WO2013053010A1

WO2013053010A1 - Method and system for delivering electronic advertising

Info

Publication number: WO2013053010A1
Application number: PCT/AU2012/001235
Authority: WO
Inventors: Daniel John FILMER; Jarrod Scott O'CONNELL; Matthew Peterson; Lahiru Anuruddha PERERA
Original assignee: Txt4Coffee Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2011-10-12
Filing date: 2012-10-12
Publication date: 2013-04-18
Also published as: AU2012323771A1

Abstract

A method of delivering electronic advertising including the steps of: receiving a retailer profile from a retailer wherein the retailer profile includes a location of the retailer; receiving a consumer profile from a consumer wherein the consumer profile includes a consumer demographic of the consumer; receiving one or more marketing profiles from one or more advertisers wherein the one or more marketing profiles include a geographical area and a target demographic; receiving an acceptance of an order for a product or service from the retailer; automatically selecting one or more of the marketing profiles where the consumer demographic substantially matches the target demographic and where the location of the retailer is substantially within the geographical area; and sending one or more advertisements, associated with the selected one or more marketing profiles, to the consumer.

Description

TITLE

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DELIVERING ELECTRONIC

ADVERTISING FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to a method and system for delivering electronic advertising. In particular the invention delivers advertising electronically to a target demographic. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In order to promote a product or service, businesses often use advertising. There are many forms of advertising such as television and radio commercials, and written forms of advertising, for example, in newspapers and on billboards.

The advertising may be targeted by selecting a geographical area. For example, medical products may be advertised on billboards near to hospitals and sporting equipment may be advertised on television during a major sporting event.

More recently, advertising has been targeted electronically using the Internet. By obtaining an IP address of a computing device of a user, a location of the user may be determined. Once the user's location has been identified, commercials may be displayed on a website of products and services in the area that may be of interest to the user.

It is also known for advertising to be targeted to registered users of websites (for example Facebook® and Twitter®) according to information supplied by the user, such as an age, a sex, hobbies and interests. In addition, it is known that search engine websites deliver advertising based on search keywords entered by the user.

In other prior art systems, it is known to send advertisements to a user based on the user's location obtained from a Global Positioning System (GPS) device installed in the user's computing device, and on a user's demographic. Furthermore it is known to insert advertisements into emails confirming an order of a product.

However, all of these forms of advertising are broad in their application and often do not effectively target specific demographics and geographical areas.

There is therefore a need for an improved system and method for delivering electronic advertising.

The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that the prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia or elsewhere.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of some embodiments of the present invention to provide consumers with improvements and advantages over the above described prior art, and/or overcome and alleviate one or more of the above described disadvantages of the prior art, and/or provide a useful commercial choice.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one form, although not necessarily the only or broadest form, the invention resides in a method of delivering electronic advertising including the steps of:

receiving a retailer profile from a retailer wherein the retailer profile includes a location of the retailer;

receiving a consumer profile from a consumer wherein the consumer profile includes a consumer demographic of the consumer;

receiving one or more marketing profiles from one or more advertisers wherein the one or more marketing profiles include a geographical area and a target demographic;

receiving an acceptance of an order for a product or service from the retailer;

automatically selecting one or more of the marketing profiles where the consumer demographic substantially matches the target demographic and where the location of the retailer is substantially within the geographical area; and

sending one or more advertisements, associated with the selected one or more marketing profiles, to the consumer.

In another form, the invention resides in a system for delivering electronic advertising, the system including:

a server connected to the internet, the server including:

a memory coupled to a processor, wherein the memory includes computer readable program code components configured to cause:

receiving an acceptance of an order for a product or service from the retailer;

Preferably, the order for a product or service is received from the consumer and the order is sent to the retailer.

Preferably, the geographical area includes a distance from the retailer.

Preferably, the geographical area includes a distance from a home address and/or a work address of the consumer.

Preferably, the geographical area includes an area surrounding a line between an address of the retailer and the home and/or work address of the consumer.

