WO2001028181A1

WO2001028181A1 - Executable electronic commercials

Info

Publication number: WO2001028181A1
Application number: PCT/US2000/041134
Authority: WO
Inventors: Richard Mcewan; Michael Briola; Sergio Herring
Original assignee: Mindarrow Systems, Inc.
Priority date: 1999-10-12
Filing date: 2000-10-11
Publication date: 2001-04-19
Also published as: AU1820301A

Abstract

The present invention provides electronic commercials and related methods in which an executable file containing an electronic commercial (100) containing a video clip (110), an audio clip, and a branding graphic (120) is transmitted over a public access electronic network to a potential customer. The executable file itself is preferably authenticated with a digital certificate, and may additionally be encrypted. It is also preferred that the video clip comprise streaming video, and is presented in a frame (111). The commercial may advantageously include multiple hyperlinks, which may or may not be separate from the branding graphic(s) (120). The commercial also preferably includes multiple navigable pages, at least one of which includes an order taking component that interacts with a recipient to completely record an order for an item advertised by the commercial, and then uploads the order to a distant server. Still further, the commercial may advantageously include an identification code, and tracking software.

Description

EXECUTABLE ELECTRONIC COMMERCIALS

Field of The Invention The field of the invention is electronic direct marketing.

Background of The Invention

Direct marketing can be viewed as involving six major steps: targeting an audience, creating a suitable message, delivering the message to a prospect, motivating the prospect to act upon the message, closing a transaction, and tracking the response. Over the years advances in computer and other technologies have altered the systems and methods by which each of these components are employed, and most recently the widespread implementation of public electronic networks such as the Internet have opened the field of electronic direct marketing.

Providing a Suitable Message Providing a suitable message for an advertising campaign often entails including entertainment value along with the message. To this end advertisers in traditional media such as television have long found it useful to include audio tracks and animated images. Unfortunately these so-called rich-media forms of data are bandwidth and memory intensive, and only relatively few providers are presently offering ecommercials that include rich-media. Full video such as that present in modern day television commercials is even more bandwidth and memory intensive, and even fewer companies are offering ecommercials with video.

Radicalmail.com does offer highly compressed video commercials to targets selected from its opt-in mailing lists. The opt-in program provides a highly interested, self-limiting audience for such commercials, all of which helps to minimize the memory and transmission costs. Radicalmail.com commercials are also remarkable for use of Java enabled files that can be played on any system using advanced browsers such as Internet Explorer 5 or Netscape 4 without requiring optional plug-ins. One drawback of the radicalmail.com concept, however, is that reliance on Java enabled files means that the commercials still cannot run on systems that have older types of browsers. Another drawback is that the opt-in requirement limits mass mailings to those individuals that have chosen to be on the mailing list. Not all advertisers have a convenient, limited-size listing of interested prospects, and not all advertisers would want to limit their transmissions to those prospects.

E-troop.com does offer executable files (.exe, .com and so forth). Except for a title bar, however, e-troop's ecommercials occupy the entire display window, leaving no room for branding graphics and hyperlinks. The advertiser's name, slogan, and so forth are all relegated to a trailer displayed after the video is finished.

In addition to providing a suitable message by including entertainment value, it is also known to provide a suitable message by including highly functional aspects, such as coupons. Emaildirect.com, for example, sends electronic coupons (e-coupons) to individuals who have requested to be on a coupons mailing list. The service is reported to be very successful, sending out e-coupons to 600,000 subscribers every two weeks. Unfortunately, the functional aspect of e-coupons greatly overshadows the entertaining aspect, and while e-coupons may be quite effective in bringing in marginal business on relatively mundane products, they may be less successful in selling high end, impulse type merchandise or services. Moreover, as presently configured the coupons do not combine opt-in marketing with product tie-ins. Each coupon sells only a single product. Still further, as in the old-fashioned coupons sent by postal mail, electronic transmission of coupons may lump together competing advertisers, or products of absolutely no interest to the recipients, thereby diluting the value of the coupons.

