WO2002029648A2 - Disseminating promotional material - Google Patents

Disseminating promotional material Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2002029648A2
WO2002029648A2 PCT/IB2001/001777 IB0101777W WO0229648A2 WO 2002029648 A2 WO2002029648 A2 WO 2002029648A2 IB 0101777 W IB0101777 W IB 0101777W WO 0229648 A2 WO0229648 A2 WO 0229648A2
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
message
promotional material
intended recipient
authorized
recipient
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/IB2001/001777
Other languages
French (fr)
Other versions
WO2002029648A8 (en
Inventor
Adam Joshua Wynne
Matthew Shaer
Adrian Varket
Original Assignee
Dunedin Limited
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Dunedin Limited filed Critical Dunedin Limited
Priority to AU2001292147A priority Critical patent/AU2001292147A1/en
Publication of WO2002029648A2 publication Critical patent/WO2002029648A2/en
Publication of WO2002029648A8 publication Critical patent/WO2002029648A8/en

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a system for disseminating promotional material and, more specifically, to a system for distributing promotional material on an open communication network such as the Internet.
  • the invention extends to a method of disseminating promotional material.
  • a problem with this type of advertising is that it will only be accessible to visitors to a particular Internet website which contains a specific advertising banner.
  • the advertiser is dependent on the continued success and popularity of the website on which the advertiser's promotional material appears. Any decline in the number of visitors to the Website will have a potentially detrimental effect on the effectiveness of the advertiser's or promotional material.
  • a more recent development is for most advertising to be placed with advertising brokers, rather than directly with a website, although this is sometimes possible with larger websites. These advertising brokers offer the choice of advertising on a specific website, also referred as "run-of-network", which means that the advertising material will be displayed on many different websites.
  • Another way of disseminating Internet advertising banners by means of e-mail is based on methodology adopted by a website located at Internet URL epidemic.com.
  • a signature file accompanying an e-mail message contains HTML code to retrieve an advertising banner from a repository of promotional material.
  • This methodology is disadvantageous as it can only be used with an e-mail application which is capable of handling signature files, such as Microsoft Outlook or Netscape. Further, this methodology implies that signature files cannot be used for any other purposes by the sender of such e- mail messages. Still further, this approach is not transparent to the sender of such an e-mail message, as the sender will see the advert while composing the e-mail message.
  • a system for disseminating promotional material comprising:
  • a sending workstation operable by a sender to transmit a message to an intended recipient along a communication network
  • a receiving workstation operable by a recipient to receive the message from trie sender along the communication network
  • a register of authorized users of the system insertion means associated with the sending workstation for inserting a command code into the message to be transmitted to the recipient by the sender
  • detection means associated with the receiving workstation for detecting the command code in the received message
  • a display facility adapted to display promotional material at the receiving workstation as a function of whether or not the recipient of the message is an authorised user of the system.
  • the display facility to include a source of promotional material accessible by the receiving workstation along the communication network, for the register of authorized users to be a database, for the database to include a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to each authorized user of the system, for the message transmitted by the sender to the intended recipient to be an e-mail message, for the communication network to be an open communication network, for the open communication network to be the Internet, and for the database to be stored on an Internet server.
  • the insertion means to be an application program loadable and executable on the sending workstation
  • the detection means to be an e-mail application program which is loadable and executable on the receiving workstation
  • the command code in the e-mail message transmitted by the sender to the intended recipient to be interpretable code
  • the interpretable code to be Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML), code.
  • HTML Hypertext Mark-up Language
  • the detection means to recognize the command code in an incoming message transmitted by the sender to the receiving workstation, for the command code to instruct the detection facility to search for a unique identifier corresponding to the receiving workstation, for the unique identifier to be a cookie, for the receiving workstation means to transmit a request message containing the cookie, if found, to the register of authorized users of the system along the communication channel, for the cookie to be compared against the register of authorized users to determine whether or not the intended recipient of the e-mail message is an authorized user of the system, and for the request message to be an HTTP message.
  • the register of authorized users to transmit a redirection message to the receiving workstation, for the redirection message to include a redirebtion address therein, for the redirection address to be a communication network address of a repository of promotional material, and for the redirection message to also include data relating to a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient of the e-mail message where the intended recipient is an authorized user of the system.
