WO2017216599A1

WO2017216599A1 - Method and system for monitoring, tracking and auditing adertisement campaigns

Info

Publication number: WO2017216599A1
Application number: PCT/IB2016/053468
Authority: WO
Inventors: Manish GULECHHA
Original assignee: Gulechha Manish
Priority date: 2016-06-13
Filing date: 2016-06-13
Publication date: 2017-12-21

Abstract

Method and system for monitoring, tracking and auditing advertisement campaigns are disclosed. The system comprises a user device configured to capture and upload one or more images of an advertisement signage pertaining to an advertisement campaign and a central server configure to receive the one or more images of the advertisement signage and digitally recording the reception date and time (time-stamping) of the one or more images of the advertisement signage irrespective of the date and time configured on the user device when one or more images of the advertisement signage are captured by the user device. In one embodiment, the user device is further configured to geo-tag the one or more images of the advertisement signage, encrypt the one or more images of the advertisement signage and upload the one or more images of the advertisement signage to a central server at least in real-time, within a stipulated time.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MONITORING, TRACKING AND AUDITING

ADVERTISEMENT CAMPAIGNS

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS AND PRIORITY

[001] The present application claims priority from an Indian Patent Application No.

4476/CHE/2014 filed on 12^th of June, 2015.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[002] The present disclosure in general relates to advertisement monitoring and management system and more particularly relates to method and system for monitoring, tracking and auditing advertisement campaigns through tamperproof time-stamping.

BACKGROUND

[003] Advertisement is a form of marketing communication generally used to promote or sell something, usually a business' product, services or both. Generally, advertisements are designed by an advertising agency for an identified sponsor, performed through variety of mass media including but not limited to televisions, radios and other display means to reach the targeted audience or consumers. Further, such advertisements/media are published in newspapers, magazines and also as billboards and digital billboards next to streets and cities.

[004] Among various kinds of mass media advertising, out-of-home advertising (OOH advertising) reaches the consumers while the consumers are outside of their homes. OOH advertising is focused on marketing to consumers when the consumers are "on the go" in public places, in transit, while waiting at various places such as offices, traffic signals, etc., and in specific commercial locations such as in a retail venue, shopping malls, etc. Hence, OOH advertising is highly prominent and does not require the consumer to do anything to access the same i.e., the consumers does not have to tune in or click onto to something to turn on the advertisements. [005] Generally, during an OOH advertising process, an advertiser (for example product manufacturers, service providers and business owners) approaches a media owner/media asset owner to advertise their products or services on outdoor media such as billboards, rail media, specialty signage, digital billboards, etc. located at various geographical locations. On successful installation/deployment, the media owner should monitor the installation periodically to ensure that the advertisements are installed according to the advertiser's needs, to estimate the success rate, to give feedback, to provide visual proof to the advertiser, etc. Such feedbacks about the installation gives an opportunity for the advertiser to understand exactly when, where, in which part of the city, with what intensity and on what kind of construction was the advertisement posted/installed. Hence, in order to monitor such advertisements/publications, the known techniques include conducting surveys during which a person visits each of the advertising locations and manually conducts a survey to ensure that the advertisement is active for desired time period, contents are properly visible, published at a desired geographical location and so on.

[006] With the advancement of computer networks, the Internet and the worldwide web, presently, photographic image files captured on mobile phone cameras are often used in conducting such surveys. The surveyor is provided with a smartphone or any other image capturing device to capture the images of the publications/signboards and the captured images are time-stamped based on the local system time of the capturing device wherein time-stamping indicate when the picture was taken by the surveyor. Since local time stamping may be modified or not accurate, this time stamping is not reliable. Hence, the surveyor may utilize a newspaper for date stamping wherein the surveyor captures the images of the publications/signboards highlighting/holding the date of the newspaper to indicate the date on which the particular images are captured. On completing the survey process, the captured time stamped images are collected and the collected images are then analyzed to give feedback to the advertiser. However, the time and date stamping using newspapers may be easily tampered with, by using old dated newspapers and/ or superimposing using image tools. Further, the images and the date and time may be edited using any known image editing tools. Hence such process is not tamper proof and may not be accurate. Further, business requirements where camera photos are used as the proof of service delivery and time-stamp is used as proof of the time of delivery, however, the local time-stamp is not auditable and reliable. The risk that the time-stamp as well as the image may have been altered draws into question its authenticity. Further, the images captured may be altered and may give a wrong visual proof far away from the actuals. In the light of the above discussion, there is a need for a method and system that overcomes all the above stated and other associated problems.