Preferably, the geographical area is related to the position of the consumer obtained from a GPS device in the consumer's computing device

Preferably, the geographical area includes one or more post codes.

Preferably, the marketing profile includes a target business sector.

Preferably, the step of selecting one or more of the marketing profiles includes the step of substantially matching the type of goods sold and/or services provided by the retailer with the target business sector.

Preferably, the consumer demographic includes one or more of an age, a sex, a marital status, a number of children and interests of the consumer.

Preferably, the target demographic includes one or more of an age, a sex, a marital status, a number of children and interests.

Preferably, the advertisement is a text message sent from the server to the consumer.

Preferably, the advertisement is sent to the consumer in an email message.

Preferably, the advertisement is sent to the consumer for displaying in a smartphone application and/or for displaying on a web page.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system for delivering electronic advertising according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of delivering electronic advertising according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG 3 shows a diagram illustrating a retailer registration and order process according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG 4 shows a diagram illustrating a consumer registration and order process according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG 5 shows a diagram illustrating a process of sending advertising to consumers according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG 6 shows a diagram illustrating a process of sending advertising to consumers from retailers according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Elements of the invention are illustrated in concise outline form in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are necessary to understanding the embodiments of the present invention, but so as not to clutter the disclosure with excessive detail that will be obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the present description.

In this patent specification, adjectives such as first and second, left and right, front and back, top and bottom, etc., are used solely to define one element from another element without necessarily requiring a specific relative position or sequence that is described by the adjectives. Words such as "comprises" or "includes" are not used to define an exclusive set of elements or method steps. Rather, such words merely define a minimum set of elements or method steps included in a particular embodiment of the present invention. It will be appreciated that the invention may be implemented in a variety of ways, and that this description is given by way of example only.

The present invention will be described in relation to take-away food and drink services and in particular to a coffee shop, where orders for coffee are collected by a consumer/customer. However it should be appreciated that the present invention may be applied to other retailers and service providers such as hairdressers etc., where a consumer is required to visit a location to receive the product or service. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system 100 for delivering electronic advertising according to an embodiment of the present invention. A computer in the form of a server 110 is connected to the internet 120, to which users, such as a consumer 130, a retailer 140 and advertisers 150, have access via a website or application installed on a computing device.

The consumer 130 places an order for a coffee electronically, for example via a website, using a smartphone application or by sending a text message from a mobile phone. The order is received by the server 110 and transmitted to the retailer 140. The order is fulfilled by the retailer 140 and is collected by the consumer 130. The server 110 may then send advertisements to the consumer 130 if a consumer demographic matches a target demographic, and when a location of the retailer 140 is within the geographical area defined by the advertiser 150.

An advantage of the present invention is that consumers 130 may jump the queue when ordering a product or service, such as take-away coffee or pizza. Furthermore the consumer 130 is more likely to be in the geographical area when the advertising is received, as the consumer 130 must collect their order from the retailer 140 which is within the geographical area of the targeted advertising.

The server 10 includes a memory coupled to a processor, and the memory includes computer readable program code components. The program code components are in the form of software installed on a computer readable medium, for example on a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), or any other applicable computer readable medium. The program code components perform the method of the present invention.

The server 110 also includes a database 11 on which data is stored. The data may include consumer profiles, retailer profiles, advertiser profiles and marketing profiles. In addition, the server 110, includes an Application Programming Interface (API) 112 which interfaces the database 111 and the server 110 with the consumers 130, retailers 140 and advertisers 150 via a website. Access to the server 110 may be via either a public web access 113 or a private web access 114 as is known in the art

The server 110 may also include an email server 115, an SMS gateway 116, a payment gateway 117, and a Customer Relationship Module 118, and will be discussed later. The server 110 may be administered by a managing entity that may charge a fee for using the system 100 of the present invention. For example, the managing entity may charge a fixed fee, or a percentage of the cost of the product or service paid , when each product or service is ordered through the website.

