U.S. patent application number 09/808475 was filed with the patent office on 2002-09-19 for apparatus and method for recruiting, communicating with, and paying participants of interactive advertising.
Invention is credited to Chen, Peter, Faber, Scott, Linden, Sean Van Der, McKenna, Patrick.
Application Number | 20020133402 09/808475 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 25198878 |
Filed Date | 2002-09-19 |
United States Patent
Application |
20020133402 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Faber, Scott ; et
al. |
September 19, 2002 |
Apparatus and method for recruiting, communicating with, and paying
participants of interactive advertising
Abstract
A method and apparatus for recruiting, communicating with, and
paying participants of interactive advertising are described. The
present invention is a system through which advertisers car
recruit, communicate with, and pay their potential customers for
their time. The system achieves these functions without the
advertiser or the customer having to be in the same location--all
logistics are handled through the system's web site, database, and
communications interfaces. The system enables advertisers to
promote interactive seminars in which they try to sell products to
potential customers. Most importantly, the advertisers are able to
offer their potential customers financial rewards for their time,
such as 25 cents per minute to reward a customer for listening to a
sales pitch. The system then provides a real-time communications
link between the advertiser and customer. The system automatically
bills the advertiser and rewards the customer for the time that
they interact.
Inventors: |
Faber, Scott; (San
Francisco, CA) ; Linden, Sean Van Der; (San
Francisco, CA) ; McKenna, Patrick; (San Francisco,
CA) ; Chen, Peter; (Palo Alto, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BLAKELY SOKOLOFF TAYLOR & ZAFMAN
12400 WILSHIRE BOULEVARD, SEVENTH FLOOR
LOS ANGELES
CA
90025
US
|
Family ID: |
25198878 |
Appl. No.: |
09/808475 |
Filed: |
March 13, 2001 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.64 ;
705/14.19; 705/14.69 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/0256 20130101;
G06Q 30/0261 20130101; G06Q 30/0267 20130101; G06Q 30/0217
20130101; G06Q 30/0277 20130101; G06Q 30/02 20130101; G06Q 30/0273
20130101; G06Q 30/0215 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/14 |
International
Class: |
G06F 017/60 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method comprising: providing one or more interactive
advertising links; receiving, from one or more users, one or more
selections for a selected advertising link from the one or more
interactive advertising links; establishing a communications link
between the one or more users and an advertiser of the selected
advertising link; and compensating the one or more users based on
various input provided to the advertiser during interaction there
between via the communications link.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a request
from an advertiser to establish an interactive advertising link;
and placing a link for an interactive advertisement among the one
or more interactive advertising links.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: generating a record
in an advertiser database, the record including advertiser
information contained in the request, wherein the advertiser
information includes one or more of a compensation price, real-time
advertiser availability, specific type of the advertisement,
languages spoken by the advertiser and additional compensation
incentives.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the compensating the one or more
users further comprises: billing the advertiser a billing amount
for each interaction with the one or more users; and transferring
the billing amount to the one or more users.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the billing the advertiser
further comprises: measuring a duration of the interaction between
the one or more users and the advertiser; and calculating the
billing amount for the advertiser based on the duration of the
interaction and a time-based price paid by the advertiser.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more interactive
advertisement links include one or more interactive public opinion
polls, such that a user selecting a public opinion poll is
compensated for providing his/her opinion and wherein the
establishing the communications link further comprises: providing a
user that selected a public opinion poll link with an online
questionnaire of the public opinion poll; and once the user
completes the questionnaire, transmitting the questionnaire to an
advertiser of the public opinion poll link.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein each selection from a user
includes one or more of a category of advertisers, an advertiser
payment price, advertiser type and advertisement.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to the receiving the one or
more selections from the one or more users, the method further
comprises: receiving a request from a user for connection to an
interactive advertisement system via a communications link;
establishing a connection between the user and the interactive
advertisement system in order to provide the user with an
interaction with a chosen advertiser; and providing the user with a
list of the wide array of advertisement types available from the
interactive advertisement system.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more interactive
advertising links include one or more interactive seminar links and
following selection of a selected interactive seminar by the one or
more users, the establishing the communications link further
comprises: establishing a real-time video communications link
between the one or more users and an advertiser of the selected
interactive seminar; providing additional incentive-based links to
the one or more users to provide additional feedback; and enabling
the one or more users to purchase one or more items advertised by
the interactive seminar.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein following the establishing the
communications link, the method further comprises: providing
additional incentive-based links to the one or more users to
provide additional feedback; and enabling the user to purchase one
or more items advertised by the selected advertising link.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the compensating the one or more
users further comprises: enabling a user to purchase an advertised
product with limited availability, such that the user is
compensated by having the ability to purchase the advertised
product.
12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: charging the user a
predetermined amount such that the user is compensated by having
the ability to purchase the advertised product; and transferring
the predetermined amount to the advertiser.
13. The method of claim 11, further comprising: using a telephone
as the communications link between the user and the advertiser of
the selected advertising link.
14. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the one or more
interactive advertising links further comprises: receiving, from an
advertiser interface, a request to activate an interactive seminar
included among the one or more interactive advertising links;
activating the seminar, such that one or more users can select and
participate in the interactive seminar; receiving, from the
advertise interface, a request to de-activate the interactive
seminar once the seminar is closed; and de-activating the
interactive seminar, such that additional users can no longer
participate in the interactive seminar.
15. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing a
communications link, further comprises: providing the one or more
users with a recorded version of the selected advertisement; and
enabling the one or more users to purchase one or more advertised
products.
