WO2009043098A1 - Method and system for providing targeted advertising content - Google Patents

Method and system for providing targeted advertising content Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2009043098A1
WO2009043098A1 PCT/AU2008/001459 AU2008001459W WO2009043098A1 WO 2009043098 A1 WO2009043098 A1 WO 2009043098A1 AU 2008001459 W AU2008001459 W AU 2008001459W WO 2009043098 A1 WO2009043098 A1 WO 2009043098A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
users
advertising content
details
registered
industry category
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/AU2008/001459
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Timothy Davis
Original Assignee
Fluc Pty Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Priority claimed from AU2007905388A external-priority patent/AU2007905388A0/en
Application filed by Fluc Pty Ltd filed Critical Fluc Pty Ltd
Publication of WO2009043098A1 publication Critical patent/WO2009043098A1/en

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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00—Commerce
    • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a method and system for providing targeted advertising content, in particular, a method and system for providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites or offline businesses.
  • a method of providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites comprising the steps of: storing on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating website; registering details of users to receive advertising content; storing the registered details of the users in association with industry category data of the website where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content into a data structure on the server; > generating a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and providing the list to an advertiser, so that the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the website where the users first registered into a data structure on the server.
  • a method of providing targeted advertising content to users of participating offline businesses comprising the steps of: storing on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating offline business; registering details of users to receive advertising content; storing the registered details of the users in association with industry category data of the offline business where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content into a data structure on the server; generating a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and providing the list to an advertiser, so that the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the offline business where the users first registered
  • a system for providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites comprising: a server storage module arranged to store on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating website and arranged to store registered details of users wishing to receive advertising content registered; a user module arranged to store the registered details of the users in association with industry category data of the websites where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content into a data structure on the server; a list generation module arranged to generate a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and an access module arranged to provide the list to an advertiser, whereby the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the website where the users first registered.
  • a system for providing targeted advertising content to users of participating offline businesses comprising: a server storage module arranged to store on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating offline business and arranged to store registered details of users wishing to receive advertising content registered; a user module arranged to store the registered details of the users in association with industry category data of the offline businesses where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content into a data structure on the server; a list generation module arranged to generate a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and an access module arranged to provide the list to an advertiser, whereby the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the offline business where the users first registered.
  • a computer readable medium comprising to the program code .
  • Figure 1 is a flow diagram of a method of providing targeted advertising content
  • Figure 2 is a flow diagram of a method of providing remuneration after targeted advertising content is provided
  • Figure 3 is a further flow diagram of a method of providing targeted advertising content
  • Figure 4 is a block diagram of a system for providing targeted adverting content.
  • Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a system for providing targeted advertising content across a network.
  • Figure 1 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of a method 10 of providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites or offline businesses.
  • the method 10 includes the step of storing 12, on a web server, industry category data corresponding to the industry category of each participating website. It is envisaged that once a business, such as a website, demonstrates interest in providing targeted advertising content to its users, the website registers details on the server, including details on the industry category of the main business of the website.
  • the industry category of the website may be automatically generated by code or a script adapted to evaluate criteria including products offered for sale by the website. Industry categories may be indicative of any product or service offered for sale over the Internet and offered for sale typically within the same business.
  • women's fashion and automobile parts would constitute separate industry categories as users would not be likely to purchase both products from the same business. It is also envisaged that the business may also belong to more than one industry category, for example both men's and women's fashion. In this case, corresponding industry data for all the respective industry categories is stored on the server.
  • the categorisation technique can be varied to provide the requisite granularity. For example, in one example fashion may be sufficient but in another example it may be necessary to divide into men's, women's, and children's fashion.
  • a representative from an offline business manually registers the industry category of the business corresponding to the products or services offered.
  • Persons skilled in the art would also appreciate that other details of the participating websites and offline businesses may be stored on the server by being manually registered, such as postal address, billing information, bank account details, etc.
  • the method 10 further includes registering 14 details of users wishing to receive advertising content.
  • the users wishing to receive advertising content may register details via a web, or wireless, based registration page to join the advertising network.
  • the users may register details via at least one of the participating websites, or offline businesses, to join the network.
