing unit 46 acquires the selected free content (first content) from the content storage unit 40 and acquires the user terminal 10. To provide. As a result, for example, as shown in FIG. 4C, free content (for example, “work A (first episode)”) is displayed on the user terminal 10. Here, any method can be adopted as a method of providing content. For example, the first content providing unit 46 may cause the user terminal 10 to download the entire content, or may stream the content to the user terminal 10.

  The first content providing unit 46 can check the serial code when providing free content. That is, the first content providing unit 46 can provide free content to the user terminal 10 when the serial code input from the user terminal 10 is stored in the serial code storage unit 44 as an unused serial code. it can. Then, the first content providing unit 46 stores in the serial code storage unit 44 that this serial code has been used. By using the serial code in this way, free content can be provided only to the product purchaser. The first content providing unit 46 may delete the used serial code from the serial code storage unit 44 instead of storing the used content in the serial code storage unit 44.

  Here, the free content includes information (acquisition information) for acquiring content (related content) related to the content. For example, the free content that is the first episode of a work can include information for acquiring the content of the second episode of the work. Specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 5A, it is confirmed whether or not “work A (second episode)” is read at the end of “work A (first episode)” which is free content. Data for displaying a screen for the purpose can be included. For example, if the free content is an electronic book, data for displaying a screen as shown in FIG. 5A can be included in the last page of the electronic book. The same applies to cases other than electronic books. That is, if a plurality of pieces of data that are reproduced in time series on the user terminal 10 are included in the free content, the data that is reproduced last in the time series among the plurality of data is included in the free content. Information for acquiring subsequent content can be included.

  The related content does not need to be a content in which the free content and the story are continuous, and a combination of both can be arbitrarily set according to the advertising strategy, for example, the author and the genre are the same. The unit of content is not limited to one story unit, and any unit such as one book unit or one sheet unit can be used as a reference.

  If the account registration unit 48 is selected to acquire the related content in the user terminal 10, for example, as shown in FIG. 5B, the account information required when acquiring any content other than the free content Is output to the user terminal 10. The account registration unit 48 receives account information such as a user ID, password, settlement information, and user registration date from the user terminal 10 and stores the account information in the account information storage unit 50. The user ID may be issued by the account registration unit 48. The account information storage unit 50 also stores account information of a user who has registered as an electronic book site regardless of the acquisition of free content. Here, the account information includes identification information indicating whether or not the account information is registered when content related to the free content for sales promotion is acquired. For example, the identification information may be included in the account information as flag information associated with the user ID, or the identification information may be included in the user ID itself. In this embodiment, a user who has registered account information when acquiring content related to free content for sales promotion is referred to as a “sales promotion user”.

  The user authentication unit 52 performs user authentication based on account information stored in the account information storage unit 50 when providing content other than free content to the user terminal 10. Specifically, the user authentication unit 52 performs user authentication by comparing account information such as a user ID and a password transmitted from the user terminal 10 with account information stored in the account information storage unit 50. be able to. The account information transmitted from the user terminal 10 to the content providing system 20 may be input by the user at the user terminal 10, for example, or automatically from the user terminal 10 to the content providing system 20 using cookie information or the like. May be transmitted automatically.

  The second content providing unit 54 can provide any content stored in the content storage unit 40 to the user terminal 10 in response to a request from the user terminal 10. For example, as shown in FIG. 5C, the second content providing unit 54 outputs a screen for purchasing related content to the user terminal 10, and when the user selects to purchase the content, Content is acquired from the content storage unit 40 and provided to the user terminal 10. Further, the second content providing unit 54 generates billing data for collecting a fee for the content from the user when the content is provided to the user terminal 10 and stores the billing data in the billing data storage unit 56. For example, the billing data can be provided to a conventional billing system and used for a settlement process such as a credit card settlement.

  The distribution rule storage unit 58 stores a distribution rule that is a rule for distributing content sales to related companies such as manufacturers and advertising companies. For example, in the distribution rule, a ratio of the distribution amount to the sales amount, information indicating a fixed amount of distribution amount, and the like can be set for each related business operator.

