WO2013150325A1

WO2013150325A1 - A method and a computer program product for increasing advertising effectiveness

Info

Publication number: WO2013150325A1
Application number: PCT/IB2012/000707
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sanjay SERVANSINGH
Original assignee: Intersoft Ltd; Radiomercial S.A.
Priority date: 2012-04-05
Filing date: 2012-04-05
Publication date: 2013-10-10

Abstract

A method for providing information relating to an audio content of interest to be broadcasted via a broadcasting audio source, said method comprising the following step - recording an audio segment from the broadcast audio content of interest via the broadcasting audio source; identifying the broadcast audio content of interest on the basis of the recorded audio segment; providing information associated with the identified audio content; said method being characterized in that it further comprises a programming step to trigger, at a predefined time, the recording step.

Description

A METHOD AND A COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR INCREASING ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method and a computer program product designed for improving the efficiency of broadcast (e.g. audio) advertising of goods, services and/or events.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Unquestionably, the main goal of an advertiser is to attract not only a consumer's attention, but also the consumer's memory so that he/she shall remember the content of the advertisement and consider purchasing the good/service, or participating in the event promoted thereby at a convenient time.

To that end, different attention-catching techniques and memorable features are generally utilized to facilitate the audience remembering the advertisement.

Nevertheless, a listening and/or viewing audience, which might be interested in a given advertisement, may "miss the point" of the target advertisement which is being broadcasted for different raisons such as - the audience does not pay attention to what is being broadcasted;

- the target advertisement is drowned in too many advertisements or broadcasted within a program of little or no interest to the audience;

- the scheduling of the target advertisement broadcasting does not meet with the audience exposure to media.

In this regard, US 2011/0069937 discloses an application for a portable electronic device that the audience can trigger to record an audio segment of an on-air advertisement in which he/she is interested. Based on the recorded audio segment, the advertisement is, then, identified and additional information thereon are provided to the audience. However, the fact of triggering the application supposes that the audience is already paying attention to the advertisement which is being broadcasted. Hence, this document does not solve the above cited problem as it constraints the audience to be available when the advertisement is being broadcasted so as to react subsequently.

One object of the present invention is to convey in most appropriate way information concerning a promotional announcement that the audience is interested in as soon as he/she is exposed to the broadcast of this announcement, whatever attention the audience is paying thereto.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile audience with the ability to review at a later time additional information concerning a currently broadcasted advertisement to which an audience is exposed but not attentive. Another object of the present invention is to convey the most meaningful information to the audience while still maintaining a cost- effective advertisement.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for assisting listening and/or viewing audiences to remember the advertising information in a convenient and efficient manner.

Another object of the present invention is to increase the effectiveness of an advertisement independently from the attention paid by audiences to the program during which the advertisement is broadcasted.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to addressing the effects of one or more of the problems set forth above. The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an exhaustive overview of the invention. It is not intended to identify key of critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is discussed later. It is therefore proposed, in a first aspect, a method for providing information relating to an audio content of interest to be broadcasted via a broadcasting audio source, said method comprising the following steps: recording an audio segment from the broadcast audio content of interest via the broadcasting audio source; identifying the broadcast audio content of interest on the basis of the recorded audio segment ; providing information associated with the identified audio content; a programming step to trigger, at a predefined time, the recording step.

It is proposed , in a second aspect, a computer program product for an electronic device for providing information relating to an audio content of interest to be broadcasted via a broadcasting audio source, said electronic device comprising a microphone, said computer program product being configured :

- to record an audio segment from the audio signal captured by the microphone of the electronic device;

- to identify a broadcast audio content of interest on the basis of the recorded audio segment ;

- to provide information associated with the identified audio content;

- to trigger, at a predefined time, the recording of an audio segment.

While the invention is susceptible to various modification and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings. It should be understood, however, that the description herein of specific embodiments is not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms disclosed.

