Method and apparatus for distributing merchant advertisements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9294730-B2
Application number	US-23515408-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 22, 2008
Priority date	Sep 22, 2008
Publication date	Mar 22, 2016
Grant date	Mar 22, 2016

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) system having a controller to present a merchant a graphical user interface (GUI) for entering advertisement information, receive from the merchant advertisement information, generate an advertisement GUI for presenting the received advertisement information, identify a plurality of users of the IPTV system that demographically correlate to the advertisement information, and direct the advertisement GUI to one or more set-top boxes of the identified plurality of users. Other embodiments are disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A television media communication system, comprising:
a memory storing computer instructions; and
a processor coupled with the memory, wherein the processor, responsive to executing the computer instructions performs operations comprising:
generating a merchant graphical user interface (GUI) template comprising a data entry field that accepts advertisement information from a merchant terminal for generating an advertisement GUI based on the advertisement information, and a selectable preview button that, when selected, provides a preview of the advertisement GUI, wherein the advertisement GUI comprises a selectable field based on the advertisement information that accepts an input from a plurality of users of the media communication system;
receiving from the merchant terminal the advertisement information;
generating the advertisement GUI based on the advertisement information;
identifying a behavioral pattern based on the advertisement information;
identifying the plurality of users associated with a corresponding plurality of user profiles, wherein the plurality of user profiles are determined based on user account information of the plurality of users;
comparing the behavioral pattern to the plurality of user profiles to determine one of a first correlation between the behavioral pattern and a subset of user profiles of the plurality of user profiles corresponding to a correlated subset of users of the plurality of users, or a lack of correlation between the behavioral pattern and the plurality of user profiles;
presenting, to the merchant terminal, an offer in response to the determining of the first correlation to initiate a targeted distribution of the advertisement GUI, wherein the targeted advertising is directed to the correlated user of users of the plurality of users;
directing the advertisement GUI to a first plurality of set-top boxes of the correlated subset of users in response to an acceptance of the offer, wherein the advertisement GUI replaces scheduled broadcast advertising during media programming;
directing the advertisement GUI to a second plurality of set-top boxes of the plurality of users in response to one of a rejection of the offer or the lack of correlation between the behavioral pattern and the plurality of user profiles;
monitoring the plurality of set-top boxes of the plurality of users for a search request from a target set-top box of the one of the first plurality of set-top boxes or the second plurality of set-top boxes for a product or service;
comparing the search request for the product or service to the advertisement information in the advertisement GUI previously directed to the target set-top box, to identify a second correlation between the search request and the advertisement information;
selectively providing the advertisement GUI to the target set-top box and notifying a billing system to charge a merchant account corresponding to the merchant terminal based on one of the second correlation between the search request and the advertisement information, or the acceptance of the offer; and
initiating the search request from other sources unrelated to the merchant account when the search request fails to correlate to the advertisement information.

2. The media communication system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise notifying a user of the plurality of users of the advertisement GUI.

3. The media communication system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
presenting the offer to the merchant terminal to demographically target users of the media communication system with the advertisement information; and
notifying the billing system responsive to detecting an affirmative acceptance of the offer received from the merchant terminal.

4. The media communication system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
presenting an auctioning process for submitting bids for purchasing a good or a service presented in the advertisement GUI;
receiving a bid from a set-top box of the plurality of set-top boxes of the plurality of users; and
presenting the bid.

5. The media communication system of claim 4 , wherein the operations further comprise presenting the bid from the set-top box of the user to the merchant terminal.

6. The media communication system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise identifying a user of the plurality of users according to a psychographic profile of the user of the plurality of users that correlate to the advertisement information.

7. The media communication system of claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise monitoring a consumption behavior of each user of the plurality of users and determining therefrom a profile selected from the group consisting of a demographic profile or a psychographic profile of each user of the plurality of users.

8. The media communication system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
detecting a demographic pattern in the advertisement information; and
identifying the plurality of users of the media communication system according to the demographic pattern.

9. The media communication system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
distributing the advertisement GUI from a classifieds portal which enables selectable search criteria options for presenting the advertisement GUI of the merchant when a match with the selectable search criteria option is detected;
detecting a selection of the advertisement GUI by a user of the plurality of users; and
notifying a billing system responsive to detecting the selection of the advertisement GUI.

10. The media communication system of claim 9 , wherein the billing system generates a fee directed to the merchant according to the selection of the advertisement GUI.

11. The media communication system of claim 7 , wherein the demographic profile for each user is determined from age, gender, income, size of household, occupation, education, value of residential property, location of residential property, and fees paid for services rendered by the system.

12. The media communication system of claim 7 , wherein the psychographic profile for each user comprises user traits, user attitudes, user interests, and user lifestyle determined from the consumption behavior.

13. A network element of a media communication system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor facilitate performance of operations comprising:
presenting to a merchant terminal a user interface to receive entry of advertisement information and to obtain the advertisement information;
receiving from the merchant terminal the advertisement information;
generating an advertisement graphical user interface (GUI) to present the advertisement information, responsive to the receiving of the advertisement information, wherein the advertisement GUI comprises a selectable field based on the advertisement information that accepts an input from a plurality of users of the media communication system;
identifying a behavioral pattern based on the advertisement information;
identifying the plurality of users of the media communication system each user of the plurality of users having a respective profile of a plurality of user profiles determined from user account information;
comparing the behavioral pattern to the plurality of user profiles to obtain one of a first correlation between the behavioral pattern and a subset of user profiles of the plurality of user profiles corresponding to a correlated subset of users of the plurality of users, or a lack of correlation between the

Assignees

• Stefanik John R
• Chang E-Lee
• Bradley Charles Patrick
• Tan Tuck Seng
• Clayton Darnell
• Khandelwal Madhur
• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Stefanik John R
• Chang E-Lee
• Bradley Charles Patrick
• Tan Tuck Seng
• Clayton Darnell
• Khandelwal Madhur

Classifications

• G06Q30/0601

  Electronic shopping [e-shopping] · CPC title

• G06Q30/0261

  based on user location · CPC title

• H04L67/20

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/36

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N7/17318 Primary

  Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests · CPC title