  The distribution unit 60 distributes content sales to related businesses based on the charge data stored in the charge data storage unit 56 and the distribution rules stored in the distribution rule storage unit 58. Is generated and stored in the distribution data storage unit 62. For example, when the related content of the free content is provided, the distribution unit 60 can generate distribution data for distributing the amount of money obtained by providing the related content to the related business operators. In addition, for example, when the user who registered the account information when acquiring the related content of the free content acquires any content within a predetermined period (for example, within two weeks) from the registration, Allocation data for allocating the amount of money obtained by providing content to related businesses can be generated. The distribution data includes, for example, an identifier of a related business operator and information indicating a distribution amount, and can be provided to an accounting processing system that processes the distribution amount.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing for providing free content in the content providing system 20. The access receiving unit 42 receives access by advertisement information from the user terminal 10 (S601). Here, the access by advertisement information is, for example, an access to a URL specified by a QR code printed on a sticker attached to a product. In response to this access, as shown in FIG. 4A, the access receiving unit 42 outputs a serial code input screen to the user terminal 10 (S602). The access receiving unit 42 receives a serial code input at the user terminal 10 (S603), and checks the serial code with reference to the serial code storage unit 44 (S604).

  When the serial code check result is OK (S604: OK), that is, when the input serial code is stored in the serial code storage unit 44 as an unused serial code, the first content providing unit 46 Free content (first content) is acquired from the content storage unit 40 and provided to the user terminal 10 (S605). Here, the free content is, for example, the content of the first episode of a certain electronic book. As shown in FIG. 4B, a plurality of free contents may be prepared, and the free contents to be acquired may be selected by the user.

  In the user terminal 10, as shown in FIG. 4C, free content is browsed. Then, at the end of the free content, as shown in FIG. 5A, a screen for confirming acquisition of related content is displayed. Here, for example, if the first story of an electronic book is provided by free content, the related content can be the second story of the electronic book. When browsing related content is selected, a related content acquisition request is transmitted from the user terminal 10 to the content providing system 20.

  Upon receipt of the related content acquisition request (S606), the account information registration unit 48 outputs a screen for registering account information to the user terminal 10 as shown in FIG. 5B (S607). The account information to be registered is registered in the account information storage unit 50 (S608). If account information has already been registered, the account information registration process can be omitted.

  After registering the account information, the second content providing unit 54 outputs a screen for purchasing related content to the user terminal 10 as shown in FIG. 5C (S609). When the purchase of related content is selected in the user terminal 10, the second content providing unit 54 obtains the selected related content from the content storage unit 40 and provides it to the user terminal 10 (S610). Billing data for the related content is generated and stored in the billing data storage unit 56 (S611).

  The distribution unit 60 indicates an amount for distributing sales of related content to related businesses based on the charging data stored in the charging data storage unit 56 and the distribution rules stored in the distribution rule storage unit 58. Distribution data is generated and stored in the distribution data storage unit 62 (S612). The distribution data may be generated every time related content is acquired, or may be generated by collectively processing charging data for a certain period.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing for providing arbitrary content in the content providing system 20. The process shown in FIG. 7 is executed when a user who has registered account information in the electronic book site accesses the electronic book site, and is executed at a timing different from the process shown in FIG. The

  When the user authentication unit 52 receives access from the user terminal 10 to the electronic book site of the content providing system 20, the user authentication unit 52 performs user authentication based on the account information stored in the account information storage unit 50 (S701). Here, the timing of user authentication may not be the first, and can be changed to an arbitrary timing until the provision of content is determined. The users who use the electronic book site include general users other than the sales promotion user.

  When the second content providing unit 54 receives a selection request for content that the user desires to browse from arbitrary content stored in the content storage unit 40 (S702), the second content providing unit 54 stores the selected content in the content storage unit 40. Is obtained and provided to the user terminal 10 (S703). The second content providing unit 54 generates billing data for the content provided to the user terminal 10 and stores the billing data in the billing data storage unit 56 (S704).

  The distribution unit 60 determines whether the user who acquired the content is a sales promotion user based on the account information stored in the account information storage unit 50 (S705). If the user is a sales promotion user (S705: Y), the distribution unit 60 determines whether the user registration is within a predetermined period (for example, within two weeks) based on the user registration date included in the account information (for example, within two weeks). S706). If it is within the predetermined period (S706: Y), the distribution unit 60 is based on the charging data stored in the charging data storage unit 56 and the distribution rule stored in the distribution rule storage unit 58. Distribution data indicating the amount of money for distributing the sales of the content to the related businesses is generated and stored in the distribution data storage unit 62 (S707). Similar to the processing of FIG. 6, the distribution data may be generated every time content is acquired, or may be generated by collectively processing charging data for a certain period.

  The present embodiment has been described above. According to the present embodiment, when providing content for sales promotion (first content), it is possible to increase opportunities for providing other content (second content) related to the content. . In other words, content provision can be promoted in addition to sales promotion. In addition, since it is not necessary to attach a premium such as “solid” for the promotion of the product, it is possible to reduce the sales promotion cost of the manufacturer.

  In addition, since account information is registered when related content is provided, it is possible to take in users who have not used the content providing system (electronic book site). That is, the user purchases contents other than related contents.