It may of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiments, implementation-specific decisions should be made to achieve the developer's specific goal, such as compliance with system- related and business-related constraints. It will be appreciated that such a development effort might be time consuming but may nevertheless be a routine understanding for those or ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The objects, advantages and other features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following disclosure and claims. The following non-restrictive description of preferred embodiments is given for the purpose of exemplification only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which

- FIG.1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment; and

- FIG.2 is a schematic diagram illustrating steps of the method according to an embodiment of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

With reference to figure 1, there is shown an electronic device 1 connected to a communication network 2. The electronic device may be any fix or mobile user equipment device such as, without limitation, a smartphone (iPhone®, Android®, Blackberry®, iPad® or the like), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a desktop computer, or a laptop computer.

The communication network 2 may be any data communication network such as Internet, Intranet, or more generally any distributed information communication network environment. The electronic device 1 may be directly connected to the communication network 2 or via any appropriate access network such as a local area network, a wireless local area network (Wi-Fi, WiMAX for example), or 3G cellular networks and beyond.

The electronic device 1 supports communication functions, notably sending/receiving data to/from the communication network 2, and provided with a display unit and a microphone. These functionalities and means may be native to the electronic device 1 (as is often the case for a mobile phone or a smartphone) or be introduced (such as introducing a wireless/wired network card, a display unit, or a microphone to a computer or any other user equipment) .

Furthermore, the electronic device 1 is configured for supporting an application 3 which is programmed for providing the user with information related to a broadcast audio content of interest to the user and to which the electronic device 1 is exposed. This application 3, software and/or hardware based, may be provided by default with the electronic device 1 , retrieved from any local/distant storage means, or downloaded from the communication network 2. This application 3 may be, for example, made available via an application server (such as Apple Store® or Android Market®) that the electronic device 1 can download it directly, or it may be downloaded on another user equipment (i .e. a personal computer) and then loaded onto the electronic device 1 over a cable or wireless medium . Alternatively, the application 3 may be comprised within another application provided by a third party as a white label product (for example, the application 3 may be provided with a Web TV/radio application or an iPhone ©-based application belonging to a given radio or TV station).

The broadcast audio content may come from a radio, a web radio, a television , a web TV (I PTV) , an audio/video streaming or more generally any audio source 4. It is to be noted that this broadcast audio content may be sourced from the speaker

- of the electronic device 1 itself (for example, a web TV application , a web radio application or an audio/video streaming content being played on a smartphone 1 or on a computer 1 ); or

- of any other surrounding audio source 4 such as that of a car radio, a radio, a TV set, or another electronic device 1 .

Non-exhaustive examples of the broadcast audio content, which may be of interest to the user, are an advertisement, an announcement, a promotional announcement, news, competitions/contests, a particular program/event/speech. It is intended to mean by a promotional announcement, a commercial message conveying a discount, an allowance, a promotion discount, a promotion offer, a price reduction, an announcement of free samples/bonus packets/special offers/price discounts/coupons or any financial incentives. In particular, the user might be interested in such promotional announcements and would like to be kept updated thereabout and to obtain additional information thereon with the least attention paid to the broadcast audio content.

In this regards, the application 3 has to be installed (step 11 in figure 2) then configured on the electronic device 1. In fact, following the installation of this application 3, the user registers (step 12 in figure 2) with a remote server 5 in order to automatically receive therefrom push notifications relating to forthcoming promotional announcements. During this registration step, different parameters may be set by the user such as - accept the access of the application to localization data (which may be obtained from a real-time or a near real-time localization application installed on the electronic device 1 such as a GPS application, a mapping service, e.g. Google maps™ or any equivalent application), or to any other data from which an approximate localization may be deduced (such as the IP address, an identifier of the umbrella cell base station, the identifier of a wireless local area network for example); and

- accept to receive push notifications.

Furthermore, push notifications may be received by the user in accordance with predetermined preferences (automatic or user specified). In others words, the user may specify the notifications that he/she might be interested in and accept to receive (only notifications pertaining to cultural events advertising, discount on car services, promotional announcement made by a particular trademark, promotional announcement valid in a given zone for example). A plurality of criteria may be selected so that the user does receive only notifications relating to promotional announcements in which he/she is interested.