A third aspect of providing suitable messages involves sending different messages to different audiences. Thus, an advertisement for the CD of a teenage pop singer may be sent to an audience of 18-24 year olds, while an advertisement for motor boats may be sent to an audience of 45 - 55 year olds. But even that level of customization is suboptimal because individuals within any given group are not homogeneous. Among boat buying prospects, for example, different people will be looking at different sized boats. The conventional wisdom is that it would be impractical to create thousands of advertisements for thousands of subgroups, and it would be even more impractical to create different commercials for each prospect. Auraline.com, for example, allows advertisers to customize commercials, greeting cards, and so forth, on an individual basis, but not automatically on an ad-hoc basis. Auraline.com also customizes the form of the message to match the multimedia playing capabilities of the recipient. But that approach would not help in sending commercials in different languages to different recipients. Still further, Auraline.com's messages are Java enabled, not executable files. They can only be played by recipients having certain types of browsers.

Thus, there are still unsatisfied needs in the area of providing suitable messages for ecommercials. One need is to cost effectively transmit full video, self-executing content to wide audiences without limiting the transmissions to prospects that have self-selected themselves to receive such messages. It would be especially valuable if these messages were delivered as executable files that depicted branding graphics, and hyperlinks, and other advertising content at the same time as the video. Other needs are to improve the entertainment value and cross-branding of products in functional, coupon-type advertisements. Still other needs involve customizing advertisements to even smaller groups, and in the extreme to individual prospects.

Motivating The Prospect To Act

All previously known ecommercials motivate a prospect to act by providing entertaining, or other information deemed to be of value to the prospect. Digitalimpact.com claim very high click-through rates of 14-22%, purportedly because they emphasize entertaining content. Emaildirect .com is said to be successful because they provide valuable coupons.

But motivating the prospect to act on a message can be a difficult task, even where the prospect has "asked" for the message being sent. A major problem is information overload. In a recent survey e-mail recipients reported receiving an average of more than 50 e-mails per day. It is also reported that only about 0.1% of electronic banner ads are even read. A tradeoff is therefore recognized between sending out a large message that may be more likely to motivate the prospect, but may never be read, and sending out a smaller message that may be less likely to motivate, but is cheaper to transmit. Presently, that tradeoff is being addressed by sending out a "tickler" comprising a relatively small amount of information, and including a hyperlink to a web site having a great deal more information. Thus, it is presently typical to send out a content-lean banner or advertisement containing only text or a picture of a product, but then including a hyperlink to a content-rich web site that has full audio and video presentations of the product.

One problem, however, is that the hyperlink to the web site requires the recipient to have a connection to the web site, i.e. to be on-line. If a person downloads his e-mail to a laptop, and then reads the e-mail while traveling in a car, he likely will not have access to the web site when he reads the commercial. In addition, downloading of the content from the web site takes place while the prospect is waiting, and if the download is too slow the prospect may choose to close the connection, or to jump to another web site altogether.

Thus, there is still a need to provide an improved balance between the amount and type of information sent to the prospect in a commercial on an asynchronous basis, when he is not waiting for it, and the amount of information sent to the prospect on a synchronous basis, when he is waiting for it.

Closing The Transaction

Closing the transaction historically required at least some sales agent somewhere along the line to become involved, whether the sales agent was a telephone order taker or a back office person who processed mail or facsimiles. That reality was changed by the use of web sites as automated order takers because such sites allow customers to enter their own orders. It is now common practice on many web sites for customers to self-select the merchandise, record or correct their own shipping and billing information, and even authenticate confidential information using an authenticated transaction server.

The use of web sites as automated order takers, however, requires that the web sites involved be accessed either directly by a recipient visiting the specific site, or indirectly via a hyperlink "click-through" from another web site or an ecommercial. One currently popular example is the web site known as 24/7, which specializes in sending out mass e- mailings of rich media or text messages having a hyperlink back to a client's web site. Recipients click on the hyperlink of the commercial, are transferred to the advertiser's web site, and then interact with the web sited to complete the sale or accomplish some other purpose. Emaildirect.com also uses its coupons to direct the prospect audience to advertiser's web sites, where closure takes place.

Using a web site to close a transaction is highly advantageous. Among other things it permits the cost-effective transmission of huge numbers of relatively small, and therefore relatively inexpensive ecommercials to secure the attention of the prospect, while providing a more sophisticated web site for actually closing the sale or accomplishing some other purpose.