  • the receiving workstation transmits a retrieval message to the repository of promotional material at the redirection address, the retrieval message containing the data relating to the profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient, for the repository to transmit a response message to the receiving workstation containing promotional material in accordance with the preferred profile, for the promotional material contained in the response message to be displayed to the intended recipient at the receiving workstation, for the promotional material to be any one or more of an Internet banner advertisement, rich media, an animation, video material, text, a sound recording, and an executable application, and for the executable application to include a Java or JavaScript executable application.
  • retrieval message to omit data corresponding to the profile of preferred promotional material if the intended recipient is not an authorized user of the system, and for the repository to transmit a response message to the receiving workstation containing randomly selected promotional material when the intended recipient is not an authorized user of the system.
  • a method for disseminating promotional material comprising the steps of: inserting a command code into a message to be transmitted by a sender to an intended recipient; transmitting the message to an intended recipient along a communication network; receiving the message from the sender along the communication network; detecting the command code in the received message; comparing an identity of the intended recipient against a register of authorized recipients; and displaying promotional material to the intended recipient of the message as a function of whether or not the intended recipient of the message is an authorized recipient.
  • obtaining the displayed promotional from a source of promotional material accessible along the communication network, for including in the register of authorized recipients a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to each authorized recipient, and for storing the register of authorized recipients on an Internet server.
  • inserting the command code into the message by means of an application program loadable and executable on a sending workstation, for detecting the command code in the received message by means of an e-mail application program which is loaded and executing on the receiving workstation, for transmitting the command code in the message from the sender to the intended recipient as interpretable code, and for the interpretable code to be Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) code.
  • HTML Hypertext Mark-up Language
  • recognizing the command code in an incoming message received by the intended recipient for searching for a unique identifier corresponding to the receiving workstation, for transmitting a request message containing the unique identifier, if found, to the register of authorized recipients along the communication channel, for comparing the unique identifier against the register of authorized recipients to determine whether or not the intended recipient of the message is an authorized recipient, and for transmitting the request message as an HTTP message.
  • redirection message for the receiving workstation, for including in the redirection message a redirection address, for the redirection address to be a communication network address of a repository of promotional material, and for also including in the redirection message data relating to a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient of the message when the intended recipient is an authorized recipient.
  • a retrieval message to the repository of promotional material at the redirection address, the retrieval message containing the data relating to the profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient, for transmitting a response message from the repository to the receiving workstation containing promotional material in accordance with the preferred profile, for displaying the promotional material contained in the response message to the intended recipient of the receiving workstation, for the promotional material to be any one or more of an Internet banner advertisement, rich media, an animation, video material, text, a sound recording, and an executable application, and for the executable application to include a Java or JavaScript executable application.
  • Figure 1 is a functional block diagram of a system for disseminating promotional material according to the invention.
  • a system for the dissemination of promotional material is indicated generally by reference numeral (1).
  • the system (1) includes a sending workstation (2) operable by a sender to transmit an e-mail message (3) conforming to the well known mail transport protocol such as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and the Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI), to an intended recipient at receiving workstation (4).
  • the sending workstation (2) and the receiving workstation (4) are connected to an open communication network in the form of the Internet (5).
  • the communication network (5) is shown in dotted lines in
  • the system (1) also includes a register (6) of authorized, or at registered, users of the system (1).
  • the register (6) of authorized users of the system (1) is a database which is accessible through an Internet Web server (7).
  • the database (6) also includes a profile corresponding to each authorized user of the system (1) of promotional material preferred by the authorized user.
  • the system (1) also contains a display facility (8) operable to display promotional material at the receiving workstation (4) as a function of whether or not the intended recipient of the e-mail message (3) is an authorised user of the system (1).
  • the sending workstation (2) includes detection means (10) in the form of a compact application program, preferably less than 200 kilobytes in size, which is loadable and executable on the sending workstation.
  • the application program (10) detects outgoing SMTP messages (3) which are transmitted from the sending workstation (2).
  • the sending and receiving workstations (2 & 4, respectively) operate on one of the well-known Windows suite of operating systems available from Microsoft Incorporated of Seattle, Washington. Under these operating systems, SMTP messages are usually transmitted to port 25 of an e-mail server (not shown) via the Internet.
