Method and system for automatic optimal advertising determination within a virtual universe

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10699282-B2
Application number	US-18626608-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 5, 2008
Priority date	Aug 5, 2008
Publication date	Jun 30, 2020
Grant date	Jun 30, 2020

Abstract

A method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code includes receiving advertising criteria, collecting advertisement cost data, and detecting virtual universe (VU) data. Additionally, the method includes determining optimal advertisement parameters based on the advertising criteria, the advertisement cost data and the VU data, and at least one of displaying the optimal advertisement parameters and invoking an advertisement in the VU in accordance with the optimal advertisement parameters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code for displaying advertisements at particular locations and at particular times in a virtual universe (VU) comprising:
receiving advertising criteria;
collecting advertisement cost data by gathering information from the virtual universe (VU), wherein the VU comprises a computer-based simulated environment configured to permit users to traverse and interact using avatars;
detecting VU data, wherein the VU data includes historical and real-time VU data;
scanning the historical and real-time VU data to determine available advertising locations, advertising times and advertising types and to identify VU spaces that may currently be unavailable or undesirable for advertising purposes;
determining optimal advertisement parameters based on the advertising criteria, the advertisement cost data and the VU data;
analyzing the optimal advertisement parameters with an advertisement analysis tool to recommend automatically launching an advertisement in a particular location and at a particular time in the VU, in accordance with the optimal advertisement parameters;
displaying the optimal advertisement parameters on a display device to initiate launching the advertisement in the particular location and at the particular time in the VU by the user in accordance with the optimal advertisement parameters when the advertisement analysis tool does not recommend automatically launching the advertisement in the VU; and
performing a sensitivity analysis by running “what if” scenarios, wherein advertising parameters are varied via a criteria collection tool, and optimal advertisement methods, times and locations for optimal VU spaces for advertising are determined with the varied advertising parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the advertising criteria comprises:
an entity identifier;
an advertising objective; and
at least one of:
one or more advertisement types;
a minimum spending limit;
a maximum spending limit;
one or more product/service descriptors; and
one or more advertisement restrictions.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the advertising objective is one of:
most impact;
lowest cost; and
impact/cost balance; and
quantified on a numeric scale.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing a sensitivity analysis.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the collecting the advertisement cost data comprises:
determining a cost for each combination of the available advertising locations, the advertising times and the advertising types; and
creating a list of the combinations of the available advertisement locations, the advertisement times and the advertisement types with associated determined costs.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the determining the cost for each combination of the available advertising locations, the advertising times and the advertising types comprises at least one of:
determining an amount charged for the combination of the advertising location, the advertising time and the advertising type; and
determining an amount of central processing unit (CPU) power consumed by the combination of the advertising location, the advertising time and the advertising type.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the determining the cost for each combination of the available advertising locations, the advertising times and the advertising types comprises using at least one of:
a web crawler;
a script;
instant messaging;
accessing a database; and
electronic mail.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the VU data comprises at least one of:
historical VU data, which includes at least one of:
population statistics for a region of the VU;
demographic customer profile data;
previous advertisement placements;
previous advertisement successes; and
customer interests; and

real-time VU data, which includes at least one of:
scheduled VU events;
currently occurring VU events;
an amount of customers in the region of the VU;
profiles of customers in the region of the VU; and
an amount of customers in the region of the VU currently viewing a VU advertisement space.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optimal advertisement parameters comprise a combination of at least two of:
an advertising location;
an advertising time; and
an advertising type.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the optimal advertisement parameters comprises:
determining available advertisement spaces capable of supporting advertising types in the VU that match the advertising criteria;
eliminating from consideration advertisement spaces subject to one or more advertising restrictions;
gathering the advertisement cost data for each remaining advertising space;
eliminating from consideration the advertisement spaces whose cost is not within spending limits; and
for each remaining advertisement space, determining an advertisement impact factor.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the determining the advertisement impact factor comprises determining at least one of:
an advertisement location factor;
an advertisement time factor; and
an advertisement type factor.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining the advertisement impact factor further comprises determining a product of at least two of:
the advertisement location factor;
the advertisement time factor; and
the advertisement type factor.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining the advertisement location factor comprises accounting for at least one of:
historical population data for a VU area;
historical data quantifying a number of views of advertising space;
real-time population data for the VU area;
real-time data quantifying a number of current views of the advertising space;
a matching between product/service descriptors and historic VU population interests; and
a matching between product/service descriptors and current VU population interests.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining the advertisement time factor comprises accounting for at least one of:
a time of day in the VU;
one or more high activity times in the VU; and
a matching between the one or more advertising restrictions and the time of day in the VU.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the advertisement type factor is based on an advertisement type, and wherein the advertisement type comprises one of:
a billboard advertisement;
a two-dimensional advertisement;
a “click on” advertisement;
a three-dimensional advertisement;
a product placement advertisement;
an animated advertisement;
an immersive advertisement; and
combinations thereof.

16. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
creating a cost ranking, wherein each remaining advertising space is ranked by cost;
creating an impact ranking, wherein each remaining advertising space is ranked by the advertisement impact factor; and
creating a cost/impact ranking, wherein each remaining advertising space is ranked by a quotient of the advertisement impact factor divided by the cost.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the at least one of displaying the optimal advertisement parameters and invoking the advertisement in accordance with the optimal advertisement parameters further comprises utilizing one of the cost ranking, the impact ranking and the cost/impact ranking in accordance with the advertising criteria.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein:
if the advertising criteria indicates an advertising objective as lowest cost, then utilizi

Assignees

• Hamilton Ii Rick A
• Oconnell Brian M
• Pickover Clifford A
• Sand Anne R
• Walker Keith R
• IBM

Inventors

• Hamilton Ii Rick A
• O'Connell Brian M
• Pickover Clifford A
• Sand Anne R
• Walker Keith R

Classifications

• G06Q30/0241

  Advertisements · CPC title

• G06Q30/02 Primary

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title