WO2011061586A1

WO2011061586A1 - System and method for relating advertisements within a campaign

Info

Publication number: WO2011061586A1
Application number: PCT/IB2010/002857
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gaelle Martin-Cocher
Original assignee: Research In Motion Limited
Priority date: 2009-11-20
Filing date: 2010-11-09
Publication date: 2011-05-26

Abstract

A system and method for distributing advertisements using a wireless communication network is provided. The advertisements may be sequentially presented by an electronic device. The method includes receiving an advertising content message. The advertising content message identifies a plurality of advertisements and specifies an order for the presentation of the advertisements. The method includes presenting a first advertisement on the electronic device. The first advertisement is identified as belonging to a sequence of advertisements. The method includes presenting a second advertisement on the electronic device. The second advertisement is identified as belonging to the sequence of advertisements and is the next advertisement in the sequence after the first advertisement.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RELATING ADVERTISEMENTS WITHIN A

CAMPAIGN

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for data communication and, more particularly, to a system and method for distributing advertisements wherein the advertisements are related, such as in an advertising campaign or an advertising storyboard.

To provide customized and targeted advertising, many electronic devices, such as cell phones and personal web-enabled devices, are configured to retrieve advertising information and content from an advertising server or system. Generally, the advertising system is configured to serve advertisements that are of interest to a user. An electronic device may, for example, store a user profile that stores the user's interests, demographics, and the like. A web browser running on an electronic device may also track the advertisements viewed by the user and the user's purchase decisions. When equipped with a GPS or other location system, an electronic device can also track the user's location or provide the location to an advertising system. The foregoing- mentioned information can be used to provide targeted advertisements. The data may also be used to monitor impressions and user interactions with advertisements (e.g. clicks to websites) to further refine the association between the user and particular advertisements. For example, the data may include information regarding the number of times an advertisement is presented to potential customers and user actions in response to advertisements, such as activations of a click- through function to access additional information related to an advertisement. Such data can be used to improve or personalize future advertisements.

In some marketing efforts, a collection of advertisements may be associated into an advertising campaign. The campaign may include several different advertisements that each present a similar theme or use similar mechanisms for advertising a particular product or service. In some cases, to be effective, each of the advertisements within the campaign may be presented in a pre-defined order. The ordering may be referred to as a storyboard, with the storyboard specifying the order in which the advertisements should be presented.

In the case of television-based advertising, because the order and time at which particular television commercials or advertisements are displayed can be strictly defined, a storyboard can be specified and implemented using existing television broadcast systems. The entity providing the commercial content defines an order in which to play the commercials, and the content distributor plays the commercials in the specified order. Similarly, in the case of electronic billboard advertising, content can be provided to the billboard and the billboard can be programmed to display the content in a specific order. As a result, in many existing advertising media, the advertising content can be storyboarded and distributed in accordance with the storyboard.

In the case of mobile advertising, however, it is difficult to implement an advertisement campaign, particularly when the campaign relies upon the strict execution of an advertisement storyboard. A user may quickly move from one website to the next (known in the art as website abandonment) with no continuity being established between the first and second website. A user may also establish multiple user sessions using one or more applications. Each application may independently request and display advertisements that may each happen to be a portion of the storyboard for the advertising campaign, but there may be no continuity between the sessions and between the applications. As a result, the user may see duplicative advertising, advertising that is not displayed in the appropriate order, or advertising belonging to multiple, unrelated campaigns. The result may be that the effectiveness of the campaign is severely degraded. In some cases, the display of advertisements in an inappropriate ordering may, in fact, result in the advertising campaign having a negative effectiveness, potentially dissuading the user from purchasing the advertised product or service.

For example, Fig. 1 is an illustration of two separate sequences of advertising content 200 and 202. In the first sequence 200, the correct advertisements are provided in the correct order: Advertisement A, then Advertisement B, and then Advertisement C. The advertisements may include graphics, video, sound, or other media for conveying information to a user about a product or service. In this example, Advertisements A, B, and C each belong to the same campaign, advertise the same product or service and use coherent themes and mechanisms for describing the product or services. Because they are all related and displayed in the correct order, Advertisements A, B, and C, when displayed in sequence or in the depicted ordering, provide a compelling advertising campaign for the product or service.

In the second example 202, however, the advertisements are not presented in the correct order. Advertisement X is displayed between Advertisements B and C. Because Advertisement X is not related to Advertisements A, B, and C, Advertisement X may include content that is not appropriate to display with the other advertisements. For example, Advertisements A, B, and C may each be associated with an advertising campaign for a first product, while Advertisement X describes a second product, with each set of advertisements criticizing and highlighting problems with the other product. Accordingly, because the advertisements were not all limited to a particular campaign, or displayed in a particular order, the inclusion of Advertisement X amongst Advertisements A, B, and C can greatly diminish the effectiveness of all the advertising or of the campaign in general. Existing mobile advertisement distributions system do not provide mechanisms for preventing the second example advertisement ordering illustrated in Fig. 1, when various sessions or different applications are used.

