On-line interactive system and method for providing content and advertising information to a targeted set of viewers

Abstract

Prioritized queues of advertising and content data are generated by a queue builder and sent to an on-line queue manager. A computer mediated communications network provides content and subscriber data to the queue builder and receives content segment play lists from the on-line queue manager. An exposure accounting module calculates and stores information about the number of exposures of targeted material received by subscribers and generates billing information. An information warehouse manager is employed to receive data from advertisers' data bases and third party sources as well as from the computer mediated communications network.

1 . A method of operating a computerized system that targets advertisements to a plurality of users of a communications network, comprising: 
 defining advertising campaigns and defining advertisements to be displayed to users of the communications network in accordance with the advertising campaigns in response to a particular action taken by a user in an application running on the communications network;    defining at least one frequency constraint for an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements in the advertising campaign which requires that at least a preset amount of time passes between successive displays of that particular advertisement to a particular user;    receiving independent requests for advertisements from users taking particular actions at different times and in different locations in applications running on the communications network;    in response to a request for an advertisement from a particular user taking at least one particular action in an application running on the communications network, selecting at least one advertisement from the plurality of advertisements in the advertising campaign in accordance with an advertisement selection process and providing an identification of the selected advertisement to the requesting application, wherein, in the particular advertisement selection process, a particular user's profile information that includes at least information about actions taken by the particular user in an application running on the communications network is compared to a predefined advertisement selection rule;    determining whether the selected advertisement has a frequency constraint associated therewith; and    if the selected advertisement has a frequency constraint associated therewith, controlling the advertisement selection process such that the selected advertisement is not again selected in response to a request in connection with the same user at least until the preset amount of time passes from the selection of that advertisement for that user.    
     
     
         2 . The method as defined in  claim 1 , further including assigning values to each of the advertisements, wherein each value indicates a present importance of the advertisement relative to the other advertisements based on at least one predetermined criteria, and further including using the values in the advertising selection process to select an advertisement in response to a request for an advertisement from an application running on the communications network.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further including:  
       defining exposure goals for the advertising campaigns;  
       monitoring exposures of advertisements in the network for each advertising campaign; 
 determining for each campaign if a current number of exposures for the campaign is consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign; and  
 if the current number of exposures for a campaign is not consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign, adjusting at least one of the values in order to influence which advertisement is selected in response to future requests from an application running on the communications network.  
 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein determining whether a current number of exposures is consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign includes comparing a percentage of the current number of exposures to the desired number of exposures with a percentage of an amount of the time the campaign has been running to the given period of time for the campaign.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein determining if a current number of exposures is consistent with the exposure goal of the campaign includes determining if the campaign is behind or ahead of schedule relative to the exposure goal.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein, if it is determined that the campaign is behind schedule, adjusting at least one of the values includes increasing a value of an advertisement associated with the campaign in order to increase future exposures thereof.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein, if it is determined that the campaign is ahead of schedule, adjusting at least one of the values includes decreasing a value of an advertisement associated with the campaign in order to reduce future exposures thereof.  
     
     
         8 . A method of operating a computerized system that targets advertisements to users of a communications network, comprising: 
 defining advertising campaigns and defining advertisements to be displayed to users of the communications network in accordance with the advertising campaigns in response to a particular action taken by a user in an application running on the communications network;    defining at least one frequency constraint for an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements in the advertising campaign which requires that at least a preset amount of time passes between successive displays of that particular advertisement to a particular user;    defining at least one maximum repeat value for an advertisement that defines a maximum number of times a particular advertisement is to be selected for the same user;    receiving independent requests for advertisements from users taking particular actions at different times and in different locations in applications running on the communications network;    in response to a request for an advertisement from a particular user taking at least one particular action in an application running on the communications network, selecting at least one advertisement from the plurality of advertisements in the advertising campaign in accordance with an advertisement selection process and providing an identification of the selected advertisement to the requesting application, wherein, in the particular advertisement selection process, a particular user's profile information that includes at least information about actions taken by the particular user in an application running on the communications network is compared to a predefined advertisement selection rule;    determining whether the selected advertisement has a frequency constraint associated therewith;    if the selected advertisement has a frequency constraint associated therewith, controlling the advertisement selection process such that the selected advertisement is not again selected in response to a request in connection with the same user at least until the preset amount of time passes from the selection of that advertisement for that user;    determining whether the selected advertisement has a maximum repeat value associated therewith; and    if the selected advertisement has a maximum repeat value associated therewith, controlling the advertisement selection process such that the selected advertisement is not again available for selection in connection with the same user after the maximum repeat value has been reached for that user.    
     
