Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for providing content or
advertisements to the users by way 01 user profiling. More particularly, the present
invention relates to a system and method of allowing targeted information by way
of content or advertisements by user profiling wherein the targeted content can be
pushed to the end user based on various content provider (or advertiser)
requirements and end user attributes over various mediums supported by the
wireless communication industry (SMS, IVR, CRBT, etc.)
Background of the Invention
Advertising using traditional media, such as television, radio, newspaper is well
known. Advertisers have used these types of media to reach a large audience with
their advertisements. To reach a more responsive audience and massess,
advertisers have carried out demographic studies to determine system and methods
for targeting- contnrt; including advertising content directed to users of networkconnected
devices. The study revealed that a substantial part of ad budget is
simply wasted because the target audience is not interested in receiving the
advertisement.
US Patent Application 200801 09307 discloses a system and method for managing
content, including advertising content, delivered to various network-connected
devices, including screens, mobile devices, computers, televisions, radios based on
usage profiles associated with device specific identifiers for mobile devices, shortdistance
wireless technologies for transmission of content and detection of
proximity, and content targeting and management techniques.
US Patent Application 20040059708 provides advertisements to a user's interest.
The content of a web page is analyzed to determine a list of one or more topics
associated with that web page. An advertisement is considered to be i-elevant to
that web page if it is associated with keywords belonging to the list of o no~r msre
topics. One or more of these relevant advertisements nlay be provided fc:
rendering in conjunction with the web page or related web pages.
US Patent Application 20040076279 provides a system and method of providing
information based on the location of the target. The system is ideal for use with
voice based technology and uses street segments to allow users to identify their
location by cross street. The system can target advertisements to users based on
the location of the user, a destination location related to the information requested
by the user and/or the route to be taken by the user to reach such destination
location.
Such content-targeting methods have various limitations depending on the users
and devices to which content is targeted. For instance, television and radio
advertisements are often directed to a mass audience, with little information about
specific users. Mobile content may be targeted more easily to a specific user, such
as based on information about the user in a database maintained by a wireless
carrier or based on the user's interaction with content on the mobile handset, but
the more limited range of content that can be delivered to mobile devices means
that profiles based on that usage are often limited and sometimes misleading.
Accordingly, a need exists for better methods of targeting content to users of all
types of network-connected devices. The effectiveness of content and/or
advertisements that are experienced by the end user could be dramatically
increased if the user's profile and specifications can be evaluated so as to send
customized content to that user, and thereby increase the effectiveness and usage.
Summsw and Object of the Inveniion -
The object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for
providing targeted inlormiition by way of content or advertisements by user
profiling.
Yet another object of the instant invention is to provide a system that can be
connected to an existing or new WAP platform at a content provider's end to push
targeted content over to the end audience.
Still object of the instant invention is to provide a system that can be connected to
an already existing or a new SMS or MMS Gateway which will receive codes of
various content that is to be pushed to the end audience via an SMS or an MMS
message.
A further object of the instant invention is to provide a system that can also be
used without much change to service, the Reverse CRBT implementation,
whereby the calling party decides which content (Song, Stock Quotes, etc.) is to
be played irrespective of what number is being called, unlike the CRBT
implementation whereby the called party decides what the callers get to hear
whenever he receives a call.
To achieve the said object, the present invention proposes a method for providing
targeted content to end users over wireless network comprising the steps of
initiating an event from a first communication device to be terminated at a second
communication device, forwarding the event to a switching means, said switching means
adapted to determine event information, forwarding the event information directly or
indirectly to an advertisement providing server, forwarding the event information by the
advertisement providing server to a telecommunication server. said telecommunication
I eve;..: information, determining content to be sent to the first communication device based
I on the profile information, sending the determined content to the advertisement providing
I server, said advertisement providing server providing the content to the first
I communicatiorl device, waiting for an interrupting signal to be received from the second
I communication device, and responding to an interrupting signal generated by the second
communication device by terminating or modifying the event.
The instant invention also provides a system for providing targeted content to end
users over wireless network comprising a first communication device for initiating an
event to be terminated at a second communication device, a switching means for
receiving the event from the first communication device, said switching means adapted to
determine event information, at least one profile server for determining profile of the first
and the second communication device based on the event information, an advertisement
server for receiving the event information directly or indirectly from the switching
means, a telecommunication server for retrieving profile information from the at least
one profile server, said telecommunication server determining the content to b'e sent to
the first communication device based on the profile information, means for generating an
interrupting signal from the second communication device, and means for terminating or
modifying the event on receiving the interrupting signal.
~ Brief description of accompanying drawings
The features of this invention together with its objects and advantages thereof may
be best understood by reference to the description taken in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings.
Fig 1 illustrates a system required for providing content to the end users according
to the instant invention.
Fig 2 illustrates the components of the user profiling server according to the
present invention.
Fig 3 illustrates the various modules required for hnctioning of the system
according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig 4 illustrates the interaction among essential components of the system
according to the present invention.
Fig 5 illustrates an exemplary system for providing the content to the users
according to the present invention.
Fig 6 illustrates an exemplary method for providing the content to the users
according to the present invention.
Fig 7 illustrates an example of implementing the invention according to one
embodiment of the invention.
Description of the present invention
A system and method of allowing targeted information by way of content or
advertising by user profiling is described.