Fig. 2 is an illustration of a message flow in an advertisement distribution system that comprises an advertising client in communication with an advertising server and various applications displaying advertisements on a device. This advertising distribution system can be accomplished according to the OMA MobAd Enabler specification. This system allows a first and second advertisement application to retrieve advertising content from an advertisement client. The distribution method illustrated in Fig. 2 does not provide a mechanism for associating the advertisements with a campaign or defining a storyboard for the advertisements. As shown in Fig. 2, in a first step 2, the advertisement server (AdServer) 3 distributes advertising content to the advertising client (AdClient) 4. With the advertising content made available by AdClient 4, the content can be requested by one or more advertising applications (AdApps) (e.g., 1 1, and 13), that may each be configured to display the advertisement to a user. In step 5, AdApp 1 1 requests advertising content from AdClient 4. In response, AdClient 4 transmits response 6 to AdApp 1 1 containing the advertising content to be displayed by AdApp 1 1. In step 7, AdApp 13 issues an advertisement request to AdClient 4. In response, AdClient 4 transmits response 8 to AdApp 13 containing advertising content to be displayed by AdApp 13. In the message flow illustrated in Fig. 2, the AdClient 4 receives advertisement content from AdServer 3 without any mechanism to determine whether the various advertisements are related either in a campaign or a storyboard. As such, upon receiving the Ad Requests from AdApp 1 1 and AdApp 13 (requests 5 and 7, respectively), the AdClient 4 selects and distributes advertising content to each of the AdApps independently of any possible relationship between the advertisements. As a result, the advertising content received and displayed by AdApp 1 1 and AdApp 13 may include

advertisements that are targeted for each Ad App, however the system does not allow for preference to be given to advertisements of a same campaign to be distributed in sequence and/or in order across application or session. The result may be the display of unrelated, or inappropriate ordering, of advertisements with respect to any intended storyboard to be associated with the advertisements. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system and method for distributing and displaying advertisements in accordance with a campaign strategy or a storyboard defining an ordering of one or more advertisements associated with an advertising campaign. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is an illustration of two separate sequences of advertising content;

Fig. 2 is an illustration of a message flow in an advertisement distribution system allowing a first and second advertisement application to retrieve advertising content from an advertisement client;

Fig. 3 is an illustration of an example wireless network incorporating an advertising distribution system in accordance with the present disclosure;

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of an example electronic device and advertisement server of Fig. 3 for use with an advertising distribution system in accordance with the present disclosure;

Fig. 5 illustrates the relationship between the Campaign ID and each of the

advertisements associated with the campaign;

Figs. 6a and 6b are illustrations of message flow for distributing advertising content using AdContent data including a Campaign ID;

Fig. 7 is an illustration showing advertisements having IDs A, B, and C that are connected using a LinkedAdID data element;

Fig. 8 is an illustration of a message flow for distributing advertisements that are connected using LinkedAdID data elements, the LinkedAdID defining an order in which the advertisements are to be presented;

Fig. 9 is an illustration showing the relationship between advertisements having IDs A, B, C, and D, wherein the advertisements are related using CampaignID and CampaignOrder data elements; and

Fig. 10 is an illustration of a message flow for distributing advertisements using

AdContent data including a CampaignID and a CampaignOrder.

DETAILED DESCRD7TION

The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for data communication and, more particularly, to a system and method for distributing advertisements wherein the advertisements are related, such as in an advertising campaign. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method for distributing

advertisements using a wireless communication network. The advertisements are sequentially presented by an electronic device. The method includes receiving an advertising content message. The advertising content message identifies a plurality of advertisements and specifies an order for the presentation of the advertisements. The method includes presenting a first advertisement on the electronic device. The first advertisement is identified as belonging to a sequence of advertisements. The method includes presenting a second advertisement on the electronic device. The second advertisement is identified as belonging to the sequence of advertisements and is the next advertisement in the sequence of advertisements after the first advertisement.

Other embodiments include a method for receiving advertisements using a wireless communication network. The advertisements are presented by an electronic device associated an advertising campaign identification (ID). The method includes requesting a first advertisement from an advertisement client, and receiving a first advertisement from the advertisement client. The first advertisement is associated with a first campaign ID and has a first campaign order. The method includes requesting a second advertisement from the advertisement client, and receiving a second advertisement from the advertisement client. The second advertisement is associated with the first campaign ID and has a second campaign order. The second campaign order being an increment of the first campaign order.

Other embodiments include a method for distributing advertisements using a wireless communication network. The advertisements are presented by an electronic device associated an advertising campaign identification (ID). The method includes receiving an advertising content message using the wireless network. The advertising content message identifies a plurality of advertisements and specifies a campaign ID and a campaign order for each of the advertisements. The method includes receiving a first request for advertising content from a first application on the electronic device, and selecting a first advertisement having a campaign ID equal to the campaign ID associated with the electronic device. The first advertisement has a first campaign order. The method includes transmitting the first advertisement to the first application on the electronic device.

Other embodiments include a method for distributing advertisements using a wireless communication network. The advertisements are presented by an electronic device in

communication with the wireless communication network. The method includes receiving an advertising content message using the wireless network. The advertising content message identifies a plurality of advertisements and specifies an identification (ID) and a linked advertisement ID for each of the advertisements. The method includes receiving a first request for advertising content from a first application on the electronic device, transmitting a first advertisement to the first application on the electronic device, receiving a second request for advertising content from a second application on the electronic device, and transmitting a second advertisement to the second application on the electronic device. The second advertisement has an ID equal to the linked advertisement ID of the first advertisement.

As used herein, the terms "component," "system" and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computer and the computer can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers or processors.

The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs.