FIG 2 shows a flow diagram of a method of delivering electronic advertising according to an embodiment of the present invention. Each of the method steps occurs at the server 110. At step 201 a retailer profile is received, from a retailer 140. The retailer profile includes a location of the retailer 140. The retailer profile is defined by the retailer 140.

Similarly, at step 202, a consumer profile is received from the consumer 130. The consumer profile includes a consumer demographic of the consumer, defined by the consumer 130.

At step 203 a marketing profile is received from an advertiser 150. The marketing profile includes a geographical area and a target demographic, defined by an advertiser 150. The geographical area establishes a region for delivering the advertising. The target demographic is the type of consumer 130 the advertiser 150 wishes to target.

To order a coffee from the retailer 140, the consumer 130 places the order electronically. At step 204 the order for the product or service is received from the consumer 130 and at step 205, the order is sent to the retailer 140. If the retailer 140 accepts the order, at step 206 an acceptance of the order is received from the retailer 40. The acceptance of the order may be sent to the consumer 130.

Although the order is received and sent through the server 110, a person skilled in the art will appreciate that the order may be received and sent via a third party server or through any suitable service.

At step 207, one or more of the marketing profiles are automatically selected where the consumer demographic substantially matches the target demographic and where the location of the retailer is substantially within the geographical area.

Finally, at step 208, one or more advertisements, associated with the selected one or more marketing profiles, are sent to the consumer 130. For example, advertising for a fashion hair dressing salon in the vicinity of the coffee shop, may be sent to female consumers between the ages of 18 and 35.

In order to use the system 100, the consumer 130, the retailer 140 and the advertiser 150 must register.

FIG 3 shows a diagram illustrating a retailer 140 registration and order process according to an embodiment of the present invention. The retailer 140 creates a retailer profile, via the public web access 113, which is stored in the database 111 on the server 110. The retailer profile includes a location of the retailer 140, such as an address. The retailer profile may also include one or more, but is not limited to, a company name, a contact name, an address, an email address, bank details and a username and/or password. Once the retailer 140 has registered, the retailer 140 may login and edit the retailer profile via the private web access 114.

The retailer 140 receives orders for coffee from consumers 130 on a computing device 145 such as a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, smartphone or mobile phone. When an order is received, the retailer 140 completes the order which is collected by the consumer 130. Payment for the coffee is made to the retailer 140 from the managing entity electronically using funds provided by the consumer 30. However, it should be appreciated that the payment may be made periodically or manually, for example by cheque.

Similarly, a consumer 130 may register by accessing a website via the public web access 113. FIG 4 shows a diagram illustrating a consumer 130 registration and order process according to an embodiment of the present invention. The consumer 130 creates a consumer profile which is stored in the database 111 on the server 110. The consumer profile may include one or more of, but is not limited to, a first name, a last name, a nick name, an email address and payment details. The consumer profile also includes a consumer demographic. The consumer demographic may include any one or more of, but is not limited to, an age, a sex, hobbies interests, a date of birth and an occupation. In addition, the consumer demographic may include the consumer's previous/current buying habits and the consumer's previous interactions with previously delivered advertisements

Once the consumer 130 has registered, the consumer 130 may amend the consumer profile by logging in via the private web access 114. 1 n addition, the consumer profile may automatically updated by the server 110 based on the cconsumer's previous or current buying habits and the consumer's previous interactions with previously delivered advertisements The consumer 130 may add funds via a payment gateway 117 using a credit card for example in order to place an order. The consumer 130 may also create a favourites list. The favourites list may include a type of coffee and a preferred retailer 140 to allow the consumer to order a coffee more quickly.