  In addition, since the amount of money obtained by providing related content is distributed to related companies such as manufacturers and advertising companies, it is possible to further suppress the sales promotion costs of the manufacturers.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, for any content other than the related content, the amount obtained when providing the arbitrary content to the user (promotion user) who performed user registration when acquiring the related content is calculated. It is also possible to allocate to related businesses.

  Note that this embodiment is intended to facilitate understanding of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention. The present invention can be changed / improved without departing from the spirit thereof, and the present invention includes equivalents thereof.

  For example, in the present embodiment, the serial code is input when acquiring free content, but the content may be provided without inputting the serial code.

  For example, in the present embodiment, an example in which advertisement information such as a QR code or a serial code is attached to a product has been described. However, the advertisement information is not limited to that attached to a product, and an arbitrary advertisement method is adopted. be able to. For example, it may be described in an advertisement by a poster or a flyer, or may be provided by an advertisement on a TV or the Internet.

  For example, in the present embodiment, the related content is provided for a fee, but may be provided for free. When it is provided free of charge, for example, when acquiring related content, a quiz or a questionnaire may be answered. Then, the answer result can be provided to a manufacturer or an advertising company.

  In addition, for example, different rules may be applied to the distribution rule when distributing the amount of money obtained by providing the content to the related business operators for the related content and the arbitrary content.

  For example, in this embodiment, the distribution money is distributed from the content provider to the manufacturer and the advertising company. However, the flow of distribution of the distribution money to the related business operators is not limited to this. For example, the distribution money may be allocated from the content provider to the advertising company, and then a part of the distribution money may be allocated from the advertising company to the manufacturer. In addition, the related business operators may include any business operators other than manufacturers and advertising companies. And the distribution rule memorize | stored in the distribution rule memory | storage part 58 can be suitably set according to the flow of distribution of distribution money.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 User terminal 20 Content provision system 30 Content acquisition part 32 Content storage part 34 Content display part 40 Content storage part 42 Access reception part 44 Serial code storage part 46 1st content provision part 48 Account registration part 50 Account information storage part 52 User Authentication unit 54 Second content providing unit 56 Accounting data storage unit 58 Distribution rule storage unit 60 Distribution unit 62 Distribution data storage unit

Claims (7)

An access receiving unit that receives access generated from the user terminal by using information included in the advertisement of the product;
In response to the access, the first content stored in the content storage unit, the first content including acquisition information for acquiring the second content related to the first content, the user A first content providing unit to be provided to the terminal;
A second content providing unit that provides the user terminal with the second content stored in the content storage unit when acquisition of the second content is selected based on the acquisition information in the user terminal When,
A content providing system comprising: The content providing system according to claim 1,
The first content includes a plurality of data reproduced in time series on the user terminal, and the acquired information is included in data that is reproduced last in time series among the plurality of data. ing,
Content provision system. The content providing system according to claim 1 or 2,
The second content providing unit generates billing data corresponding to the second content and stores the billing data in the billing data storage unit when providing the second content to the user terminal.
Content provision system. The content providing system according to claim 3,
A distribution rule storage unit that stores a distribution rule that is a rule for allocating the amount of money obtained by providing content to the user terminal to a business related to the business of advertising the product
A distribution unit that generates distribution data indicating an amount to be distributed to the business operator based on the charging data and the distribution rule, and stores the distribution data in a distribution data storage unit;
A content providing system further comprising: The content providing system according to claim 4,
An account registration unit for registering account information necessary for acquiring any content stored in the content storage unit in the account information storage unit;
The second content providing unit provides the second content to the user terminal after the account information is registered.
Content provision system. The content providing system according to claim 5,
A user authentication unit that performs user authentication based on account information transmitted from the user terminal and account information stored in the account information storage unit;
The account information includes identification information indicating whether or not the account information has been registered when the second content is acquired based on the acquisition information;
The second content providing unit
After user authentication is performed by the user authentication unit, the user terminal is provided with any content stored in the content storage unit in response to a request from the user terminal,
Generate billing data corresponding to the arbitrary content and store it in the billing data storage unit,
When the identification information included in the account information in the user authentication indicates that the account information has been registered when the second content is acquired based on the acquisition information, the charging data and the Generating the distribution data based on a distribution rule and storing it in the distribution data storage unit;
Content provision system. Computer
Accept access generated from the user terminal by using information contained in the advertisement of the product,
In response to the access, the user terminal is provided with the first content including acquisition information for acquiring the second content related to the first content,
When acquisition of the second content is selected based on the acquisition information in the user terminal, the second content stored in the content storage unit is provided to the user terminal.
Content provision method.