Referring now to Fig. 3, an exemplary communication system 10 includes user agents (UAs) or electronic devices 12 and 14, a wireless access device 16, and an advertising server 18 which may be embodied as a computing device executing an advertising server application logic. As illustrated, the electronic devices 12 and 14 may include internal wireless communications capabilities or may employ additional wireless communications hardware 20 to communicate with the wireless access device 16. The electronic devices 12 and 14 may be wireless devices such as mobile telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld or laptop computers, desktop computers, set-top boxes, network nodes, or similar devices. In accordance with the present system and method, various types of wired and wireless communications networks can be used. While not depicted on Fig. 3 electronic devices 14 can be an application server wired with the advertising server 18 and used to integrate advertisements into content to be provided to electronic devices 12. While an exemplary system and network for implementing the present system is illustrated in Fig. 3, it will be apparent that system components may be configured otherwise, for example, including any number of components or various relational

interconnections, including, for example, infrastructure networks, ad-hoc networks, peer to peer networks, and the like. System 10 allows for relating one or more advertisements into an advertising campaign and may further provide mechanisms for defining a storyboard for specifying an ordering in which the advertisements are to be presented. In the present disclosure, presenting an advertisement may include displaying or outputting media including video, still images, or audio, for example. In short, presenting an advertisement may include any action suitable for communicating the content of the advertisement to a user. The system may be implemented in accordance with, for example, an Open Mobile Alliance mobile advertising (OMA MobAd) system. While the following description will be provided with respect to an overall architecture such as may be used in a MobAd context or environment, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the provided description is readily applicable to other systems and architectures. For example, entities referred to as residing on a "sever" or on an "electronic" device could be located elsewhere within other environments.

With reference to Figs. 3 and 4, the electronic device 12 may include a processor 22 linked to a memory 24, a transceiver 26, a user input device 28, an electronic presentation device 30, and an audio component 32, for example, a speaker. Communications between the electronic device 12 and other components of the system 10 may be provided through the transceiver 26. Communications between the user and processor 22 may be provided through display 30, audio component 32, and user input device 28.

The processor 22 is capable of running a number of application programs 34, referred to hereinafter interchangeably as applications, programs, or application programs, that are stored in the memory 24. As illustrated, these programs include an advertising client (AdClient) 36 (in some implementations of the present system and in some standards documents an AdClient may also be referred to as an AdEngine such as in an OMA MobAd implementation), and advertising applications (AdApp) including AddApp 38. The advertisement application 38 provides advertisements to the user of the electronic device 12 on user interface devices including electronic display 30, audio component 32, and the like. The advertisement client 36 is in communication with both the advertisement application 38 resident on electronic device 12, and with the advertisement server 18, through the transceiver 26. In some instances, as will be described, the advertisement application 38 may also be capable of communicating with the advertisement server 18.

The AdClient 36 may obtain advertisements from the advertisement server 18 or elsewhere in the system 10, such as from local storage in the electronic device 12 or from a content server or provider, and may work with the applications 34, and 38 to communicate the advertisements to the user. Whether stored within advertisement server 18, advertisement client 36, or another accessible local storage media, each advertisement may be associated with data describing various attributes of the advertisements (e.g., metadata). The attributes may be used to identify the particular advertisement, or to provide information useful in selecting and presenting the advertisement.

In a MobAd system, as discussed above, there is a need to establish a link or association between advertisements to allow an AdClient to pass related advertisement content to a variety of applications (e.g., AdApps), for example, to ensure that advertisement content is shown with other, related, advertisement content and, optionally, in a pre-determined sequence so that other inappropriate advertising content is not presented. In the OMA MobAd Enabler specification, the link between the advertisement and the campaign may be set by the construct of the AdID in that it may contain the campaign ID, where the formatting would be subject to a specific SP (i.e. service provider) policy. This means that an AdClient may need to parse different formatting for different service providers. In the present system, various data structures may be associated with the advertising content to describe attributes of the content. The data structures used to describe and provide the Ad payload may include a Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) type, duration, height and width, a location, and other information describing the advertising content. Accordingly, the structure may include or may be associated with advertisement metadata for facilitating the content's distribution and presentation to a user. In the present system, the parameters describing the advertisements are extended to allow for a collection of advertisements to be associated with a particular advertising campaign. The data may be further modified to specify an order in which the advertisements within a campaign are to be presented.

Depending upon the system implementation, the advertisement and related metadata may be stored in database 42 of advertisement server 18 illustrated in Fig. 4. In other

implementations, however, electronic device 12 may be configured to retrieve advertising content from server 18 and cache the advertising content locally, for example in local database 40 configured to communicate with advertising client 36. In that case, electronic device 12 may be configured to also retrieve and cache any metadata associated with the advertising content in database 40.

Table 1 illustrates exemplary data structure of the present system. The message/structure is adapted in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention to include a CampaignID data element for associating several advertisements with a particular advertising campaign. Parameter name XML Data type Parameter Description

Type cardinality

AdClientAd E 1 Indicate the name of the message.

Response

MessagelD A Integer 1 A unique identifier that is given by the application (i.e. Ad App, Ad Client or SP App) in the request. The response to a given request MUST contain the same MessagelD.

AdCIientProvidedA I Structure 0..N Characterize each provided Ad

d 1

CampaignID A String 0..1 Indicate that the Ad belongs to a given campaign. Upon Ad App request, the Ad Client should verify if multiple Ads belong to the same campaign and provide them to subsequent Ad App(s) request(s) in order to guaranty the storyboarding.

AdID A String 1 SP-unique identifier of the concerned

instance of the Ad, e.g.

"acme_co_2133x0001". It may contain the campaign ID, where the formatting would be subject to a specific SP policy.

Outdated-AdID A String 0..1 AdID of an outdated Ad that needs to be discarded and replaced with provided Ad, if any:

1. if present and if other parameters in the message are present in the

AdClientAdResponse message, SHALL be used to replace the outdated content (Ad or parameters)

2. if present and other parameters are not, SHALL be used to delete the corresponding content (Ad and associated parameters)

Condition: Present if an existing Ad needs to be updated or deleted.

AdUnit A Comma 0..1 Provides information regarding the Ad media type such as MIME type, format, separated

size for the Ads, e.g.

list of "MMA vl .2 AdUnit 017" or

Image/JPEG_240xl20".

strings

Note: Mobile Advertising Guidelines defined by MMA dated as Oct, 2008 may be used to determine the IOP test cases. The term Ad Unit corresponds to MMA Glossary term [MMA Glossary]. Ad

Currency could be used for additional purposes at the discretion of the Service Provider and subject to SP Policy, e.g. , "CMCC_V 1.0_AdUnit_011".