16. A computer readable storage medium including program
instruction that directs a computer to function in a specified
manner when executed by a processor, the program instructions
comprising: providing one or more interactive advertising links;
receiving, from one or more users, one or more selections for a
selected advertising link from the one or more interactive
advertising links; establishing a communications link between the
one or more users and an advertiser of the selected advertising
link; and compensating the one or more users based on various input
provided to the advertiser during interaction there between via the
real-time communications link.
17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, further
comprising: receiving a request from an advertiser to establish an
interactive advertising link; and placing a link for an interactive
advertisement among the one or more interactive advertising
links.
18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, further
comprising: generating a record in an advertiser database, the
record including advertiser information contained in the request,
wherein the advertiser information includes one or more of a
compensation price, real-time advertiser availability, specific
type of the advertisement, languages spoken by the advertiser and
additional compensation incentives.
19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the
instruction for compensating the user further comprises
instructions of: billing the advertiser a billing amount for each
interaction with the one or more users; and transferring the
billing amount to the one or more users.
20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the
billing the advertiser further comprises instructions of: measuring
a duration of the interaction between the one or more users and the
advertiser; and calculating the billing amount for the advertiser
based on the duration of the interaction and a time-based price
paid by the advertiser.
21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the
one or more interactive advertisement links include one or more
interactive public opinion polls, such that a user selecting a
public opinion poll is compensated for providing his/her opinion
and wherein the establishing the communications link further
comprises instructions of: providing a user that selected a public
opinion poll link with an online questionnaire of the public
opinion poll; and once the user completes the questionnaire,
transmitting the questionnaire to an advertiser of the public
opinion link.
22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein each
selection from a user includes one or more of a category of
advertisers, an advertiser payment price, advertiser type and
advertisement.
23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein prior
to the instruction for receiving the one or more selections from
the one or more users, the computer readable storage medium further
comprises instructions of: receiving a request from a user for
connection to an interactive advertisement system via a
communications link; establishing a connection between the user and
the interactive advertisement system in order to provide the user
with an interaction with a chosen advertiser; and providing the
user with a list of the wide array of advertisement types available
from the interactive advertisement system.
24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the
one or more interactive advertising links include one or more
interactive seminar links and following selection of a selected
interactive seminar by the one or more users, the establishing the
communications link further comprises the instructions of:
establishing a real-time video communications link between the one
or more users and a provider of the selected interactive seminar;
providing additional incentive-based links to the one or more users
to provide additional feedback; and enabling the one or more users
to purchase one or more items advertised by the interactive
seminar.
25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein
following the establishing a real-time communications link, the
computer readable storage medium further includes instructions of:
providing additional incentive-based links to the one or more users
to provide additional feedback; and enabling the one or more users
to purchase one or more items advertised by the selected
interactive advertising link.
26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the
instruction for compensating the user further comprises
instructions of: enabling a user to purchase an advertised product
with limited availability, such that the user is compensated by
having the ability to purchase the advertised product.
27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, further
comprising the instructions of: charging the user a predetermined
amount such that the user is compensated by having the ability to
purchase the advertised product; and transferring the predetermined
amount to the advertiser.
28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, further
comprising the instructions of: using a telephone as the
communications link between the user and the advertiser of the
selected advertising link.
29. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the
method comprising providing one or more interactive advertising
links further comprises: receiving, from an advertiser interface, a
request to activate an interactive seminar included among the one
or more interactive advertising links; activating the seminar such
that one or more users can select and participate in the
interactive seminar; receiving, from the advertise interface, a
request to de-activate the interactive seminar once the seminar is
closed; and de-activating the interactive seminar, such that
additional users can no longer participate in the interactive
seminar.
30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the
establishing a communications link, further comprises: providing
the one or more users with a recorded version of the selected
advertisement; and enabling the one or more users to purchase one
or more advertised products.
31. An online incentive-based advertising system comprising: a user
interface for receiving one or more selection requests from one or
more users for an interactive advertisement from one or more
interactive advertisement links stored in an advertisement
database; a processor to receive the one or more selection requests
from the one or more users for a selected interactive advertisement
from the user interface, and establish a communications link
between the one or more users and a provider of the selected
interactive advertisement for interaction via the communications
link; and a compensation procedure to compensate the user based on
various input provided to the advertiser during interaction
therebetween via the communications link.
32. The system of claim 31, wherein the user interface: provides
the user with a list of fields of advertisements, accepts a type of
advertisements desired by the user, provides the user with a list
of interactive advertisements stored in the advertisement database
which match the type of advertisement desired by the user, and a
receive the selection from the user for a selected advertiser.
33. The system of claim 31, further comprising: an advertiser
interface for receiving a request from an advertiser to establish
an interactive advertising link, and generate a record in the
advertisement database, the record including provider information
contained in the request.
34. The system of claim 33, wherein the provider information
includes one or more of a compensation price, real-time advertiser
availability, specific type of the advertisement, languages spoken
by the advertiser and additional compensation incentives.
35. The system of claim 31, wherein the communications link further
comprises: a public switched telephone network interface to connect
the user to the advertiser of the selected advertisement.
36. The system of claim 31, wherein the communications link further
comprises: a wireless communications network interface to connect
the user to the advertiser of the selected advertisement.
37. The system of claim 31, wherein the communications link further
comprises: a video link to connect the user to the advertiser of
the selected advertisement.
38. The system of claim 31, wherein the communications link further
comprises: a voice communication link to connect the user to the
advertiser of the selected advertisement.
39. The system of claim 31, further comprising: a banner
advertisement link procedure to generate an interactive
advertisement link as a web page banner advertisement of an
advertiser web site.
