WO2011077449A1

WO2011077449A1 - Geo/location based mobile advertising and monetisation platform

Info

Publication number: WO2011077449A1
Application number: PCT/IN2010/000815
Authority: WO
Inventors: Raj Karan Gelaboina; Balraj Kunnath
Original assignee: Raj Karan Gelaboina; Balraj Kunnath
Priority date: 2009-12-21
Filing date: 2010-12-16
Publication date: 2011-06-30

Abstract

Systems and methods to provide improved techniques for Businesses and Commercial establishments to use a self-service portal to push location/preference based advertisement and offer management to mobile (cell phone) device users. The advertisements are location based and user aware and are not considered Spams. Prospects can then take action on this ad or the offer and get discounts in the store / commercial establishments. Customers who bought the product and took advantage of the offer can now enter the mobile receipt code in the area provided to get an additional discount. These advertisements/ offers are also presented to the user via World Wide Web (internet) for offline redemption as well. Additionally this mechanism will allow businesses to user the business intelligent data to predict the user behaviour to improve the sales forecasting.

Description

"GEO/LOCATION BASED MOBILE ADVERTISING AND MONETISATION PLATFORM"

FIELD OF INVENTION

This disclosure relates to the field of mobile and wireless communications and more particularly to improved methods and systems for mobile advertising and a monetization platform associated with a telecommunications network. The present invention generally relates to mobile cell phone devices and more particularly to those which have the WIFI capability to access internet and data services.

BACKGROUND

Along recent years, increasing use of the Internet as well as of multimedia devices has developed greatly in business activities, particularly when related with commercial publicity and advertising. Current publicity campaigns frequently make use of systems to communicate offers and prices to potential buyers.

GB 2445627 (A) discloses an arrangement and method for providing content to multimedia devices, in particular mobile multimedia devices, wherein a content portal provides content to the devices in a form requiring a rights object or key to enable use thereof. A rights object portal provides rights objects to the devices and advertisements which are associated with the rights objects are also provided. Upon receipt of the rights object with an associated commercial message, the user is exposed to the advertisement in conjunction with use of the content.

US 2009265220 discloses a system and method to enable advertisement subsidized telecommunications services, which can deliver a campaign comprised of multiple advertisements, each advertisement using a different format (text, audio and video), to user's different terminals (cell phone, soft phone, PDA, PC, etc.) by using different telecommunications channels (text message, phone call, multimedia message, ring tone) simultaneously. The system is comprised of three layers: a campaign manager to manage campaign state, a service logic, which determines the user population and the channel best matching each advertisement's content and format, and a channel manager which emulates a confederation of service applications to simultaneously tap into various telecommunications channels through a Service Delivery Platform (SDP), or by directly attaching to the operator's network.

CN 201197193 (Y) discloses a mobile communication information publishing device, which provides an intra-region information publishing device aiming at mobile terminals. The device comprises a signal processor, a data management unit, an information publishing unit and a mobile switching center, wherein the signal processor, the information publishing unit and the mobile switching center are respectively connected with the data management unit, solving the problem about the accuracy of cell short messages.

JP 2004192484 discloses an advertisement delivery system delivering useful advertisements to a buyer. A seller operates an advertisement registration terminal and registers the advertisement on advertisement database of an advertisement delivery device. The advertisement delivery device load the advertisement registered in the advertisement database into a delivery

temporary file while referring to a price master registering a rock-bottom price of an article and the lowest price in the adjacency. The advertisement delivery device creates delivery data based on the delivery temporary file while referring to a purchase memo transmitted from a cell phone. The delivery data includes a flag identifying rock-bottom price articles, low-price articles and discount articles

as well as the regular advertisement information. The advertisement delivery

device transmits the delivery data to the cell phone. The cell phone displays the

buyer the useful advertisements alone based on the delivery data. The prior art has the shortcomings that they provide only for partial solutions for the problem of businesses' wishes to carry out publicity campaigns wherein campaign management and control can be kept at any time, wherein a precise identification of location and preferences of potential buyers can be known, and wherein sellers and buyers may be able to communicate with each other regarding offers with an integrated solution offering which is a closed loop system that can be tracked from end to end.

Therefore, there is a need for a system which overcomes the above

shortcomings. Such a system is claimed in appended Claim 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A systems and method is disclosed herein to provide improved techniques for Businesses and Commercial establishments to use a self-service portal connected to the Internet to push location/preference based advertisement and offer management to mobile (cell phone) device users.

The system comprises: a business portal for campaign management;

a messaging, location and advertisements platform;

a user preference portal (web and mobile)

In use, the system operates as follows:

A business proceeds to login to the campaign management portal to setup offers, create and administer the campaign management which is secured in nature. The business portal provides a set of hosted services to businesses such as account administration, campaign management, offer tracking, analytics and reporting. Users are allowed to login to a user preference portal to sign-up and manage and control the personal preferences using the web and mobile portals. The user preference portal provides a set cv hosted services to mobile users such as registration, subscription, preference management, offer redemption and offer scheduling.