SUMMARY

[007] This summary is provided to introduce aspects related to system(s) and method(s) for managing advertisement campaigns and the aspects are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter nor is it intended for use in determining or limiting the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[008] The present disclosure relates to a system and a method for monitoring, tracking and auditing advertisement campaigns wherein the system comprises a user device configured to capture and upload one or more images of an advertisement signage pertaining to an advertisement campaign and a central server configured to receive the one or more images of the advertisement signage and digitally record the received date and time (time-stamping as per the server time) of the one or more images of the advertisement signage.

[009] A method for monitoring, tracking and auditing an advertisement campaign comprises capturing by a user, one or more images of an advertisement signage, geo- tagging the one or more images of the advertisement signage, encrypting the one or more images of the advertisement signage to prevent the one or more captured images being replaced by other images and uploading the one or more images of the advertisement signage to a central server through a communication network, within a fixed stipulated time wherein uploading further comprises uploading advertisement signage site data along with the one or more images of the advertisement signage. In one implementation, on expiry of the fixed stipulated time, the one or more captured images are considered invalid and cannot be uploaded on the central server.

[0010] On the other hand, the central server is configured to receive the one or more encrypted images of the advertisement signage and associated site data from the user device through a communication network, time-stamp the one or more images of the advertisement signage and record the one or more time-stamped images of the advertisement signage and associated site data in a dedicated database.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0011] The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanying figures.

In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The same numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer like features and components.

[0012] Figure 1 illustrates an example system for monitoring, tracking and auditing advertisement campaigns in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0013] Figure 2 is a detailed block diagram of the advertisement campaign monitoring, tracking and auditing system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0014] Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example operation of the advertisement monitoring, tracking and auditing system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0015] Figure 4 illustrates an example advertisement campaign in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0016] Figure 5 illustrates an example user interface of the monitoring application showing the captured advertisement signage data in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0017] Figure 6 illustrates an example user interface displaying the campaign data in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0018] Figure 7 is an example of a captured image of an advertisement signage in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Further, skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and may not have necessarily been drawn to scale. Furthermore, in terms of the construction of the device, one or more components of the device may have been represented in the figures by conventional symbols, and the figures may show only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the figures with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] For the purpose of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to the embodiment illustrated in the figures and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended, such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated system, and such further applications of the principles of the invention as illustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates.

[0020] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory of the invention and are not intended to be restrictive thereof.

[0021] The terms "comprises", "comprising", or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process or method that comprises a list of steps does not include only those steps but may include other steps not expressly listed or inherent to such process or method. Similarly, one or more devices or sub-systems or elements or structures or components proceeded by "comprises... a" does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of other devices or other sub-systems or other elements or other structures or other components or additional devices or additional subsystems or additional elements or additional structures or additional components. Appearances of the phrase "in an embodiment", "in another embodiment" and similar language throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, all refer to the same embodiment. [0022] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The system, methods, and examples provided herein are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting.

[0023] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying figures.

[0024] The present disclosure relates to a method and system for monitoring, tracking and auditing advertisement campaigns wherein the system comprises one or more user devices configured to capture one or more images of one or more advertisement signage and a central server configured to receive and manage the one or more images of the one or more advertisement signage. Even though the present disclosure is described referring to capturing and time stamping one or more images of the one or more advertisement signage, the system may be configured to capture and time stamp audio, video or any other digital data.