  • the method for providing targeted advertising content includes storing 16 these registered details in a data structure on the server in association with the industry category data of the participating website, or offline business, where the respective users first registered to receive advertising content.
  • the advertising network may include a social networking website, so that when the user registers details to receive targeted advertising content, the details are also used for the networking website.
  • the method shown in Figure 1 includes generating 18 a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the registered user details in the data structure. That is, the information stored in the data structure of the registered user details and industry category data is sorted to provide a list of users with their preferred industry category, or categories, based on the website or offline business where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content.
  • the users may register by clicking on a link in the participating website and the corresponding industry category data and user details stored in the data structure are updated.
  • the method shown in Figure 1 further includes providing 20 the list to an advertiser, so that the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the industry category of the website or offline business where the users first registered interest to receive targeted advertising content.
  • the website or offline business may belong to more than one industry category and in this case the user on the list will receive targeted advertising content from advertisers belonging to all the industry categories of the participating business.
  • one advertiser may be an advertising house or broker acting on behalf of many companies wishing to advertise to targeted users.
  • the user may wish to receive advertising content in further industry categories associated with not only the first website where the user registered, but further browsed websites.
  • the method may be adapted to include the step of storing details of users in association with other industry categories of subsequent participating websites browsed by the user into the data structure.
  • This additional process 22 shown to be performed after the process of storing 16 user details in association with the industry category data to ensure an updated list of users is generated in response to further events occurring.
  • further websites may wish to participate in providing targeted advertising content to their users and further users may register details.
  • the step of generating 18 the list of users to receive advertising may be conducted periodically to capture any updates and the periodically generated list may be provided to the advertiser upon request, or also periodically.
  • the website or offline business can receive remuneration from the advertiser for providing a user, and thus a potential customer with a particular industry preference, to the attention of the advertiser.
  • the user provided is more likely to purchase a product or service from the advertiser as they already wish to receive advertising content in certain industry categories, and therefore remuneration to the participating business is likely to be higher than the if the user was unlikely to make a purchase.
  • the method 24, shown in Figure 2 of remunerating the participating website or offline business occurs after the process of the advertiser being provided 26 with a generated list of users wishing to receive targeted advertising content and after advertising content is provided.
  • the website or offline business where the user first registered is then remunerated 30, the value of which is typically predetermined.
  • An example of a typical remuneration would be a fixed fee provided to the website where the user first registered, payable each time the user receives an advertisement.
  • Another example would be commission based remuneration where a percentage of the amount of money spent by a user with the advertiser is paid to the website where the user first registered.
  • the user may also be remunerated 32, upon receipt of the advertising content. This remuneration could be in the form of a fixed fee or credits to be spent with the advertiser.
  • Those skilled in the art would appreciate that other forms of remuneration could be employed, such as the remuneration amount varying according to different industry categories.
  • referral data may be stored into the data structure in addition to the user registered details and the industry category data.
  • the referral data is provided in the generated list to the advertiser, so that the advertiser can identify where the user was referred.
  • an example is shown of the method 36 of providing targeted advertising content to users and providing the users and participating websites or offline businesses with some remuneration.
  • offline businesses or websites recognise the importance of an additional income stream from advertising and thus register 38 their details with an advertising system, or network, implementing the above described method of providing targeted advertising content.
  • the advertising system may be implemented over any network, such as the Internet, or a mobile or wireless network, and in the example given below, advertising content is provided over the mobile network.
  • offline businesses or websites register their details 38 and these are stored 40 on a server. It is envisaged that a registration page is provided to register details of businesses such as business name, location, industry category, industry keywords, number of customers, and website address, etc. Also stored on the server is referral data 40 for each participating website or offline business.
  • referral data 40 for each participating website or offline business.
  • the user In the above example of a user wishing to receive advertising content on their mobile phone, the user must first register 42 details, in particular a mobile phone number, to join an advertising network or system providing advertising content.
  • Also included in the user registered details could be details of any other businesses or websites or industry categories that the users may wish to receive advertisements content from.
  • the industry category, or categories, of the website where the user first registered from would typically be indicative of most important goods or services the user is interested in since it is where they first registered.
