Marketing campaign application for multiple electronic distribution channels

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9715700-B2
Application number	US-201313926895-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2013
Priority date	Sep 7, 2012
Publication date	Jul 25, 2017
Grant date	Jul 25, 2017

Abstract

A system is disclosed for allowing a merchant to create offers for distribution via multiple distribution channels. The distribution channels may include social media networks and location based services. The method may include receiving offer parameters for generating the offer, generating offer data based on the offer parameters and merchant transaction data, and determining data subsets of the offer data for distribution through multiple electronic distribution channels. The systems and methods may include associating a transaction account of the account holder with the offer, monitoring a transaction of the transaction account, comparing with a criterion governing the offer, and generating a report for the merchant. The report may include various metrics of the offer, such as return on investment, tracking information on the number of repeat customers and new customers during an offer period, and may occur approximately real-time with the transaction.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a computer based system via a marketing campaign application and a market account dashboard, a selection of a first social media network,
wherein the market account dashboard includes a social network set up tab with selectable links that are configured to link the marketing campaign application with a selected social media network, and
wherein the marketing campaign application is configured to graphically present user selectable offer information;

linking, by the computer based system, the first social media network with the merchant campaign application in response to receiving a selection of the first social media network and in response to authenticating first authentication information for the first social media network;
receiving, by the computer based system via the marketing campaign application and the market account dashboard, a selection of a second social media network;
linking, by the computer based system, the second social media network with the merchant campaign application in response to receiving a selection of the second social media network and in response to authenticating second authentication information,
creating, by the computer based system and in response to the linkings and based on input from a merchant system and via the marketing campaign application, offer parameters for distribution of an offer, a discount amount, and an offer type;
determining, by the merchant system and in response to the creating, a business rule associated with the offer type;
determining, by the merchant system and in response to the determining the business rule, the discount amount based on the business rule,
wherein the business rule includes a first discount range for a first offer type and a second discount range for a second offer type;

generating, by the computer based system and based on the determining of the discount amount, offer data associated with the offer based on the offer parameters, merchant data and account holder data;
parsing, by the computer based system and in response to the generating, the offer data to create a first subset of the offer data to provide to the first social media network based on first capabilities of the first social media network;
storing, by the computer-based system, data sets of the offer data in a database as ungrouped data elements formatted as a block of binary (BLOB) via a fixed memory offset;
partitioning, by the computer-based system and using a key field, the database according to a class of objects defined by the key field to speed searching for the offer data; obtaining, by the computer-based system, the offer data from the database; automatically formatting, by the computer based system, the offer with the first subset of offer data and in a first format for the first social media network based on the offer parameters associated with the first social media network and the offer type;
automatically customizing, by the computer based system, the offer for the first social media network based on the offer parameters associated with the first social media network and the offer type;
parsing, by the computer based system and in response to the generating, the offer data to create a second subset of the offer data to provide to the second social media network based on second capabilities of the second social media network;
automatically formatting, by the computer based system, the offer with the second subset of offer data and in a second format for the second social media network based on the offer parameters associated with the second social media network and the offer type;
automatically customizing, by the computer based system, the offer for the second social media network based on the offer parameters associated with the second social media network and the offer type;
wherein the offer is distributed by the merchant system via the first social media network in the first format and the second social media network in the second format; receiving, by the computer based system and from the merchant system, a change to the offer data;

automatically updating, by the computer based system and in response to receiving the change, the offer data based on the change to create updated offer data; and
updating, by the computer based system and based on the updated offer data, the offer in both the first social media network and the second social media network.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a selection from the merchant system of a merchant location for redemption of the offer.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising creating, by the computer-based system, an opt-in criteria for the offer based on the first social media network.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising determining, by the merchant system, a business objective of the offer, wherein the business objective is at least one of acquisition of new customers, or loyalty of prior customers, and wherein the offer parameters are provided based on the business objective.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising linking, by the computer-based system, data tables based on the type of data in the key fields.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first capabilities include media content, hyperlinks, display formats and graphical options.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the offer parameters include at least one of a percent discount, a discount value, a spend threshold to receive a discount, a limited number of visits to use the offer, an offer duration, a maximum number of provided offers, or a maximum number of redeemed offers.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising transmitting a report, wherein the report includes at least one of number of the offers transmitted, number of the offers accepted, number of the offers redeemed, total value of the redeemed offers, average size of the transaction involving the offer, or rate of the offer redemption.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the report includes a return on investment, wherein the return on investment is based on a comparison of first transactions during an offer period and second transactions during a non-offer period.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the report includes non-transaction information, and wherein the non-transaction information includes at least one of demographic information of the account holder or social media indicators.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein reporting information in the report includes tracking information on repeat customers and new customers during an offer period.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising annotating, by the computer-based system, the data sets to include security information establishing access levels.

13. The method of claim 12 ,
wherein the computer-based system is configured to generate offer data based on the offer parameters and merchant transaction data, and
wherein the computer-based system is further configured to determine a first data subset of the offer data for distribution through the first social media network and determine a second data subset of the offer data for distribution through the second social media network.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the offer is a coupon-less offer.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising debiting a transaction account held by the merchant system, in response to the computer-based system matching an accepted offer with a record of charge in a transaction account held by the account holder.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising revising, by the merchant system, the offer b

Assignees

• American Express Travel Related Services Co Inc

Inventors

• Chomsky Mara K
• Greenspan David M
• Schochet Randi
• Vakil Elizabeth K

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06Q30/0269

  based on user profile or attribute · CPC title

• G06Q30/0255

  based on user history · CPC title

• G06Q30/0211

  Determining the effectiveness of discounts or incentives · CPC title

• G06Q30/0246

  Traffic · CPC title