[0025] In the present disclosure, the advertisement campaigns refers to one or more advertisement campaign wherein each advertisement campaign comprises a series of Out- of-home advertising (OOH advertising) or point of purchase advertisement signage that shares a single idea and theme. The series of advertisement signage includes but not limited to billboards, rail media, specialty signage, digital billboards, banners, cutouts, wallscapes, etc. Further, monitoring and tracking the advertisement campaigns comprises monitoring the advertisement signage periodically to ensure that the advertisement signage are properly maintained by respective media owners for an assigned time period, to ensure that the advertisement signage are published/installed according to the advertiser's needs, to ensure the media contents are visible and so on. In other words to provide informed decision based on data and visual proof of the advertisement signage.

[0026] Figure 1 illustrates an example system for monitoring, tracking and auditing advertisement campaigns in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown, the system 100 comprises one or more user devices 105-1, 105-2 and 105-N (hereafter collectively referred as user device 105) and a central sever 110 wherein the user device 105 and the central server 110 are communicatively connected through a communication network 115.

[0027] The user device 105 may include one of a smartphone, a personal data assistant (PDA), a digital camera or any other known image capturing device capable of connecting to the Internet or having other communication capabilities or both. The user device 105 may connect to the communication network/internet 115 in one or more ways such as wired, wireless connections. Wireless connection may include long range wireless radio, wireless personal are network (WPAN), wireless local area network (WLAN) or any other similar means.

[0028] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the user device 105 comprises a monitoring application which enables a user/surveyor to capture one or more images of one or more advertisement signage displaying one or more advertisements pertaining to one or more advertisement campaigns. It is to be noted that the monitoring application of the present disclosure enables capturing one or more images using the camera or any other hardware/sensor associated with the user device 105 and does not allow uploading of images already stored in the device memory or the images received through other means. Example advertisement signage may include any number and types of outdoor advertisements including billboards, digital billboards, banners, wall posters, etc. Further, the user device 105 comprising monitoring application enables the surveyor to upload the one or more images of the advertising signage to the central server 110.

[0029] The central server 110 provides necessary functionalities to receive and manage the one or more images of the advertisement signage and other advertisement related data pertaining to one or more advertisement campaigns. Examples of the central server 110 may include a cloud server, a distributed server, an application server, etc. In one implementation the central server 110 is a cloud server capable of receiving the one or more images of the advertisement signage and advertisement signage site data from a plurality of user devices 105 connected over the communication network 115. The advertisement signage site data may include but not limited to longitude and latitude information, signage orientation information, signage type etc. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the central server 110 digitally records reception date and time of the day (time-stamping) of the one or more images of the advertisement signage and records the time-stamped one or more images of the advertisement signage in as a database.

[0030] In one implementation, the communication network 115 may be a wireless network, a wired network or a combination thereof. The communication network 115 may be implemented as one of the different types of networks, such as intranet, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), the internet, and the like. The communication network 115 may either be a dedicated network or a shared network. The shared network represents an association of the different types of networks that use a variety of protocols, for example, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), and the like, to communicate with one another. Further the communication network 106 may include a variety of network devices, including routers, bridges, servers, computing devices, storage devices, and the like. In one implementation, the communication network 115 is Internet which enables communication between the one or more user devices 105 and the central server 110 for sharing advertisement signage images, advertisement signage site data and other advertisement campaign related data.

[0031] Figure 2 is a detailed block diagram of the advertisement campaign monitoring, tracking and auditing system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown, the user device 105 comprises an image capturing module 205, a transceiver module 210, one or more processing modules (processors) 215, a memory module 220, an encryption module 225, a geo-tagging module 230 and an user interface module 235. As described above, in one embodiment of the present disclosure, the user device 105 comprises a monitoring application which operates the one or more said modules for monitoring the advertisement signage. To control the user device 105, the user device 105 comprises the user interface module 235 which provides a user interface (such as GUI) that allows a user/surveyor to control the user device 105 to collect and/or to enter the advertisement campaign data, advertisement signage images and other advertisement signage site data. Accordingly, the user may capture the one or more images of the advertisement signage using the user interface module 235 and the image capturing module 205. The images so captured may be in one of different formats such as but not limited to Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), Exchangeable image file format (EIF), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), bitmap, portable network graphics, better portable graphics (BPG), etc. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, each captured image comprises a campaign identifier and a signage identifier/media identifier which indicates the media/signage for which the images are captured and the advertisement and signage that are running on the media for which the images are captured respectively. In yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, the user device 105 captures advertisement signage site data/meta data wherein the advertisement signage site data includes but not limited to advertisement signage orientation data, illumination data and location data through one or more modules such as compass, ambient light sensor modules, etc.