40. The system of claim 31, further comprising: a banner
advertisement link procedure to generate an interactive
advertisement link as a web page banner advertisement of a search
engine web site.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The invention relates generally to providing users with
incentive based interactive advertisements. In particular, the
invention relates to a method and apparatus for recruiting,
communicating with, and paying participants of interactive
advertising.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Advertisers seek to connect with their customers in the
fullest way possible. Conventionally, this has been done by
attempting to make an advertisement, such as a television
commercial, humorous or alluring. For an even fuller experience,
advertisers will run a commercial, or "infomercial," for an entire
half hour, often featuring a celebrity to keep the customer's
attention.
[0003] No matter how alluring the content or how long the
commercial, however, such conventional advertising is severely
limited because the customers have no incentive to keep watching
except for their own fickle curiosity. In addition, the simple
viewing of an advertisement is not an interactive experience
between the advertiser and the potential customer. Many
advertisers, especially those offering complex products, require a
dialogue with their potential customers. They need to have a
conversation with their potential customers to find out their
immediate needs and answer their questions in order to sell them
products.
[0004] To solve these limitations and make advertisements more
interactive, advertisers have resorted to inviting customers to
attend live seminars in person and paying them for their time.
Often the payment will take the form of a reward, such as receiving
a gas grill for attending a seminar on time-share vacation homes.
The customers become "participants," as the advertisers ask them
their opinions and questions as they sell them products ranging
from encyclopedias to cars.
[0005] These live sales seminars achieve the full interactivity
that advertisers seek with their customers. The problem with the
seminars is all their logistics must be done by hand. Customers
must be selected and invited to the seminar. The customers must
travel to the location of the seminar. Both the customers and the
advertisers must be in the same location at the same, pre-arranged
time. The reward to attend the seminar, and the total attendance
time required, must be fixed and agreed to beforehand, so that it
is worth the trouble of travel. Payment must also be done manually,
in accordance to the agreed reward. In summary, holding such live
advertising seminars is quite difficult, and in many cases
prohibitively expensive, because there is no device for enabling
them.
[0006] Therefore, there remains a need to overcome one or more
limitations in the above described existing art which is satisfied
by the inventive structure and method described hereinafter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] The present invention overcomes the problems in the existing
art described above by providing a method and apparatus for
recruiting, communicating with, and paying participants of
interactive advertising. The present invention is a system through
which advertisers can recruit, communicate with, and pay their
potential customers for their time. The proposed system achieves
all of these functions without the advertiser or the customer
having to be in the same location--all logistics are handled
through the proposed system's web site, database, and
communications interfaces. The proposed system enables advertisers
to promote interactive seminars in which they try to sell products
to potential customers. Most importantly, the advertisers are able
to offer their potential customers financial rewards for their
time, such as 25 cents per minute to reward a customer for
listening to a sales pitch. The proposed system then provides a
real-time communications link between the advertiser and customer.
The proposed system automatically bills the advertiser and rewards
the customer for the time that they interact.
[0008] Advantages of the invention include providing users with the
capability to engage in a compensation-based interactive exchange
with a provider of a selected advertisement via a real-time
communications link. Contrary to current practice, users of the
present invention are compensated for interacting with advertisers
and engaging in seminars. Consequently, users are compensated and
advertisers receive a constant flow of customers for their
advertisement in which a user/customer can purchase the product
contained in the advertisement.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and
not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying
drawings and in which:
[0010] FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram illustrating a system in
which an interactive advertisement system in accordance with the
present invention may be implemented;
[0011] FIG. 2 is a block diagram further illustrating the
interactive advertisement system as shown in FIG. 1;
[0012] FIG. 3 depicts a web page illustrating a customer/user
interface screen in accordance with an embodiment of the present
invention;
[0013] FIG. 4 depicts a web page illustrating an advertiser
interface screen in accordance with a further embodiment of the
present invention;
[0014] FIG. 5 is a web page illustrating a banner advertisement
screen in accordance with a further embodiment of the present
invention;
[0015] FIG. 6 is a web page illustrating a customer/user system
sign up screen in accordance with a further embodiment of the
present invention;
[0016] FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a method for enabling an
advertiser to recruit, communicate with and pay participants of
interactive advertising in accordance with an embodiment of the
present invention;
[0017] FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an additional method for
adding an interactive advertising link to the interactive
advertisement system in accordance with a further embodiment of the
present invention;
[0018] FIG. 9 depicts an additional method for billing an
advertiser for interaction with a customer in accordance with a
further embodiment of the present invention;
[0019] FIG. 10 is a flow chart depicting an additional method for
compensating a user that has participated in an interactive
advertisement;
[0020] FIG. 11 depicts an additional method for providing a public
opinion poll as an interactive advertisement in accordance with a
further embodiment of the present invention;
[0021] FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating a method for
establishing a connection between the interactive advertisement
system and a user in accordance with a further embodiment of the
present invention;
[0022] FIG. 13 depicts an additional method for establishing a
communications link between a user and an advertiser of a selected
advertising link in accordance with a further embodiment of the
present invention; and
[0023] FIG. 14 depicts a flow chart illustrating an additional
method for providing additional incentives to users, as well as
enabling users to purchase products described in the interactive
advertisement in accordance with a further embodiment of the
present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0024] The present invention overcomes the problems in the existing
art described above by providing a method and apparatus for
recruiting, communicating with, and paying participants of
interactive advertising. In the following description, for the
purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in
order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention.
It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the
present invention may be practiced without some of these specific
details. In addition, the following description provides examples,
and the accompanying drawings show various examples for the
purposes of illustration. However, these examples should not be
construed in a limiting sense as they are merely intended to
provide examples of the present invention rather than to provide an
exhaustive list of all possible implementations of the present
invention. In other instances, well-known structures and devices
are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the
details of the present invention.
