Zone signal targeting and analytics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10536740-B2
Application number	US-201414280029-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 16, 2014
Priority date	May 16, 2014
Publication date	Jan 14, 2020
Grant date	Jan 14, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods for targeting advertisements to particular zones within a content distribution region are disclosed. One or more zone signals may be generated and distributed by combining media content with a respective advertisement corresponding to each of the zones within the distribution region. In some example cases, the media content may be received from a broadcaster. The systems and methods may further include the capability to determine zone based and/or advertisement based viewing metrics for one or more of the zones within the content distribution region by polling client devices within the one or more zones.

First claim

The claimed invention is:

1. A method, comprising:
identifying, by one or more servers comprising one or more processor(s), a content distribution region and a plurality of zones within the content distribution region, including a first zone and a second zone;
identifying, by the one or more servers, a media content comprising at least one pre-embedded advertisement;
receiving, by the one or more servers, a first advertisement and a second advertisement from a datastore;
determining, by the one or more servers, that the first advertisement is associated with the first zone and the second advertisement is associated with the second zone;
determining, by the one or more servers, that the at least one pre-embedded advertisement is targeted for distribution in a third zone within the content distribution region, wherein the third zone is associated with a third geographic region that at least partially overlaps a first geographic region associated with the first zone and wherein the first geographic region at least partially overlaps a second geographic region associated with the second zone;
directing, by the one or more servers and based at least in part on determining that the first advertisement is associated with the first zone and the second advertisement is associated with the second zone, generation of a first zone signal by combining the first advertisement with the media content and a second zone signal by combining the second advertisement with the media content, the combining the first advertisement with the media content comprising replacing the at least one pre-embedded advertisement targeted for distribution in the third zone with the first advertisement, wherein directing the generation of the first zone signal comprises:
identifying, by the one or more servers, one or more temporal bookmarks corresponding to an advertisement avail within an ad map, where the temporal bookmarks provide a placement of the pre-embedded advertisement within the media content;
identifying one or more viewer characteristics associated with the first zone;
identifying one or more viewer characteristics associated with the third zone;
determining a difference between the one or more viewer characteristics associated with the first zone and the one or more viewer characteristics associated with the third zone;
embedding, by the one or more servers, the first advertisement independent of the second advertisement at the advertisement avail in the media content for distribution to the first zone signal, the embedding comprising replacing the pre-embedded advertisement with the first advertisement based at least in part on the difference;
generating the first zone signal based at least in part on replacing the pre-embedded advertisement with the first advertisement; and
embedding, by the one or more servers, the second advertisement independent of the first advertisement at the advertisement avail in the media content for distribution to the second zone signal; and

directing, by the one or more servers, distribution of the first zone signal to the first zone and the second zone signal to the second zone.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the plurality of zones within the content distribution region is based at least in part on respective information about a political affiliation of consumers of the media content within at least the first zone and the second zone of the plurality of zones.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the media content comprises receiving, by the one or more servers, the media content from a broadcaster.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein receiving the media content from the broadcaster comprises receiving, via one or more antennas, a wireless broadcast signal that is broadcast by the broadcaster.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first advertisement is affiliated with a first political party and the second advertisement is affiliated with a second political party.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein determining that the first advertisement is associated with the first zone comprises determining that the first political party is to be promoted to consumers of the media content within the first zone based at least in part on information about a political affiliation of consumers of the media content within the first zone.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein determining that the first political party is to be promoted to consumers of the media content within the first zone is further based at least in part on information about a target political affiliation of consumers of the media content received from an ad buyer.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
requesting, by the one or more servers, content rendering information from one or more client devices associated with the first zone;
receiving, by the one or more servers and responsive to the request for content rendering information from the one or more client devices associated with the first zone, content rendering information from the one or more client devices associated with the first zone;
determining, by the one or more servers and based at least in part on the received content rendering information, a first distribution zone advertisement viewing metric; and
transmitting, by the one or more servers, the first distribution zone advertisement viewing metric.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
requesting, by the one or more servers, content rendering information from one or more client devices associated with the second zone;
receiving, by the one or more servers and responsive to the request for content rendering information from the one or more client devices associated with the second zone, content rendering information from the one or more client devices associated with the second zone;
determining, by the one or more servers and based at least in part on the received content rendering information, a second distribution zone advertisement viewing metric; and
transmitting, by the one or more servers, the second distribution zone advertisement viewing metric.

10. A system, comprising:
at least one memory for storing computer-executable instructions; and
at least one processor in communication with the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions perform a method comprising:
identifying, by one or more servers comprising one or more processor(s), a content distribution region and a plurality of zones within the content distribution region, including a first zone and a second zone;
identifying a media content in a broadcast signal comprising at least one pre-embedded advertisement;
receiving a first advertisement and a second advertisement from a datastore;
determining that the first advertisement is associated with the first zone and the second advertisement is associated with the second zone;
determining that the at least one pre-embedded advertisement is targeted for distribution in a third zone within the content distribution region, wherein the third zone is associated with a third geographic region that at least partially overlaps a first geographic region associated with the first zone and wherein the first geographic region at least partially overlaps a second geographic region associated with the second zone;
directing, based at least in part on determining that the first advertisement is associated with the first zone and the second advertisement is associated with the second zone, generation of a first zone signal by combining the first advertisement with the media content and a second zone signal by combining the second advertisement with the media content, the combining the first advertisement wi

Assignees

• Cox Communications Inc

Inventors

• Zeigler Michael R
• Davis Brian
• Mccollum Monty Alan
• Buie Dorothy N
• Farina William F

Classifications

• H04N21/25841

  involving the geographical location of the client (retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00) · CPC title

• H04N21/258

  Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics, processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data {(arrangements for services using the result on the distributing side of broadcast systems H04H60/66; profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/30)} · CPC title

• H04N21/812

  involving advertisement data (advertising per se G06Q30/02) · CPC title

• H04N21/23418

  involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics (television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59) · CPC title

• H04H60/46

  for recognising users' preferences · CPC title