Efficient promotion model

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016125478-A1
Application number	US-201414529537-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 31, 2014
Priority date	Oct 31, 2014
Publication date	May 5, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for promoting a service using a gifting model. For example, a gifting model, for a service (e.g., a multimedia content service that provides movies, music, apps, etc.), may specify what types of online users are eligible to be promoters and/or what online promotional gifts are available for promoters to gift to online recipient users. In an example, one or more online promotional gifts (e.g., a television show, a song, etc.) of the multimedia content service are exposed to an online user. A gift request is received from the online user. The gift request may specify an online recipient user and a selected online promotional gift (e.g., an action movie). The online promotional gift is provided to the online recipient user. In this way, online users may promote a service by providing promotional gifts, such as for free, to online recipient users.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for promoting a service using a gifting model, comprising:
utilizing a gifting model to evaluate an online user to determine that the online user is eligible to be a promoter for promotion based gifting; exposing one or more online promotional gifts of a service to the online user; receiving a gift request from the online user, the gift request specifying an online recipient user and an online promotional gift selected from the one or more online promotional gifts; and providing the online promotional gift to the online recipient user.

2 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
responsive to the online recipient user corresponding to a social network user profile, creating a social network gift post of the online promotional gift.

3 . The method of claim 2 , the creating a social network gift post comprising:
using the social network gift post to specify a threshold number of online recipient users capable of gaining access to the online promotional gift.

4 . The method of claim 1 , the utilizing a gifting model comprising:
providing the online user with an online promotional test gift opportunity corresponding to an online promotional test gift; and evaluating a result of the online promotional test gift opportunity to determine whether the online user is eligible to be the promoter, the result comprising at least one of a target online recipient user of the online promotional test gift or whether a conversion results from the online promotional test gift opportunity.

5 . The method of claim 4 , the conversion comprising at least one of the online target recipient using the online promotional test gift, the online target recipient joining the service, or the online target recipient making a purchase from the service.

6 . The method of claim 1 , the utilizing a gifting model comprising:
identifying a location of the online user having an account with the service; and responsive to the location corresponding to a threshold number of online users, determining that the online user is not eligible to be the promoter.

7 . The method of claim 1 , the exposing one or more online promotional gifts comprising:
identifying a content type user interest of the online user based upon content consumed by the online user through the service; and including a first online promotional gift within the one or more online promotional gifts based upon the first online promotional gift corresponding to the content type user interest.

8 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
identifying a content type user interest of the online recipient user based upon the online promotional gift; and providing a targeted promotional offer to the online recipient user based upon the content type user interest.

9 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
generating a promoter profile for the online user based upon one or more online promotional gifts provided to online recipient users on behalf of the online user.

10 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
generating a recipient profile for the online recipient user based upon one or more online promotional gifts consumed by the online recipient user.

11 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
identifying a result of the online promotional gift; and providing the online user with a reward based upon the result indicating a conversion based upon the online promotional gift.

12 . The method of claim 11 , the reward comprising at least one of access to content provided by the service, a monetary reward, access to a service feature of the service, or a new online promotional gift opportunity.

13 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
assigning one or more available online promotional gifts to one or more promoter demographic clusters to construct the gifting model.

14 . The method of claim 13 , the utilizing a gifting model comprising:
responsive to the online user corresponding to a promoter demographic cluster of the one or more promoter demographic clusters, determining that the online user is eligible to be the promoter.

15 . The method of claim 1 , the exposing one or more online promotional gifts to the online user comprising:
responsive to the online user accessing a content item of the service through a service user interface, populating the service user interface with a gifting user interface element exposing the content item as the online promotional gift.

16 . The method of claim 1 , the exposing one or more online promotional gifts to the online user comprising:
displaying a gifting user interface to the online user; and populating the gifting user interface with the one or more online promotional gifts based upon a promoter profile of the online user.

17 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
displaying a gifting summary user interface to the online user; and populating the gifting summary user interface with one or more previously provided online promotional gifts and previous online recipient users of the one or more previously provided online promotional gifts.

18 . The method of claim 1 , the providing the online promotional gift to the online recipient user comprising:
generating a content access token for accessing content of the online promotional gift; and providing the content access token to the online recipient user based upon at least one of an email, a message, a social network post, a URL, or a text message.

19 . A system for promoting a service using a gifting model, comprising:
a promotional component configured to:
utilize a gifting model to evaluate an online user to determine that the online user is eligible to be a promoter for promotion based gifting;
expose one or more online promotional gifts of a service to the online user;
receive a gift request from the online user, the gift request specifying an online recipient user and an online promotional gift selected from the one or more online promotional gifts; and
provide the online promotional gift to the online recipient user.

20 . A computer readable medium comprising instructions which when executed perform a method for promoting a service, comprising:
responsive to an online user accessing a content item of a service through a service user interface, populating the service user interface with a gifting user interface element exposing the content item as an online promotional gift; receiving a gift request from the online user, the gift request specifying an online recipient user as a recipient for the online promotional gift; and providing the online promotional gift to the online recipient user.

Assignees

• Microsoft Corp

Inventors

• Saura Jose

Classifications

• G06Q30/0277 Primary

  Online advertisement · CPC title

• G06Q30/0246

  Traffic · CPC title

• G06Q30/0255

  based on user history · CPC title

• G06Q30/0214

  Referral reward systems · CPC title