JP2002279286A - Advertising fee determining device and advertising fee determining method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To determine the advertising rates of an advertisement displayed on a device and an advertisement displayed together with information related to the device. SOLUTION: A sales management server 5 collects information from a dealer terminal 6 and manages information on the sales result of the device. An advertisement management server 1 is provided with an advertising rate computing part 14 for determining the advertising rate of an advertisement displayed on a display part 32 together with the information related to the device. The advertising rate computing part 14 acquires the sales result data of the device from the sales management server 5 and determines the advertising rate on the basis of this data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technology for determining an advertisement fee, and particularly to a technology for determining an advertisement fee for an advertisement directly displayed on a device or an advertisement displayed together with information related to the device.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve high advertising effectiveness, it is effective to clarify the target of the advertisement and to make sure that the targeted persons see the advertisement. As a related art that is not known, there is a technology of displaying an advertisement together with related information when displaying information related to a device such as a printer on a display screen of a computer. In this related technique, data of an advertisement to be displayed can be acquired via a network. Therefore, in the related art, the advertisement fee is determined according to the number of times of accessing the advertisement data.

In this related technology, if the target of the advertisement is a user of the device, a high advertisement effect can be expected, but the absolute number of users who see the advertisement largely depends on the sales situation of the device. Become.

A first object of the present invention is to provide a technique for determining an advertisement fee for an advertisement to be displayed together with information related to a device.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a technique for determining an advertisement fee for an advertisement to be displayed on a device.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention performs the following processing. That is, information indicating the sales performance of the device is received. Then, based on the sales performance, the advertisement fee of the advertisement to be displayed together with the information related to the device is determined.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall view of an advertisement providing system according to a first embodiment to which the present invention is applied. The system includes an advertisement management server 1, a content server 2, a client 4, and a sales management server 5, each of which is connected via a network 8. The client 4 includes an input device 31 such as a keyboard and a mouse,
A display device 32 such as a CRT or a liquid crystal display;
The ROM drive 35 is connected. A store terminal 6 is connected to the sales management server 5 via a network 9.

The present system causes the display device 32 to display an advertisement together with information related to the device.
Thereby, an advertisement can be effectively presented to the user of the device. This device may be a peripheral device such as a printer and a scanner that can be used by the client 4. In addition to this, in general, devices that can be used by directly or indirectly connecting to a computer, home appliances used independently of a computer,
A device such as an audio device may be used.

[0010] The advertisement management server 1, the content server 2,
Client 4, sales management server 5, and store terminal 6
Consists of computer systems composed of electronic computers. Each configuration or each function described below is realized, for example, by executing a program.

The advertisement management server 1 includes a communication control unit 11
An advertisement information database 12, an advertisement display monitoring unit 13,
It includes an advertisement fee calculation unit 14, a billing processing unit 15, and an advertiser database 18.

The communication control unit 11 includes:
The communication between the client 4 and the sales management server 5 is controlled. For example, the communication control unit 11 receives a device ID 121 (see FIG. 2) from the client 4.
The banner advertisement image 12 corresponding to the device ID 121
3, the identification ID 124, and the URL 125 are returned.
Also, as information indicating that the advertisement content has been acquired from the content server 2 from the client 4, the identification I
D124 and the like are accepted. Further, the communication control unit 11
Information on the sales performance of the device is received from the sales management server 5.

The advertisement information database 12 stores information for providing advertisements, and manages inputs and outputs. For example,
The advertisement information 120 as shown in FIG. 2 is stored. The advertisement information 120 in FIG. 2 is registered in advance by an advertiser. The advertisement information 120 includes, as data items, a device ID 121, a device characteristic 122, a banner advertisement image 123, an identification ID 124, and a URL (Uniform).
Resource Locator) 125.
The advertisement information database 12 receives the device ID 121 and outputs a corresponding banner advertisement image 123. More preferably, identification ID124, URL12
5 may be output together.