[0025] In an embodiment, the methods of the present invention are
embodied in machine-executable instructions. The instructions can
be used to cause a general-purpose or special-purpose processor
that is programmed with the instructions to perform the steps of
the present invention. Alternatively, the steps of the present
invention might be performed by specific hardware components that
contain hardwired logic for performing the steps, or by any
combination of programmed computer components and custom hardware
components.
[0026] The present invention may be provided as a computer program
product which may include a machine-readable medium having stored
thereon instructions which may be used to program a computer (or
other electronic devices) to perform a process according to the
present invention. The machine-readable medium may include, but is
not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and
magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or
optical cards, flash memory, or other type of
media/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic
instructions. Moreover, the present invention may also be
downloaded as a computer program product, wherein the program may
be transferred from a remote computer (e.g., a server) to a
requesting computer (e.g., a client) by way of data signals
embodied in a carrier wave or other propagation medium via a
communication link (e.g., a modem or network connection).
System Architecture
[0027] FIG. 1 depicts one embodiment of an interactive
advertisement system architecture 100 in which the systems and
methods of the present invention may be incorporated. The system
100 includes one or more customer/user computers 120 (120-1, . . .
, 120-N) connected through a network 400 (such as an Intranet, an
Extranet, a LAN or a WAN such as the Internet) to a host computer
or web server ( "advertisement server computer"). One or more
service provider computers 204 (204-1, . . . , 204-N) are also
connected, through the network 400, to the advertisement server
computer 300. Persons skilled in the art will recognize that the
advertisement server computer 300 may include one or more computers
working together to provide the advertisement computer functions
described herein. The system 100 further includes one or more
advertisers 200 (200-A, . . . , 200-N) each having a communications
device 202 (202-1, . . . , 202-N) that is connected to a
communications network 110. One or more users 102 (102-1, . . . ,
102-N) each also have a communications device 104 (104A, . . . ,
104N) that is connected to the communications network 110. In
accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a user 102
can make a selection for an interactive advertisement link, which
is received by the advertisement server computer 300. As described
in further detail below, the advertisement server computer 300 can
then connect the user 102 to an advertiser 200 of the selected
advertisement link for a live conversation.
[0028] The communications network 110 generally refers to any type
of wire or wireless link enabling the transmission of voice data
such as, but not limited to, a public switched telephone network, a
wireless communications network, a local area network, a wide area
network or a combination of networks. The communications devices
104 and 202 generally refer to any type of device (standard
telephones, cellular telephones, satellite telephones or the like)
capable of receiving speech from a user and providing the speech to
a destination via a communications network, such as the
communications network 110. In an embodiment of the present
invention, the communications network 110 is a public switched
telephone network and the voice transmission medium is a
telephone.
[0029] FIG. 2 further illustrates the interactive advertisement
system 100, including the advertisement server computer 300, as
well as the user computer 120 and the service provider computer
204. The advertisement server computer 300 includes a central
processing unit (CPU) 302, a user interface 304, a network
interface 306, a communications interface 308, a service provider
database 310 and a memory 312. The advertisement server computer
300 can be any type of computing device, such as, but not limited
to, desktop computers, work stations, lap tops and/or mainframe
computers. The communications interface 308 as well as the network
interface 306, are used to connect users 102 and advertisers 200,
depending on the type of interactive advertisement selected by the
user 102. The communications interface 308 connects user
communication devices 104 with advertiser communication devices 202
for real-time communication over the communications network 110.
The network interface 306 connects user computers 120 and
advertiser computers 204 to provide voice over-IP (Internet
Protocol) or video over-IP over network 400. The memory 312 of the
advertisement server computer 300 may be implemented as RAM (random
access memory) or a combination of RAM and nonvolatile memory, such
as one or more magnetic disk storage units. The memory can contain
any of the following:
[0030] an operating system 314;
[0031] Internet access procedures 316;
[0032] web server procedures 318;
[0033] banner advertisement (AD) creation procedures 320 for
generating an interactive advertisement link as a banner AD of an
advertiser web site, search engine site or the like;
[0034] communication interface procedures 322 for connecting a user
102 with an advertiser 200 of a selected advertisement via the user
communication device 104 and the advertiser communication device
200 over the communications network 110 for a live
conversation;
[0035] AD selection procedures 324 for providing the user 102 with
a list of fields of advertisement types provided by the interactive
advertisement system 100, as well as lists of advertisements
matching a type of advertisement selected by the user 102;
[0036] database (DB) access procedures 326 for querying the
database 310 in order to return records of advertisements matching
a type of advertisement selected by the user 102;
[0037] payment procedures 328 for compensating the user 102
following interaction with an advertiser 200, as well as billing
the advertiser 200 for the interaction and collecting a premium fee
for the interactive advertisement system 100;
[0038] AD inclusion procedures 330 for providing an on-line
interface to advertisers 200 requesting inclusion in the
advertisement database 310 in order to acquire perspective
customers/users 102 for potential interaction via the interactive
advertisement system 100;
[0039] advertiser interface procedures 332 for providing both an
on-line interface, as well allowing advertisers 200 to update
information in the service provider database 310, including times
of availability;
[0040] seminar AD procedures 334 for providing a real-time
communications link between a user computer 120 and an advertiser
computer 204 for a live conversation between the user 102 and the
advertiser 200 using the network interface procedures 338;
[0041] user interface procedures 336 for providing the user 102
with a listing of types of advertisements available from the
interactive advertisement system 100, as well as receiving various
descriptors for narrowing the search of advertisers, including
acceptable payment ranges, specific languages and the like;
[0042] network interface procedures 338 for connecting user
computers 120 with advertiser computers 204 via a real-time
communications link providing, for example, voice over-IP, video
over-IP, or the like, for a live conversation between the user 102
and the advertiser 200;
[0043] opinion poll AD procedures 340 for providing public opinion
poll advertisements at the advertisement system 100 web site or as
banner advertisement of various web sites and compensating the user
102 for filling-out an opinion poll questionnaire, which is then
transmitted to the advertiser 200 of the opinion poll; and
[0044] other procedures and files.
