Methods and system for serving targeted advertisements to a consumer device

A method for running an advertising campaign, the method comprising:

• generating, with a processor of a first computing device, a targeting model that defines a target audience for an advertisement of the advertising campaign;
• transmitting, with a transceiver of the first computing device, a first message to at least one smart contract that is stored on at least one blockchain, the first message including the targeting model and instructions for retrieving the advertisement, receipt of the first message by the at least one smart contract causing publication of the targeting model and the instructions for retrieving the advertisement on the at least one blockchain;
• receiving, with the transceiver, a second message from a second computing device associated with a provider of media content, the second message indicating that the advertisement was presented in conjunction with media content to form a valid advertisement impression, the second message including a signature under a public key of a third computing device;
• wherein the second message, indicating that the advertisement was presented in conjunction with the media content to form the valid advertisement impression, is only transmitted to the first computing device only if an aggregated signature is a valid aggregation;
• and
• wherein verifying the valid aggregation comprises evaluating, with a processor of the third computing device, the targeting model for the advertisement based on at least one media content classifier associated with each of the respective content mapping keys under which a set of proofs of interest were signed, to determine whether a user to which the advertisement was presented fits within the target audience for the advertisement, wherein associations between each of the respective content mapping keys and the at least one media content classifier being stored on the at least one blockchain.

A method for auditing an advertisement impression in which a first advertisement was presented in conjunction with first media content, the method comprising:

• receiving, with a transceiver of a first computing device, a first message from a second computing device indicating that the first advertisement was presented in conjunction with the first media content, the first message including (i) an identifier of the first advertisement, (ii) an first aggregated signature, the first aggregated signature being an aggregation of a set of proofs of interest, each proof of interest in a set of proofs of interest being signed under a respective content mapping key, associations between each of the respective content mapping keys and at least one media content classifier being stored on at least one blockchain;
• (iii) the respective content mapping keys under which the set of proofs of interest were signed, wherein each of the respective content mapping keys is provided by a respective third computing device associated with a provider of the first media content and (iv) respective data that was signed to generate each respective proof of interest in the set of proofs of interest;
• retrieving, with the transceiver, from the at least one blockchain, (i) the at least one media content classifier associated with each of the respective content mapping keys under which the set of proofs of interest were signed and (ii) a first targeting model for the first advertisement, the first targeting model being stored on the at least one blockchain in association with the identifier of the first advertisement and defining a target audience for the first advertisement;
• evaluating, with a processor of the first computing device, the first targeting model for the first advertisement based on the at least one media content classifier associated with each of the respective content mapping keys under which the set of proofs of interest were signed, to determine whether a user to which the first advertisement was presented fits within the target audience for the first advertisement;
• wherein the evaluating comprises verifying, with the processor of the first computing device, that the first aggregated signature is a valid aggregation of the set of proofs of interest derived from (i) the respective content mapping keys under which the set of proofs of interest were signed and (ii) the respective data that was signed to generate each respective proof of interest in the set of proofs of interest;
• and
• transmitting, with the transceiver, only if the first aggregated signature was validly formed, and the user to which the first advertisement was presented fits within the target audience for the first advertisement, a second message indicating that the presentation of the first advertisement in conjunction with the first media content formed a valid advertisement impression, the second message being transmitted to one of (i) the respective third computing device associated with the provider of the first media content and (ii) the second computing device, the second message including a signature under a public key of the first computing device.