The targeted content can be pushed to the end user based on various content
provider (Or advertiser) requirements and end user attributes over various
mediums supported by the wireless communication industry (SMS, IVR, CRBT,
etc.). The targeted pushin: of content or advertisements are brought about by
utilizing advanced Neural Network and targeting techniques to help build concrete
and absolute profiles of end users so that effective targeted information can be
pushed to them.
A system employs predictive analytic techniques such as Peer Profiling as well as
Signature Mapping Techniqiies to effectively target end users apart from the basic
targeting techniques like Age, Gender, Location, Time cif Day, etc. The methods
employed in are used to build the very initial sets of profile information about the
audience. This set of information is to be used till the point where more discreet
sets of information are obtained from other sources. The other sources may
include, but not be limited to, trusted third party databases, advertiser databases, or
end user interactive response mechanisms showing definite interests.
The content can be provided to the users based on the profile information via
SMS, MMS, wireless access protocol, interactive voice response, caller ring back
tone etc.
The various content items are pushed to the audience and are made accountable
(In terms of Billing) to the content owner only if the audience has accessed 1
experienced the content piece to completion. The billing components built into the
system are defined to factor in this feature and make the content access chargeable
to the content owner upon completed exposure 1 access.
The techniques described herein may be used in many different operating
environments and systems. An exemplary environment that is suitable for
practicing various implementations is discussed in the following section with
respect to the accompanying figures.
Fig. 1 illustrates the system 100 for pushing targeted information by way of
content or advertising by user profiling. The system in the present invention is also
known as Procognition system. The system is deployed in a distributed
architecture following the Hub and Spoke mechanism of deployment. The Hub
and Spoke mechanism consists of a central countrywide server which acts as a
central repository of all profile information as well as end user web, SMS, IVR,
WAP, etc. interfaces whereby end users can become subscribtls by registering
themselves and filling in their profile information.
The system 100 can include subscriber management server 102 having subscriber
database 104 for storing the information of all the subscribers registered with the
system, advertiser management and billing server 106 having advertiser database
108, operator management and billing server 1 10 having operator database 1 12
and all the three servers are coupled to secondary precognition controller server
1 14. There is a central switch 1 16 to which various servers is connected and
includes caller ring back tone server (CRBT server) 118, main procognition
controller server 120, secondary precognition controller server 1 14, user storage
and fetch server 122, advertiser storage and fetch server 124 and interfacing web
server 126. The user profiling server 128 is connected to user storage and fetch
server 122. The subscriber management server 102 can handle the responsibility of
registering the subscribers related parameters values that change during the
process of incoming calls. Subscribers are given incentives in various ways such
as free talktime, SMS, GPRS, mobile games, discounted VAS services etc. by the
operator for registering to the service. It also contains information of the
subscription status of the subscriber. The CRBT server 11 8 can hold and play the
active advertisement stored in the raw sound file. It is responsible for playing the
advertisement/content tunes to the calling party during the ring back tone period.
The CRBT server 11 8 can be either a part of the procognition client or can be an
independent third party system. The main procognition controller server 120 is the
central system which is responsible for maintaining the subscriber/calling party
profiles as well as the logic which creates these profiles. It can interface with the
real selection servers that are user storage and fetch server 122 and advertiser
storage and fetch server 124 and CRBT server 118 for acquiring the called and
calling party credentials from the secondary server 114 and acquiring and
transmitting the final advertisement play list matching the user -z qd advertisement
profile information. The user storage and fetch server i22 c2n extract the indexed
user profile information which is used to match the relevant advertisements to the
calling party. This server contains a database of profiles of all users who are either
registered or recognized by the procognition system. The advertiser storage and
fetch server 124 also known as campaign management server can extract and
rearrange matching advertisements to a particular calling party profile according to
parameters like exposure counts, dateldayltime of exposure etc. This server is
responsible for maintaining all active campaigns as well as their targeting
parameters. The user profiling server 128 can build target information and create
the priority index of targeting attributes. This server is responsible for creating
user profiles and sending them to the user storage and fetch server 122 for storing
it within its databases. This server is constituted of complex profile generation
logic which is largely based on analytical, A1 and neural technologies which
allows the system to generate accurate profiles of unknown calling parties based
on some pre-registered information as well as information collected at real time
for example calling patterns, interaction with the content being played etc. The
various components of user profiling server 128 are explained in Fig 2. The
advertiser management and billing server 106 can process the advertisement
related parameters and also updates the account payable by the advertisers. It
contains all critical advertiser related information inclusive of a list of all
active/dormant/completed campaigns which are registered within the system. The
server also contains billing information for all advertisers/content providers who
have enabled campaigns. The operator management and billing server 110 can
handle the traffic related parameters and also updates the account receivables for
the operator. This server manages all operator related information specifying how
many subscribers belong to specific operators as well manages the billing rel2ted
information for the operator. The interfacing web server 126 acts as the front end
for the subscriber, advertisers and operators for registering, updating and receiving
informatioxi. It contains subscriber interfaces for allowing new - subscribers to
register thcrnselves into the system. Existing subscribers can check their
subscription infom,ztion as well as edit their profile information. It has advertisers
inierfaces for allowing new advertisers to register themselves as well as their
campaigns within the system. Existing Advertisers can check their campaign status as
well as fetch various reports which project a detailed picture regarding the affectivity as
well as progress of their campaigns registered within the Procognition System. It also has
operator interfaces so that the operators can register themselves, choose their circles or
territories of operations.