[0045] FIG. 2 also illustrates the user computer 120, which
includes a CPU 122, a user interface 124, a memory 128 and a
communications interface 126. The communications interface 126 is
used to communicate with the advertisement server computer 300, as
well as other system resources not shown. The memory 128 of the
user computer 120 may be implemented as RAM (random access memory)
or a combination of RAM and non-volatile memory, such as one or
more magnetic disk storage units. The memory 128 can contain the
following:
[0046] an operating system 130;
[0047] internet access procedures 132;
[0048] voice/video communication procedures 134 for enabling voice
over-IP, video over-IP, or like communication between the user 102
and the advertiser 200; and
[0049] other procedures and files.
[0050] FIG. 2 also illustrates the advertiser computer 202, which
includes a CPU 204, a user interface 206, a memory 210 and a
communications interface 208. The communications interface 208 is
used to communicate with the voice portal server computer 300, as
well as other system resources not shown. The memory 210 of the
service provider computer 202 may be implemented as RAM (random
access memory) or a combination of RAM and non-volatile memory,
such as one or more magnetic disk storage units. The memory 210 can
contain the following:
[0051] an operating system 212;
[0052] internet access procedures 214;
[0053] voice/video communication procedures 216 for enabling voice
over-IP, video over-IP, or like communication between the user 102
and the advertiser 200; and
[0054] other procedures and files.
[0055] The embodiment depicted in FIG. 2 includes an advertisement
database 310 containing information about a wide array of
advertisements and their advertisers 200. In order to recruit,
communicate with, and pay their potential customers for their time,
advertisers 200 list themselves, as well as their advertisement, in
this database 310. In one embodiment, this is done through the use
of an Internet web site, via an advertiser interface screen 550, as
depicted in FIG. 4. The advertiser 200 registers his/her name,
phone number, e-mail address and network address using the
advertiser interface screen 550, along with a description of the
advertisement that he/she offers. Possible examples of the wide
array of fields of advertisement types available from the
interactive advertisement system 100 include, but are not limited
to, the advertisement product types depicted in FIG. 3, such as
seminars, opinion polls and the like. The description includes key
words describing the field of service. The description also
includes a price paid to the user 102 for feedback provider to the
advertiser, most commonly, but not restricted to a per-minute
price.
[0056] Referring now to FIG. 3, the current invention provides a
system through which an advertiser can execute all of the functions
of a paid interactive sales seminar with their customers. The
system enables the advertiser to hold this paid interactive seminar
remotely, via the Internet, without having to bring people together
in person. For example, a customer 102 can go to a web site
customer interface screen 500 and view the titles of a wide array
of interactive seminars that are taking place at any given time.
The advertiser can use a control interface (not shown) to turn a
seminar "on" or "off". When the seminar is turned "on", the
customer's view shows a "Join Seminar" button 502. When a seminar
is turned "off", it disappears from the customer's view, or it
displays the future time when the seminar will take place 504.
[0057] The advertiser 200 can control the reward that is offered to
the customer 102 to take part in the seminar. The reward could be
per-minute, such as $0.50 per minute, such that if the customer
took part for ten minutes, the customer would be paid $5.00. The
reward could also be a flat amount, such as $10.00 or various other
forms of payment. It could also be contingent on information that
the customer 102 would provide during the seminar.
[0058] As depicted in FIG. 3, the customer 102 can view all of the
interactive seminars that are currently turned "on" and can view a
description of each one as well as the reward offered. For
instance, a customer 102 could compare the description of a seminar
506 that is advertising exercise machines for a 25-cents-per-minute
reward 508 versus one that is advertising vacation homes 510 for a
30-cents-per-minute reward 512. In each case, the customer could
read about the products that will be advertised. Once the customer
102 decides which seminar to take part in, the customer 102 presses
the "Join Seminar" button 502 which initiates a real-time
communications link between the advertiser and the customer.
[0059] In one embodiment, this communications link will be in the
form of a telephone call. The system 100 will call the customer 102
via the telephone 104 using communication interface 308 and the
communication interface procedures 322. Upon the customer 102
accepting the call, the system 100 will place a separate telephone
call to the advertiser 300. Upon the advertiser 200 accepting the
call, the system 100 will conference together the two telephone
calls, thereby connecting the advertiser 200 and customer via a
real-time voice communications link 110. In this embodiment, since
the system 100 initiates both telephone calls, the anonymity of
both parties is preserved--neither party has knowledge of the
other's telephone number. This embodiment also enables the system
100 to keep track of the time that the advertiser 200 and customer
102 spend communicating.
[0060] In one embodiment, the time the advertiser 200 spends
communicating with the customer becomes the basis for rewarding the
customer in accordance with the payment procedures 328. For
instance, if the seminar has a 25-cents-per-minute reward, and the
advertiser 200 and customer 102 speak on the telephone for 10
minutes, the system will automatically bill the advertiser $2.50
and credit the customer $2.50. The system can also collect a
commission for maintaining the service, such as a 10%
commission.