  • HTML HyperText Markup Language
  • the received message is processed by an e-mail application program and the HTML code contained in the message is interpreted to cause the receiving workstation to transmit a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request message (11) to the Internet server (7) whose URL is contained in the HTML code.
  • HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  • the request message (11) contains a unique identifier, preferably in the form of a cookie, corresponding to the receiving workstation (4). It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the only way for a cookie to be present on the receiving workstation (4) is for the intended recipient of the e-mail message (3) to have previously accessed the Internet server (7) at the specified URL. When visiting the URL for a first time, no cookie will be present on the receiving workstation (4). In such an instance, the request message (11) will not contain a unique identifier as described above.
  • the Internet Web server (7) Upon receiving the request message (11), the Internet Web server (7) accesses the database (6) and the cookie is compared against the register of authorized users of the system( 1) to obtain the stored profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient. With the intended recipient is not an authorized user of the system (1), no such profile will exist for the intended recipient.
  • the Internet Web server (7) transmits a redirection message (12) along the communication network (5) back to the station (4).
  • the redirection message contains a redirection URL which is the communication network address of a repository (9) of promotional material forming part of the display facility (8).
  • the redirection message (12) also contains data relating to the profile of preferred promotional material for the intended recipient of the e-mail message (3), where such recipient is not an authorized user of the system (1), the redirection message (12) contains data reflecting this situation.
  • the e-mail package causes a retrieval message (13) to be transmitted by the receiving workstation to the repository (9), the retrieval message containing the data relating to the profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient.
  • the retrieval message (13) has been received by the repository of promotional material (9)
  • selected promotional material in the form of Internet banner advertisements matching the preferred profile are retrieved from the repository and transmitted back to the receiving workstation (4) as part of a response message (14), for display thereon.
  • the promotional material may be any one or more of an Internet banner advertisement, rich media, an animation, video material, text, a sound recording, and an executable application, such as an executable Java or JavaScript application.
  • the Internet banner advertisements may contain any one or more of text, images or sound recordings.
  • the banner advertisements may also contain executable code of a Rich Media type, such as Java or JavaScript from Sun Microsystems Incorporated.
  • the retrieval message (13) does not contain data relating to a preferred profile of promotional material, that the retrieval facility runs an Internet banner advertisement on a random selected basis as part of the response message (14).
  • the application program (10) when running on a workstation (2, 4) detects an unauthorized user of the system (1) and invites the user or register as an authorized user of the system (1) on an Internet website. If the user desires to register as an authorized user of the system, the application program (10) directs the user to a form on the website, which the user is required to complete.
  • the form requires the user to fill in personal information, as well as a list of activities or hobbies or subject matter which is of interest to the user, as a future recipient of e-mail.
  • the user's responses to the form provide the basis on which the user is registered as an authorized user of the system (1) and a profile of preferred promotional material for the user as future recipient is established and stored in the database (6).
  • the system (1) enables targeted Internet advertising to be achieved by means of conventional e-mail messages. Once an intended recipient of an e-mail transmitted by a sender has been registered as an authorized user of the system (1), the recipient will automatically receive targeted Internet banner advertisements in his e-mail messages as described above. If the intended recipient does not register as an authorized user of the system (1), he will continue to receive non-specific Internet banner advertisements in his e-mail. It will be further appreciated by those skilled in the art that this system (1) provides for promotional material to be sent to an intended recipient of an e-mail in a manner which is transparent to the sender of the e-mail message. This is in contradistinction to the prior art methods described above in which the sender of an e-mail message containing promotional material is forced to view the promotional material when composing his message.
  • prior art systems do not have information provided by the recipients themselves, and the sender is required to provide information about a recipient if the promotional material is to be specifically targeted at the recipient.
  • the communication network (5) may be a closed communication network, or an open communication network other than the Internet.
  • the operating system used in the sending and receiving of a workstation may be an operating system outside of the Windows family of operating systems.
  • the unique identifier used to identify an authorized user of the system (1) and to target promotional material based on the user's preferences may be the user's e-mail address instead of a cookie.
  • the invention therefore provides a system for disseminating targeted promotional material by means of e-mail, and a method of inserting Internet advertising banners into e-mail messages which is totally transparent to the originators, or senders, of such e-mail messages.