There are, however, drawbacks to limiting transaction closure to that accomplished on web sites. As noted above, the recipient may view the commercial under circumstances where on-line access is impossible or impractical. In addition, if a mass mailing of an ecommercial generates a substantial response, the server servicing the web site may not have the resources to handle the influx of potential customers. Or, the potential customer may have a particularly slow communication line. Since web site transaction closure is synchronous, the transaction may be significantly impeded by slow communications lines. Those customers experiencing slow response time from the server or because of a slow communication line may choose to purchase their goods elsewhere. Still further, there is always the possibility that the web site may actually discourage the potential customer from closing a transaction. Just because an ecommercial motivates a potential customer, doesn't mean that the web site will motive him even more. Thus, there is still a need to address these various drawbacks.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention provides electronic commercials and related methods in which an executable file containing an electronic commercial containing a video clip, an audio clip, and a branding graphic is transmitted over a public access electronic network to a potential customer.

The executable file itself is preferably authenticated with a digital certificate, and may additionally be encrypted. It is also preferred that the video clip comprises streaming video, and is presented in a frame. The commercial may advantageously include multiple hyperlinks, which may or may not be separate from the branding graphic(s). The commercial also preferably includes multiple navigable pages, at least one of which includes an order taking component that interacts with a recipient to completely record an order for an item advertised by the commercial, and then uploads the order to a distant server. Still further, the commercial may advantageously include an identification code, and tracking software.

Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals represent like components.

Brief Description of the Drawin

Fig. 1 is a schematic of three pages of an ecommercial according to the inventive subject matter.

Detailed Description In Figure 1 the first page 101 of an electronic commercial (ecommercial) 100 generally includes a video window 110 and video control 112, a branding graphic 120, an image 130 of a product being marketed, hyperlink 140 click-throughs to websites of the advertisers, and various support bars 150, 160. The images used to trigger the hyperlinks 140 are recognizable by the public as representing different advertisers. At least some of the commercials may advantageously contain a button 170 and underlying software code (not shown) to close a sale or other transaction between a recipient and at least one of the advertisers. Tabs (not shown) may be used to navigate among additional, optional pages 102, 103, which may appear similar or dissimilar to page 101.

The term "advertisers" is used herein in the broadest possible sense, including any entity trying to impact the thinking or behavior of others. In many instances the desired impact will include motivating the recipient to purchase goods or services. In other instances the desired impact may be to cause the recipient to vote in a given manner in an election, or a poll. In still other instances the desired impact may be of a very general nature, perhaps increasing societal awareness of alcoholism. The term "commercial" is used herein in a very broad sense to mean any message intending to motivate a recipient to take an action favorable to an advertiser. Commercials may be simple textual banner ads, but more preferably include rich-media graphics such as animation, a photograph or other image, or an audio tract. Still more preferred commercials include video and branding graphics. Especially preferred commercials will be those that communicate a value proposition communicated in 30 seconds or less. Currently the most preferred commercials include an audio tract, a video tract, branding graphics, and hyperlinks, all delivered in a single executable file. These and other embodiments are as described in concurrently filed application serial no. PCT/US99/23824, corresponding to attorney docket 604.07 , which is incorporated herein by reference. Still other preferred embodiments include "slide-show" commercials as described in concurrently filed application serial no. PCT/US99/23822 corresponding to attorney docket 604.09, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Commercial 100 is preferably an executable file, which is defined herein to mean a file that is directly interpreted or executed by the operating system of a computer as opposed to being "played" by player software. Commercial 100 is also preferably transmitted, along with all software needed to track or play the commercial, as a single file.

Other options are also contemplated. For example, it is contemplated that commercials, and perhaps the tracking or playing software, can be transmitted as multiple files. Or the commercial can be transmitted as a single file, and contain software instructions that cause the host computer to produce a plurality of files that interact to display the commercial. It is also contemplated that some or all of the commercial or supporting software can be downloaded separately from the transmission that includes the commercial. For example, it is contemplated that a fully functioning, multi-page commercial can be transmitted in an e-mail message. When the recipient opens the commercial, or perhaps reaches a given point in the presentation, his system contacts a distant server to download additional pages. Multi-page commercials of this type are disclosed in concurrently filed application titled "Multi-Page Executable Commercials" corresponding to attorney docket 604.09, which is incorporated herein by reference.