Multiple AdUnits can be provided for each Ad. Each value will be indicated in the comma separated list of strings

AdAppID A String 0..1 SP-unique identifier of the Ad App (ie.

Identifies the application, as opposed to the application instance) , e.g.

"soccx21330001".

Note: if it was present in the request, the same AdAppID SHALL be present in the response.

AdContentData E2 Structure 1 Contains the actual Ad content payload which includes associated formatting parameters (e.g. MIME type, encoding).

ContextualData E2 Structure 1..N Contains data describing the Ad

opportunity context and facilitating Ad selection such as Content Metadata, location, etc (e.g. "car game").

If ContextualData was provided in the corresponding AdClientAdRequest message and successfully matched, the contextual data structure SHALL only contain the ContextualDatalD parameter and no ContextKeyword parameters. If ContextualData was not provided or could not be matched, then the structure SHALL NOT contain the ContextDatalD parameter and MAY contain the ContextKeyword parameter.

See structure for ContextualData in section 6.6.2.

Table 1

With reference to Table 1 , the CampaignID data element stores an identification of an existing advertising campaign and is used to associate the advertising content of multiple

5 advertisements with that campaign. As such, the CampaignID may indicate that the advertising content belongs to a given campaign. The CampaignID may include a text string, number, hex code, or other data or information for identifying a particular campaign. The construction of the data structure identifies that the advertisement described in that structure belongs to the campaign, while the construct of the AdID remain simple. An Advertising client would be able to parse a CampaignID and an AdID without having to understand various AdID constructs according to various SP provider. The advertisements that are associated with a particular campaign each share the same CampaignID. If the campaign ID was placed at the message level, that may indicate that all the "providedAd' in the message correspond to advertisement belonging to that campaign.

In another implementation of the present system, however, the link between the advertisement and the campaign may be established by adapting the construction of the existing AdID parameter such that the AdID may itself identify the campaign ID. For example, the formatting of the AdID may be composed of 4 bits for the CampaignID and 4 bits for the AdID. In that case, each advertisement belonging to a particular campaign will have the same 4 first bits and different 4 last bits. In some cases, the last digits may be incremental to specify the position or order of the Ad in the campaign. Other AdID constructions are possible; however the construction should be defined to allow a single implementation of AdClient to be deployed across networks that receive data from various service providers.

Fig. 5 illustrates the relationship between the Campaign ID and each of the

advertisements associated with the campaign. As shown, a single CampaignID (e.g., a

CampaignID of 'X') may be associated with multiple advertisements including Advertisements A, B, and C. Upon receiving a request for advertising content from an application, an AdClient with access to the data structure illustrated in Table 1 can provide advertisements all relating to the same campaign (e.g., associated with the same CampaignID), allowing the user to have a consistent experience and view subsequent advertisements all belonging to the same campaign.

Figs. 6a and 6b are illustrations of message flow for distributing advertising content using the data structure including a CampaignID as provided in Table 1. Fig. 6a illustrate a method for distributing related advertisements amongst several AdApps. In step 102, AdServer 100 distributes candidate advertising content to AdClient 104. AdClient 104 may reside on the user's electronic device (e.g., 36 of Fig. 4). In addition to the advertising content, AdServer 100 provides a CampaignID to be associated with each advertisement. The CampaignID may be encoded in accordance with the data structure illustrated in Table 1.

In step 106, AdClient 104 receives an Ad Request from AdApp 108 running on the user's electronic device. In response to the request, AdClient 104 identifies an appropriate advertising campaign. As discussed above, the determination may be made in view of any available data describing the user, such as a user profile that stores the user's interests, demographics, and the like, prior advertisements viewed by the user, the user's purchase decisions, and, if available, the user's location. Knowledge of other information such as time of day, current weather, the occurrence of special events (e.g., sporting events, social events, political events, etc.), information related to the AdApp may also be used in selecting an appropriate campaign. After determining an appropriate campaign, AdClient 104 selects an advertisement having a

CampaignID identifying the selected campaign. In step 1 10, AdClient 104 transmits the advertisement to AdApp 108 for presentation. In the present disclosure, the transmission of advertising content in step 1 10 and in other, similar, steps may involve the transmission of the advertising content itself (including, for example, video, audio, or other multimedia content), or the transmission of a reference to the advertising content such as in the form of a uniform resource locator (URL), or other uniform resource indicator (URI).

In step 1 12 AdClient 104 receives a second request for advertising content from a second AdApp 1 14 running on the user's electronic device. In response, AdClient 104 retrieves additional advertisement content associated with the same CampaignID identified in response to the first Ad Request (e.g., an advertisement having the same CampaignID as the advertisement provided in step 1 10). In step 1 16 the advertisement content is transmitted to AdApp 1 14 for presentation.

Accordingly, using the method illustrated in Fig. 6a and the CampaignID data element illustrated in Table 1, the present system can ensure that the advertisement content subsequently provided in response to requests issued from multiple AdApps running on the same electronic device belong to the same campaign. Although AdApp 114 and 108 are shown to be different or distinct application (e.g., a browser and media player), these AdApps may be the same application providing multiple sessions and issuing multiple requests for advertising content.

Fig. 6b is an illustration of a message flow for distributing multiple advertisements to a single AdApp using AdContent data including a Campaign ID as provided in Table 1. With reference to Fig. 6b, in step 120, AdServer 100 distributes candidate advertising content to AdClient 104. AdClient 104 may reside on the user's electronic device (e.g., 36 of Fig. 4). In addition to the advertising content, the AdServer 100 provides a CampaignID to be associated with each advertisement. The CampaignID may be encoded in accordance with the data structure illustrated in Table 1.