[0061] Alternatively, the communications link could be in the form
of voiceover-IP, using the network interface 306 and network
interface procedures 338. As such, the advertiser 200 and customer
102 can speak directly through their computers, 102 and 204 or
handheld "personal digital assistants" , over the Internet 400. The
communications link could be in the form of a toll-free 1-800 phone
call. For example, the customer would choose a seminar that is in
session, then dial 1-800-SEMINAR and enter the seminar's specific
extension, such as #4586, to connect to the desired seminar. The
communications link could be in the form of a video connection,
video-over-IP or otherwise, such that the advertiser 200 and
customer 102 could see a real-time video conferencing image of the
other party. Alternatively, the communications link could enable
the customer to listen or view recorded information that the
advertiser has prepared. Many customers could access this recorded
information at the same time. The customer who listens to recorded
information could upgrade the connection to a live presentation if
the information is of interest. Using voice or video over-IP, a
sales seminar could be a one-on-one communication between the
advertiser 200 and the customer 102 or a one-to-many communication
between the advertiser 200 and many customers 102.
[0062] For instance, an advertiser could present the benefits of
buying a vacation home to 100 people who have clicked on "Join
Seminar" and are in a realtime communication for 10 cents per
minute with the advertiser 200. Additionally, the sales seminar
could be limited to a certain number of customers. For instance,
when the maximum number of 10 customers are in contact with the
advertiser, the seminar is turned "off" to further customers and
the "Join Seminar" button no longer appears. Finally, extra rewards
could be offered for input from the customers. For instance, if a
customer tells a story about what his ideal vacation home would be
like, he or she might receive an additional dollar or an increased
per-minute reward.
[0063] In a further embodiment, the advertiser 200 can choose to
uninvite a customer 102 from a seminar in progress. For instance,
if the advertiser feels that one of the customers is not interested
or is collecting money without offering satisfactory input, the
advertiser could use the system's control interface to select a
customer and remove him or her from the seminar, thereby halting
the monetary reward to that customer. Likewise, the customer can
move from one seminar to the next. The customer could "shop" one
advertiser after the other, hearing a variety of advertising
messages and collecting many different rewards for doing so.
[0064] In a further embodiment, the customer 102 could not only use
the system to hear the sales seminar, but he or she could also buy
the product through the system 100. For instance, after listening
to the advertiser 200 describe a set of encyclopedias via the
telephone 104 for 25 cents per minute, the customer 102 could press
"9" on the telephone's touch-tone keypad, which would trigger a
purchase. The price of the encyclopedias would be automatically
deducted from the customer's balance, and the encyclopedias would
be sent to the customer 102. In such a case, the price the customer
102 paid could be deducted from the rewards the customer 102 had
earned thus far from taking part in the seminar. As the customer
accrues rewards by attending seminars, and, when the customer has
accrued a significant amount, such as $25, the system 100 would
issue his or her check in the mail. Otherwise, the customer accrues
rewards by attending seminars, and the rewards are automatically
transferred in the form of digital cash from the advertiser to the
customer as the seminar is in progress.
[0065] Referring now to FIG. 5, an embodiment is depicted wherein
the customer 100 does not come to a central online marketplace to
view the possible seminars that can be attended. Instead the
advertiser 208 sends targeted invitations to customers 102. For
example, at a newspaper web site, the customer 102 is shown a
banner advertisement 600 that offers 40 cents per minute to listen
to a seminar about auto stereo systems. The customer clicks on the
advertisement 602, which triggers the real-time communications
connection between the advertiser 200 and customer 102 through, for
example, the telephone 202 and 104. During the call, 40 cents per
minute is automatically transferred from the advertiser 200 to the
customer 102 as the seminar takes place. Alternatively, the reward
to take part in the seminar would not be paid by the advertiser 200
to the customer 102, but rather by the customer 102 to the
advertiser 200. For example, if the goods being advertised were in
extremely high demand, the advertiser 200 could charge customers
102 a per-minute fee to take part in the sales seminar. Procedural
methods for implementing the teachings of the present invention are
now described.
Operation
[0066] Referring now to FIG. 7, a method 700 is depicted for
enabling an advertiser 200 of an interactive advertisement link to
recruit, communicate with and pay a participant 102 of an
interactive advertisement, for example, in the interactive
advertisement system 100, as depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2. At step
710, the system 100 provides one or more online interactive
advertising links as depicted in FIG. 4. At step 730, the system
100 receives a selection from a user 102 for a selected
advertisement link listed among the one or more interactive
advertising links. At step 740, the system 100 establishes a
communication link between the user 102 and an advertiser 200 of
the selected advertising link.
[0067] As described above, the communications link between the user
102 and the advertiser includes live interaction via the user
communication device 104 and the advertiser communication device
202 or via the user computer 120 and the advertiser computer 204.
The user communication device 104, as well as the advertiser
communication device 202, include but are not limited to land-line
telephones, wireless cellular telephones, satellite telephones or
the like, which communicate over the communications network 110.
Communication via the user computer 120 and the advertiser computer
202 include real-time communication, including but not limited to
voice over-IP or video over-IP, or the like. However, those skilled
in the art will appreciate that other means of communication, such
as non-real-time communication, required for filling out public
opinion polls, or for providing recorded advertisements, are
included within the scope of the invention. At step 760, the system
100 compensates the user 102 based on various input provided to the
advertiser 200 during interaction therebetween. The compensation
may come in the form of a time-based fee paid to the user 102 or a
flat fee paid by the advertiser 200.
[0068] FIG. 8 depicts an additional method for placing an
interactive advertisement link on a customer interface screen 500
of the interactive advertisement system 100, as depicted in FIG. 3.