Mobile users get the offers and promotions delivered to their mobile devices using the existing cellular data connection or cellular messaging protocols like SMS/MMS messaging, location and advertisements platform network, connected to the Internet, and wireless service providers. The advertisements are location based and user aware and are not considered Spams.

A mobile advertising widget "messaging client" allows the users to redeem the offers with an integrated solution offering which is a closed loop system that can be tracked from end to end. Users can then take action on this advertisement or the offer and get discounts in the store / commercial establishments of the area linked to the offer. The mobile advertising widget is location-aware, time-aware, context-aware and pulls right offers targeted for the device and the user. The widget can show more similar offers nearby at user's request.

The mobile advertising widgets can be integrated into other third party mobile applications to take advantage of the ad-platform services.

Customers who bought the product and took advantage of the offer can now enter the mobile receipt code in the area provided to get an additional discount.

These advertisements/ offers are also presented to the user via World Wide Web (internet) for offline redemption as well.

Users can also tag the offer and view it online or tag it to a friend who might be interested in that offer. The Conversion data and ad impression data will be used to predict user behaviours and provide dashboard views to commercial establishment to maximize the ROI on ad-offer campaign management.

Additionally this mechanism will allow businesses to use the business intelligent data to predict the user behaviour to improve the sales forecasting.

The invention provides a software (languages: Java, PHP, C++) which has the minimum hardware and Operating system requirements.

The invention can be operated by means of cell phones and smart phones on 2G/3G/WiFi/WiMax, EVDO and other cellular Data Networks Where Cellular data networks are not available SMS or MMS will be used

The system and method of the invention provide a just in time geo-based offers which are preferential based. Said system and method will allow that the advertisements/ offers be presented to the user via World Wide Web for offline redemption as well. Furthermore, they will provide a method where the

Conversion data and advertisement impression data will be used to predict user behaviours and provide dashboard views to commercial establishment to maximize ad and offer campaign management.

The system and method of the invention deliver offers or discount coupons to mobile or cell phone users which are preferential and geographical location based. It further comprise initiating the use of said value offer/discount coupon to make a purchase.

Users can tag the offer and view it online or tag it to a friend who might be interested in that offer. Therefore, users are provided with a flexibility to share the value promotions and discount offers with their friends and family who are part of this mobile network. Said conditional purchase offer is placed and processed by means of a mobile carrier network and of a software program and algorithm which is triggered based on the user preferences, .latitude and longitude of the mobile device user.

Said offer management programs can be administered from a secured portal and will provide a closed loop offer management system for mobile device users, wherein said method/platform will provide a convenient, easy to use coupon codes that can be redeemed when a purchase is made.

Therefore, said method/platform provide a mechanism to maximize ROI for commercial establishments.

The customer-defined condition specifies a particular time of day for said one or more advertisements pushed towards their mobile device.

Said conditional purchase offer may be for a signed service plan to one or more lines for a given mobile user, or for a telephone service contract for a predefined period of time, or an offer/campaign management service contract for a predefined period of time.

Conversion rates are charged via a periodic service bill issued to a commercial establishment.

In short, the method of processing ad-promotion comprises:

- Obtaining a conditional purchase offer from a commercial establishment for one or more designated cell phone users, said conditional purchase offer containing at least one customer-defined condition including a Address, Age or Personal Interest;

- identifying one or more rules from a plurality of mobile/cell phone carriers, each of said rules containing one or more carrier-defined restrictions; and

- driving the customer to purchase said products if said customer-defined condition satisfies each of said carrier-defined restrictions of at least one of said rules. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be completely understood through the description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, among which:

Figure 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the geo/location based mobile advertising and monetisation platform of the invention

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

A preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in Fig. 1 under the form of a block diagram showing the components of the system and the schematic method. The system and method provide improved techniques for Businesses and Commercial establishments to use a self-service portal connected to the Internet to push location/preference based advertisement and offer management to mobile (cell phone) device users.

The system comprises:

- a business portal (1) for campaign management;

- a messaging, location and advertisements platform (2);

- a user preference portal (web and mobile) (3)

In use, the system operates following the steps of the method described below:

A business proceeds (1a) to login to the campaign management portal (1) to setup offers, create and administer the campaign management which is secured in nature. The business portal provides (1b) a set of hosted services to businesses such as account administration, campaign management, offer tracking, analytics and reporting.

Users are allowed to login to a user preference portal (3) to sign-up and manage and control (3a) the personal preferences using the web and mobile portals. The user preference portal provides a set of hosted services to mobile users such as registration, subscription, preference management, offer redemption and offer scheduling.

A mobile advertising widget "messaging ciienf (4) allows the users to redeem the offers (4a) with an integrated solution offering which is a closed loop system that can be tracked from end to end. Users can then take action on this advertisement or the offer and get discounts (4b) in the store / commercial establishments of the area linked to the offer. The mobile advertising widget (4) is location-aware, time- aware, context-aware and pulls right offers targeted for the device and the user. The widget can show more similar offers nearby at user's request.

These advertisements/ offers are also presented to the user via World Wide Web (internet) for offline redemption as well. Users can also tag the offer and view it online or tag it to a friend who might be interested in that offer.