  • further registered details are used by the advertiser to more specifically target potential customers to send more relevant mobile based advertising.
  • User registered details may include personal details such as age, sex, date of birth and location, in addition to the mobile contact details and, as stated above, the additional personal details may be used by an advertiser to further target advertising content to the user.
  • An example of further targeting advertising content is as follows. If the industry category of the website where the user first registered is women' s fashion and the age of the user is 18-25 then advertising content would be specifically targeted to clothing suitable to that particular age group, as opposed to clothing suitable for the age group of 45+.
  • the referral data is accessed by a web bug embedded in each participating website and when the web bug is retrieved from a host server, typically when a user clicks on it, the industry category data of the participating website is added to the registered user details.
  • remuneration may vary according to whether the participating website was the first registered website or a subsequent website.
  • an advertiser joining 48 an advertising system, or network, of users and participating websites to receive a list of users wishing to receive targeted advertising content. If the website Disney.com completed the registration phase and a user first registered with Disney.com to receive targeted advertising content on their mobile device, the user registered to receive content from Disney.com would be referred to the advertising system and would receive advertising content targeted to such corresponding industry categories as children's movies and collectable figurines.
  • the advertiser joining 48 the network or system is a toy manufacturer, for example, the advertiser may wish to provide advertising content to the users of Disney.com. Furthermore, the advertiser may be provided 50 with further details of the users to better target the advertising 52 to the desired users, i.e. those users more likely to make a purchase.
  • the advertiser such as the toy manufacturer typically pays a sum of money to an administrator of the advertising system and the users being targeted 54 receive the advertising content.
  • the user being targeted receives 54 a remuneration typically in the form of a percentage of the revenue generated by the advertising system which is paid for by the advertiser. For example, the advertiser pays $100,000 to the system to advertise to the users of Disney.com and gives 0.001%, i.e.
  • any advertising content should conform to a set of predetermined guidelines and the content may be required to be approved 58 by an administrator of the system.
  • FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of the main components of a system for providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites or offline businesses including a server 60.
  • the server 60 includes an interface module 62 typically arranged to store information on the server, including information from websites 64 and users 66. It is envisaged that the interface module 62 encompasses an interface which can receive information from an online website registration page for users and websites to register details and receive information from a facility to manually enter details of offline businesses and users thereof. Also, the interface module encompasses a storage module arranged to store this registered data on the server into a data structure 68.
  • the server in the above example is a server system which could be embodied in a web server, data base server, or a stand alone server, running on a computer system, over a distributed client-server system, where the clients are the users and participating websites and offline businesses.
  • the server waits to receive instructions to read or write to a storage means, via the storage module.
  • the storage means is typically a memory, which could be a read only memory (ROM) or a read access memory (RAM) for more transient data requiring faster access, or a combination of both.
  • ROM read only memory
  • RAM read access memory
  • the data structure is stored across multiple servers so the storage module may also contain a tracking module to retain knowledge of where the data is distributed amongst the servers.
  • the tracking module may also implement a packet header tracking code, or other suitable code embedded in the data to maintain knowledge of where the data is stored.
  • the data structure is typically stored in a data base on the storage means of the server and various techniques are known to the skilled person to model the data structure, for example a hierarchical model stored in the computing system may be used.
  • the server running on a computer system, would include the features of a typical computing system. These include the aforementioned storage means and a processor, which would implement instructions by the modules, such as the storage module and interface module, typically in collaboration with a software operating system, to access the storage means and provide the requisite functionality.
  • the participating websites or offline businesses access the interface module 62 to register details including details of at least one corresponding industry category, as described above, which is stored as industry data in the data structure.
  • the interface module 62 also includes a user module to store the user data in association with industry category data of the industry category of the website, or offline business, where the user first registered to receive targeted advertising content.
  • the user may register details via a participating website or directly in the advertising system using the interface module which allows read/write access to the data structure.