In step 122, AdClient 104 receives an Ad Request from AdApp 1 14 running on the user's electronic device. In response to the request, AdClient 104 identifies an appropriate advertising campaign to be provided. After determining an appropriate campaign, AdClient 104 selects an advertisement having a CampaignID identifying the selected campaign. In step 124, AdClient 104 transmits the advertisement content to AdApp 1 14 for presentation.

In step 126, AdClient 104 receives a second request for advertising content from the same AdApp 1 14 running on the user's electronic device. In response, AdClient 104 retrieves

additional advertisement content associated with the same CampaignID identified in response to the first request for advertisements issued by AdApp 108. In step 128 the advertisement content is transmitted to AdApp 1 14 for presentation.

Accordingly, using the^'method illustrated in Fig. 6b and the additional CampaignID data element illustrated in Table 1, the present system can ensure that the advertisements subsequently provided in response to multiple requests issued from a single AdApp running on the electronic device belong to the same campaign.

Alternatively, the data structure may be configured to link several independent

advertisements or advertisements belonging to a same campaign together in a storyboard.

Accordingly, a chain of related advertisements may be defined, with the chain defining an order in which the advertisements should be presented. Table 2 illustrates an example data structure for defining a series of linked advertisements that may be presented as part of a storyboard.

Parameter XML Data type Parameter Description

cardinality

name Type

AdClientAd E 1 Indicate the name of the message.

Response

MessagelD A Integer 1 See description in Table 1.

AdClientProvid El Structure 0..N Characterize each provided Ad

edAd

AdID A String 1 See description in Table 1.

Outdated-AdID A String 0..1 AdID of an outdated Ad that needs to be

discarded and replaced with provided Ad, if any:

1. if present and if other parameters in the message are present in the AdClientAdResponse message, SHALL be used to replace the outdated content (Ad or parameters)

Condition: Present if an existing Ad needs to be updated or deleted.

Linked Ad ID A String 0..1 This parameter allows to link the Ad represented by the AdID to another Ad according to a storyboard order. The LinkedAdID shall take the value of the AdID that is subsequent in the storyboard.

AdUnit A Comma 0..1 See definition in Table 1

separated

list of Multiple AdUnits can be provided for each Ad. strings Each value will be indicated in the comma

separated list of strings

AdAppID A String 0..1 See description in Table 1.

AdContentData E2 Structure 1 See description in Table 1.

ContextualData E2 Structure 1..N See description in Table 1.

If ContextualData was provided in the corresponding AdClientAdRequest message and successfully matched, the contextual data structure SHALL only contain the

ContextualDatalD parameter and no

Context eyword parameters. If ContextualData was not provided or could not be matched, then the structure SHALL NOT contain the

ContextDatalD parameter and MAY contain the ContextKeyword parameter.

See structure for ContextualData in section 6.6.2.

Table 2

With reference to Table 2, the LinkedAdID data identifies a linked advertisement that should immediately follow the advertisement identified by the AdID contained in the same

5 structure (e.g. AdClientProvidedAd). The relationship created by the LinkedAdID value allows

for the definition of a sequence of advertisements in the form of a chain from one advertisement to the next. The chain may continue indefinitely, or, alternatively, if the last advertisement in the chain refers back to the first advertisement, an advertisement loop may be defined. In the

AdContent message illustrated in Table 1, for example, multiple advertisements may be related to 10 a single campaign, but may be presented in a random order (e.g., AdID5, AdlDl, AdID3 etc, with all the advertisements belonging to campaignlDX). In the AdContent configuration illustrated in Table 2, however, a first advertisement is linked to a second advertisement, which may subsequently be linked to a third advertisement to specify an order in which to present the advertisements. In this implementation, if no LinkedAdID value is defined, the absence of the LinkedAdID may indicate that the advertisement is the last in the chain, or that the advertisement stands alone and is not linked to any other advertisements. If the AdID is constructed to include an AdCampaignID as per SP Policies, then it becomes evident that the LinkedAdID defines the order of each ad in the campaign. If the AdID construct does not include a campaignID, then the linkedAdID indicates the order of ads that do not belong to the same campaign.

The data provided in Table 2 may be further modified to include both a LinkedAdID and a CampaignlD. In that manner, advertisements may be allocated to particular campaign using the CampaignID value. Within a particular campaign, the LinkedAdID values can be used to specify an order in which each of the advertisements in that campaign should be presented.

Fig. 7 is an illustration showing advertisements having IDs A, B, and C that are connected using the LinkedAdID data element illustrated in Table 2. As shown, the first advertisement has an ID of 'A' and is linked to an advertisement having an ID of 'Β'. The second advertisement has an ID of 'B' and is linked to an advertisement having an ID of 'C. The third advertisement has an ID of 'C and is not linked to another advertisement. Accordingly, when presenting the advertisements, advertisement 'A' is presented first with 'B' following and then 'C being presented after 'Β'. As such, the use of the LinkedAdID data element can be used to create a relationship between several advertisements defining an order in which each advertisement may be presented. The LinkedAdID may additionally or alternatively refer to a previous LinkedAdID that may also be used to indicate an ordering of the advertisements in a campaign, for example, to restore an interrupted advertising session.

