System, method, and storage medium for providing variable consumer-oriented information in a retail environment

#The present invention relates generally to computer-implemented commercial advertising and display services. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method, system, and storage medium for presenting variable consumer-oriented information in a retail environment.

#Commercial advertising is oftentimes perceived by television viewing audiences as intrusive and irritating, particularly during a favorite television program. Viewers are captive audiences of television advertisements unless they take active measures to avoid them, e.g., changing channels. The increased presence of VCRs and remote controls has led to the problems of zipping (i.e., fast forwarding through commercials during the playing of a previously recorded program), or zapping (i.e., the changing channels to avoid commercials). Others avoid commercials by using that time to tend to other activities. From a marketing point of view television advertising offers greater coverage capabilities than many other advertising mediums, however, those capabilities may be offset by its expensive and intrusive ‘push’-type nature. In other words, commercials are often presented at a time when the viewer is either not interested in receiving the information or does not otherwise desire the product or services being advertised. Unfortunately for a commercial sponsor, presenting a commercial to a viewer at inopportune moments, such as at the height of suspense in a television or sports program, can lead to frustration and perhaps even some resentment by the viewer.

#Savvy manufacturers and marketing entities are continuously striving to keep viewers in their seats during commercial breaks by creating entertaining and novel commercials that sometimes rival even their programming counterparts with respect to maintaining the viewers' interest. Commercials utilizing well-known actors, musicians, and politicians are catching the attention of many of today's viewing audiences. High tech special effects, humor, and originality are becoming essential ‘tools of the trade’ for the advertising industry. For example, the makers of GAP™ jeans created a series of commercials targeted for young people that included high-energy, eye-catching dance routines performed by a groups of young people and set to popular music. Budweiser, Inc. has also enjoyed success with its series of animated frog commercials and “wazzup” commercials that prompted viewing audiences to talk about them for weeks.

#Referring now to the drawings wherein like elements are numbered alike in the several FIGURES:

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a portion of a computer network system on which the commercial display services tool is implemented in an exemplary embodiment of the invention;

#FIG. 2 is an exemplary static advertisement database illustrating a sample static advertisement record utilized by the commercial display services tool;

#The commercial display services tool enables variable commercial programming for display at a retail location. The programming content is selected by a user and may include linked audio/video commercials as well as unlinked (e.g., static advertisements) that are linked with variable audio data that is formatted to fit a time schedule and data format determined by a user. The commercial program generated by the tool may be configured to ensure that no audio portion or limited audio is repeated during a programming loop. The unlinked audio data comprises vast amounts of various vocal and/or instrumental items, including trivia, news, local content, music, etc. provided by the commercial display services tool.

#The commercial display services provided by the commercial provider system and the commercial display services tool may be used alone or in combination with supplementary advertisement and messaging tools that provide extensive customized graphics services, advertisement scheduling for display systems, and local and national content for display. Local and national content can be collected for simultaneous display on multi-tiled display screens. Such advertising techniques may be particularly useful in ‘pulling’ viewers to display areas rather than display areas ‘pushing’ continuous advertisements at the viewers. Examples of local content providers include Reuters™, MediaCast™, Dfilm.com™, and Newstream.com™. Advertisements may be scheduled for display on multi-tiled display screens during designated time slots. Tiles include large and small rectangular shaped windows as well as elongated strips of text-formatted windows for displaying ‘looping’ text or data materials. Images and graphics can be still frames or fixed images, or may be moving multi-media graphics and text with audio accompaniment. These advertisement tools may be proprietary in nature, or may utilize the digital messaging tool described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/836,890 entitled, “Method and System for Providing Digital Messaging Services”, filed on Apr. 17, 2001 and which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

#A portion of an exemplary network system 100 on which the invention might be used is shown in FIG. 1. System 100 comprises a commercial provider system 102 (also referred to as host system) for implementing the commercial display services tool of the invention. Host system 102 may be connected to the Internet via plain old telephone service (POTS), DSL, T-1, ISDN, or other high-speed communications medium known in the art. In a preferred embodiment, host system 102 provides commercial programming services via the Internet to commercial display systems such as retail system 120 utilizing the commercial display services tool and supporting system devices. Host system 102 may provide the necessary hardware, software, network connections, information services, and system maintenance and repair to subscribing customers such as retail system 120 for a monthly fee.