[0032] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more captured images of the advertisement signage may then be converted to a unique format such as better portable graphics (BPG) using the one or more processing module 225. Example processing modules 225 may include an image processor, data processor, general purpose processor, etc. Further, the one or more images of the advertisement signage are geo- tagged using the geo-tagging module 230 in order to provide geographical location details of the advertisement signage. In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more geo-tagged images of the advertisement signage are encrypted with a unique image identifier using the using the encryption module 225 to ensure that the images cannot be overwritten by the user. The encrypted one or more images of the advertisement signage are uploaded to the central server 110 through the transceiver module 210 via the communication network 115. In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the user device 105 also uploads the advertisement signage site data (meta data), the campaign identifier and the media identifier along with the one or more images of the advertisement signage to the central server 110.

[0033] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more captured images of the advertisement signage have a predetermined time limit, say a few hours calculated from the time of capture of the one or more images, for uploading on the central server 110. The one or more images of the advertisement signage get expired or become invalid for uploading on the central server 110 once the stipulated time gets over. For example, if the user device 105 is out of network coverage area, i.e., if the user device 105 is unable to connect to the internet, the user device 105 temporarily stores the captured one or more images in the local memory module 220 for a stipulated time (for example for 6 hours) enabling the user to upload to the central server 110. If the user fails to upload the one or more images of the advertisement signage within 6 hours from the time of capture, then the user device 105 automatically deletes or erases the one or more images from the local memory module 220 and hence prevents tampering.

[0034] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, if the system time of the user device 105 is altered, then the monitoring application automatically deletes the captured images and hence prevents tampering by the user.

[0035] On the other hand, the central server 110 comprises a transceiver module 240 configured to receive one or more images of the advertisement signage and associated advertisement signage site data from the plurality of user devices 105. It is to be noted that the central server 110 is configured to receive the one or more images from the user devices 105 only. Further, the central server 110 comprises a database module 245, a decryption module 250, a time-stamping module 255, one or more processing modules 260, a monitor view module 265 and an authentication module 270. The one or more processing modules 260 may comprise an image processor, data processor, general purpose processor, etc. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more processing modules 260 is configured to run one or more algorithms for image recognition in order to detect any damage to the advertisement signage or creative. On receiving the one or more encrypted images of the advertisement signage, the decryption module 250 decrypts the images and checks for the authenticity of the images. On successful authentication, the one or more decrypted images are fed to the time stamping module 255 which digitally records the reception date and time of the day of the one or more images of the advertisement signage through any known time-stamping protocol which represents the current date and time. In other words, the time stamping module 255 digitally record the current server date and time of the day to the one or more images of the advertisement signage irrespective of the date and time configured on the user device 105 when the images are captured by the user device 105. Further, the central server 110 links the one or more time-stamped images of the advertisement signage to respective campaigns using the campaign identifier. Further the central server 110 links the one or more images to their respective advertisement using the media identifier and records the time-stamped one or more images along with the associated advertisement signage site data in the database module 245.

[0036] In one embodiment of the present discloser, the central server 110 comprises input/output interface (I/O unit) which may include a variety of software and hardware interfaces, for example, a web interface, a graphical user interface, application interface and the like. On the other hand, the central server 110 is accessible through remote computers over a communication network enabling one or more publishers and/or advertisers to register with the advertisement management system. In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, the media owners and advertisers may register and access the advertisement campaign management system using a "campaign management application". On successful registration, the media owner and/or the advertiser may create and manage one or more advertisement campaigns through the campaign management application.