Once the application 3 is installed on the electronic device 1 and the user completes the registration process to the promotional announcement service, he/she becomes a subscriber to the remote server 5. Hence, the remote server 5 sends/pushes, to subscribers, notifications relating to forthcoming promotional announcements. As an illustrative example, a subscriber receives (step 13 in figure 2) on his electronic device 1 a push notification in form of, for example, a widget (or any other convenient information presentation means) asking him if he would be interested in participating in a promotional announcement concerning the product A which will broadcasted on radio channel R today at about 2 pm. From the server-side, the server 5 is fed with specifications of promotional announcements (step 51 in figure 2).

In one embodiment, different elements of promotional announcements are specified then uploaded on the server 5. These elements include

- the scheduling of the broadcast of the promotional operation on different media (TV, radio, web TV and the like),

- a descriptive content of a promotional announcement based, for example, on text, image, audio/video content;

- an audio tag uniquely associated to a promotional announcement. In others words, a specific signature, fingerprint, and/or watermark permitting to identify the promotional announcement from an audio tag, and inversely;

- a scheduling for the application 3 installed on electronic device 1 to goes on active mode (scheduling of the application 3 wake-up time).

It is to be noted that, the audio tag may be the audio signal itself (pattern, principal component, frequencies for exemple) of the promotional announcement as promotional announcement, or more generally advertisement, have certainly different audio signal properties (pattern, principal component, frequencies for example).

More generally, the server 5 is supplied with information relating to an audio content to be broadcasted (whatever, it concerns an advertisement, a promotional announcement, an event, or a program). Such information includes:

- descriptive content (text/image, animation, audio/video for exemple) of the object of the audio content (promotional good/service, event, program for exemple); - an audio tag associated with each promotional announcement. In one embodiment, the audio tag may be an inaudible sound including a specific tag uniquely associated with an audio content;

- the scheduling of the audio content broadcast on corresponding medias (on radio channel A at time t1_, t2 and t3 every day from date dj_ to date d_2., at radio channel B at time t4 each Sunday morning from date d_3_ to date d4, on tv channel C n minutes after the start of program P, on web tv D at time t5 for example);

- the wake-up times of the application 3 for each audio content.

At predefined times programmed by an administrator, the remote server 5 automatically sends to subscribers the elements of the promotional operation (descriptive content, broadcast scheduling, and awakening time of the application installed on the user electronic device).

Accordingly, the user receives (step 13 in figure 2) on his electronic device 1 a push notification (in the form of a billet, a widget, a SMS/MMS, an email, or a sidebar for example) comprising information concerning an upcoming promotional announcement (description and broadcast scheduling). The user may open, in a window on the display of the electronic device 1, this push notification and obtain a detailed description of the promotional announcement (text, image, tabular, animated images, audio/video file for example). Interactions means are also expected for permitting the user to indicate (step 14 in figure 2) whether he/she is interested in this promotional announcement or not (i.e. to participate in /follow or not this promotional announcement).

In one embodiment, when the user clicks on the received push notification, a detailed description of the upcoming promotional announcement is displayed and a participation request is submitted to the user. Accordingly, the user can accept or ignore this request. If ignored, the push notification is withdrawn.

It is to be noted that the push notification may be an email, a SMS, a MMS on any other message automatically delivered to the electronic device 1 from the remote server 5 without that the electronic device 1 requires it. When the user is interested in this promotional announcement (which may be indicated by checking a box or pressing a bottom), the application 3 goes (step 14 in figure 2) to an idle mode (sleep mode) but it remains active in the background as long as the wake-up time corresponding to the promotional announcement in question is not yet reached. Then, as soon as a wake-up time is reached, the application switches back (step 15 in figure 2) to active mode and starts sounding captured audio signals by the microphone of the electronic device 1. In fact, the application records (step 15 in figure 2) an audio segment, of a predefined duration, from the captured audio signal by the microphone of the electronic device 1. Accordingly, the preprogrammed wake-up time is a sort of alarm clock configured to trigger, automatically and without the intervention of the user, the sounding/recording of what is being captured by the microphone of the electronic device 1.