The consumer 130 may place an order for a coffee in a variety of ways. For example, the order may be placed by the consumer 130 via a website, using an application on a smartphone or by sending a text message. The order is received by the server 110 and the server 110 transmits the order to the retailer 140. If the retailer 140 accepts the order, the server 110 receives an acceptance of the order and the acceptance is sent to the consumer 130 via an SMS text message through the SMS gateway 116. However, it should be appreciated that the acceptance of the order may be received in a variety of ways. For example, the acceptance may displayed on a website or a smartphone application. If the retailer 140 does not accept the order, for example if the retailer 140 is closed, the server 110 sends a rejection of the order to the consumer 130.

Once the order has been accepted or completed by the retailer 140, advertisements may be sent to the consumer 130 according to a marketing profile defined by an advertiser 150. FIG 5 shows a diagram illustrating a process of sending advertisements to consumers 130 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Similar to the consumer 130 and the retailer 1 0, the advertiser 50 must register to use the system 100, by creating an advertiser profile. The advertiser profile may include a business name, address, contact details and payment details. The advertiser 150 may pay a fee to the managing entity for sending advertisements to consumers 130.

Once logged in, an advertiser 150 may define a marketing profile 119 associated with one or more advertisements of an advertising campaign.

The advertisement format may be text, email, images, video, animated graphics, or any other form of multi media. Furthermore the advertisement format may be interactive which adapts to the consumer's interaction, or any combination of advertisement format. In one embodiment, the advertisements may be designed by the advertiser 150 online, by uploading images, providing hyperlinks and adding text. However, it should be appreciated that the advertisement may be created off-line and uploaded to the server 110.

The marketing profile 119 may include a target demographic of a consumer 130 the advertiser wishes to target, a geographical area, a time range, a date range and delivery options.

The target demographic may include one or more of, but is not limited to, an age, a sex, an occupation interests and hobbies.

The geographical area is adjusted to the most likely route that the consumer 130 may take when collecting their order. For example, the geographical area may include one or more of, but is not limited to, a distance from the retailer 140, a distance from a home address and/or a work address of the consumer 130, an area surrounding a line between an address of the retailer 140 and the home and/or work address of the consumer 130 or one or more post codes. In addition, the geographical area may be related to the position of the consumer 130 obtained from a GPS device in the consumer's computing device.

The time range determines a time of day the advertisement is delivered to the consumer 30. For example, the time range may designate AM or PM, a range of times, morning, lunchtime, afternoon, evening or night.

The date range defines a length of time to run the advertising campaign and may be specified in days, weeks, months or years or by any other suitable time frame such as selecting a date range.

Delivery options may include, but is not limited to, smartphones, mobile phones, and banner advertising applied to emails, receipts, statements, newsletters and web pages. In addition, the marketing profile may include a maximum cost of the advertising campaign, for example, a fixed Cost Per Click (CPC) or by auction CPC as is known in the art.

For each delivery option, the content of the advertisement may be reformatted by the server 1 10 to suit a delivery option. For example, adverts sent to smartphones may include an image with a pre-defined pixel size and a hyperlink. Adverts sent by SMS to mobile phones may be limited to text up to a predefined number of characters and include a shortened URL, and banner advertising may include an image with a defined pixel size. A quote for the advertising campaign may then be displayed to the advertiser 150 based on the design of the advertisement and a number of delivery options selected by the advertiser 150.

Once the marketing profile 119 has been defined, the advertisement is displayed to the advertiser 150 for approval. At any point in time, the advertiser 150 may stop, cancel, delete or edit the advertising campaign by logging onto the server 110.

When a consumer 130 places an order for a coffee from a mobile device or via the Internet, the server 1 10 compares the marketing profile 119 with the consumer profile. If the consumer profile and the advertising parameters match, the advertising is sent to the consumer 130.

In a preferred embodiment, the advertisement is sent to the consumer

130 when the location of the retailer 140 is within the geographical area defined by the advertiser 150, and when the consumer demographic matches the target demographic.

In another embodiment, the marketing profile includes a target business sector, and the server 110 selects marketing profiles where the target business sector matches a type of goods or services supplied by the retailer 130. The server 110 sends an advertisement associated with the selected marketing profiles to the consumer 130. For example, coffee drinkers may be interested in coffee machines and advertisements for coffee machines may be sent to consumers 130 that purchase coffee.