  • User data stored in the data structure is sent to a list generation module 70, which generates a list of users wishing to receive targeted advertising content in a format suitable for receipt by an advertiser. That is, the list generation module accesses the data structure and provides a sorted list of users and their at least one industry category preference corresponding to the at least one industry category of the participating website or offline business where they first registered. As discussed with respect to the above example, the user may enter further details, for example, age, sex, etc, and these further details are also compiled by the list generation module 70 for access by an advertiser wishing to further target the advertising content. Furthermore, while it is shown that the list generation module is within the server 60, it would be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that this module need not be physically located on the server 60 and may be located remotely.
  • the list generation module 70 may also be further adapted to contain a targeting module, which provides, in addition to a sorted list of users according to preferred industry categories, a further sorted list according to the further details, such as age. For example, a list may be provided to the advertiser, upon request, of women users aged 25-50 to receive advertising for a particular brand of car. However, it is envisaged that this targeting module need not be located with the list generation module 70 and may reside with the advertiser. In this case, the list generation module need only provide the list of users and their details to the advertiser.
  • the targeting module is associated with a module adapted to detect the location of a mobile user, so that the geographical location is communicated to the server via the interface module 62 and stored into the data structure in association with the user details and industry category data.
  • the updated location data from the location module could then be used to generate an updated list by the list generation module 70, and this list can be provided to the advertiser to send further targeted mobile advertising. For example, if a user is in a particular area near a movie cinema and first registered with, or registered interest in receiving targeted advertising content from, Disney.com, advertising content may be sent to the user advertising a Disney movie currently being shown in the nearby cinemas .
  • an access module 72 located on the server 60.
  • the access module is arranged to provide the generated list to an advertiser wishing to provide targeted advertising content.
  • the access module could include a modem for sending data to an advertiser and it will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that this module may be located remotely from the server, for example also with the advertiser.
  • a suitable communication link is implemented between the modules, so that information can be transmitted therebetween. Communication modules to ensure information is transmitted in the same format between modules may be employed by the system for this purpose .
  • the access module 72 can also be adapted to be accessed periodically by an advertiser wishing an updated list of users or adapted to transmit the updated generated list of users periodically, depending on the arrangement with the advertiser.
  • a list transmission module adapted to transmit the list from the access module 72 may be employed by the system to implement the above mentioned methods of obtaining an updated list.
  • a transmission module may be utilised by the system for providing advertising content to enable an advertiser to transmit the advertising content to the users.
  • the transmission module could be a SMS or MMS module adapted to send advertising content in the form of a message to mobile users.
  • Other formats of transmission may include EMS, Web Text Ad, Web Text Banner, Web Video, Mobile Video Message, Streaming Video, Fixed Mobile Page for web based transmission, Mobile Games, Mobile Software, or WAP for wireless devices. It is envisaged that the web based transmission of advertising content can be viewed by the browsing facilities of the Internet user, mobile, or wireless device user, without the need for specialised software to be installed.
  • FIG. 5 The remote transmission of advertising content is more clearly shown in Figure 5 where a network 74, for example the Internet or a mobile network, is shown. It can be seen from this figure that the users 66, participating websites/offline businesses 64 and a sample advertiser 76 are remote from the server 60 and each access the network to register details, receive and provide targeted advertising content.
  • a network 74 for example the Internet or a mobile network
  • the advertiser 76 being a toy manufacturer and the website 64 being Disney.com
  • Disney.com realises that a greater income stream can be generated by referring users of its website to advertisers of goods in similar industry categories and accesses the server interface across the network to register its details.
  • a user 66 typically a mobile user, accesses Disney.com' s website via the Internet, via a mobile device or desktop, and decides that he/she wishes to receive advertising content from Disney.com on their mobile phone.
  • the user registers his/her details over the network and they are saved in association with the industry category data corresponding to Disney. com' s relevant industry categories in the data structure on the server.
  • the list of users is then generated and provided to the advertiser 76 across the network 74, so that the advertiser can provide and transmit targeted advertising content to users based on the industry categories of Disney.com.
  • a remuneration module employed by the system to remunerate users 64 upon receipt of the advertising content and to remunerate participating websites or offline businesses 66 for referring users.
  • the remuneration module is thus further adapted to include a referral module adapted to store into the data structure referral data to identify the referring website for remuneration.
  • methods of providing referral data such as providing a web bug in the website, are implemented by the referral module.