At step 702, the system 100 receives a request from an advertiser
to establish an interactive advertisement link via the advertiser
interface screen 550, as depicted at FIG. 4. At step 704, the
system 100 places a link for an interactive advertisement among the
one or more interactive advertisement links.
[0069] FIG. 9 depicts an additional method for performing the user
compensation step 760, as depicted in FIG. 7. At step 762, the
system 100 bills the advertiser 200 a billing amount for the
interaction with the user. At step 770, the system 100 transfers
the billing amount to the user 102. As described above, the billing
amount includes but is not limited to a time-based fee or a flat
fee. However, first time users of the interactive advertisement
system 100 fill out a customer registration screen 650 prior to
participations as depicted in FIG. 6. Alternatively, an advertiser
may provide a product with very limited public availability, for
example, limited edition products or hard to find items, due to
great consumer demand. As such, the user could be charged by the
advertiser for the ability to purchase the highly desired
product.
[0070] Referring now to FIG. 10, FIG. 10 depicts an additional
method for performing the advertiser billing step 762, as depicted
in FIG. 9. At step 764, the system 100 measures a duration of the
interaction between the user 102 and the advertiser 200. At step
766, the system 100 calculates the billing amount based on the
payment procedures 328. For example, the billing amount may be
based on the duration of the interaction between the user 102 and
the advertiser 200 and a time-based price paid by the
advertiser.
[0071] Referring now to FIG. 11, FIG. 11 depicts an additional
method required for selection of an interactive opinion poll
advertisement link. At step 742, the system 100 provides a user 102
that selected an opinion poll link with an online questionnaire.
Once the user has completed the questionnaire at step 744, the
system 110 transmits the completed questionnaire to an advertiser
200 of the opinion poll at step 746 using the opinion AD procedures
340. Although these method steps describe the interactive opinion
poll as requiring the filling out of a questionnaire by the user
102, those skilled in the art will appreciate that a real-time
communications link may be established between the user 102 and an
advertiser 200 of the public opinion poll to provide live
interaction, either via the communications devices 202 and 104 or
over the computers 120 and 204 in order to provide a real-time
interaction between the user 102 and the advertiser 200.
[0072] FIG. 12 depicts a method for establishing a connection
between a user 102 and the interactive advertisement system 100. At
step 720, the system 100 receives a request from a user 102 for
connection to the interactive advertisement system 100 via a
communications link. The communications link will generally be over
the network 400 connected to the user computer 120. However, those
skilled in the art will appreciate that the user may establish a
connection with the interactive advertisement system 100 via the
user communication device 104. Consequently, the advertisement
system could process voice commands via the communications
interface 308 in order to connect the user 102 with an advertiser
of a selected advertisement link. This connection enables a live
interaction via the communications network 110 and compensates the
user 102 for participation in the interactive advertisement. At
step 722, the system 100 establishes a connection between the user
102 and the advertisement system 100. Finally, at step 724, the
system 100 provides the user with a wide array of advertisement
types available from the advertisement system. The various
advertisement types available from the advertisement system
include, but are not limited to, product advertisements, opinion
polls, product seminars and the like as depicted in FIG. 3.
[0073] Referring now to FIG. 13, FIG. 13 depicts an additional
method for establishing the real-time communications connection of
step 740, as depicted in FIG. 7. At step 750, a real-time video
communications link between one or more users 102 and an advertiser
200 of a selected interactive seminar is established by the system
100. As such, the system 100 enables the advertiser to hold a paid
interactive seminar remotely via the Internet without having to
bring people together in person. At step 752, the system 100
provides additional incentive-based links to the one or more users
to provide additional feedback. Such additional incentives include,
for example, providing credit descriptions or additional personal
information which users might be reluctant to initially divulge.
Finally, at step 754, the system 110 enables the user to purchase
one or more products advertised by the interactive seminar.
[0074] Finally, FIG. 14 depicts a method for providing additional
incentives and product purchase options to the user 102 such as
described with reference to the flow chart illustrated in FIG. 13.
As such, at step 780, the system provides additional
incentive-based links to the user to provide additional feedback.
At step 782, the system 100 enables the user to purchase one or
more products advertised by the interactive advertisement. As such,
additional incentives can be provided in regular product
advertisements and the user is enabled to purchase products in each
type of advertisement.
Application of the Invention
[0075] Cindy is a marketer for a company that sells vacation homes.
She does most of her business selling not entire vacation homes,
but rather selling time-shares. In other words, her clients buy the
right to stay in a vacation home for certain periods of time during
the year. Other clients buy the right to stay in the same vacation
home for different periods of time during the year. Because she has
a variety of vacation homes to offer and each one can possibly be
time-shared among many different clients, Cindy needs to have a
thorough dialogue with her customers. She needs to thoroughly
understand their desires: in what location they would like to have
a vacation home, what kind of house should it be, would they be
willing to share it with other customers in a time-share
arrangement, and during which time periods of the year would they
want to do so.
[0076] Because Cindy needs to have a thorough interactive dialogue
with her potential customers, she uses the proposed system to
interact with her customers and reward them for hearing her sales
pitch. At the online marketplace of the proposed system, Cindy has
created a seminar title: "Looking to buy a vacation home? Discuss
the possibilities here!" She has also specified a fee of 25 cents
per minute that rewards potential customers for listening to her
sales pitch. She is also offering an additional $2 reward for
potential customers who are willing to reveal their credit history
during the session. In order to pay these rewards, Cindy enters her
credit card number at the web site of the proposed system so she
can be charged for the time that potential clients speak with her.
Because Cindy needs to speak in depth with each potential customer,
she limits this seminar to one potential customer at a time.
