Contact stream optimization considering FEC and CC constraints

A computer readable medium having stored thereon, software for conducting a marketing campaign, the software comprising instructions for causing one or more processors to:

• receive scores associated with sending offers to proposed contacts belonging to a pool of customers;
• randomly assign customers in the pool of customers into predetermined groups of customers;
• and
• optimize an overall campaign score corresponding to a sum of the received scores, wherein optimizing generates optimal assignments of offers to customers that satisfy for-each-customer (FEC) constraints and cross-customer (CC) constraints, the FEC constraints controlling communication to an individual customer and the CC constraints representing resources shared among the pool of customers, the optimal assignments of offers for inclusion in the marketing campaign, by instructions to:
• determine a first assignment of offers for a first group of customers that maximizes a sum of scores for the first group and complies with the FEC constraints and the CC constraints;
• and
• determine subsequent assignments of offers for the remaining groups using information associated with determining the first assignment, the subsequent assignments maximizing the sums of scores for the remaining groups and complying with the FEC constraints and the cross-customer constraints, the optimal assignments including the first assignments and the subsequent assignments.

A system for conducting a marketing campaign comprises:

• memory configured to store scores associated with sending offers to proposed contacts belonging to a pool of customers;
• and
• one or more processors configured to:
• randomly assign customers in the pool of customers into predetermined groups of customers;
• optimize an overall campaign score corresponding to a sum of the scores, to generate optimal assignments of offers to customers that satisfy for-each-customer (FEC) constraints and cross-customer (CC) constraints, the FEC constraints controlling communication to an individual customer and the CC constraints representing resources shared among the pool of customers, the optimal assignments being included in the marketing campaign;
• determine a first assignment of offers for a first group of customers that maximizes a sum of scores for the first group and complies with the FEC constraints and the CC constraints;
• and
• determine subsequent assignment of offers for remaining groups using information associated with determining the first assignment, the subsequent assignments maximizing the sums of scores for the remaining groups and complying with the FEC constraints and the cross-customer constraints, the optimal assignments including the first assignments and the subsequent assignments.