The hub and spoke model of system 100 can pose a risk of overexposure as the
completed exposure counts as mentioned are not updated in real time to ensure
system stability and quick response times. To avoid this situation, the system
inherently possesses a unique method of exposure distribution known as
Rationing. With the help of Rationing, the system allocates specific packets of
exposures to each of the hubs mentioned. Once any of the hubs are near
exhaustion.of their .allocated exposures they will send a re-request of another
packet of exposures which the central system allocates to it by taking exposures
away from another hub which does not seem to be capable of exhausting their
exposures due to low access rates or traffic. This process is repeated till all the
required exposures are exhausted and/or serviced.
Fig 2 illustrates the various components of user profiling server 128. The user
profiling server 128 is responsible for creating profile targeting information by
calculating probability sets of user behavior. It has mechanism to extract and store
profile of information of first time users. It arranges profiling informstion obtained
from 3rd party and fetch, compare and build probability behavioral maps by
observing various behavioral factors. It creates probability indexes which are used
for advertisement mapping and inserts completed behavioral index and back to the
profiling database. Its components are:
Profile extractor: This component is responsible for extracting the profile
which required indexing from the database. This component fires database
queries to extract relevant targeting information from the User Targeting
Database and converts the extracted data into XML for easy portability and
access.
Dependency Mapper: This component is responsible for extracting product
andlor services owned information from within the profile and distinguish
dependencies amongst them. For example, a car owner may also own a
Sony xP1ode Car Stereo system. Such dependencies would be identified
and arranged into nodes which would be useful for inter profile behavioral
comparisons.
Probability Mapper: This component concerns itself with finding relative
associates with other profiles that exist within the database either belonging
to the user's peer group or character traits or type. Post this activity, nodes
of the various profiles selected are compared with each other to find
probability sets which predict what the user would be interested in. These
are then converted into probability weights and attached to the user's nodes.
Advertisement or Ad Targeter: Using the generated nodes the
Advertisement Targeter component would find all advertisements which
are active in the system and map them together in the form of an index
which would be used to associate advertisements in real time by the
Advertiser Fetch an< Storage Server 124.
Database Feeder: After the end of this elaborate indexing process, the
profile would be fed back into the User Targeting Database by the
DatabaseFeeder module.
I by the use of system 190 that are required for carrying out the necessary
processing and pushing the targeted information to the end users by content
providers by way of user profiling according to an embodiment of the invention.
There are three main entities in the system, which are subscriber, operator and
advertiser. All entities involved in the system are registered and is automated by
an entirely online or over the phone process. The Subscriber, Advertiser as well as
the operator can register and update their profiles online. Apart from registration
the subscribers can choose their various incentives as well as direct the system to
respond in a particular manner by refining their profiling attributes and setting
constraint parameters.
The first module is registration module 202 for registering each subscriber,
advertiser and operator. The subscriber or host registration module 204 is the first
module used to register the subscriber to whom the targeted information will be
sent. In this module, the system 200 will acquire the information about the host as
well as scheme. The host registration module consists of two components i.e.
Host - Profile - Details and Host - Scheme - Details. The host profile details includes
the host details like name, age, sex, address, interests etc. which would be useful
in profiling the host and his peers whose information is not directly available for
targeting. The host scheme details accept the various service level choices
pertaining to the cellular connection and the scheme that the host chooses to apply
for. This information will consist of the Mobile Operator the host is registered to
as well the scheme number provided by that operator.
The process of registering the subscriber or the host consists of following steps:
1) The user will have a way to create a login for him. The 'mobile number' will
be the key and password will have to be specified by the user.
2) The password should be at least eight alpha numeric characters. There will be
no other check for password.
3) The password has to be encrypted before we save it in the DB.
4) The user will be able to select an operator for each mobile number that he
wishes to regisicr.
5) As soon as he selects an operator the system will fetch all the scht~neso ffered
by that operator for the CIRCLE that the mobile number of the user belongs
to, and the user will have to choose one of them. The schemes are going to be
different per operator per circle.
6) The schemes will be a list of radio options with names and some descriptive
text next to each option.
7) Once the user signs up for a scheme, he will remain signed up for that scheme
till he wishes to change it. If a scheme discontinues when the user is signed up
for it, it will not affect the already signed up users. But new registrants will not
be able to sign up for that scheme.
8) The user will be allowed to perform CRUD - (Create/Read/Delete/Update)
operations on the Host information.
9) The user can edit all the information for him self except the mobile number. If
the user wants to edit a mobile number he will have to create a new login and
delete the older one.
10)All the fields on the user registration screen are mandatory unless indicated
otherwise.
11)The user will have a way to unregister from the system. The user record can
not be deleted from the DB as it is needed for accounting purposes i-e. for
reporting and billing purposes.
12)The Host screen will also have a questionnaire which will ask for the
following:
Name of Subscriber, Mobile Phone Number, Gender, Date of Birth, Address
(Street,City, State, Country, Zip). Occupation, Student [School (Grade),
College (Year), etc.], Housewife, Executive (Industry, Position, etc.), Self
Employed (lgdustry Domain), etc., Intei-ests, Sports, Spor-t s, Technology, Fashion,
Vehicles, Real Estate
Etc. The user category would be determined using some static rules based on
the above information.