The video window 110 preferably comprises between about 10% and about 80% of the visible face of the commercial 100, and may advantageously be framed, such as by an image of a television, or a picture frame 111. Most likely a highly compressed streaming video or audio-video clip (not shown) is used to drive the video window 110, and most likely only a single video clip is included in any given ecommercial. Using currently known compression techniques it is possible to store a 30 second clip in about 500 kB of memory. Other video clip lengths are also contemplated, from only a few seconds to a minute or more. Multiple video clips may also be included within a single commercial.

Nearby the video window 110 are one or more video controls 112. Where streaming video is used, the controls may advantageously be limited with present technology to only play and stop. Moreover, the play and stop controls may, as in Fig. 1, be positioned on top of one another. Other video formats may also be utilized for which reset, fast forward, reverse, and so forth may be appropriate.

An audio clip typically plays concurrently with a corresponding video clip. All manner of audio clips are contemplated, including voice, music, nature sounds, and so forth. Almost all ecommercials are expected to include one or more audio clips, even if they are merely used as background.

The branding graphic 120 is defined as a logo, trademark, trade name, slogan, or other indicia of origin of a product or service that is presented graphically, i.e. as something other than pure text. The familiar Mercedes™ symbol, for example, is a branding graphic, as are the e-bay™ logo and General Electric's GE™ logo.

It is contemplated that many commercials will be directed to a single advertiser, and therefore may have only a single branding graphic. The term "advertisers" is used herein in the broadest possible sense, including any entity trying to impact the behavior of people. In many instances the desired impact will include motivating the recipient to purchase goods or services. In other instances the desired impact may be to cause the recipient to vote in a given manner in an election, or a poll. In still other instances the desired impact may be of a very general nature, perhaps increasing societal awareness of alcoholism.

It is also contemplated that many ecommercials will be co-sponsored by more than one advertiser. The term "co-sponsor" is used herein to mean that at least two different advertisers have included information identifying themselves or one or more of their brands in a given commercial. The identifying information may be a name such as Coca-Cola™ or Home Depot™, a design such as the Nike™ swoosh, or any other trademark or trade name. Particularly contemplated identifying information includes graphical images relating to the advertiser's name, products, or services, known in the field as branding graphics. Details of methods and systems involving co-sponsored ecommercials are described in concurrently filed application titled "Custodial Database for On-Line Marketing", corresponding to attorney docket 604.16, which is incorporated herein by reference. Whether from the same advertiser or different advertisers, a given commercial may advantageously have anywhere between one and five branding graphics on a single page, and even higher numbers of branding graphics are also contemplated

The branding graphics may or may not have navigational importance in the commercial 100. One possibility is that they can be hyperlinks to websites. Another possibility is that they can navigate among multiple pages of a multi-paged commercial. Hyperlinks 140 may comprise additional branding graphics, or they may simply have hyperlink functionalities. It is particularly contemplated that the commercial may include one, two, three, or more hyperlinks, which may be separate from the branding graphic.

The branding graphic 120 may advantageously be supplemented with an image 130 or description of product(s) or services(s) being marketed.

Support bars 150, 160 can perform all sorts of useful functions. One possibility is to display characteristics about the video or audio, including the position or loudness. Another possibility is to provide links to the developer or distributor of the commercial. Still other possibilities are to navigate among multiple pages of a multi-page commercial. In particular embodiments a commercial may have a first page that includes the video clip, the audio clip, and the branding graphic, and a second page navigable with respect to the first page, that includes another video clip, another audio clip, and another branding graphic. Box 151 can be used to enter URL addresses to websites.

Ordering button 170 links to an order entry interface, which can be carried on a web site or within the commercial 100 itself. In either case the interface would typically obtain or verify the recipient's name, address, phone number, and other relevant information as well obtain payment information. The payment information is preferably transmitted over a secure socket layer for verification and processing. Thus, in a particularly desirable embodiment, the commercial contains an order taking component that interacts with a recipient to record an order for an item advertised by the commercial, and then uploads the order to a distant server.