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Abstract

A system for disseminating promotional material comprises a sending computer workstation operable by a sender to transmit, along a communication network, a message to an intended recipient at a receiving computer workstation and a register of authorized users of the system. Insertion means associated with the sending computer workstation inserts a command code into the message prior to transmission to the recipient by the sender. Detection means associated with the receiving workstation detects the command code in the received computer workstation as a function of whether or not the recipient of the message is an authorized user of the system.

Description

DISSEMINATING PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a system for disseminating promotional material and, more specifically, to a system for distributing promotional material on an open communication network such as the Internet. The invention extends to a method of disseminating promotional material.
BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION
The advent of open communication networks such as the Internet has provided a new medium for the dissemination of promotional material. It is well known for Internet websites which are popular and widely visited by Internet users to be sought after by advertisers who wish to place promotional material such as "banners" on such websites in order to be visible to visitors to the websites.
A problem with this type of advertising is that it will only be accessible to visitors to a particular Internet website which contains a specific advertising banner. The advertiser is dependent on the continued success and popularity of the website on which the advertiser's promotional material appears. Any decline in the number of visitors to the Website will have a potentially detrimental effect on the effectiveness of the advertiser's or promotional material. A more recent development is for most advertising to be placed with advertising brokers, rather than directly with a website, although this is sometimes possible with larger websites. These advertising brokers offer the choice of advertising on a specific website, also referred as "run-of-network", which means that the advertising material will be displayed on many different websites.
It is known to disseminate promotional material on the Internet by means of e- mail. One such method of disseminating Internet advertising banners by means of e-mail is through so-called "opt-in groups". In such an arrangement, persons voluntarily join a closed group of individuals who receive e-mail messages which are exclusively advert-based, usually in exchange for some financial reward. An example of such an opt-in group is the "E-merge" group available from 247Media.com.
Another way of disseminating Internet advertising banners by means of e-mail is based on methodology adopted by a website located at Internet URL epidemic.com. In this approach, a signature file accompanying an e-mail message contains HTML code to retrieve an advertising banner from a repository of promotional material. This methodology is disadvantageous as it can only be used with an e-mail application which is capable of handling signature files, such as Microsoft Outlook or Netscape. Further, this methodology implies that signature files cannot be used for any other purposes by the sender of such e- mail messages. Still further, this approach is not transparent to the sender of such an e-mail message, as the sender will see the advert while composing the e-mail message.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide a system for disseminating promotional material, and a method of disseminating promotional material which will, at least partially, alleviate the abovementioned difficulties and disadvantages. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION!
In accordance with this invention there is provided a system for disseminating promotional material, comprising:
a sending workstation operable by a sender to transmit a message to an intended recipient along a communication network; a receiving workstation operable by a recipient to receive the message from trie sender along the communication network; a register of authorized users of the system; insertion means associated with the sending workstation for inserting a command code into the message to be transmitted to the recipient by the sender; detection means associated with the receiving workstation for detecting the command code in the received message; and a display facility adapted to display promotional material at the receiving workstation as a function of whether or not the recipient of the message is an authorised user of the system.
Further features of the invention provide for the display facility to include a source of promotional material accessible by the receiving workstation along the communication network, for the register of authorized users to be a database, for the database to include a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to each authorized user of the system, for the message transmitted by the sender to the intended recipient to be an e-mail message, for the communication network to be an open communication network, for the open communication network to be the Internet, and for the database to be stored on an Internet server.
Still further features of the invention provide for the insertion means to be an application program loadable and executable on the sending workstation, for the detection means to be an e-mail application program which is loadable and executable on the receiving workstation, for the command code in the e-mail message transmitted by the sender to the intended recipient to be interpretable code, and for the interpretable code to be Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML), code.
Yet further features of the invention provide for the detection means to recognize the command code in an incoming message transmitted by the sender to the receiving workstation, for the command code to instruct the detection facility to search for a unique identifier corresponding to the receiving workstation, for the unique identifier to be a cookie, for the receiving workstation means to transmit a request message containing the cookie, if found, to the register of authorized users of the system along the communication channel, for the cookie to be compared against the register of authorized users to determine whether or not the intended recipient of the e-mail message is an authorized user of the system, and for the request message to be an HTTP message.