     
         9 . The method as defined in  claim 8 , further including assigning values to each of the advertisements, wherein each value indicates a present importance of the advertisement relative to the other advertisements based on at least one predetermined criteria, and further including using the values in the advertising selection process to select an advertisement in response to a request for an advertisement from an application running on the communications network.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further including: 
 defining exposure goals for the advertising campaigns;    monitoring exposures of advertisements in the network for each advertising campaign;    determining for each campaign if a current number of exposures for the campaign is consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign; and    if the current number of exposures for a campaign is not consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign, adjusting at least one of the values in order to influence which advertisement is selected in response to future requests from an application running on the communications network.    
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein determining whether a current number of exposures is consistent with the exposure goal for the campaign includes comparing a percentage of the current number of exposures to the desired number of exposures with a percentage of an amount of the time the campaign has been running to the given period of time for the campaign.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein determining if a current number of exposures is consistent with the exposure goal of the campaign includes determining if the campaign is behind or ahead of schedule relative to the exposure goal.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein, if it is determined that the campaign is behind schedule, adjusting at least one of the values includes increasing a value of an advertisement associated with the campaign in order to increase future exposures thereof.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein, if it is determined that the campaign is ahead of schedule, adjusting at least one of the values includes decreasing a value of an advertisement associated with the campaign in order to reduce future exposures thereof.  
     
     
         15 . A method of operating a computerized system that targets advertisements to a plurality of users of a communications network, comprising: 
 defining advertising campaigns and defining advertisements to be displayed to users of the communications network in accordance with the advertising campaigns in response to a particular action taken by a user in an application running on the communications network;    defining at least one maximum repeat value for an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements in the advertising campaign that defines a maximum number of times a particular advertisement is to be selected for the same user;    receiving independent requests for advertisements from users taking particular actions at different times and in different locations in applications running on the communications network;    in response to ea a request for an advertisement from a particular user taking at least one particular action in an application running on the communications network, selecting at least one advertisement from the plurality of advertisements in the advertising campaign in accordance with an advertisement selection process and providing an identification of the selected advertisement to the requesting application, wherein, in the particular advertisement selection process, a particular user's profile information that includes at least information about actions taken by the particular user in an application running on the communications network is compared to a predefined advertisement selection rule;    determining whether the selected advertisement has a maximum repeat value associated therewith; and    if the selected advertisement has a maximum repeat value associated therewith, controlling the advertisement selection process such that the selected advertisement is not again available for selection in connection with the same user after the maximum repeat value has been reached for that user.    
     
     
         16 . A method of operating a computerized system that targets advertisements to a plurality of users of a communications network, comprising: 
 defining advertising campaigns and defining advertisements to be displayed to users of the communications network in accordance with the advertising campaigns in response to a particular action taken by a user in an application running on the communications network;    defining at least one maximum repeat value for an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements in the advertising campaign that defines a maximum number of times a particular advertisement is to be selected for the same user during a defined period;    receiving independent requests for advertisements from users taking particular actions at different times and in different locations in applications running on the communications network;    in response to a request for an advertisement from a particular user taking at least one particular action in an application running on the communications network, selecting at least one advertisement from the plurality of advertisements in the advertising campaign in accordance with an advertisement selection process and providing an identification of the selected advertisement to the requesting application, wherein, in the particular advertisement selection process, a particular user's profile information that includes at least information about actions taken by the particular user in an application running on the communications network is compared to a predefined advertisement selection rule;    determining whether the selected advertisement has a maximum repeat value associated therewith; and    if the selected advertisement has a maximum repeat value associated therewith, controlling the advertisement selection process such that the selected advertisement is not again available for selection during the defined period for the same user after the maximum repeat value has been reached for that user.