13)Once the user signs up the system will send a cc~firmationS MS to each of the
numbers that he has registered with. Unless the user replies to that SMS, the
user account will not be active. This process of activating the registration
process is done manually. It can be done by triggering some SQL commands
from the SQL prompt or by other method which is compatible.
14)The Host screen will have some legal consent and a disclaimer which the user
has to accept before being able to register.
The second sub module in the registration module 202 is operator registration
module 206. The operator registration module 206 acquires the information about
the operator, manages the subscribers which belong to the operator and setup and
manage the various schemes provided to them. This module operates in each circle
where a particular operator would be considered as an individual entity. The
components of operator registration module are Operator-Identification-Details
and Scheme - Registration - Details. The operator identification details component
provides the operator's details like name, circle of operation, address, type (GSM,
CDMA, 3G), etc. The schede registration details component provides registration
and configures the various schemes that the operator will provide to the
subscribers.
The process of registering the operator consists of following steps:
1. The registration of the operator is done manually by way of some SQL
commands from the SQL command prompt.
2. The manual registration will take care of enteringlcreating the circles and
schemes per circle for the operator.
3. There wili be a unique user per operator per circie. So - IDEA for
Kharashtra circle will have one user/password and a list of schemes
*
whereas 3EA for Delhi circle will have a different user/password and a
different list of schemes.
4. The operator will be eventually be able to sign up using the user and
password which was created for him and edit any of his details.
5. The operator will be able to remove the schemes for a circle but if hosts
have already signed up for a scheme, they will remain signed up till they
decide to change. The discontinued scheme will not be offered for new
hosts but will have to be kept in the system to support hosts who have
already signed up for it.
6. The operator will have to have at least one active scheme if he wants to
remain a part of the system. The system will check if that is the case when
he is making changes to schemes.
7. When the operator decides to create a new scheme, he will have to enter a
scheme name, scheme description and the system will automatically
generate an ID for that scheme.
8. The operator will3 also have to enter other details like
Fare - lntralocal - Minutes$ and other fields not required for any calculation
purposes.
9. The operator's registration from the system is done manually by way of
some SQL commands from the SQL command prompt.
10. The system has the provision to generate the following reports:
i. Subscriber registration info to operator. This will include the Scheme
name that the subscriber has subscribed tot Subscriber 2hone no and
subscriber ID, date of registration for the scheme.
ii. Report on how many people has signed up for a particular scheme.
The operator can change the various schemes / incentives that are to be offered to
end subscribers as well as access relevant reports of exposure and billing.
The third sub module in the registration module 202 is advefliser's registration
module 208. This module collects the information required for proper
identification of the advertisers across the system and the campaigns associated
with them. It consists of one component i.e. Advertiser-Identification-Details.
This component accepts the advertiser's details like name, domain of operation,
address etc. which would be useful in identifying the advertisers within
precognition.
The process of registering the advertiser consists of following steps:
1. The advertiser will have a way to create a user name and password for
him self.
2. The advertiser name should be unique and alpha numeric and should not
be more than 32 characters.
3. The password should be at least eight alpha numeric characters. There
will be no other check for password.
4. The password has to be encrypted before we save it in the DB.
5. On registering the advertiser has to provide all the details mentioned in
the table below. All the fields are mandatory unless indicated otherwise.
6. The advertiser will be able to perform CRUD operations on his data.
Every thing except the advertiser user name can be edited.
7. The advertiser will have the ability to unregister himself, since his record
from the DB can not be deleted as it is needed for accounting purposes.
8. It will not be possible to deletelun-register an advertiser if he has any
active campaigns.
9. The advertiser will lime the ability to add one or more campaigns against
*
his name.
10. The system has the provision to generate the following reports
i. Payment details for advertiser across all campaigns. This report
car, include the advertiser name and the payment that he has made
for the various campaigns registered by him.
ii. A report on total exposures along with the details of unique and
repeat exposures (per number)
iii. Status report on campaigns - This cai be in progress, will start in
so and so time, exposures achieved so far, exposures remaining,
will end in so and so time or if it has ended already when did it
end.
The advertiser and / or content provider can create, update and remove advertising
campaigns online defining their targeting attributes, start and end dates. They can
also pay online and upload their content which would be serviced automatically by
the system depending upon their targeting parameters, exposure counts and start
and end dates.
* The fourth sub module in the registration module is campaign registration module
210. This sub module allows the advertiser to register and manage campaigns. It
consists of one component i.e. Campaign - Hosting-Details which allow the
advertiser to register campaign registration sub-component that allows the
advertiser to register and manage campaigns.
The process of registering the campaigns consists of the following steps:
1. There can be zero or more campaigns per advertiser.
2.Each campaign accepts all the details mentioned in the
"Campaign-Hosting-Details" component. All the fields of the
Campaign-Hosting-Details" component except targeting attributes are
mandatory.
3. Once a campaign is active the advertiser cannot edit any other information
other than the exposure count or the end date of the campaign. The
exposure count cannot be reduced below the already achieved exposures -
and the end date cannot be reduced to a date before the current systez date.