  • the web bug may be implemented as a tracking cookie or a transparent GIF or PNG image, typically 1x1 pixel, embedded into a HTML page of a website or an email.
  • web bugs or tracking cookies may also include user HTML IFrames, style script, input link, embed, object and other tags to track usage and to track whenever a user opens a website.
  • the participating websites when registering details with the system store an image or tag on the server, corresponding to a web bug, so that when the image or tag is accessed by a user and the server is aware of this action.
  • this referral information could be passed to the user in the form of a raw alphabetic, numeric or alphanumerical code which the user could enter manually when registering their details.
  • the industry category of subsequent browsed websites can be stored on the server along with referral details for remuneration.
  • the user may also receive a discount on any goods purchased as a result of receiving the targeted advertising content.
  • this scenario may be implemented using the alphanumeric code, for example XY1234, as a coupon, identifiable by staff at a participating business, for the user to receive a discount on the goods purchased.
  • Also implemented by the remuneration module are predetermined rules, agreed to by the advertisers, users and participating websites and offline businesses, to allocate remuneration accordingly. Examples of such rules include providing one fixed fee to the website where the user first registered upon receipt of advertising content by the user and providing a smaller fixed fee to subsequent websites when the user registers with these. Also envisaged is a tiered type fee structure where the first referring website receives a percentage of the smaller fixed fee allocated to the subsequent registered websites. Further envisaged is a fee structure where the advertising system pays the participating websites, or offline businesses, a referral fee when the users registers interest by selecting a link to register details with the advertising system website, but does not fulfil the registration.
  • the advertiser could submit the advertising content to the system for sending out on their behalf and accordingly, the system could employ an advertising module to store advertising content and determine to which users in the generated list the content is to be sent.
  • the advertising module may also have a filtering capability to avoid such situations as the advertisers sending repeated advertising content to users and to prevent competing advertisers sending similar content to the users.
  • the users registering details over the network with a website are registering details to be stored on the server for use in a social networking website, in addition to their use in the advertising system.
  • a website such as Disney.com
  • users wishing to receive advertising content from a website such as Disney.com will see a web link displayed from the Disney.com website directing the user to a social networking website, where the user can register details to be stored on the server.
  • referral data is used to identify the website
  • this data is also stored in the data structure in association with the user registered details so that both the social networking website and the advertising system know where the user originated from.
  • This information can then be presented to advertisers so that they can individually target users in the social networking website who originated from Disney.com, or alternatively, narrow their targeting to other users on the social network website who are in similar categories as the Disney.com website. As stated above, this information can then be used to identify the referring website for remuneration. It is envisaged that the social networking website is accessible to Internet, mobile and wireless web space users .

Abstract

A method and system for providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites and offline businesses including storing registered details of the users in association with the industry category of the participating website or offline business where the user first registered interest to receive advertising content.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING TARGETED ADVERTISING
CONTENT
Field
The present invention relates to a method and system for providing targeted advertising content, in particular, a method and system for providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites or offline businesses.
Background
Currently businesses, whether online businesses, i.e. websites, or offline businesses, use a number of different advertising methods to earn income from displaying advertisements which may or may not be relevant to their business. For example, banner or pop-up advertising may be used with respect to websites for display to its users. However, as most businesses, in particular websites, currently provide some form of advertising content, users have become desensitised and are not generally receptive to such advertising. Thus, due to the ineffectiveness of this advertising, the income generated by the business hosting such advertising content is low. In an attempt to capture a user's attention and better target users, advertisers and host businesses are now using varied media such as video advertising, text advertising, banner advertising and rich interactive media, to advertise on websites, and on other devices such as mobile and wireless devices .
While some websites and offline businesses attempt to target their own users by providing a mailing list facility to obtain a list of users wishing to receive advertising content from their particular business, a need exists to provide targeted advertising content to these users from other businesses, specifically, other businesses in industries from which the user would be likely to purchase a product or service.