There is further provided for the register of authorized users to transmit a redirection message to the receiving workstation, for the redirection message to include a redirebtion address therein, for the redirection address to be a communication network address of a repository of promotional material, and for the redirection message to also include data relating to a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient of the e-mail message where the intended recipient is an authorized user of the system.
Preferably, the receiving workstation transmits a retrieval message to the repository of promotional material at the redirection address, the retrieval message containing the data relating to the profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient, for the repository to transmit a response message to the receiving workstation containing promotional material in accordance with the preferred profile, for the promotional material contained in the response message to be displayed to the intended recipient at the receiving workstation, for the promotional material to be any one or more of an Internet banner advertisement, rich media, an animation, video material, text, a sound recording, and an executable application, and for the executable application to include a Java or JavaScript executable application.
There is further provided for the retrieval message to omit data corresponding to the profile of preferred promotional material if the intended recipient is not an authorized user of the system, and for the repository to transmit a response message to the receiving workstation containing randomly selected promotional material when the intended recipient is not an authorized user of the system.
A method for disseminating promotional material, comprising the steps of: inserting a command code into a message to be transmitted by a sender to an intended recipient; transmitting the message to an intended recipient along a communication network; receiving the message from the sender along the communication network; detecting the command code in the received message; comparing an identity of the intended recipient against a register of authorized recipients; and displaying promotional material to the intended recipient of the message as a function of whether or not the intended recipient of the message is an authorized recipient.
There is further provided for obtaining the displayed promotional from a source of promotional material accessible along the communication network, for including in the register of authorized recipients a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to each authorized recipient, and for storing the register of authorized recipients on an Internet server. There is still further provided for inserting the command code into the message by means of an application program loadable and executable on a sending workstation, for detecting the command code in the received message by means of an e-mail application program which is loaded and executing on the receiving workstation, for transmitting the command code in the message from the sender to the intended recipient as interpretable code, and for the interpretable code to be Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) code.
There is yet further provided for recognizing the command code in an incoming message received by the intended recipient, for searching for a unique identifier corresponding to the receiving workstation, for transmitting a request message containing the unique identifier, if found, to the register of authorized recipients along the communication channel, for comparing the unique identifier against the register of authorized recipients to determine whether or not the intended recipient of the message is an authorized recipient, and for transmitting the request message as an HTTP message.
There is also provided for transmitting a redirection message for the receiving workstation, for including in the redirection message a redirection address, for the redirection address to be a communication network address of a repository of promotional material, and for also including in the redirection message data relating to a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient of the message when the intended recipient is an authorized recipient.
There is further provided for transmitting a retrieval message to the repository of promotional material at the redirection address, the retrieval message containing the data relating to the profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient, for transmitting a response message from the repository to the receiving workstation containing promotional material in accordance with the preferred profile, for displaying the promotional material contained in the response message to the intended recipient of the receiving workstation, for the promotional material to be any one or more of an Internet banner advertisement, rich media, an animation, video material, text, a sound recording, and an executable application, and for the executable application to include a Java or JavaScript executable application.
There is still further provided omitting from the retrieval message data corresponding to the profile of preferred promotional material if the intended recipient is not an authorized recipient, and for transmitting a response message from the repository to the receiving workstation containing random promotional material when the intended recipient is not an authorized recipient.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
One embodiment of the invention is described below, by way of example only, and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a functional block diagram of a system for disseminating promotional material according to the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to Figure 1 , a system for the dissemination of promotional material is indicated generally by reference numeral (1).
The system (1) includes a sending workstation (2) operable by a sender to transmit an e-mail message (3) conforming to the well known mail transport protocol such as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and the Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI), to an intended recipient at receiving workstation (4). The sending workstation (2) and the receiving workstation (4) are connected to an open communication network in the form of the Internet (5). For convenience, the communication network (5) is shown in dotted lines in
Figure 1 , while different messages transmitted along the communication network are represented by arrows.
The system (1) also includes a register (6) of authorized, or at registered, users of the system (1). The register (6) of authorized users of the system (1) is a database which is accessible through an Internet Web server (7). The database (6) also includes a profile corresponding to each authorized user of the system (1) of promotional material preferred by the authorized user.
The system (1) also contains a display facility (8) operable to display promotional material at the receiving workstation (4) as a function of whether or not the intended recipient of the e-mail message (3) is an authorised user of the system (1). This aspect of the invention will be described in greater detail in the description which follows.