4. Tine advertiser has the option to stop a campaign at any poini of time or
delete it if the start date of the campaign has not reachcd yet.
5. There has to be a batch process in place to synchronize all the WAV fi!.=s
from the main procognition controller server to all the CRBT servers that it
works with.
6. The advertiser can either choose exposure count or end time and the system
will calculate the other part based on how many exposures it can
realistically achieve. If the Advertiser places a large number of exposures in
a specified date range which is not possible to achieve in the current
system, a warning message will be displayed to the user that these
exposures may be rolled out even after the specified end date if they are not
exhausted within the specified date range.
7. When the advertiser finishes with the campaign creation he clicks on pay
button which takes to the summary page and then connects to the payment
gateway.
8. Payment is by credit card or by chequeldrafl or by using any other
mechanism.
9. The advertiser gets credit for the exposures that were not used for his
expired campaigns. These exposures will not get credited as exposures as
such, but rather will be credited as money as the cost for each exposure of
the expired campaign can be different than the cost for each exposure of the
current campaign. For example if there are 10 exposures which need to be
credited fort the system will calculate the cost of those 10 exposures and
then calculate the number of exposures for the current campaign that can be
bought from that cost and then credit those many exposures.
10. A campaign can either be gcneric or iargeted. If the advertiser - chooses the
targeted option, he will be provided with a list of available targeting
options.
11.Each targeting attribute has a price associated with it. The price of the
campaign depends on how many =d which targeting attributes are chosen.
12.There is one particular targeting attribute in the list below and that is
Category. These categories are the categories that we will profile each user
against. If the advertiser specifies this attribute we will match profiled user
categories against the campaign category. How ever if the advertiser does
not specify the category we will be provided with a mapping of campaign
domains against user categories.
The next module is profiling module 212 for determining the profiles of the
calling parties. There are predictive analytic techniques such as Peer Profiling as
well as Signature Mapping Techniques to effectively target end users apart from
the basic targeting techniques like Age, Gender, Location, Time of Day, etc. The
Peer Profiling refers to a unique technique whereby the system can ensure guess
estimates about the target user's profile without possessing any prior knowledge
about the audience and is established by observing calling or communication
patterns the audience has with various other subscribed entities of the system
(Friends, Relatives, Employees, Agents, Co-workers, etc.).The parameters that the
system observes for effective peer profiling are Times of days when the audience
makes calls to subscribed entities, the duration of these calls as well as the
frequency of these calls. The system, upon collecting such information would
analyze and guess the audience profile information and push relative targeted
content over to him.
Upon analysis assumes certain portions of the subscribed entity's profile
information to be matching with the audience's profile information. For example,
$!is calls a particular number for 1 hour out of office hours we can - safely assume
that the person being called would share a non-professional relationship with the
audience (Here, the Calling Party). We can match some non professional profile
attributes (For example, Music Lover) to the audience's profile. Many more
assumpticns can be forged by observing how many times he calls professionals,
relatives, etc. who are subscribers to the system.
It is to be noted that the method employed in are used to build the very initial sets
of profile information about the audience. This set of information is to be used till
the point where more discreet sets of information are obtained fiom other sources.
The other sources may include, but not be limited to, trusted third party databases,
advertiser databases, or end user interactive response mechanisms showing
definite interests.
The Signature Mapping Technique mentioned above comprises of observing the
interest I purchase trends identified for the audience (By way of 3rd Party
databases, as well as observing ToneBack Requests). Once a-certain critical mass
of information is collected about end audiences, the system divides the entire user
base into various categories which can be uniquely identified from one another.
The System will then observe their interest 1 purchase behavior from the stored
information and create a master signature which attaches a probability value to
each of the content elements (products / services in case of advertisements). When
an audience which falls in a particular signature pattern is identified within the
system, various content elements would be pushed to him depending upon the
various probabilities allocated to each of the nodes which reflects his propensity to
buy and/or access the content (Or Product 1 Servic: in case of an advertisements or
promotion).
The profile database of the calling parties is collected over the time. The profiling
module 212 categorizes the registere:! hosts based on this information. This
process runs in a batch mode. This module will categorize registerzd users into
different categories based on the data entered by them at registration time. The
categories can be for e.g. low class, upper class, middle class, native language,
predefined language according to the nature of protection etc. The rllapping
between the registration data and these categories will be done to select a best fit
category for the calling party. Daily call records which have information of called
party, calling party and call time will be fed to the profiling module 212 on a
regular basis for use during profiling. This system will map each mobile number
with 4 categories. These categories may or may not be unique and the profiling
system will come up with them based on their analysis. This process will be run in
a batch mode and the frequency of the execution wiH be once every 30 minutes to
i
start with. It c$- be. changed at a later stage. If a campaign specifies that an
advertisement ibfor a particular category, advertisement is selected based on that
criterion. However if the campaign does not specie the list of categories. then
mapping of the categories to the campaign domains is done. The list of the
advertise codes for a particular user category will be a unique list of codes ordered
in the descending. order of their priority. There will be at least 5 advertisement
codes next to each user category.. The location information of the caller and that
specified when the campaign was created will not be considered in this module.
Along with the domain-category matching, this system wiII consider the time left
for various campaigns and the amount of exposures that we have to achieve for the
campaigns in the remaining time when it selects advertisements for a campaign.