Similar to advertisers 150, retailers 140 may target specific demographics of consumers 130 from the CRM 118 of previous consumers 130 to send advertisements, by applying a marketing profile 119 in order to target consumers 130. FIG 6 shows a diagram illustrating a process for retailers 140 to send advertising to consumers 130 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, the server 110 selects consumers 130 from the CRM 118 in the database 111 where the consumer demographic substantially matches the target demographic. In this embodiment, the advert is in the form of an email, an SMS or a smartphone application message via the email server 6, the SMS gateway 115 or the private web access 14 respectively. The advertisements may be received by the consumer 130 on a mobile phone, smartphone or in an email. For advertisements received by SMS, the consumer 130 may respond, for example, to have a representative call the consumer 130 back.

In summary, the present invention allows consumers 130 to order a product or service electronically in order to beat a queue. Furthermore, the present invention sends targeted advertisements defined by the location of the retailer 140 and the geographical area specified by the advertiser 150 upon acceptance of the order. The present invention is well suited to advertising businesses in close proximity to retailers 130 in particular take away retailers. This is because the consumer 30 is more likely to be in the vicinity of the advertised business when collecting the order from the take away retailer.

By taking into account the location of the retailer 140 and the demographic of the consumer 130, rather than the location and the demographic of the consumer 130 as in the prior art, advertising using the present invention is more focussed than in the prior art. This is achieved by sending the advertising when an order is confirmed thus the consumer 130 is more likely to be in the vicinity of an advertised business when collecting the order.

The above description of various embodiments of the present invention is provided for purposes of description to one of ordinary skill in the related art. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to a single disclosed embodiment. As mentioned above, numerous alternatives and variations to the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art of the above teaching. Accordingly, while some alternative embodiments have been discussed specifically, other embodiments will be apparent or relatively easily developed by those of ordinary skill in the art. Accordingly, this patent specification is intended to embrace all alternatives, modifications and variations of the present invention that have been discussed herein, and other embodiments that fall within the spirit and scope of the above described invention.

Claims

1. A method of delivering electronic advertising including the steps of: receiving a retailer profile from a retailer wherein the retailer profile includes a location of the retailer;

receiving an acceptance of an order for a product or service from the retailer;

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the order for a product or service is received from the consumer and the order is sent to the retailer.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographical area includes a distance from the retailer.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographical area includes a distance from a home address and/or a work address of the consumer.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographical area includes an area surrounding a line between an address of the retailer and the home and/or work address of the consumer.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the geographical area includes one or more post codes.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the marketing profile includes a target business sector.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of selecting one or more of the marketing profiles includes the step of substantially matching the type of goods sold and/or services provided by the retailer with the target business sector.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the consumer demographic includes one or more of an age, a sex, a marital status, a number of children and interests of the consumer.

10. The method of claim 1 the target demographic includes one or more of an age, a sex, a marital status, a number of children and interests.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement is a text message sent from the server to the consumer.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement is sent to the consumer in an email message.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement is sent to the consumer for displaying in a smartphone application and/or for displaying on a web page.

14. A system for delivering electronic advertising, the system including: a server connected to the internet, the server including:

receiving a consumer profile from a consumer wherein the consumer 5 profile includes a consumer demographic of the consumer;

receiving an acceptance of an order for a product or service from the 10 retailer;

15 sending one or more advertisements, associated with the selected one or more marketing profiles, to the consumer.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the order for a product or service is received from the consumer and the order is sent to the retailer.

^■ 20

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the geographical area includes a distance from the retailer.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the geographical area includes a 25 distance from a home address and/or a work address of the consumer.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein the geographical area includes an area surrounding a line between an address of the retailer and the home and/or work address of the consumer.

30

19. The system of claim 14 wherein the geographical area includes one or more post codes.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein the marketing profile includes a target business sector.