US 10,482,501 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for displaying ads directed to personas having associated characteristics

AssigneeAutoGraph, Inc.

InventorsBrian Roundtree, Thomas S. Huseby, Kevin Allan, William Munslow, David Pratt

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A system and method for directing self-targeted advertising to users who are interested in receiving it. A user creates or adopts one or more personas that define a number of characteristics that the user has or wants to be associated with. The characteristics of the personas can be used by advertisers to define members of a target audience. Each persona included in a target audience has an address or identifier to which ads are sent. In one embodiment, users are shown a user interface screen with icons representing a number of brands. The user provides input that indicates whether they have different opinions of the brands. Based on the input received, an estimate is made of the likelihood that the user has a number of characteristics. In one embodiment, the user can arrange the icons representing the brands on the user interface screen to indicate if the user likes or dislikes the brand.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A processor-based system for receiving advertisements, comprising:

memory for storing instructions that are executable by processor electronics;
a display screen;
processor electronics configured to execute the instructions in order to:
display a plurality of icons to which advertisements can be directed to a user;
receive a selection from the user to activate a first icon of the plurality of icons to which advertisements can be directed during a time period when the icon is active, wherein the first icon defines one or more characteristics of the user that can be analyzed by an advertiser to determine a target audience for an ad;
in response to the selection of the first icon, select a cookie associated to the first icon, wherein the cookie is configured to reference a portion of user interest data collected during the period of time when the first icon is active;
display an ad directed to the selected first icon;
determine if a predetermined triggering event has occurred;
in response to the determination of the triggering event occurring, automatically select a second icon from the plurality of icons that defines one or more characteristics of the user to which ads are to be directed;
and
in response to the selection of the second icon, select a second cookie associated to the second icon, wherein the second cookie is configured to reference a portion of user interest data collected during a second time period that the second icon is active.

8 more elements

A processor-based system for receiving advertisements, comprising:

memory for storing instructions that are executable by processor electronics;
a user input device;
processor electronics configured to execute the instructions in order to:
receive a selection from a user to activate an icon to which advertisements can be directed during a time period when the icon is active, wherein the icon defines one or more characteristics of the user that can be analyzed by an advertiser to determine a target audience for an ad;
in response to the selection of the icon, select a cookie associated to the icon, wherein the cookie is configured to reference a portion of user interest data collected during the period of time when the icon is active;
display an ad directed to the selected icon;
determine if a predetermined triggering event has occurred;
automatically selecting a second icon that defines one or more characteristics of the user to which ads are to be directed in response to the determined triggering event;
in response to the selection of the second icon, select a second cookie associated to the second icon, wherein the second cookie is configured to reference a portion of user interest data collected during a second time period that the second icon is active;
in further response to the selection of the second icon, display to the user the second icon defining one or more characteristics of the user, wherein the active icon is displayed to the user as the currently active icon;
and
in response to receiving a user query by operation of the user input device, transmit the user query and data based at least on cookie data associated to the second icon to a search engine.

9 more elements

A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by processor electronics to:

receive a selection from a user to activate an icon to which advertisements can be directed during a time period when the icon is active, wherein the icon defines one or more characteristics of the user that can be analyzed by an advertiser to determine a target audience for an ad;
in response to the selection of the icon, select a cookie associated to the icon, wherein the cookie is configured to reference a portion of user interest data collected during the period of time when the icon is active;
display an ad directed to the selected icon;
determine if a predetermined triggering event has occurred;
automatically selecting a second icon that defines one or more characteristics of the user to which ads are to be directed in response to the determined triggering event;
in response to the selection of the second icon, select a second cookie associated to the second icon, wherein the second cookie is configured to reference a portion of user interest data collected during a second time period that the second icon is active;
in further response to the selection of the second icon, display to the user the second icon defining one or more characteristics of the user, wherein the active icon is displayed to the user as the currently active icon;
and
in response to receiving a user query by operation of a user input device, transmit the user query and data based at least on cookie data associated to the second icon to a search engine.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/863,708Filed 5 Jan 2018 · continuation
Priority: 6 Jun 2011
Published: US 2018/0211279 A126 Jul 2018
Granted: 19 Nov 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

G06Q 30/0255
Targeted advertisements: based on user history
G06Q 30/0241
Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising: advertisements
G06Q 30/0251
Advertisements: targeted advertisements
G06Q 30/0261
Targeted advertisements: based on user location

Family

Application61/493,965Us provisional application · filed 6 Jun 2011
Application61/506,601Us provisional application · filed 11 Jul 2011
Application61/533,049Us provisional application · filed 9 Sep 2011
Application61/567,594Us provisional application · filed 6 Dec 2011
Application61/597,136Us provisional application · filed 9 Feb 2012
Application61/603,216Us provisional application · filed 24 Feb 2012
Application13/490,447Parent of this continuation · filed 6 Jun 2012
US 2018/0211279 A1Pre-grant publication · published 26 Jul 2018
US 9,898,756 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2013/0054366 A1Published application
US 10,482,501 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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