Fig. 8 is an illustration of message flow for distributing advertisements that are connected using LinkedAdID data elements as illustrated in Table 2. In step 130, AdServer 100 distributes candidate advertising content to AdClient 104. In addition to the advertising content, the

AdServer 100 provides associated metadata that contains a LinkedAdID to be associated with each advertisement. The LinkedAdID may be encoded in accordance with the data structure illustrated in Table 2 and may be provided in the data structure message. In some cases, the LinkedAdID may include a list of AdIDs (e.g., a comma separated list of strings) identifying an ordering in which several advertisements should be presented. In that case, the list may be provided by AdServer 100 at the time of provisioning the first advertisements to AdClient 104 and provides an indication to AdClient 104 that several advertisements are linked together. In step 132, AdClient 104 receives an Ad Request from AdApp 108 running on the user's electronic device. In response to the request, AdClient 104 identifies an appropriate

advertisement to be presented. After determining the appropriate advertisement (in this example, the selected advertisement has an ID of Ά'), AdClient 104 transmits the advertisement content to

5 AdApp 108 for presentation in step 134. In this case, because the AdContent associated with

advertisement 'A' identifies a LinkedAdlD of 'B', AdClient 104 can determine that upon receiving a second Ad Request, the next advertisement to present is the one having an ID of 'B'.

In step 136 AdClient 104 receives a second request for advertising content from a second

AdApp 1 14 running on the user's electronic device (additional Ad Requests may also be received

10 from the same AdApp). In response, AdClient 104 retrieves the advertisement content having an

ID of 'B' and the content is transmitted to Ad App 1 14 in step 138. Accordingly, using the

method illustrated in Fig. 8 and the additional LinkedAdlD data element illustrated in Table 2 the present system allows for the distribution of advertising content in accordance with a pre-defined ordering or storyboard. This method allows one AdContent to be linked to multiple AdContents

15 that in turn can be linked to one or multiple AdContent allowing for complex storyboarding. For

example, if Ad A is linked to Ad 'B' and 'C and both Ad 'B' and 'C are linked to Ad 'D' the

AdClient may select the most relevant advertisement between Ads 'B' and 'C to be presented

second and will subsequently select 'D'.

In some cases, the metadata of an advertisement may include both a CampaignID and a 0 CampaignOrder for both associating several advertisements with a particular campaign and

specifying an order in which the advertisements should be presented - a campaign order,

illustrates the data structure including both a CampaignID and a CampaignOrder.

Parameter name XML Data type Parameter Description

cardinality

Type

AdClientAd E 1 Indicate the name of the message.

Response

MessagelD A Integer 1 See description in Table 1.

AdCIientProvide El Structure 0..N Characterize each provided Ad

dAd

CampaignID A String 0..1 Indicate that the Ad belongs to a given campaign.

Upon Ad App request, the Ad Client should verify if multiple Ads belong to the same campaign and provide them to subsequent Ad App(s) request(s) in order to guaranty the storyboarding.

CampaignOrder A Integer 0..1 Indicate the position of the AdID in the campaign it belongs to.

Ad ID A String 1 See description in Table 1.

Outdated-AdID A String 0..1 AdID of an outdated Ad that needs to be

discarded and replaced with provided Ad, if any:

Condition: Present if an existing Ad needs to be updated or deleted.

AdUnit A Comma 0..1 See description in Table 1.

separated

separated list of strings

AdAppID A String 0..1 See description in Table 1.

AdContentData E2 Structure 1 See description in Table 1.

ContextualData E2 Structure 1..N See description in Table 1.

If ContextualData was provided in the corresponding AdCIientAdRequest message and successfully matched, the contextual data structure SHALL only contain the

ContextualDatalD parameter and no

ContextKeyword parameters. If ContextualData was not provided or could not be matched, then the structure SHALL NOT contain the

ContextDatalD parameter and MAY contain the ContextKeyword parameter.

See structure for ContextualData in section 6.6.2.

Table 3

With reference to Table 3, the data element CampaignlD indicates that the advertisement belongs to a given campaign. Upon receiving an Ad Request, the AdClient can determine whether multiple advertisements belong to the same campaign and provide them to subsequent Ad Requests to guarantee the storyboarding. CampaignOrder indicates the position (relative or absolute) of the advertisement within the associated campaign. The CampaignOrder may include an integer or other identifier that specifies a placement of the advertisement within a campaign. If the construct of the AdID as in the OMA MobAd Enabler specification contains a CampaignID, the CampaignOrder associated to the AdID can be used to indicate the order of the Ad in the campaign being referenced by the AdID value.

Fig. 9 is an illustration showing the relationship between advertisements having IDs A, B, C, and D, wherein the advertisements are related using CampaignID and CampaignOrder data elements as illustrated in Table 3. As illustrated, the first advertisement has an ID of 'A' and is associated with a campaign having a CampaignID of X. Within the campaign, AdID A is the first advertisement to be presented as indicated by the CampaignOrder value of T. The second advertisement has an ID of 'B' and is also associated with a campaign having a CampaignID of X. Within the campaign, AdID B may be the second advertisement to be presented as indicated by the CampaignOrder value of '2'. The third advertisement has an ID of 'C and is also associated with the campaign having a CampaignID of X. Within the campaign, AdID C may also be the second advertisement to be presented as indicated by the CampaignOrder value of '2'. In this example, either advertisement 'B' or 'C may be presented in the second position of Campaign X. The fourth advertisement has an ID of 'D' and is also associated with a campaign having a CampaignID of X. Within the campaign, AdID D is the third advertisement to be presented as indicated by the CampaignOrder value of '3'. As such, the combination of a CampaignID and CampaignOrder illustrated in Table 3 may be used to both associate advertisements with a particular campaign, and specify an order in which the advertisements should be presented.

While not illustrated on Fig. 9, the campaign ID may be part of the AdID construct and each Ad associated to the campaign may be presented in a predetermined order using the CampaignOrder parameter.

AdContent data including a CampaignID and CampaignOrder as provided in Table 3. With reference to Fig. 10, in step 140, AdServer 100 distributes candidate advertising content to AdClient 104. AdClient 104 may reside on the user's electronic device (e.g., 36 of Fig. 4). In addition to the advertising content, the AdServer 100 provides a CampaignID and

CampaignOrder to be associated with each advertisement. The CampaignID and CampaignOrder may be encoded in accordance with the data structure illustrated in Table 3 in, for example, an AdContent message.