In another embodiment, the application automatically switches back to active mode a predetermined amount of time (for example 2 minutes) before the broadcasting time of a promotional announcement in which the user is interested. The application may be further programmed to remind the user of the upcoming promotional announcement which will be soon broadcasted on the media M. Once it is on active mode, the application, automatically and without the intervention of the user, sounds and records for a predefined time span (in the order of 5 to 20 seconds for example) the captured audio signal by the microphone of the electronic device 1.

Then, during the broadcasting (step 41 in figure 2) of the promotional announcement (on radio, tv, or web TV/radio for example), a predefined signal, preferably inaudible signal, uniquely associated to the promotional announcement is broadcasted. The tag associated to the promotional announcement is programmed with respect to predefined record time span, in such a way that the recorded audio segment comprises the broadcasted tag.

Preferably, the audio tag associated with the promotional announcement and which is being broadcasted by the audio source (a radio, or a television) may be inaudible to the human ear. In other words, the frequencies of the sound are outside of the human audible frequency spectrum (e.g. ultrasound, or infrasound). The appropriate choice of frequencies of this sound may be determined in function of the hardware capabilities (namely, microphone frequency response) of the electronic device 1 (iPhone, Blackberry, iPad, Laptop for exemple). Furthermore, the audio segment recorded by the application 3 is communicated to the remote server 5. The remote server 5 is in charge of

- identifying (step 52 in figure 2), on the basis of the tag, the promotional announcement that corresponds to the recorded audio segment; and - communicating an information pre-associated with this identified promotional announcement to the electronic device 1.

If the received recoded audio segment matches with a promotional announcement known by the server 5, the server 5 sends a notification on the electronic device 1 in order to inform him/her that he/she is selected for participating in the promotional operation.

Accordingly, the pushed notification, sent by the server 5, is displayed (step 17 in figure 2) on the electronic device 1 and the user is informed that he/she is selected for participating in the promotional operation in which he/she declared interested. When the user clicks on the notification, the application is opened and informational content on the promotional announcement (in the form of text, image, audio, video or any appropriate form) is displayed. Such information may content a promotional code or a bar code for a discount, the coordinates (address, phone number, fax, address Web, email for example) of the points of sales.

Advantageously, the coordinates (phone number, email address, URL, Fax, address) of a point of sale may be directly used from the notification windows by other functionalities supported by the electronic device 1 (phone, a messaging means, a GPS application, an explorer for example). Accordingly, the user can contact or locate (preferably, with respect to his/her localization or any other reference point) (step 18 in figure 2) a point of sale.

In an illustrative embodiment, a user of an electronic device 1 (a smartphone) wishes to be informed about any promotional announcement relating to goods or services that may be purchased online or in a physical store or retail location no more than 5 km away from his current location. To that end, he downloads, and then installs the application 3 on his smartphone 1. Further, he registers with the remote server 5 to be kept informed about promotional announcement. During the registration step, the user accepts to receive push notifications and accepts that the application 3 accesses to his current localization data. Consequently, the user becomes a subscriber to the server 5.

At a programmed time (e.g. at 9 am, the server 5 sends a notification to the user a notification concerning an upcoming promotional operation. Such notification includes the media (the radio and/or TV channel) and the time at which the promotional announcement will be broadcasted. This notification may be provided to the user in form of a widget (or any other functionality supported by the electronic device 1 such as a SMS/MMS, or an email) that pops up on the screen of the smartphone asking the user if he is interested in this promotional announcement or not. When the user accepts to participate in this operation, the application

3 goes on idle mode till the preprogrammed awakening time specified within the received and accepted push notification. When this wake-up time is reached, the application goes on active mode and, subsequently, records for a predefined time span (for example, a few seconds such as from 5 to 20 seconds) the captured audio signal by the microphone of the smartphone 1. The wake-up time of the application 3 is shortly before (for example, 1 minute before) the time at which the promotional announcement will be broadcasted on the specified media. The audio signal captured by the microphone of the smartphone 1 may come from, for exemple, the speaker of the car radio, or from the speaker of the smartphone 1 itself (i.e. in the case of a Web TV, or a Web radio application is running on the smartphone 1).