The sending workstation (2) includes detection means (10) in the form of a compact application program, preferably less than 200 kilobytes in size, which is loadable and executable on the sending workstation. The application program (10) detects outgoing SMTP messages (3) which are transmitted from the sending workstation (2). The sending and receiving workstations (2 & 4, respectively) operate on one of the well-known Windows suite of operating systems available from Microsoft Incorporated of Seattle, Washington. Under these operating systems, SMTP messages are usually transmitted to port 25 of an e-mail server (not shown) via the Internet. When an outgoing SMTP message (3) is detected in this manner, a command code in the form of Hypertext Mark-Up
Language (HTML) code is inserted into the outgoing SMTP e-mail message, the operation of which will be described below.
When the transmitted SMTP e-mail message (3) is received at the receiving workstation (4), the received message is processed by an e-mail application program and the HTML code contained in the message is interpreted to cause the receiving workstation to transmit a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request message (11) to the Internet server (7) whose URL is contained in the HTML code. The request message (11) contains a unique identifier, preferably in the form of a cookie, corresponding to the receiving workstation (4). It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the only way for a cookie to be present on the receiving workstation (4) is for the intended recipient of the e-mail message (3) to have previously accessed the Internet server (7) at the specified URL. When visiting the URL for a first time, no cookie will be present on the receiving workstation (4). In such an instance, the request message (11) will not contain a unique identifier as described above.
Upon receiving the request message (11), the Internet Web server (7) accesses the database (6) and the cookie is compared against the register of authorized users of the system( 1) to obtain the stored profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient. With the intended recipient is not an authorized user of the system (1), no such profile will exist for the intended recipient. The Internet Web server (7) then transmits a redirection message (12) along the communication network (5) back to the station (4). The redirection message contains a redirection URL which is the communication network address of a repository (9) of promotional material forming part of the display facility (8). The redirection message (12) also contains data relating to the profile of preferred promotional material for the intended recipient of the e-mail message (3), where such recipient is not an authorized user of the system (1), the redirection message (12) contains data reflecting this situation.
Once the receiving workstation (4) has received the redirection message (12), the e-mail package causes a retrieval message (13) to be transmitted by the receiving workstation to the repository (9), the retrieval message containing the data relating to the profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient. When the retrieval message (13) has been received by the repository of promotional material (9), selected promotional material in the form of Internet banner advertisements matching the preferred profile are retrieved from the repository and transmitted back to the receiving workstation (4) as part of a response message (14), for display thereon. The promotional material may be any one or more of an Internet banner advertisement, rich media, an animation, video material, text, a sound recording, and an executable application, such as an executable Java or JavaScript application.
The Internet banner advertisements may contain any one or more of text, images or sound recordings. The banner advertisements may also contain executable code of a Rich Media type, such as Java or JavaScript from Sun Microsystems Incorporated. Where the retrieval message (13) does not contain data relating to a preferred profile of promotional material, that the retrieval facility runs an Internet banner advertisement on a random selected basis as part of the response message (14).
The application program (10) when running on a workstation (2, 4) detects an unauthorized user of the system (1) and invites the user or register as an authorized user of the system (1) on an Internet website. If the user desires to register as an authorized user of the system, the application program (10) directs the user to a form on the website, which the user is required to complete. The form requires the user to fill in personal information, as well as a list of activities or hobbies or subject matter which is of interest to the user, as a future recipient of e-mail. The user's responses to the form provide the basis on which the user is registered as an authorized user of the system (1) and a profile of preferred promotional material for the user as future recipient is established and stored in the database (6).
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the system (1) enables targeted Internet advertising to be achieved by means of conventional e-mail messages. Once an intended recipient of an e-mail transmitted by a sender has been registered as an authorized user of the system (1), the recipient will automatically receive targeted Internet banner advertisements in his e-mail messages as described above. If the intended recipient does not register as an authorized user of the system (1), he will continue to receive non-specific Internet banner advertisements in his e-mail. It will be further appreciated by those skilled in the art that this system (1) provides for promotional material to be sent to an intended recipient of an e-mail in a manner which is transparent to the sender of the e-mail message. This is in contradistinction to the prior art methods described above in which the sender of an e-mail message containing promotional material is forced to view the promotional material when composing his message.