Summary of the Invention
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites, the method comprising the steps of: storing on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating website; registering details of users to receive advertising content; storing the registered details of the users in association with industry category data of the website where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content into a data structure on the server; > generating a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and providing the list to an advertiser, so that the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the website where the users first registered into a data structure on the server.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of providing targeted advertising content to users of participating offline businesses, the method comprising the steps of: storing on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating offline business; registering details of users to receive advertising content; storing the registered details of the users in association with industry category data of the offline business where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content into a data structure on the server; generating a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and providing the list to an advertiser, so that the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the offline business where the users first registered
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites, the system comprising: a server storage module arranged to store on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating website and arranged to store registered details of users wishing to receive advertising content registered; a user module arranged to store the registered details of the users in association with industry category data of the websites where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content into a data structure on the server; a list generation module arranged to generate a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and an access module arranged to provide the list to an advertiser, whereby the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the website where the users first registered.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for providing targeted advertising content to users of participating offline businesses, the system comprising: a server storage module arranged to store on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating offline business and arranged to store registered details of users wishing to receive advertising content registered; a user module arranged to store the registered details of the users in association with industry category data of the offline businesses where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content into a data structure on the server; a list generation module arranged to generate a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and an access module arranged to provide the list to an advertiser, whereby the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the offline business where the users first registered.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program code which when executed implements the above method.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer readable medium comprising to the program code .
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a data signal comprising the program code. Brief Description of the Drawings
An exemplary embodiment of the invention will now be described in relation to the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a flow diagram of a method of providing targeted advertising content;
Figure 2 is a flow diagram of a method of providing remuneration after targeted advertising content is provided;
Figure 3 is a further flow diagram of a method of providing targeted advertising content;
Figure 4 is a block diagram of a system for providing targeted adverting content; and
Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a system for providing targeted advertising content across a network.
Detailed Description
Figure 1 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of a method 10 of providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites or offline businesses. In one form, the method 10 includes the step of storing 12, on a web server, industry category data corresponding to the industry category of each participating website. It is envisaged that once a business, such as a website, demonstrates interest in providing targeted advertising content to its users, the website registers details on the server, including details on the industry category of the main business of the website. A person skilled in the art would appreciate that the industry category of the website may be automatically generated by code or a script adapted to evaluate criteria including products offered for sale by the website. Industry categories may be indicative of any product or service offered for sale over the Internet and offered for sale typically within the same business. For example, women's fashion and automobile parts would constitute separate industry categories as users would not be likely to purchase both products from the same business. It is also envisaged that the business may also belong to more than one industry category, for example both men's and women's fashion. In this case, corresponding industry data for all the respective industry categories is stored on the server. The categorisation technique can be varied to provide the requisite granularity. For example, in one example fashion may be sufficient but in another example it may be necessary to divide into men's, women's, and children's fashion.
In another form, a representative from an offline business manually registers the industry category of the business corresponding to the products or services offered. Persons skilled in the art would also appreciate that other details of the participating websites and offline businesses may be stored on the server by being manually registered, such as postal address, billing information, bank account details, etc.
In the example shown in Figure 1, the method 10 further includes registering 14 details of users wishing to receive advertising content. The users wishing to receive advertising content may register details via a web, or wireless, based registration page to join the advertising network. Alternatively, if the users have not yet joined the network, the users may register details via at least one of the participating websites, or offline businesses, to join the network. In both embodiments, the method for providing targeted advertising content includes storing 16 these registered details in a data structure on the server in association with the industry category data of the participating website, or offline business, where the respective users first registered to receive advertising content. That is, if the user already has registered details stored on the server then the industry category data of the participating website, or offline business, where the user first registered interest to receive targeted advertising content is stored in association with these user details in the data structure. Therefore, if the user does not wish to register their details with at least one of the participating websites, or offline businesses, they are still able to register their details on the web, or, in one example, a wireless based, advertising network registration page and the industry category data of the participating website, or offline business, where the user first expressed interest in receiving targeted advertising content is stored in the data structure along with the users registration details on the server. In a further embodiment, the advertising network may include a social networking website, so that when the user registers details to receive targeted advertising content, the details are also used for the networking website.