The recorded audio segment is communicated to the distant server 5 for identification, and in return, once the audio segment is identified, a notification is automatically displayed on the screen of the smartphone 1, informing the user that he is selected for participating in the promotional operation. This notification may, further, comprise details about the promotional product/service such as the price or the address of the nearest point of sale in regard with the current localization of the user or with a reference point (the home address of the user for example).

If the user is interested in this promotional announcement, he opens this notification and may contact or localize a point of sales offering this promotional operation, or visits the website relative to this promotional operation.

The identification, by the remote server 5, of the recorded audio segment is achieved by making out the tag comprised within the recorded audio segment, then identifying within a pre-established database of promotional announcements the one that correspond to the identified tag. Alternatively, the identification of the broadcast audio content may be achieved locally by the electronic device 1 if it has sufficient resources. In this case, a regular partial or complete update of the specifications about promotional announcement available on the remote server 5 has to be performed. It is to be noted that, if the identified promotional announcement does not meet with the criteria set by the user (e.g. the point of sales of the promotional product is far from the current location of the user, the promotional product is not among selected products that the user is interested in, for example), then no notification is subsequently sent to the user.

It is worth noting that, by remote server 5, it is intended to mean any communicating system, distributed or not, equipped with appropriate hardware (servers, computers, databases for exemple) and software (interfaces, algorithms) means in charge of delivering , according to predefined instructions, information to subscribers from a content fed therewith . I n particular, the remote server is equipped with dedicated means for identifying an audio segment including a predefined tag .

Advantageously, the onset of the recording session is triggered automatically (as soon as a predefined wake-up time is reached) and not manually (by pressing a bottom for example). Namely, the described above method does not require the intervention of the user to trigger the recording of an audio segment of the broadcast audio content.

Advantageously, advertisement messages are conveyed to listening and/or viewing audience so that the audience is able to remember the advertisement without competing its attention and memory. Moreover, the efficiency of advertisements scheduled on non-prime time programs may be im proved as advertisement messages are conveyed to audiences without regards to their attention vis-a-vis the broadcasted program .

Advantageously, the present invention permits the radio listener and/or television viewer to access and to utilize informational data (coordinates of points of sale, duration of a discount for example) concerning advertised products/services at a time subsequent to when such advertisements are broadcasted . Furthermore, the present invention enables the listener and/or viewer with the ability to automatically contact the advertiser upon identification of an advertisement of interest.

Claims

1 . A method for providing information relating to an audio content of interest to be broadcasted via a broadcasting audio source, said method comprising the following steps: recording an audio segment from the broadcast audio content of interest via the broadcasting audio source;

- identifying the broadcast audio content of interest on the basis of the recorded audio segment ; - providing information associated with the identified audio content; said method being characterized in that it further comprises a program ming step to trigger, at a predefined time, the recording step.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising a specification step of the audio content of interest to be broadcasted.

3. The method of claim 2 including an association step of an audio tag with the audio content of interest to be broadcasted .

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the audio tag is an inaudible sound uniquely associated with the audio content of interest.

5. The method of claim 2 including the specification of - the scheduling of the broadcast of the audio content via the broadcasting audio source ;

- a descriptive content of the audio content; the triggering time of the recording step.

6. The method of any of the preceding claims, further comprising an identification step of an audio tag comprised within the recorded audio segment.

7. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the audio content of interest to be broadcasted is an advertisement.

8. A computer program product (3) for an electronic device (1) for providing information relating to an audio content of interest to be broadcasted via a broadcasting audio source, said electronic device (1) comprising a microphone, said computer program product being configured - to record an audio segment from the audio signal captured by the microphone of the electronic device (1);

- to provide information associated with the identified audio content; said computer program product being characterized in that it is further configured to trigger, at a predefined time, the recording of an audio segment.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 further configured to submit a participation request to the user of the electronic device in the audio content of interest to be broadcasted.

10. The computer program product of claims 8 or 9 further configured to go to an idle mode as long as a predefined wake-up time is not yet reached.

11. The computer program product of any of claims 8 to 10, wherein the information associated with the identified audio content are provided in accordance with predetermined preferences.

12. The computer program product of any of claims 8 to 11, wherein the electronic device is a smartphone.