Further, prior art systems do not have information provided by the recipients themselves, and the sender is required to provide information about a recipient if the promotional material is to be specifically targeted at the recipient.
Numerous modifications are possible to this embodiment without departing from the scope of the invention. In particular, the communication network (5) may be a closed communication network, or an open communication network other than the Internet. Further, the operating system used in the sending and receiving of a workstation may be an operating system outside of the Windows family of operating systems. Still further, the unique identifier used to identify an authorized user of the system (1) and to target promotional material based on the user's preferences may be the user's e-mail address instead of a cookie.
The invention therefore provides a system for disseminating targeted promotional material by means of e-mail, and a method of inserting Internet advertising banners into e-mail messages which is totally transparent to the originators, or senders, of such e-mail messages.

Claims

1. A system for disseminating promotional material, comprising: a sending workstation operable by a sender to transmit a message to an intended recipient along a communication network; a receiving workstation operable by a recipient to receive the message from the sender along the communication network; a register of authorized users of the system; insertion means associated with the sending workstation for inserting a command code into the message to be transmitted to the recipient by the sender; detection means associated with the receiving workstation for detecting the command code in the received message; and a display facility adapted to display promotional material at the receiving workstation as a function of whether or not the recipient of the message is an authorised user of the system.
2. A system as claimed in claim 1 in which the display facility includes a source of promotional material accessible by the receiving workstation along the communication network.
3. A system as claimed in either one of claims 1 or 2 in which the register of authorized users is a database.
4. A system as claimed in claim 3 in which the database includes a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to each authorized user of the system
5. A system as claimed in any one of the proceeding claims in which the message transmitted by the sender to the intended recipient is an e-mail message.
6. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the communication network is an open communication network.
7. A system as claimed in claim 6 in which the open communication network is the Internet.
8. A system as claimed in claim 3 in which the database is stored on an
Internet server.
9. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the insertion means is an application program loadable and executable on the sending workstation.
10. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the detection means is an e-mail application program which is loadable and executable on the receiving workstation.
11. A system as claimed in claim 10 in which the command code in the e-mail message transmitted by the sender to the intended recipient is interpretable code.
12. A system as claimed in claim 11 in which the interpretable code is
Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) code.
13. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the detection means recognizes the command code in an incoming message transmitted by the sender to the receiving workstation.
14. A system as claimed in claim 13 in which the command code instructs the detection facility to search for a unique identifier corresponding to the receiving workstation.
15. A system as claimed in claim 14 in which the unique identifier is a cookie.
16. A system as claimed in claim 15 in which the receiving workstation means transmits a request message containing the cookie, if found, to the register of authorized users of the system along the communication channel.
17. A system as claimed in claim 16 in which the cookie is compared against the register of authorized users to determine whether or not the intended recipient of the e-mail message is an authorized user of the system.
18. A system as claimed in claim 17 in which the request message is an HTTP message.
19. A system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the register of authorized users transmits a redirection message to the receiving workstation.
20. A system as claimed in claim 19 in which the redirection message includes a redirection address therein
21. A system as claimed in claim 20 in which the redirection address is a communication network address of a repository of promotional material.
22. A system as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 21 in which the redirection message also includes data relating to a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient of the e-mail message where the intended recipient is an authorized user of the system.
23. A system as claimed in claim 22 in which the receiving workstation transmits a retrieval message to the repository of promotional material at the redirection address, the retrieval message containing the data relating to the profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient.
24. A system as claimed in claim 23 in which the repository transmits a response message to the receiving workstation containing promotional material in accordance with the preferred profile.
25. A system as claimed in claim 24 in which the promotional material contained in the response message is displayed to the intended recipient at the receiving workstation.
26. A system as claimed in claim 25 in which the promotional material is any one or more of an Internet banner advertisement, rich media, an animation, video material, text, a sound recording, and an executable application.
27. A system as claimed in claim 26 in which the executable application includes a Java or JavaScript executable application.
28. A system as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 27 in which the retrieval message omits data corresponding to the profile of preferred promotional material if the intended recipient is not an authorized user of the system.
29. A system as claimed in claim 28 in which, and for the repository transmits a response message to the receiving workstation containing randomly selected promotional material when the intended recipient is not an authorized user of the system.