[0037] Here, the term "advertiser" refers to brand owners and the term "media owner" refers to advertisement signage providers. Hence, the advertisement management system operates as an advertisement management platform where the advertisers and the media owners may share information regarding the advertisement campaigns. The manner in which the advertisement campaign monitoring, tracking and auditing system/platform operates to monitor, track and audit the one or more advertisement campaigns is described in detail further below.

[0038] Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example operation of the advertisement monitoring, tracking and auditing system in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In step 305 the media owner creates and shares a task list using the advertisement management application. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the task list comprises list of one or more advertisement signage wherein the one or more advertisement signage may include outdoor advertisement signage and indoor media/signage wherein the indoor media may be listed along with floor plans. In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the task list further comprises data associated with one or more advertisement campaigns, campaign identifier, advertisement signage location, type of the advertisement signage for example billboard, banner, etc., campaign start and end date, time period for which the advertisement needs to be active, monitoring date and time if necessary, monitoring date and time if necessary and parameters needs to be monitored associated with the advertisement signage, etc. wherein the campaign identifier indicates to which campaign the advertisement signage belong to.

[0039] Figure 4 illustrates an example advertisement campaign in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown, the media owner may select one or more advertisement signage from a campaign inventory and on selection, the one or more advertisement signage are listed along with the geo-location, signage image, campaign identifier, media identifier, campaign start and end date and other signage details. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the media owner may list the one or more advertisement signage associated with one or more campaigns. On successful creation of the task list, the media owner shares the task identifier with a user/surveyor/field executive. In other words, the media owner assigns the monitoring task to the surveyor by sharing the task ID, wherein the surveyor may access the task list using the task ID through the user device (monitoring application).

[0040] At step 210 the surveyor captures one or more images of one or more advertisement signage. In order to capture the one or more images of the one or more advertisement signage, the surveyor initially logs into monitoring application on the user device 105. On successful login, the surveyor may select the task list that lists the one or more advertisement signage and signage details that needs to be monitored. Then the surveyor may select one of the advertisement signage to monitor. On selecting one of the advertisement signage to be monitored, the monitoring application enables the image capturing module and hence enables the surveyor to capture the one or more images of the advertisement campaign. In one implementation, the monitoring application if further configured to record audio and video data along with the one or more images. On capturing the one or more images, the user device 105 (monitoring application) geo-tags the image which includes latitude and longitude co-ordinates of the advertisement signage. Further, the geo-tagged one or more images of the advertisement signage are encrypted with a unique image identifier to identify tampering and hence to prevent tampering by the user. In one implementation, the encrypted one or more images of the advertisement signage further comprises the campaign identifier which indicates the campaign to which the one or more images belongs to and the media identifier which indicates the media to which the one or more images belongs to. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the surveyor may add tags, alerts and comments to the captured one or more images of the advertisement signage. Further, the surveyor may repeat the process for all the advertisement signage listed in the task list.

[0041] At step 215 the user device checks whether the user device is connected to the Internet. If the user device 105 is connected to the Internet, control passes to step 220, else the control passes to step 235.

[0042] At step 220, the surveyor uploads the one or more encrypted images of the advertisement signage to the central server 110 through the user device 105. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the user device 105 automatically uploads the one or more encrypted and geo-tagged images of the advertisement signage to the central server 110. The user device 105 uploads one or more images of the advertisement signage, location information, the campaign identifier, the media identifier and other advertisement signage site data to the central server 110 and control passes to step 225 as shown.