The next module is billing module 2 14 which take into account the various content
items that are pushed to the audience and are made accountable to the content
owner only if the audience has accessed / experienced the content piece to
completion. The billing components built into the system are defined to factor in
this feature and make the content access chargeable to the content owner upon
completed exposure 1 access. It includes operator billing, adveiGser billing,
subscriber billing and orgiinization billing. The operator billing process takcs ~nto
account the total billing for providing the service to the advertisers and
subscribers. The advertiser billing process takes into account the total amount that
the advertiser owes for a particular campaign for a particular period. The
advertiser pays the amount it owes to the company or organization providing such
service. The company pays to the operator who assists in providing the content
through network means and the operator pays to the subscriber that is called party
who has registered with the company to provide the content to the end users i.e.
calling party.
Fig 4 illustrates the interaction among the essential components of the system 100
to capture the calling party's profile and selects the most relevant advertisement to
be played back to the calling party. The main components are main procognition
server 120, user storage and fetch server 122 and advertiser storage and fetch
server 124. The main procognition server consists of following modules that are:
Acquire Credentials: This module is responsible for the acquisition of the
calling party credentials by constantly listening to the local CRBT server.
This module also takes care of load balancing between redundant servers
existing at the premises. ,
Acquire Prioritized Attribute List: This module would be responsible for
extracting relevant prioritized profiling information from the User
Targeting Database and sending them in the same order of priority to the
Advertiser Storage and Fetch Server.
Acquire Prioritized AdCode Stream: This module would be responsible for
extracting matched Prioritized Adcode stream from the Advertiser Storage
and Fetch Server.
Communicate Adlist: This module would be b-e responsible for
communicating the matched. prioritized zdcode stream back to the
connected CRBT server which would, in turn, play back the tunes to the
calling party.
The functioning of the user storage and fetch server :22 is aiready explained
above. It consists of the following modules:
Check Existence: This module would be responsible for verifjring whether
the incoming calling party credentials already exists within the Targeting
Database.
Query Profile: This module would be responsible for extracting relevant
profiling information from the User Targeting Database and sending them
in order of priority to the main precognition server.
Sort Profile Priority: Module responsible for arranging profile attributes in
an order of priority depending upon the user behavioral history and
currently effecting factors using intelligence techniques.
The advertiser storage and fetch server consists of the following modules:
Match Attributes: This module would be responsible for acquiring and
matching advertiser provided attributes to the user profile attributes. For
example, if the person is found to be under 30, living in Delhi, and a foodie,
the system may match the McDonalds advertisement to this profile as it
would best match the attributes of the advertiser provided target proup.
Prioritize Adcode List: Once the matched adcodes are discovered this module is
responsible for arranging them in the order of play priority depending upon the
following factors
Most relevant advertisement
Exposure counts of various advertisements
Time delimited campaigns
Market intelligence etc.
The interaction among the components is explained in the form of following steps:
i . Calling i;arty credentials travel to the acquire - Credentials component.
2. Which are passed to the Acquire Prioritized Attribute List component.
3. In orCzr to check whether the calling party credentials are available by us,
the credentials are passed on to the Check Existence component which
qh,ries the Targeting Database to check whether the credentials exist.
4. The targeting database returns a binary value confirming the availability /
unavailability of the credentials.
5. Assuming that the credentials exist, the credentials are then passed onto
the Query Profile module which queries the database to accept profiling
information.
6. The Targeting DB then fetches and returns all available attributes of the
matching credentials back to the Query Profile module which are then
passed onto the Sort Profile Priority module, which performs intelligent
sorting of the obtained profile information depending upon currently
influencing factors (Ex. Time of day, Temperature, etc.) and sorts the
profile in order of current probability of interest, and sends it to the
Acquire Prioritized Attribute List module.
7. We now look for relevant advertisements, hence the traversal of
Prioritized Profile List to the Acquire Prioritized AdCode Stream module
which send that information to the Match Attributes module
8. Match Attributes module queries the Advertiser Database which returns a
list of all matching adcodes along with their target attribute list.
9. The hence acquired information is then sent to the Prioritize AdCode List
module for sorting
10.The Prioritize AdCode module sorts the relevar.: advertisements
depending upm their influencing factors (Ex. Exposure Count, etc.) by
querying the databasc for needed values.
11 .The sorted AdCode stream is then communicated back to the Acquire
Prioritized AdCode Stream module, which is, in krn handed off to the
Communicate AdList module for transmission to the Active CRBT Server
12.The Communicate Adlist Module transmits the AdCode Stream to the
Active CRBT Server and the advertisements are played to the calling
Party.
The techniques described herein may be used in many different operating
environments and systems. An exemplary environment that is suitable for
practicing various implementations is discussed in the following section with
respect to the accompanying figures
Exemplary System
Fig 5 illustrates an exemplary system 300 where a call is initiated by the calling
party for providing the content or a'dvertisements to the end user through caller
ring back tone service according to preferred embodiment of the invention.
According, to another embodiment, the instant invention can also use SMS and
MMS as a medium, wherein the system can be connected to an already existing or
a new SMS or MMS Gateway which will receive codes of various content that is
to be pushed to the end audience via an SMS or an MMS message. The end user
experience can be text based or in all other forms as described in case of an MMS
message.