Commercial 100 may advantageously include an identification code. Such codes serve to individually link preferences, interests or other data obtained from a previous advertising campaign with particular records in a prospects database (not shown). If, for example, a recipient indicated in response to a previous campaign that he has no interest in certain types of clothing, that information could advantageously be stored in the prospects database, and employed in subsequent campaigns to avoid sending that person advertisements relating to such clothing.

Inclusion of identification codes can be accomplished in many different ways. One of the simplest methods is to insert identification codes as literals within the commercials. When a commercial is viewed, the accompanying software can record the recipient's activities as tracking data, and then send the tracking data back to the tracking system (not shown) along with the identification code. More preferably, the identification code can be stored locally to the recipient, and the occurrence of that storage can be recorded in the corresponding prospects database record. When preparing subsequent commercials such records can be reviewed to discover that an identification number was already stored for a particular prospect, thus obviating the need to modify the new commercial to include a new identification code. Thus, where an advertiser requires individual recipient tracking, the commercials would need to be modified only for those prospects for which an identification code was not already stored at the recipient's end.

Another method of providing identification codes takes advantage of the fact that not all advertisers are interested in tracking individual responses. In such cases commercials can be sent out in groups, of perhaps a thousand at a time. Each commercial in a group would contain a group identification code, and that code would also be recorded in the individual records of the prospects database for all prospects targeted in the group. Upon receipt and opening of the commercial, the group number would also be recorded locally to the recipients. The first time that tracking data is uploaded, from those recipients, the tracking system 70 would not be able to correlate individual tracking information with individual prospects. The next time a commercial is sent, however, the groups are chosen such that they include different sets of prospects from the first time around. Once again a group identification is included in the commercial, transmitted to the prospects in the group, and recorded locally to the recipients. But this time when the tracking information is sent back to the tracking system, the recipient transmits two group identification numbers, which can likely be used to identify the specific corresponding record in the prospects database. If a specific match cannot be made for a given prospect after the second commercial, possibly because multiple prospects were included in the same groups, a third or subsequent group commercial will provide sufficient information to identify the specific prospect. Alternatively, other information besides a second group identification code (such as the initials of a recipient's name that might be provided by the recipient) could be used in conjunction with the first group identification code to match up a particular recipient with a particular prospect. Ideally, the software would have also created a unique identification code that was stored along with the group numbers. Once a positive match between recipient and prospect is made, the group numbers can be deleted from the recipient's system, and the unique identification code can be used from then on.

Other possibilities are also contemplated. One possibility is that software downloaded with the commercial could ping a web site, and obtain the recipient's e-mail address by observing the return information from the ping. Another possibility is that recipients of future systems will include a public area on their computers that provides information about the recipient for use by the outside world. That information can be used to correlate a recipient with a given record in the prospects database 30.

Commercial 100 may also be authenticated, transmitted, as for example with a Verisign™ digital signature. This is important because many firewalls are configured to filter out messages that are not authenticated. Not all commercials need to be authenticated, however, and a majority of such commercials may not be authenticated due to the substantial overhead costs required. The authentication decision can be made on a campaign basis, but is preferably made on an individual basis, possibly relying on data stored in the prospects database or the tracking subsystem.

Decisions with respect to modification of a commercial to include an identification number, and authentication of the commercial in a transmission may be overlapping. Once the tracking system has established that a recipient has stored the identification code, it is unnecessary to keep adding an identification code to the commercial, and re-authenticating the commercial. Transmissions to that recipient can be identical to those sent to other recipients because the previously stored identification code can still be used to link the tracking data with the particular recipient.

Commercial 100 preferably includes tracking software that facilitates tracking of a recipient's responses to the commercial. The tracking software preferably interacts with the recipient's computer to upload data relating to the recipient's responses to (i.e., the tracking information) from the recipient's computer to a distant server, i.e., a computer that is not local to the recipient, and that receives the tracking information.