[0043] If the user device 105 is not connected to the internet, the user device 105 temporarily stores the one or more encrypted images of the advertisement signage in the local memory module 220 as shown in step 235. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the saved images of the advertisement signage have a time limit of few hours (pre-defined stipulated time) calculated from the time of capture of the one or more images, for uploading on the central server 110. For example, the user device 105 sets a stipulated time of 6 hours from the time of capture of the one or more images. Accordingly, the user device 105 determines whether the user device 105 is able to connect to the Internet within the stipulated time as shown in step 240. If the user device 105 is able to connect to the Internet within the stipulated time (6 hours), then the control passes to step 220 wherein the surveyor may upload the one or more images of the one or more advertisement signage to the central server 110. On the other hand, if the user device 105 is not able to connect to the internet within the stipulated time or if the user fails to upload the one or more encrypted images of the advertisement signage within the stipulated time, then the user device 105 automatically deletes/erases/deactivates the one or more encrypted images from the local memory module 220 as shown in step 245 and hence prevents tampering.

[0044] Figure 5 illustrates an example user interface of the monitoring application showing the captured advertisement signage data in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown, on capturing the one or more images of the one or more advertisement signage, the user interface displays the captured image along with the campaign identifier, media identifier, location information, etc. As described, the surveyor may upload the one or more images of the advertisement signage using the "upload" option 505 or may save using "save" option 510.

[0045] Referring back to Figure 3, in step 225 the central server 110 time-stamps the one or more images of the advertisement signage. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the central server 110 decrypts the received one or more encrypted images of the advertisement signage to check authenticity. On successful authentication of the one or more images of the advertisement signage and the advertisement signage site data/information, the central server 110 digitally records reception date and time (time- stamping) of the one or more images of the advertisement signage. That is, the central server 110 digitally records the current time and date on receiving one or more images of the one or more advertisement signage. On the other hand, if authentication fails, i.e., if the images are altered, then the central server 110 automatically discards the one or more images and notifies the media owner or the surveyor.

[0046] In step 230 the central server 110 links and records the one or more time-stamped images of the one or more advertisement signage in a dedicated database. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the central server 110 links the time-stamped one or more images of the advertisement signage with their respective advertisement campaigns through the campaign identifiers and records the one or more images of the advertisement signage in the database for further processing along with the advertisement signage site data. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the media owner and/or the advertiser may access the stored data/information through the management application through any known device capable of computing and commination. Figure 6 illustrates an example user interface displaying the campaign data in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown, each captured image of the advertisement signage is linked/mapped with the respective media details using the campaign ID and the media ID. Captured advertisement signage details including one or more images, latitude and longitude data, monitoring duration, monitored date and time of the day, etc. are stored in the database for further processing and review by the publisher and/or the advertiser.

[0047] In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the central server 110 enables the media owner and/or the advertiser to download the campaign related information, to share electronic copies of the campaign related information and to share the campaign related information among the other users of the system/platform. The campaign related information may include but not limited to images of the one or more advertisement signage, signage data/meta data, media owner and campaign details, campaign start and end date, monitored date and time, geographical location information, surveyor comments, feedback, tags, etc.

[0048] Figure 7 is an example of a captured image of an advertisement signage in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown, the image comprises actual image of the advertisement signage 705, server time-stamping data 710, user device geo-tagging data 715 and a verifiable URL 720 wherein the URL 720 provides a link to the platform to verify the shared image and to access other campaign related information which can be accessed through the monitor view module 265. Further, the system also provides features for sharing the captured monitor details with other users for example with the advertisers on the same platform. Further, the image may be shared via e-mails, printed photos etc., comprising the verifiable URL that can be scanned via one or more means known in the art. By using the verifiable URL 720, the advertiser may access and view all the images, locations, signage, signage data and campaign details which are provided by the authentication module 270 of the platform. Further, the advertiser or any user may visually match the original media with the media captured by the surveyor to validate its authenticity.

[0049] Hence the system and method for monitoring, tracking and auditing the advertisement campaigns provides an easy to use platform for OOH advertisements and point of purchase advertisements monitoring, detailed way of looking at the captured data like geo location (maps), date and time at which the signage images are captured, alert tags, signage information and other, so that the advertiser may take informed decision based on data and the visual proof.

[0050] While specific language has been used to describe the disclosure, any limitations arising on account of the same are not intended. As would be apparent to a person in the art, various working modifications may be made to the method in order to implement the inventive concept as taught herein.