30. A method for disseminating promotional material, comprising the steps of: inserting a command code into a message to be transmitted by a sender to an intended recipient; transmitting the message to an intended recipient along a communication network; receiving the message from the sender along the communication network; detecting the command code in the received message; comparing an identity of the intended recipient against a register of authorized recipients; and displaying promotional material to the intended recipient of the message as a function of whether or not the intended recipient of the message is an authorized recipient.
31. A method as claimed in claim 30 in which the displayed promotional is obtained from a source of promotional material accessible along the communication network.
32. A method as claimed in either one of claims 30 or 31 in which the register of authorized recipients includes a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to each authorized recipient
33. A method as claimed in any one of claims 30 to 37 in which the register of authorized recipients is stored on an Internet server.
34. A method as claimed in any one of claims 30 to 33 in which the command code is inserted into the message by means of an application program loadable and executable on a sending workstation
35. A method as claimed in any one of claims 30 to 34 in which the command code in the received message is detected by means of an e-mail application program which is loaded and executing on the receiving workstation
36. A method as claimed in any one of claims 30 to 35 in which the command code in the message is transmitted from the sender to the intended recipient as interpretable code
37. A method as claimed in claim 36 in which the interpretable code is Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) code.
38. A method as claimed in any one of claims 30 to 37 which includes the step of recognizing the command code in an incoming message received by the intended recipient.
39. A method as claimed in claim 38 which includes the step of searching for a unique identifier corresponding to the receiving workstation.
40. A method as claimed in claim 39 which includes the step of transmitting a request message containing the unique identifier, if found, to the register of authorized recipients along the communication channel.
41. A method as claimed in claim 40 in which the unique identifier is compared against the register of authorized recipients to determine whether or not the intended recipient of the message is an authorized recipient.
42. A method as claimed in either one of claims 40 Or 41 in which the request message is transmitted as an HTTP message.
43. A method as claimed in any one of claims 30 to 42 in which a redirection message is transmitted to the receiving workstation.
44. A method as claimed in claim 43 in which the redirection message includes a redirection address.
45. A method as claimed in claim 44 in which the redirection address is a communication network address of a repository of promotional material.
46. A method as claimed in any one of claims 43 to 45 in which the redirection also includes message data relating to a profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient of the message when the intended recipient is an authorized recipient.
47. A method as claimed in claim 46 which includes the step of transmitting a retrieval message to the repository of promotional material at the redirection address, the retrieval message containing the data relating to the profile of preferred promotional material corresponding to the intended recipient.
48. A method as claimed in claim 47 which includes the step of transmitting a response message from the repository to the receiving workstation containing promotional material in accordance with the preferred profile.
49. A method as claimed in claim 48 which includes the step of displaying the promotional material contained in the response message to the intended recipient of the receiving workstation.
50. A method as claimed in claim 50 in which the promotional material is any one or more of an Internet banner advertisement, rich media, an animation, video material, text, a sound recording, and an executable application.
51. A method as claimed in claim 50 in which the executable application includes a Java or JavaScript executable application.
52. A method as claimed in any one of claims 48 to 51 which includes the step of omitting from the retrieval message data corresponding to the profile of preferred promotional material if the intended recipient is not an authorized recipient.
53. A method as claimed in claim 52 which includes the step of transmitting a response message from the repository to the receiving workstation containing random promotional material when the intended recipient is not an authorized recipient.
54. A system for disseminating promotional material substantially as herein described with reference to an as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
55. A method for disseminating promotional material substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
PCT/IB2001/001777 2000-10-06 2001-09-27 Disseminating promotional material WO2002029648A2 (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
AU2001292147A AU2001292147A1 (en) 2000-10-06 2001-09-27 Disseminating promotional material

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB0024573A GB0024573D0 (en) 2000-10-06 2000-10-06 Disseminating promotional material
GB0024573.8 2000-10-06

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2002029648A2 true WO2002029648A2 (en) 2002-04-11
WO2002029648A8 WO2002029648A8 (en) 2003-05-30

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Country Status (3)

Country Link
AU (1) AU2001292147A1 (en)
GB (1) GB0024573D0 (en)
WO (1) WO2002029648A2 (en)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
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WO2002029648A8 (en) 2003-05-30
GB0024573D0 (en) 2000-11-22

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