The device ID 121 is information for identifying a device. That is, the device ID 121 can identify the type of device such as a printer or a scanner, and each product within the same device type. The device characteristics 122 represent the characteristics of each device. For example,
In FIG. 2, the device characteristic 122 is the printer 122a.
, A scanner 122b, and a high image quality 122c. The banner advertisement image 123 is image data for a banner advertisement. This image data is transferred to the client 4 and displayed as a banner advertisement. Here, the image data may be data stored as text data in addition to data stored as image data. The identification ID 124 is an ID assigned to uniquely identify the image data of the banner advertisement image 123. The URL 125 is a URL of advertisement information corresponding to each banner advertisement image 123. This advertisement information is stored in the advertisement content storage unit 21 of the content server 2.

The advertisement display monitoring unit 13 monitors the acquisition status of the advertisement information displayed by the client 4. For example, based on the advertisement information provided by the advertisement management server 1, the number of times that the client 4 accesses the content server 2 is counted. Specifically, when the file name, identification ID 124, or URL 125 of the banner advertisement image 123 is sent as information indicating that the client 4 has accessed the advertisement information, the file name, identification ID 124, or The number of accesses is counted for each URL 125. The advertisement display monitoring unit 13 stores the number of accesses. Further, the advertisement display monitoring unit 13 outputs
Therefore, information indicating that the advertisement content is actually displayed may be received. Then, the advertisement display monitoring unit 13 may count and store the number of times the advertisement content is actually displayed.

The advertisement fee calculator 14 calculates an advertisement fee charged to the advertisement provider. For example, the sales management server 5
Advertisement fee is determined based on the sales performance of each device transmitted from. The higher the sales volume, the higher the advertising fee, or the higher the ranking or market share of the sales volume, the higher the advertising fee. In particular,
The advertisement fee may be determined according to the sales volume ranking table 601 shown in FIG. 6A, or the advertisement fee may be determined according to the (cumulative or monthly) sales volume table 602 shown in FIG. 6B. Alternatively, the advertisement fee may be determined according to the market share table 603 shown in FIG. Table 601, 602, 60
3 is held by the advertisement fee calculation unit 14. In addition, a fixed basic fee according to the sales performance and a metered fee according to the access status to each content server 2 counted by the advertisement display monitoring unit 13 may be combined. This is because the advertisement effect is considered to increase as the number of accesses increases, so that the advertisement fee is changed according to the number of accesses.

Thus, when an advertisement is displayed on the display device 32 of the client 4 together with the information related to the device, the advertisement fee to be paid by the advertiser is determined according to the sales performance of the device.

The accounting section 15 performs an accounting process for the advertiser. For example, for each advertiser, the advertisement fee calculation unit 1
4 outputs a list of the calculated amount of money and the like, and performs settlement at a later date based on the output list. Alternatively, a settlement account number, a credit card number, or the like may be acquired from the advertiser database 18 and transmitted to a settlement organization (not shown), for example, a computer of a bank or a credit card company, for settlement.

The advertiser database 18 stores information on advertisers providing advertisements to the present system. For example, it stores at least an account number for settlement of each advertiser, a credit card number, and the like.

The content server 2 is an advertisement site provided with an advertisement content storage unit 21. Each content server 2 may be a site independently operated by each advertiser,
The agent may be operated collectively. The advertisement content storage unit 21 stores advertisement information prepared by each advertiser. A URL is assigned to each piece of advertisement information as address information on the network. This URL is used as location information for accessing each piece of information.

The sales management server 5 includes a communication control unit 51,
An aggregation processing unit 52 and a sales performance database 53 are provided.

The communication control unit 51 controls communication with the advertisement management server 1 and the shop terminal 6. For example, device sales data is received from the store terminal 6. The sales volume data is, specifically, a total of monthly sales volume for each device ID. Further, the communication control unit 51 transmits to the advertisement management server 1 the information regarding the sales performance of the device stored in the performance database 53.

