AU4263100A - An advertising system - Google Patents

Description

P/00/012 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION PETTY PATENT

(ORIGINAL)

Name of Applicant: WEEKLY SPECIALS LIMITED, A.C.N. 087 277 138, of 126 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, Queensland 4006, Australia Actual Inventor(s): Address for Service: Invention Title: DAVIES COLLISON CAVE, Patent Attorneys, of 1 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia "AN ADVERTISING SYSTEM" The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: -1- P:\OPER\DBW)f I7. Ml-DIVdoc-23)6AW/) -2- AN ADVERTISING SYSTEM The present invention relates to an advertising system and to a method of advertising, and in particular, to a method of attracting traffic to an Internet site.

Print and TV media account for the majority of funds spent on advertising, and radio advertising accounts for only a small proportion of the advertising budget available to most advertisers. The popularity of print and TV media advertising arises mainly from the ability of this media to provide effective visual displays of the goods and/or services (hereinafter referred to as "products") being advertised. Such visual displays are of course not available to radio advertisers. Accordingly, it is generally considered that the impact of radio advertising is far less effective than print and TV media advertising. Thus whilst a radio broadcast may have large audiences, the ability to advertise to that audience is limited. The Internet also has S•a large potential audience, but for various reasons, many opportunities for promoting products on the Internet have not been taken. One of the reasons for this is the problems associated with attracting potential customers to an advertiser's Internet site from amongst the large number 0 of sites on the Internet, and the costs associated with establishing and maintaining an effective site which attracts traffic. This problem is considerable, and nearly every publisher of an Internet site wishes to attract large amounts of traffic to their site.

S0. It is desired to provide a method and system which alleviates the above problems and provides advertisers with better results from their advertising, or at least provides a useful alternative.

In accordance with the present invention there is provided a method of attracting traffic to a network site, including: publishing a network site for a plurality of advertisers, the site having an index to the advertisers; and advertising the site with advertisements for the advertisers.

P:\OPER\DBWV)41I7.4 )-DIV.doc.-23A)6AO) -3- Preferably the advertising is on a medium other than the Internet, such as radio.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention is hereinafter described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of an advertising system; and Figures 2 to 5 are web pages of an Internet site of the system.

An advertising system 1, as shown in Figure 1, includes a web server 2 which hosts a web site that is accessible by potential customers using computer systems 4 over a communications network 6, such as the Internet. The site maintained on the server 2 is a i cooperative site for advertisers who may have their own computer systems 8 which can communicate with the web server 2 via the network 6. When an advertiser registers with the site 2 so as to begin advertising on the site, the advertiser is allocated to a category based on the products the advertiser wishes to sell. The site has a wide variety of product categories to cater for different advertisers, as shown in a main menu 20 of the site, in Figure 3. The main menu 20 and its sub-menus, as described below, constitute an index to advertisers of the site.

By providing an index structure which is based on a generic set of product categories, instead of the particular products offered by advertisers or the actual advertisers themselves, the site is able to be used as a main advertising vehicle for a large number of advertisers who provide products in disparate categories .Altemrnatively, the advertisers all have to regularly advertise the site on one or more selected mediums, such as radio. The site has one entry point, being one main page, as shown in Figure 2, which is linked to one URL, such as http://www.weeklyspecials.com.au. All of the advertisers of the site are able to and do, and if desired can be compelled to advertise the one URL, instead of different URLs for each advertiser. This significantly enhances the effectiveness of advertising the site when a large number of advertisers become registered and agree to advertise the site. As a condition of registering with and using the site, advertisers elect the level of advertising they will undertake of the URL and this determines the fees payable by the advertiser to the publishers of the site.

Depending on the extent of advertising which an advertiser agrees to undertake, the advertiser may in fact be reimbursed by the publishers. Alternatively, the advertiser agrees to continue P:\OPER\DBWVH)417.(M)-DIV.doc-23A)(AX) -4or to commence advertising on a designated medium, such as radio, and agrees to include the URL in all advertising. The advertisers may therefore use their systems 8 to contact media outlet sites or advertising agency sites to advertise the address or location of the site on various types of traditional media, such as television 12 and radio 14. For radio, the fact that a number of advertisers 8 are using radio broadcasts 14 to recite the address and location of the site, renders this form of advertising extremely effective due to the continual repetition of the address. This gives rise to high levels of recollection of the location of the site by customers 4 so as to increase the level of traffic to the site.

The site also ensures that initial levels of traffic are maintained and that customers 4 *continually revert to the site, by providing periodic specials for the products of the advertisers advertised on the site. After selecting an enter link on the main page 22, a common page 24, :as shown in Figure 3, is accessed and displayed for customers. A list of current weekly specials of products 26 is provided with associated links to the products. The main menu 20 with the product categories is also displayed.

The architecture of the site is such that the index is always displayed in its own main frame once the site has been entered from the main page 22 and all other pages selected via *0000* any of the links provided on the pages are displayed in a separate frame or frames from the index. This ensures the index is always present and customers are able to revert back to the main menu from one of the sub-menus 28, as shown in Figures 4 and 5, at any time giving all advertisers on the site the opportunity to have their products viewed by a visitor to the site no matter what advertiser's ad the visitor heard or saw.

Once a product category has been selected from the main menu 20, a sub-menu 28 for that category is accessed and displayed, as shown in Figures 4 and 5, including a list of advertisers for the selected category. Each displayed advertiser in the sub-menu 28 has an associated link which when selected accesses a page 30 for that advertiser. The access page may be a main page for an entire site for the advertiser. The advertiser's site can be hosted on the web server 2 or any other server connected to the Internet. Accordingly, advertisers who P:\OPERIDBW\(X)417.(M-DIVdoc-23)6A~KI have already had their own sites can still utilise the benefits of the cooperative site maintained on the server 2 by having a link to their site from the publisher's site or having the publisher build them a site. Advertisers who do not wish to go to the expense of producing their own sites can still have an Internet presence using the cooperative site maintained on the server 2.

Many modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

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Claims (3)

1. A method of attracting traffic to a network site, including: publishing a network site for a plurality of advertisers, the site having an index to the advertisers; and advertising the site with advertisements for the advertisers.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the advertising is on media other than the Internet. 4 w

03. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the index includes a category menu of categories for the products with links to respective advertiser menus for advertisers having products in the categories. t oo* DATED this 2 3 rd day of June, 2000 e**9 S o: 20 WEEKLY SPECIALS LIMITED By its Patent Attorneys DAVIES COLLISON CAVE