The tracking information can be as simplistic as whether or not the e-mail containing the commercial was ever received by the recipient, and if so, when it was opened. More sophisticated tracking data may include file opening time, video start and stop times, cursor positioning, and forwarding of the commercial to others. Such information may advantageously be stored in the "cookies" section, or preferably in the registry of the recipient's computer. The recipient may also use the commercial to click- through to one or more web sites using link icons 140, and such click-throughs are also preferably tracked. It is especially contemplated that at least one of the web sites accessed by click-through tracks at least some recipient activities, and even more preferably also contains a video component and an audio component that may or may not be the same as that included in the commercial.

The tracking information may or may not be sufficient to match up responses with individual recipients. Suitable methods and systems directed to tracking are described in the concurrently filed application titled "Methods and Systems for Tracking Electronic Commercials", corresponding to attorney docket 604.07, which is incorporated herein by reference. Commercial 100 is preferably distributed by a high volume electronic mailing company, which sends out perhaps hundreds of thousands or even millions of messages per month. An exemplary such company is ecommercial.com, Inc. based in Southern California, USA. The distributor may or may not host its own servers. Commercial 100 is preferably transmitted over the Internet, but can be transmitted over any suitable network, including local area networks, wide area networks, public networks, private networks, and so on. Because of the high traffic involved, the distributor may advantageously employ outbound trafficking technologies such as those described in concurrently filed applications titled "Load Balancing Via Message Source Selection", "Message Content Based Routing", "Dynamic Routing via Shortest Delivery Time", and "Historical Delivery Time Based Routing Tables", corresponding to attorney dockets 604.12, 604.18, 604.19, and 604.20, respectively, each of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Generally, commercials such as commercial 100 will be transmitted to potential customers of a product or service. However, the terms "potential customer" and "prospect" are used interchangeably herein in their broadest possible sense to include any target of an advertiser. Thus, if the advertiser is a politician, his potential customers include any person residing in his district.

Thus, specific embodiments and applications of executable electronic commercials have been disclosed. It should be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims. Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms "comprises" and "comprising" should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. An executable file containing an electronic commercial transmitted over a public access electronic network to a potential customer, comprising: a video clip; an audio clip; and a branding graphic.

2. The file of claim 1 wherein the video clip comprises streaming video.

3. The file of claim 1 wherein the commercial displays the video clip within a frame.

4. The file of claim 1 wherein the file is an authenticated file.

5. The file of claim 1 wherein the file includes a digital certificate.

6. The file of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the file is encrypted.

7. The file of claim 1 further comprising at least one hyperlink.

8. The file of claim 1 further comprising at least two hyperlinks.

9. The file of claim 1 further comprising at least one hyperlink, and a separate branding graphic.

10. The file of claim 1 further comprising at least two navigable pages.

11. The file of claim 1 further comprising a first page that includes the video clip, the audio clip, and the branding graphic, and a second page navigable with respect to the first page, that includes another video clip, another audio clip, and another branding graphic.

12. The file of claim 1 further comprising an order taking component that interacts with a recipient to partly record an order for an item advertised by the commercial, and then uploads the order to a distant server.

13. The file of claim 1 further comprising an order taking component that interacts with a recipient to completely record an order for an item advertised by the commercial, and then uploads the order to a distant server.

14. The file of claim 1 wherein the file contains instructions that produce a plurality of files that interact to display the commercial.

15. The file of claim 1 wherein the file contains instructions that record a recipient identification code on a host computer.

16. A method of advertising, comprising : producing a commercial containing a video clip, an audio clip, and a branding graphic; including the commercial as a self-executing file in an e-mail; securing the e-mail; and transmitting the e-mail to a prospect.

17. The method of advertising of claim 16 wherein the step of securing includes attaching a digital certificate.

18. The method of advertising of claim 16 wherein the step of securing includes both attaching a digital certificate and encrypting at least a portion of the file.

19. The method of advertising of claim 16 wherein the self-executing file is selected from the group consisting of an .exe file, and a .com file.

20. The method of advertising of claim 16 further comprising: including an order taking component in the e-mail; interacting with the prospect via the order taking component to record an order for an item advertised by the commercial; and uploading the order to a distant server.

21. The method of claim 16 further comprising recording an identification code local to the prospect.