In step 142, AdClient 104 receives an Ad Request from AdApp 108 running on the user's electronic device. In response to the request, AdClient 104 identifies an appropriate advertising campaign. As discussed above, the determination may be made in view of any available data describing the user, such as a user profile that stores the user's interests, demographics, and the like, prior advertisements viewed by the user, the user's purchase decisions, and, if available, the user's location. Knowledge of other information such as time of day, current weather, the occurrence of special events (e.g., sporting events, social events, etc.), political events, AdApp context, etc. may also be used in selecting an appropriate campaign. After determining an appropriate campaign (e.g., campaign 'X'), AdClient 104 selects an advertisement haying a CampaignID identifying the selected campaign (which may be contained in the AdID construct). When initiating a particular campaign, AdClient 104 selects an advertisement having a

CampaignOrder value of T. If multiple advertisements are available that are related to the selected campaign and have a CampaignOrder of T, AdClient 104 may select one of those advertisements randomly or in accordance with a predetermined algorithm. In step 144, AdClient 104 transmits the selected advertisement content to AdApp 108 for presentation.

In step 146, AdClient 104 receives a second request for advertising content from a second AdApp 1 14 running on the user's electronic device (multiple AdRequests may also be received from the same AdApp). In response, AdClient 104 identifies and may retrieve from a memory additional advertisement content associated with the same CampaignID identified in response to the first Ad Request. Because AdClient 104 has already provided an advertisement holding the first position in the campaign, AdClient 104 selects an advertisement belonging to the same campaign and having a CampaignOrder value of '2'. As above, if multiple advertisements are available that are related to the selected campaign and have a CampaignOrder of '2', AdClient 104 may select one of those advertisements randomly or will select the advertisement that corresponds best to the application context, content currently presented, or user context. If no advertisements are available with the required CampaignOrder (e.g., the CampaignOrder of the most recently provided advertisement plus one), AdClient 104 may select an advertisement belonging to the same campaign and having a CampaignOrder value of T, or '3' or select another advertisement matching the application, content or user context. In step 148, the selected advertisement content is transmitted to AdApp 1 14 for presentation. Accordingly, using the method illustrated in Fig. 10 and the additional CampaignID and CampaignOrder data element illustrated in Table 3 the present system can ensure that the

advertisement content provided in response to requests issued from multiple AdApps running on the same electronic device are all supplied with advertisements belonging to the same campaign 5 and in a particular order.

Alternatively, rather than specifying the ordering of the advertisements within a particular campaign using a CampaignOrder data element, the order may be specified using one or more existing data elements contained within the AdContent message. For example, with reference to Table 4, the ordering of the advertisements within a particular campaign may be specified by the 10 ordering of the AdClientProvidedAd data elements. In this method, the CampaignID indicates

that all the subsequent advertisements "belong to that campaign and the order in which the advertisements are to be presented is implicitly specified by the order in which the

AdClientProvidedAd' structures are listed within the message.

Parameter XML Data type Parameter Description

name Type cardinality

AdClientAdRes E 1 Indicate the name of the message.

ponse

MessagelD A Integer 1 See description in Table 1.

CampaignID A String 0..1 Indicate that each Ad(s) contained in that

message belongs to a given campaign. The Ad Client should and provide them to subsequent Ad App(s) request(s) in order to guaranty the storyboarding.

AdClientProvid El Structure 0..N Characterize each provided Ad

cdAcl

AdID A String 1 See description in Table 1.

Outdated-AdID A String 0..1 AdID of an outdated Ad that needs to be discarded and replaced with provided Ad, if any: if present and if other parameters in the message are present in the AdClientAdResponse message, SHALL be used to replace the outdated content (Ad or parameters)

if present and other parameters are not, SHALL be used to delete the corresponding content (Ad and associated parameters)

Condition: Present if an existing Ad needs to be updated or deleted.

AdUnit A Comma 0..1 See description in Table 1. separated Multiple AdUnits can be provided for each Ad.

Each value will be indicated in the comma list of

separated list of strings

strings

AdAppID A String 0..1 See description in Table 1.

AdContentData E2 Structure 1 See description in Table 1.

ContextualData E2 Structure 1..N See description in Table 1.

ContextualDatalD parameter and no

ContextDatalD parameter and MAY contain the ContextKeyword parameter.

See structure for ContextualData in section 6.6.2.

Table 4

In the AdContent configuration illustrated in Table 4, the method illustrated in Fig. 10 may be used to distribute advertisements belonging to a particular campaign and in a specified 5 order. With reference to Fig. 10, rather than rely upon a CampaignOrder data element to

determine the ordering of the advertisements, the AdClient 104 may be configured to inspect the order in which AdClientProvidedAd data elements are listed within the data structure. The first advertisement identified will be presented first, the second advertisement identified will be presented second, and so on. As such, the order of the AdClientProvidedAd data element may be

10 used to control how the advertisements are distributed to one or more AdApps (e.g., AdApps 108 and 1 14) in communication with AdClient 104.

Similar methods can be applied between an Ad Server and Application running in the network that integrates advertisements with content for presentation to users on electronic devices. Applications running in the network can receive, depending on the method described

15 above, a campaign order, a campaign ID, linkedAdID or interpret a particular ordering in the data structure to determine that advertisements belonging to the same campaign should be presented in sequence and possibly in a given order. The particular configurations of the present system disclosed above are illustrative only, as the disclosure may be modified and practiced in different but equivalent manners apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachings herein. Furthermore, no limitations are intended to the details of construction or design herein shown, other than as described in the claims below. It is therefore evident that the particular embodiments disclosed above may be altered or modified and all such variations are considered within the scope and spirit of the disclosure.