[0077] Whenever Cindy is ready to interact with potential
customers, she uses the control interface of the proposed system to
turn her seminar "on." At the online marketplace of the proposed
system, this makes a "Join Seminar" button appear next to her
seminar title, welcoming potential customers to talk to her.
[0078] Roger is a frequent traveler who enjoys vacation trips.
Having gone on several trips and travel cruises, he receives an
enormous amount of promotional material in the mail and many
unsolicited telemarketing phone calls. Roger, however, is not
willing to spend his free time listening to the sales pitches of
travel companies. Instead, he believes that advertisers should pay
him for his time when they pitch him their offers. He therefore
does much of his shopping at the web site of the proposed system.
There, he can examine a large array of offers that advertisers are
willing to pay him to see. There are paid seminars on exercise
equipment, paid seminars on cookware, even paid seminars that
require a special invitation to take part in.
[0079] Since he is interested in vacationing, Roger goes to the
area of the web site that deals with vacations. There, he sees the
titles of many seminars that he can join at the present time. Next
to each title, he can see the per-minute reward that he would
receive if he takes part in the seminar. He sees a seminar that
interests him: "Looking to buy a vacation home? Discuss the
possibilities here!" He reads a brief text description of the
vacation homes that will be discussed in the seminar. Next to the
description is the per-minute reward: the advertiser (Cindy) is
offering him a reward of 25 cents per minute to take part in the
seminar.
[0080] Since he would like to take part in the seminar, Roger
presses the "Join Seminar" button. The web site then asks him for
his telephone number so that he can join the seminar. After he
enters it, the proposed system calls him on the telephone. The
proposed system then calls the advertiser of this seminar, Cindy,
on the telephone. The two parties are then conferenced together.
They are informed that Roger will receive 20 cents per minute from
Cindy for the duration of this call.
[0081] Roger and Cindy speak in depth about vacation homes. Cindy
asks him all about his vacationing needs, and Roger explains his
likes and dislikes, as well as his price range. With this
information in mind, Cindy describes a time-share arrangement in
which Roger could pay a relatively small amount to enjoy a vacation
home for one week in Florida. This sounds like a good option to
Roger.
[0082] Cindy feels that she is close to a sale with Roger, but
would feel better if she would know his credit history. She
therefore tells him that she is offering a $2 reward if he reveals
his credit history to her. Roger does so, providing the necessary
information, and Cindy presses the number "5" on her telephone
keypad, which instructs the proposed system to transfer an
additional $2 reward from her account into Roger's.
[0083] Cindy is satisfied with her customer Roger, and Roger would
like to purchase the one-week time-share that she had recommended.
He therefore presses the number "9" on his telephone keypad, which
instructs the proposed system that he would like to initiate a
purchase. As a supplemental feature, the proposed system then uses
a series of telephony prompts to lead Roger through the steps of a
purchase. Cindy and Roger then hang up their telephones. They
talked for a total of twenty minutes.
[0084] The proposed system then automatically does the accounting
for what occurred. Since Cindy and Roger talked for twenty minutes,
Roger earned a reward of 20 minutes multiplied times 25 cents per
minute, which equals $5. The proposed system transfers $5 from
Cindy's account to Roger's, minus a 10% fee that is collected by
the system. The proposed system also transfers the extra $2 from
Cindy's account to Roger's to compensate him for revealing his
credit history. As a supplemental feature, the proposed system also
transfers the price of Roger's purchase from his account into
Cindy's.
[0085] After this interaction, Roger continues to "shop" different
seminars and earn money for doing so. Some of them are one-to-one
seminars, such as Cindy's. Others are one-to-many, where Roger is
one of many customers listening to a sales pitch. Some seminars are
for invitees only. After Roger attends many seminars, he accrues
$40 in his account at the proposed system. At the end of the month,
the proposed system sends him a check in the mail.
Alternate Embodiments
[0086] The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used
specific nomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the
invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art
that the specific details are not required in order to practice the
invention. In other instances, well known components and devices
are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessary
distraction from the underlying invention. Thus, the foregoing
descriptions of specific embodiments of the present invention are
presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are
not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the
precise forms disclosed, obviously many modifications and
variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The
embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the
principles of the invention and its practical applications, to
thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the
invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are
suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the
scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their
equivalents.
[0087] Further, the method and system described hereinabove is
amenable for execution on various types of executable mediums other
than a memory device such as a random access memory. Other types of
executable mediums can be used, such as but not limited to, a
computer readable storage medium which can be any memory device,
compact disc, or floppy disk.
[0088] Although the present invention has been described with
reference to an incentive-based interactive advertisement system,
it is not limited to providing advertisements over the Internet.
The present invention can be used for other electronic commerce
purposes, other commodities, other types of provider, and other
types of services not explicitly listed. In addition, voice and
video transmission mediums within the contemplation of the present
invention include systems for wireless communications or any
network capable of transmitting voice data, voice and
video-over-IP, or the like. Moreover, performance, by a human
operator, of the interactive voice recognition procedures of the
present invention is within the contemplation of the present
invention.
[0089] Advantages of the invention include providing users with the
capability to engage in a compensation-based interactive exchange
with a provider of a selected advertisement via a real-time
communications link. Contrary to current practice, users of the
current system are compensated for interacting with advertisers and
engaging in seminars. Consequently, users are compensated and
advertisers receive a constant flow of customers for their
advertisement in which a user/customer can purchase the product
contained in the advertisement.
[0090] Having disclosed exemplary embodiments and the best mode,
modifications and variations may be made to the disclosed
embodiments while remaining within the scope of the invention as
defined by the following claims.
* * * * *