Additionally this mechanism will allow businesses to use (1b) the business intelligent data to predict the user behaviour to improve the sales forecasting.

The invention can be operated by means of cell phones and smart phones on 2G/3G WiFi/Wilvlax, EVDO and other cellular Data Networks. Where Cellular data networks are not available SMS or MMS will be used.

The system and method of the invention deliver offers or discount coupons to mobile or cell phone users which are preferential and geographical location based. They further comprise initiating the use of said value offer/discount coupon to make a purchase.

Users can tag the offer and view it online or tag it to a friend who might be interested in that offer. Therefore, users are provided with a flexibility to share the value promotions and discount offers with their friends and family who are part of this mobile network. Said conditional purchase offer is placed and processed by means of a mobile carrier network and of a software program and algorithm which is triggered based on the user preferences, latitude and longitude of the mobile device user. Said offer management programs can be administered from a secured portal and will provide a closed loop offer management system for mobile device users, wherein said method/platform will provide a convenient, easy to use coupon codes that can be redeemed when a purchase is made.

In short, the method of processing ad-promotion comprises:

- driving the customer to purchase said products if said customer-defined condition satisfies each of said carrier-defined restrictions of at least one of said rules. A preferred embodiment of the invention has been described for purposes of clarity and example only. Many changes, substitutions and modifications to the described embodiment will become apparent to those having no more that ordinary skill in the art without thereby departing from the scope of this invention as defined by the following claims.

Claims

We Claim:

1. A system to provide improved techniques for Businesses and Commercial establishments to use a self-service portal connected to the Internet to push location/preference based advertisement and offer management to mobile (cell phone) device users, the system comprising: a business portal (1) adapted to provide a business with a set of hosted services including account administration, campaign management, offer tracking, analytics and reporting;

a messaging, location and advertisements platform (2) adapted to communicate with a user' mobile device using the existing cellular data connection or cellular messaging protocols like SMS/MMS messaging, location and advertisements platform network, connected to the Internet, and wireless service providers, and adapted to provide business and users with an integrated solution offering which is a closed loop system that can be tracked from end to end;

a user preference portal (web and mobile) (3) adapted to provide a user with a set of hosted services to mobile users including registration, subscription, preference management, offer redemption and offer scheduling; wherein the system may be operated by means of cell phones and smart phones on 2G/3G/WiFi/WiMax, EVDO and other cellular data networks, or by using SMS or MMS where cellular data networks are not available,

and wherein the system includes software which has minimum hardware and operating system requirements

2. A method to operate the system of Claim 1 , the method comprising the steps of:

- a business proceeds (1a) to login to the campaign management portal (1) to setup offers, create and administer a campaign management and process ad-promotion; - users are allowed to login to a user preference portal (3) to sign-up and manage and control (3a) the personal preferences using the web and mobile portals;

- mobile users get the offers and promotions delivered to their mobile

devices using the existing cellular data connection or cellular messaging protocols like SMS/MMS messaging, location and advertisements platform network, connected to the Internet, and wireless service providers;

- the users are allowed by a mobile advertising widget (4) to redeem the offers (4a) with an integrated solution offering which is a closed loop system that can be tracked from end to end, said mobile advertising widget (4) being location-aware, time-aware, context-aware and pulling right offers targeted for the device and the user, said widget being able to show more similar offers nearby at user's request

- users can then take action on this advertisement or the offer and get discounts (4b) in the store / commercial establishments of the area linked to the offer; wherein said method provides commercial establishments and business owners with a location based advertisement platform on mobile devices which is closed loop in nature which allows the ad-campaign from creation to delivery of a promotion and capture the conversion metrics in a secured environment,

and wherein said method provides businesses with business intelligent data (1b) to predict the user behaviour to improve the sales forecasting.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said method/platform will provide a just in time geo-based offers which are preferential based.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein businesses and commercial establishments may deliver an offer or discount coupons to mobile or cell phone users which are preferential and geographical location based.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising initiating the use of said value offer/discount coupon to make a purchase.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein said method allows the user to tag the offer and view it online or tag it to a friend who might be interested in that offer.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein said offer management programs can be administered from a secured portal.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein said processing ad-promotion comprise: obtaining a conditional purchase offer from a commercial establishment for one or more designated cell phone users, said conditional purchase offer containing at least one customer-defined condition including an Address, Age or Personal Interest;

identifying one or more rules from a plurality of mobile/cell phone carriers, each of said rules containing one or more carrier-defined restrictions; and

driving the customer to purchase said products if said customer-defined condition satisfies each of said carrier-defined restrictions of at least one of said rules.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said conditional purchase offer is placed and processed by means of a mobile carrier network.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein said conditional purchase offer is placed and processed by means of a software program and algorithm which is triggered based on the latitude and longitude of the mobile device user.

11. The method of 8, wherein said conditional purchase offer is for a signed service plan to one or more lines for a given mobile user.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein said conditional purchase offer is for a telephone service contract for a predefined period of time.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein said conditional purchase offer is for a offer/campaign management service contract for a predefined period of time.

14. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein said Ad-Platform is connected to the internet portal.