For example, although specific components are described above as associated with the electronic device 12 or advertisement server 18, it will be apparent in a network environment that these functions can be provided in any location on the network via one or more connected devices. Furthermore, although no specific mobile environment is described, it will be apparent that the disclosure can be applied in many different network environments. That is, the above- described systems and methods have been described in general terms; however, this general description may be readily implemented in a variety of environments without departing from the above disclosure.

Claims

1. A method for distributing advertisements using a wireless communication network, the advertisements being sequentially presented by an electronic device, the method including:

receiving an advertising content message, the advertising content message identifying a plurality of advertisements and specifying an order for the presentation of the advertisements of the plurality;

presenting a first advertisement on the electronic device, the first advertisement being identified as belonging to a sequence of advertisements; and

presenting a second advertisement on the electronic device, the second advertisement being identified as belonging to the sequence of advertisements and being the next advertisement in the sequence of advertisements after the first advertisement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sequence is identified by at least one of an order of a data structure within the advertising content message, a CampaignID parameter, a linked advertisement parameter, and an ordering parameter.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the sequence is specified using an ad identifier containing a campaign identifier and at least one of an order of a data structure within the advertising content message, a linked advertisement parameter, and an ordering parameter.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein an advertising client on the electronic device receives the advertising content message, presenting the first advertisement includes transmitting first advertisement content to a first application, and presenting the second advertisement includes transmitting second advertisement content to at least one of the first application and a second application.

5. A method for receiving advertisements using a wireless communication network, the advertisements being presented by an electronic device associated with an advertising campaign identification (ID), the method including:

receiving a first advertisement from an advertisement client, the first advertisement being associated with a first campaign ID and having a first campaign order;

requesting a second advertisement from the advertisement client; and

receiving a second advertisement from the advertisement client, the second advertisement being associated with the first campaign ID and having a second campaign order, the second campaign order being an increment of the first campaign order.

6. A method for distributing advertisements using a wireless communication network, the advertisements being presented by an electronic device associated with an advertising campaign identification (ID), the method including:

receiving an advertising content message using the wireless network, the advertising content message identifying a plurality of advertisements and specifying a campaign ID and a campaign order for each of the advertisements of the plurality;

receiving a first request for advertising content from a first application on the electronic device;

selecting a first advertisement having a campaign ID equal to the campaign ID associated with the electronic device, the first advertisement having a first campaign order; and

transmitting the first advertisement to the first application on the electronic device.

7. The method of claim 6, including:

receiving a second advertising request from a second application on the electronic device; selecting a second advertisement having a campaign ID equal to the campaign ID associated with the electronic device, the second advertisement having a second campaign order, the second campaign order being an increment of the first campaign order; and

transmitting the second advertisement to the second application on the electronic device.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the campaign order for each of the

advertisements is specified within AdCIientProvidedAd data provided in the advertising content message.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the advertising content message specifies the same campaign order for two or more advertisements, the two or more advertisements having the same campaign ID. 10. The method of claim 6, wherein the first application on the electronic device and the second application on the electronic device are the same software application.

1 1. The method of claim 6, wherein the electronic device is a web-enabled cell phone.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein transmitting the first advertisement includes transmitting a uniform resource locator (URL) identifying a location of an advertising content.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein transmitting the first advertisement includes transmitting media.

14. A method for distributing advertisements using a wireless communication network, the advertisements being presented by an electronic device in communication with the wireless communication network, the method including:

receiving an advertising content message using the wireless network, the advertising content message identifying a plurality of advertisements and specifying an identification (ID) and a linked advertisement ID for each of the advertisements of the plurality;

transmitting a first advertisement to the first application on the electronic device;

receiving a second request for advertising content from a second application on the electronic device; and

transmitting a second advertisement to the second application on the electronic device, the second advertisement having an ID equal to the linked advertisement ID of the first

advertisement.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the advertisements is associated with a campaign identification (ID) and the first and second advertisements are associated with the same campaign ID. 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the first application on the electronic device and the second application on the electronic device are the same software application.

17. A mobile device comprising an advertising application configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1-6.

18. A mobile device comprising an advertising client configured to perform the method of any one of claims 7-16.

19. A computer readable medium storing instructions which when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to perform the method of any one of claims 1-16.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sequence is identified by at least one of an order of a data structure within the advertising content message, a CampaignID parameter, a linked advertisement parameter, and an ordering parameter.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sequence is specified using an ad identifier containing a campaign identifier and at least one of an order of a data structure within the advertising content message, a linked advertisement parameter, and an ordering parameter.

23

requesting a second advertisement from the advertisement client; and

7. The method of claim 6, including:

receiving a second advertising request from a second application on the electronic device; selecting a second advertisement having a campaign ID equal to the campaign ID associated with the electronic device, tlie second advertisement having a second campaign order, the second campaign order being an increment of the first campaign order; and

transmitting the second advertisement to the second application on the electronic device. 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the campaign order for each of the

advertisements is specified within AdClientProvidedAd data provided in the advertising content message.

24

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the advertising content message specifies the same campaign order for two or more advertisements, the two or more advertisements having the same campaign ID.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the first application on the electronic device and the second application on the electronic device are the same software application.

advertisement.

25

15. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the advertisements is associated with a campaign identification (ID) and the first and second advertisements are associated with the same campaign ID.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the first application on the electronic device and the second application on the electronic device are the same software application.

17. A mobile device comprising an advertising application configured to perform the method of any one of claims 1 -6.

19. A computer readable medium storing instructions which when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to perform the method of any one of claims 1 -16.

26