Examples of user details include contact information such as name, address, email address, mobile phone number, and IP address of any wireless device, or other generic identifiable information of the users. Furthermore, the method shown in Figure 1 includes generating 18 a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the registered user details in the data structure. That is, the information stored in the data structure of the registered user details and industry category data is sorted to provide a list of users with their preferred industry category, or categories, based on the website or offline business where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content. In one example, the users may register by clicking on a link in the participating website and the corresponding industry category data and user details stored in the data structure are updated.
The method shown in Figure 1 further includes providing 20 the list to an advertiser, so that the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the industry category of the website or offline business where the users first registered interest to receive targeted advertising content. In a further example, the website or offline business may belong to more than one industry category and in this case the user on the list will receive targeted advertising content from advertisers belonging to all the industry categories of the participating business. Also, it is envisaged that there may be multiple advertisers and that the advertisers need not be industry specific. For example, one advertiser may be an advertising house or broker acting on behalf of many companies wishing to advertise to targeted users.
In another example, it is envisaged that the user may wish to receive advertising content in further industry categories associated with not only the first website where the user registered, but further browsed websites. In this example, the method may be adapted to include the step of storing details of users in association with other industry categories of subsequent participating websites browsed by the user into the data structure. Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that other techniques of updating the data structure to gather further information about the users could be used. This additional process 22, shown to be performed after the process of storing 16 user details in association with the industry category data to ensure an updated list of users is generated in response to further events occurring. For example, further websites may wish to participate in providing targeted advertising content to their users and further users may register details. As a result, the step of generating 18 the list of users to receive advertising may be conducted periodically to capture any updates and the periodically generated list may be provided to the advertiser upon request, or also periodically.
In an example, the website or offline business can receive remuneration from the advertiser for providing a user, and thus a potential customer with a particular industry preference, to the attention of the advertiser. The user provided is more likely to purchase a product or service from the advertiser as they already wish to receive advertising content in certain industry categories, and therefore remuneration to the participating business is likely to be higher than the if the user was unlikely to make a purchase. The method 24, shown in Figure 2, of remunerating the participating website or offline business occurs after the process of the advertiser being provided 26 with a generated list of users wishing to receive targeted advertising content and after advertising content is provided.
The website or offline business where the user first registered is then remunerated 30, the value of which is typically predetermined. An example of a typical remuneration would be a fixed fee provided to the website where the user first registered, payable each time the user receives an advertisement. Another example would be commission based remuneration where a percentage of the amount of money spent by a user with the advertiser is paid to the website where the user first registered. In addition to the website getting remunerated, the user may also be remunerated 32, upon receipt of the advertising content. This remuneration could be in the form of a fixed fee or credits to be spent with the advertiser. Those skilled in the art would appreciate that other forms of remuneration could be employed, such as the remuneration amount varying according to different industry categories.
To better identify the participating website or offline business where the user first registered for remuneration, referral data may be stored into the data structure in addition to the user registered details and the industry category data. The referral data is provided in the generated list to the advertiser, so that the advertiser can identify where the user was referred.
Referring now to Figure 3, an example is shown of the method 36 of providing targeted advertising content to users and providing the users and participating websites or offline businesses with some remuneration. In one embodiment, offline businesses or websites recognise the importance of an additional income stream from advertising and thus register 38 their details with an advertising system, or network, implementing the above described method of providing targeted advertising content. The advertising system may be implemented over any network, such as the Internet, or a mobile or wireless network, and in the example given below, advertising content is provided over the mobile network.
As described above, offline businesses or websites register their details 38 and these are stored 40 on a server. It is envisaged that a registration page is provided to register details of businesses such as business name, location, industry category, industry keywords, number of customers, and website address, etc. Also stored on the server is referral data 40 for each participating website or offline business. In the above example of a user wishing to receive advertising content on their mobile phone, the user must first register 42 details, in particular a mobile phone number, to join an advertising network or system providing advertising content. These details are then stored 44 into the data structure on the server in association with the corresponding industry category data of the website or offline business where the user first registered interest, or was referred to the advertising network to register details in order to receive targeted advertising content, and a list of users is then generated 46 to be provided to an advertiser.
Also included in the user registered details could be details of any other businesses or websites or industry categories that the users may wish to receive advertisements content from. However, the industry category, or categories, of the website where the user first registered from would typically be indicative of most important goods or services the user is interested in since it is where they first registered. Thus, further registered details are used by the advertiser to more specifically target potential customers to send more relevant mobile based advertising.