Still according to another embodiment, the instant invention provides a Interactive
Response Mechanism so referred comprises of a unique respo~isem ethod known
as ToneBack which is implemented specifically for voice based advertising or
content implementations of the system. The ToneBack refers to a method of end
-
25
user response mechanism whereby the audience can press specified set of buttons
on the phone to issue icterest or interactivity with the content being played. The
ToneBack method can be employed to voice based content platforms such as
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) or Caller Ring Back Tone (CRBT).
Further according to another embodiment, the instant inveniion can use WAF as a
medium, wherein the system can be connected to an existing or new WAP
platform at a content provider's end to push targeted content over to the end
audience and said pushing is performed by advance intelligent targeting
techniques. The WAP implementation will allow the system to push codes of
various content which can be pushed onto the webpage the audience is viewing in
inclusive of, but not limited to, Banners, Links, Textual Representations, Audio as
. .
well as Video contznt.
In accordance with' preferred embodiment of the invention, where the caller ring
6ack tone service is used for providing the content to the end users, an exemplary
system 300 is shown in Fig 5. The system can include advertisement providing
server 302, telecommunication server 304, switching means 306, first
communication device 308, second communication device 310 and profile server
3 12. The advertisement providing server 302 is CRBT server 1 18 as explained in
Fig 1. The telecommunication server 304 is the main procognition controller
server 120 as already explained in Fig 1. This server interacts with user storage
and fetches server 122 and advertiser storage and fetch server 124 to fetch the user
profile and determine the relevant advertisements matching the user profile. The
first communication device 308 and the second communication device 31 0 can be
a mobile phone: personnel digital assistant, smart phone etc. which communicate
with each other so that the second communication device 310 which is the called
party provides the content in the form of advertisement to the first communication
device 308 which is the calling party. The content can contain various
infotainment message inclusive, but not limited to, Songs, Movie Audio Clippings,
News Headlines (New or Archived), Quotes, Jokes, Stock Updates and/or quotes,
Traffic Conditions, etc. The profile server 3 12 is user profiling server 128 and user
storage and fetch server 122 whose functions are explained in Fig 1. The
switching means 306 can be a network device used for connecting the various
peripheral equipments such as computers, servers etc. in a network. It can be
switch, hub, bridge, router etc. used for transferring the data fiom one device to
another in a network. The switching means are network switch 116 as shown in
Fig. 1.
The system 300 is required to push content over to the end audience in real time
therefore it is critical to avoid any possible bottlenecks which may increase the
overall turnaround time of the system. One method to prevent bottlenecks raised
due to constant database access from disk is to employ intelligent caching
techniques which cache all the profiles of audiences who access the system above
a certain pre-defined number of times. Unlike the regular CRBT service, this
system allows rapid dynamic content change as the content that is to be heard is
the prerogative of the calling party instead of the called party. The system
connects behind an existing or new CRBT infrastructure and acts as a content
director as well to the CRBT server whereby the content to be played back to the
audience is decided by the Hub or the Central System. The existing CRBT server
can also be equipped with Fallback content that can be played back to the audience
in an event of a timeout which may occur due to a late response by the Hub or
Central System. The Timeout can also occur due to network bandwidth
bottlenecks or network failure.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the system 300 can also be
used without much change to service the Reverse CRBT implementation whereby
the calling party decides which content (Song, Stock Quotes, etc.) is to be played
irrespective of what number is being called, unlike the CRBT implementation
whereby the called party decides what ihe callers get to hear whenever - he receives
a call.
The system also employs a niethod via which the end audience can purchase the
content element pushed over to him. The p-i-chase can bc: extended down to his
mobile device using mobile commerce technologies. The content being pushed
over to the system is dynamic in nature and will be arranged on basis of priority by
a selection component of the System which does intelligent arranging and
prioritizing of content on basis of targeting required (Time of Day, Gender,
Geography, etc.), and exposure counts remaining that are to be serviced by the
system. There is no human intervention required for this automated arranging
component to work.
The method implemented by the above mentioned system is now explained by
referring to Fig. 6.
Exemplary Method
Fig 6 illustrates an exemplary method 400 where a call is initiated by the calling
party for providing the content or advertisements to the end user through caller
ring back tone service according to preferred embodiment of the invention.
Process 400 is illustrated as a collection of blocks in a logical flow graph. which
represents a sequence of operations that can be implemented in hardware,
software, or a combination thereof. In the context of software, the blocks
represent computer instructions that, when executed by one or more processors,
perform the recited operations. The order in which the process is described is not
intended to be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described blocks
can be combined in any order to implement the process, or an alternate process.
Additionaiij.., individual blocks may be deleted from the process - without departing
from the spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein. For discussion
purposes, the process 400 is described with reference to the implementations of
Fig 5.
At block 402, an event is initiated from a first communication device 308 to a
second communication device 3 10. The everit herein is taken as a call by way of
example when the content to the user is provided through caller ring back tone.
The first communication device 308 is the calling party and the second
communication device 310 is the called party. The first and second
communication device is taken as a mobile phone by way of example.
At block 404, the call before terminating at the second communication device 31 0
is forwarded to switching means 306 which is a network switch.