The sales performance database 53 stores information on the sales performance of the device. For example, it stores the cumulative sales volume, monthly sales volume, ranking by cumulative or monthly sales volume, market share, and the like of each device.

The tabulation processing section 52 tabulates the sales data of the devices transmitted from the store terminal 6 and stores the data in the sales record database 53. For example, the monthly sales volume and the cumulative sales volume are obtained for each device ID.
It also seeks rankings and market shares based on monthly or cumulative unit sales.

The client 4 includes a communication control unit 41, a display control unit 42, an advertisement information acquisition unit 43, an advertisement information storage unit 44, and a CD-ROM read unit 46.

The communication control unit 41 determines whether or not access to the advertisement management server 1 and the content server 2 is possible, and if it is possible to access, controls communication with each of them. For example, it outputs the device ID or the identification ID or the URL for transmission to the advertisement management server 1. Further, it receives the banner advertisement image 123 and the like from the advertisement management server 1.
Further, it accesses the content server 2 and acquires the advertisement content.

The input / output controller 42 controls the input device 31 and the display device 32 to control the input / output of the client 4 to the user. For example, when the user operates the input device 31 to specify a device and inputs an instruction to open a manual, the instruction is accepted. Also, the input / output control unit 42
Displays on the display device 32 an image based on the utilization support information 302 read from the CD-ROM and the image data of the banner advertisement image 123 acquired by the advertisement information acquisition unit 43 from the advertisement management server 1. FIG. 4 shows an example of the manual screen 100 at that time.

The manual screen 100 has a manual information display area 101 and an advertisement information display area 102. The manual information display area 101 has a CD-ROM
The manual information recorded as utilization support information 302 in 30 is read out and displayed. Utilization support information 30
2 will be described later. In the advertisement display area 102, a banner advertisement image 123 acquired from the advertisement management server 1 is displayed. Note that the advertisement display area 102 does not necessarily have to be in the manual screen 100. That is, it may be displayed in a separate window separate from the manual screen 100.

The input / output control unit 42 further accepts an input by the user using the input device 31 to select the advertisement display area 102. In addition, the input / output control unit 42 displays the advertising content acquired from the content server 2 on the display device 32. When the display of the advertisement content is completed, the input / output control unit 42 may notify the advertisement management server 1 of the completion.

The advertisement information acquisition unit 43 acquires advertisement information from the advertisement management server 1, the content server 2, and the advertisement information storage unit 44 via the network 8. For example, the CD-ROM reading unit 46
Is output to the advertisement management server 1 for sending to the advertisement management server 1, and the banner advertisement image 123 corresponding to the device ID is acquired. Further, preferably, an identification ID 124 corresponding to the banner advertisement image 123 and a URL 125
May be acquired together.

Upon receiving a notification from the input / output control unit 42 that the advertisement display area 102 has been selected, the advertisement information acquisition unit 43 acquires the advertisement content of the content server 2 indicated by the URL 125. Preferably, when the advertisement management server 1 cannot be accessed, the advertisement information acquisition unit 43 reads a banner advertisement image from the advertisement information storage unit 44.

The advertisement information storage section 44 stores image data for banner advertisement. This banner advertisement image data is the same as the banner advertisement image 123 stored in the advertisement information database 12. Preferably, the banner advertisement image 123 may be acquired from the advertisement information database 12 and updated when the advertisement management server 1 is accessible.

The CD-ROM reading section 46 is a CD-R
When the OM 30 is mounted on the CD-ROM drive 35, the information stored in the CD-ROM 30 is read. Specifically, the device ID 30 corresponding to the device accepted by the input / output control unit 42 based on the user's instruction
1 and utilization support information 302 are read out.

Here, an example of information recorded on the CD-ROM 30 is shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 3, utilization support information 302 (302 a, 302 a) of a device related to a computer including a peripheral device such as a printer and a scanner is used.
b,...) to each device ID 301 (301
a, 301b,...). Therefore, the CD-ROM reading section 46 reads the device ID 301 and the utilization support information 302 from the CD-ROM 30 in which information as shown in FIG. 3 is recorded. The utilization support information 302 includes, for example, a handling method of each device, a troubleshooting method, a basic operation method of each device, various utilization methods of each device, and the like. The same CD-ROM 30 can store utilization support information for a plurality of types of devices.