[0051] The figures and the forgoing description give examples of embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or more of the described elements may well be combined into a single functional element. Alternatively, certain elements may be split into multiple functional elements. Elements from one embodiment may be added to another embodiment. For example, orders of processes described herein may be changed and are not limited to the manner described herein. Moreover, the actions of any flow diagram need not be implemented in the order shown; nor do all of the acts necessarily need to be performed. Also, those acts that are not dependent on other acts may be performed in parallel with the other acts. The scope of embodiments is by no means limited by these specific examples. Numerous variations, whether explicitly given in the specification or not, such as differences in structure, dimension, and use of material, are possible. The scope of embodiments is at least as broad as given by the following claims.

Claims

We claim:

1. A method for monitoring, tracking and auditing advertisement campaign, the method comprising:

capturing, by a user device, one or more images of an advertisement signage; geo-tagging, by the user device, the one or more images of the advertisement signage;

encrypting, by the user device, the one or more images of the advertisement signage wherein the one or more images of the advertisement signage are encrypted using at least one of a lossless encryption methods; and

uploading, by the user device, the one or more images of the advertisement signage to a central server through a communication network at least in real-time, within a stipulated time.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein capturing further comprises capturing advertisement signage site data wherein the advertisement signage site data includes at least one of advertisement signage orientation data, illumination data and location data.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein encrypting the one or more images of the advertisement signage comprises encrypting the one or more images of the advertisement signage with a unique image identifier.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein geo-tagging the one or more images of the advertisement signage comprises;

retrieving latitude and longitude co-ordinates of the advertisement signage; and tagging the latitude and longitude co-ordinates of the advertisement signage with the one or more captured images of the advertisement signage.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein uploading the one or more images of the advertisement signage to a central server through a communication network within the stipulated time comprises; storing, by the user device, the one or more images of the advertisement signage in a local memory of the user device;

enabling, by the user device, to upload the one or more images of the advertisement signage within the stipulated time; and

erasing, by the user device, the one or more stored images of the advertisement signage from the local memory of the user device on expiry of the stipulated time.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein uploading further comprises uploading advertisement signage site data to a central server through a communication network within the stipulated time along with the one or more images of the advertisement signage.

7. A method for monitoring, tracking and auditing advertisement campaign, the method comprising:

receiving, by a central server, one or more encrypted images of an advertisement signage and associated site data from a user device through a communication network; decrypting, by the central server, the one or more encrypted images of the advertisement signage;

time-stamping, by the central server, the one or more images of the advertisement signage; and

storing, by the central server, the one or more time-stamped images of the advertisement signage and associated advertisement signage site data in a database.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the time-stamping of the one or more images of the advertisement signage comprises digitally recording reception date and time of the one or more encrypted images of the advertisement signage.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the storing the one or more time-stamped images of the advertisement signage comprises;

identifying the one or more time stamped images of the advertisement signage based on a campaign identifier;

linking the one or more time-stamped images of the advertisement signage to respective campaigns; and storing the one or more time-stamped images of the advertisement signage and the associated advertisement signage site data in the database.

10. A system for monitoring, tracking and auditing advertisement campaign, the system comprising:

a user device in communication with a central server wherein the user device is configured to:

capture one or more images of an advertisement signage; geo-tag the one or more images of the advertisement signage;

encrypt the one or more images of the advertisement signage wherein the one or more images of the advertisement signage are encrypted using at least one of a lossless encryption methods; and

upload the one or more images of the advertisement signage to a central server through a communication network in real-time, within a stipulated time.

11. A system for monitoring, tracking and auditing advertisement campaign, the system comprising:

a central server wherein the central sever is configured to:

receive one or more encrypted images of an advertisement signage and associated site data from a user device through a communication network;

decrypt the one or more encrypted images of the advertisement signage; time-stamp the one or more images of the advertisement signage;

store the one or more time-stamped images of the advertisement signage; and

authenticate and view the one or more time-stamped images of the advertisement signage and associated site data in a dedicated database.