At block 406, the network switch determines the event information i.e. caller line
identification (CLI) that transmits the caller's number to the called party telephone
equipment during the ringing signal, when the call is being set up before it is
answered. The network switch is installed at the operator region that provides the
services for network connection.
At block 408, the caller line identification number is forwarded by the network
switch to the advertisement providing server 302 which is a CRBT server 1 18.
At block 410, the advertisement providing server 302 forwards the CLI
information to the telecommunication server 304 which is a main procognition
controller server 120
At block 412, the telecommunication server 304 uses the CLI information and
interact with the profile server 3 12 which is user storage a d fetch server 122 to
fetch the calling ~ n cdal led party's profile and with the advertisement storage and
fetch server 124 to determine the relevant content or advertisements matching the
calling party's profile.
At block 414, the content is forwarded by the telecommunication server 304 to the
advertisement providing server 304 which provides the advertisemefits to the
calling party during call ring back tone period.
At block 416, it is checked if there is any interrupting signal which includes
checking whether the called party has received the call made by the calling party.
At block 418, if the call is received then the call is terminated by sending the call
termination string to the advertisement providing sever 302 which stops sending
the advertisement to the calling party.
At block 420, if the call is not yet received by the calling party, the amount of
content transmitted is recorded by the telecommunication server 304.
Fig. 7 illustrates an example showing the application of using CRBT service in
accordance with an embodiment of the invention. There are two party's or users
either of which can be a calling party or a called party. Party A has the
corresponding switching station A and message system A. The party B has a
corresponding switching station B and a message system B. When party A is the
calling party and party B is the called party the switching station B directs the
message system B to provide the content to the party A through the
telecommunication network as explained by referring to Fig 6. When party B is
the calling party and party A is the called party the switching station A directs the
message system A to provide the content to the party B through the
telecommunication network as explained by referring to Fig 6.
The system and methods are not intended to be restricted to any particular form or
arrangement, or my specific embodiment, or any specific use, disclosed herein,
since the same may be modified in various particulars or relations without
departing from the spirit or scope of the claimed invention hereinabove shown and
described of which the apparatus or method shown is intended only for illustrztion
and disclosure of an operative embodiment and not to show all of the various
forms or ni~dificationsin which this invention might be embodied or operated.

We claim
1. A method for providing content to users, the meth~dc omprising the steps
of:
initiating an event from a first communication device to 5e termifiiited
at a second communication device,
forwarding the event to a switching means, said switching means
adapted to determine event information,
forwarding the event information directly or indirectly to an
advertisement providing server,
forwarding the event information by the advertisement providing
server to a telecommunication server, said telecommunication server
determining profile of the first and the second communication device
based on the event information,
determining content to be sent to the first communication device based
on the profile information,
sending the determined content to the advertisement providing server,
said advertisement providing server providing the content to the first
communication device,
waiting for an interrupting signal to be received from the second
communication device, and
responding to an interrupting signal generated by the second
communication device by terminating or modifling the event.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determination of the profile
information of the first communication device is achieved by a real time
behavior of the said first communication device.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1. wherein said method - further comprises
the step of recording thz amount of data transmitted by the
telecommunication server.
4. The method sls claimed in claim 3, wherein the amount of the data
transmitted is recorded for billing pposes.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first communication device
and the second communication device is a mobile phone, personnel digital
assistant, smart phone or a compatible device thereof.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the event initiated through
which the content is provided to the users is SMS, MMS, wireless access
protocol, call, or combination thereof
7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein on initiation of the call event,
the content is provided to the end users through caller ring back tone or
interactive voice response mechanism.
8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method is performed in
batch mode of operation, wherein multiple events are occurring
simultaneously to provide the content to multiple users.
9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the profile information of the
first and the second communication device is retrieved from at least one
profile server.
10.The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said method provides the
content to the users by means of advanced neural network and targeting
techniques.
1 1. A system for providing content to users, the system comprising:
a first communication device for initiating an event to be terminated at
a second communication device,
a switching means for receiving the event from the first
communication device, said switching means adapted to determine
event information,
- at least one profile server for determining profile of the first and the
second communication device based on the event information,
an advertisement server for receiving the event information directly or
indirectly from the switching means,
a telecommunication server for retrieving profile information from the
at least one profile server, said telecommunication server determining
the content to be sent to the firsi communication device based on the
profile information,
means for generating an interrupting signal from the second
communication device, and
means for terminating or modifying the event on receiving the
interrupting signal.
12. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the at least one profile server
determines the profile of the first communication device by a real time
behavior of the first communication device.
13. The system as claimed in claim 1 1, wherein said system furthef comprises
means for recording the amount of data transmitted by the
telecommunication server.
I4.The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the amount of the data
transmitted is recorded for billing purposes.
15. The system as claimed in claim 1 1, wherein the first communication device
and the second communication device is a mobile phone, personnel digital
assistant, smart phone or a compatible device thereof.
16.The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the event initiated through
which the content is provided to the users is SMS, MMS, wireless access
protocol, all, or combination thereof.
17. The system as claimed in claim 16, wherein on initiation of the call event,
the content is provided to the end users through caller ring back tone or
interactive voice response mechanism. -
34
18. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein said system is configured to
operate in batch mode, wherein multiple events are occurring
simultaneously to provide the content to multiple users.
19. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the content is provided to the
users by means of advanced neural network and targeting techniques.