The device ID and the utilization support information may be stored in a storage unit (not shown) of the client 4 and read therefrom.

Next, an outline of processing of the present advertisement providing system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG.
9 is a flowchart showing a process in a case where a printer manual is displayed in the advertisement providing system.

First, the user operates the CD-ROM drive 35.
Then, a CD-ROM 30 in which manual information of the printer is recorded as utilization support information 302 is set. Then, the user designates the model of the printer and opens the manual (S101). The CD-ROM reading unit 46 reads the device ID 301 and the utilization support information 302 corresponding to the designated model from the CD-ROM 30 (S10).
2). The read utilization support information 302 is displayed on the display device 3
2 is displayed. The communication control unit 41 is the advertisement management server 1
Check whether it is possible to access to (S1
03).

When the client 4 can access the advertisement management server 1, the client 4 transfers the obtained device ID to the advertisement management server 1 (S104). In the advertisement management server 1, the advertisement information database 12 extracts the image data of the banner advertisement image 123 corresponding to the received device ID, the identification ID 124, and the URL 125 and returns them to the client 4. The client 4 receives this and causes the display device 32 to display an image based on the image data of the banner advertisement image 123 (S105). FIG. 4 shows the state of the manual display screen 100 at that time.

When the user clicks the banner advertisement image 123 displayed in the advertisement information display area 102 with a mouse or the like, the input / output control unit 42 receives the click (S106).
Upon accepting the click, the advertisement information acquisition unit 43 sets the UR
The advertisement information specified by L125 is acquired from the content server 2, and the input / output control unit 42 displays it on the display device 32 (S107). The communication control unit 41 uses the identification ID 124
Is sent to the advertisement management server 1, and the advertisement management server 1 counts the number of accesses to the advertisement content (S10).
8).

In S106, the banner advertisement image 123
If is not clicked, after a certain period of time has elapsed since the display of the banner advertisement image, the flow returns to S104, and the subsequent processing is repeated. At this time, from the advertisement management server 1,
Another banner advertisement image 123 is received.

In S103, if the advertisement management server 1 cannot be accessed, the advertisement information acquisition unit 43 acquires a banner advertisement image from the advertisement information storage unit 44 of the client 4, and the input / output control unit 42 causes the display device 32 (S111). When a certain period of time has elapsed since the display of the banner advertisement image (S112), the process returns to S111, where a different banner advertisement image is acquired and displayed again. This is repeated while the manual display screen 100 is being displayed.

With the system according to the present embodiment, when displaying the utilization support information of a device, an advertisement relating to the device can be displayed.

The above-mentioned advertisement may be displayed not only on the display screen of the utilization support information but also on another display screen for displaying information related to the device. For example, a progress meter display screen 50 for displaying the degree of progress of the printing process during printing as shown in FIG.
0 or a property screen 600 for setting the device as shown in FIG.
1, 601 may be provided.

In the first embodiment, an advertisement is displayed on the client 4 together with the related information of the device. On the other hand, in a second embodiment described below, an information display unit is provided, and an advertisement is displayed on a device directly connectable to a network.

FIG. 9 is an overall configuration diagram of an advertisement display system according to the second embodiment. Components having the same configuration or function as those of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

In this embodiment, the device 7 is directly connected to the network 8 instead of the client. The device 7 includes a communication control unit 71, a display control unit 72, an advertisement information acquisition unit 73, and a display unit 75 that displays various information such as advertisement information.

The communication control unit 71 controls communication with the advertisement management server 1 and the content server 2. For example,
The device ID is output for transmission to the advertisement management server 1. Further, it receives a URL or the like from the advertisement management server 1. Further, it accesses the content server 2 and acquires the advertisement content.

The display control section 72 controls the display section 75 to display an advertisement based on the advertisement obtained by the advertisement information obtaining section 73 from the content server 2.

The advertisement information acquisition unit 73 outputs the device ID of the device 7 stored in the storage unit (not shown) for transmission to the advertisement management server 1, and outputs the device ID and the URL1.
Acquire 25. Further, the advertisement information acquiring unit 73 determines that the UR
The advertisement content of the content server 2 indicated by L125 is acquired. The advertisement information acquisition unit 73 may acquire the advertisement content at a fixed time interval or at an irregular time.

According to the present embodiment, when an advertisement is displayed on the display unit of a device connected to a network and having a display unit, the advertisement fee to be paid by the advertiser is determined according to the sales performance of the device.

[0051]

According to the present invention, it is possible to determine an advertisement fee for an advertisement to be displayed together with information relating to a device.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to determine an advertisement fee for an advertisement to be displayed on a device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an overall configuration of an advertisement providing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of advertisement information according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of information stored in a CD-ROM according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a manual display screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the advertisement providing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C are explanatory diagrams each showing an example of an advertisement fee table according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a progress meter display screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a property display screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an overall configuration of an advertisement providing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Advertisement management server 2 ... Content server 4 ... Client 5 ... Sales management server 6 ... Dealer terminal 8, 9 ... Network 30 ... CD-ROM 31 ... Input device 32 ... Display device 35 ... CD-ROM drive.

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for determining an advertisement fee of an advertisement to be displayed together with information related to a device, wherein: first storage means for storing information indicating sales performance of the device; Means for determining an advertisement fee based on the information indicating the sales performance stored in the storage means. 2. The advertisement fee determining device according to claim 1, wherein the information related to the device is displayed on an electronic device connected to the device. 3. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: a second storage unit configured to store information on a number of times the advertisement is displayed, wherein the unit determining the advertisement fee indicates the sales performance stored in the first storage unit. The advertisement fee determination device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the advertisement fee is determined based on information and information on the number of times the advertisement stored in the second storage unit is displayed. 4. An advertisement information storage unit in which advertisement information is stored, further comprising a third storage unit for storing information on the number of times of access, wherein the unit for determining the advertisement fee is the first storage unit The advertisement fee is determined based on the information indicating the sales performance stored in the third storage unit and the information on the number of times the advertisement information storage unit is accessed stored in the third storage unit. Advertising fee determination device. 5. The information indicating the sales performance of the device,
The advertisement fee determination device according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement fee determination device is the cumulative number of units sold. 6. The information indicating the sales performance of the device,
The advertising fee determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the ranking is a sales ranking of the device within a certain period. 7. The information indicating the sales performance of the device,
The advertising fee determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, which is a market share of the device. 8. The advertisement fee determining device according to claim 1, wherein the information related to the device is utilization support information of the device. 9. An apparatus for determining an advertisement fee of an advertisement to be displayed on the display unit of a product including a display unit for displaying information received via a network, wherein the information indicating the sales performance of the product is provided. An advertisement fee determining device comprising: a storage unit; and a unit for determining an advertisement fee according to the sales performance. 10. An advertisement management system including a sales management server and an advertisement management server, wherein the sales management server receives sales data on a sales quantity of a device from a plurality of store terminals, respectively; A total processing unit that totals the total number, the advertisement management server obtains the total result, an advertisement fee calculating unit that calculates an advertisement fee according to the total result, and the calculated advertisement. An advertisement management system comprising: a charging processing unit that charges a fee. 11. An advertisement fee determining method for receiving information indicating a sales performance of a device and determining an advertisement fee of an advertisement to be displayed together with information related to the device according to the sales performance of the device. 12. An advertisement fee for an advertisement to be displayed on the display unit according to the sales performance of the product, the information indicating the sales performance of the product having the display unit for displaying the information received via the network is received. How to determine the advertising fee.