User registered details may include personal details such as age, sex, date of birth and location, in addition to the mobile contact details and, as stated above, the additional personal details may be used by an advertiser to further target advertising content to the user. An example of further targeting advertising content is as follows. If the industry category of the website where the user first registered is women' s fashion and the age of the user is 18-25 then advertising content would be specifically targeted to clothing suitable to that particular age group, as opposed to clothing suitable for the age group of 45+. In one embodiment, the referral data is accessed by a web bug embedded in each participating website and when the web bug is retrieved from a host server, typically when a user clicks on it, the industry category data of the participating website is added to the registered user details. In this embodiment, remuneration may vary according to whether the participating website was the first registered website or a subsequent website.
By way of a further example, reference will now be given to an advertiser joining 48 an advertising system, or network, of users and participating websites to receive a list of users wishing to receive targeted advertising content. If the website Disney.com completed the registration phase and a user first registered with Disney.com to receive targeted advertising content on their mobile device, the user registered to receive content from Disney.com would be referred to the advertising system and would receive advertising content targeted to such corresponding industry categories as children's movies and collectable figurines.
If the advertiser joining 48 the network or system is a toy manufacturer, for example, the advertiser may wish to provide advertising content to the users of Disney.com. Furthermore, the advertiser may be provided 50 with further details of the users to better target the advertising 52 to the desired users, i.e. those users more likely to make a purchase. After the advertising content is created, the advertiser such as the toy manufacturer typically pays a sum of money to an administrator of the advertising system and the users being targeted 54 receive the advertising content. The user being targeted receives 54 a remuneration, typically in the form of a percentage of the revenue generated by the advertising system which is paid for by the advertiser. For example, the advertiser pays $100,000 to the system to advertise to the users of Disney.com and gives 0.001%, i.e. $1, to each user for receiving the advertising content. The same or a different percentage of revenue is received 56 by the website or offline business where the user first registered as a referral fee, when the user receives the advertising content. Also, to ensure user enjoyment, any advertising content should conform to a set of predetermined guidelines and the content may be required to be approved 58 by an administrator of the system.
It is appreciated that other forms of remuneration may be employed including the advertiser paying a monetary figure for all advertising content sent in an auction based or fluctuating price format such that, as more advertisers target the individual website or offline business, the more expensive the individual cost of each mobile advertisement becomes, or vice-versa.
Figure 4 shows a block diagram of the main components of a system for providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites or offline businesses including a server 60. The server 60 includes an interface module 62 typically arranged to store information on the server, including information from websites 64 and users 66. It is envisaged that the interface module 62 encompasses an interface which can receive information from an online website registration page for users and websites to register details and receive information from a facility to manually enter details of offline businesses and users thereof. Also, the interface module encompasses a storage module arranged to store this registered data on the server into a data structure 68.
Those persons skilled in the art would appreciate that the server in the above example is a server system which could be embodied in a web server, data base server, or a stand alone server, running on a computer system, over a distributed client-server system, where the clients are the users and participating websites and offline businesses. In a client-server system, the server waits to receive instructions to read or write to a storage means, via the storage module. It is also appreciate by those skilled in the art that the storage means is typically a memory, which could be a read only memory (ROM) or a read access memory (RAM) for more transient data requiring faster access, or a combination of both. There may also be a plurality of storage means and a plurality of servers in the client-server system. Also, it is envisaged that other server systems could be employed by the system, such as a peer-peer system where the clients also act as servers. In this embodiment, or in other embodiments where there are multiple servers including mobile or wireless servers transmitting and communicating information over different banded wireless network protocols, the data structure is stored across multiple servers so the storage module may also contain a tracking module to retain knowledge of where the data is distributed amongst the servers. The tracking module may also implement a packet header tracking code, or other suitable code embedded in the data to maintain knowledge of where the data is stored.
The data structure is typically stored in a data base on the storage means of the server and various techniques are known to the skilled person to model the data structure, for example a hierarchical model stored in the computing system may be used. In addition, the skilled person would appreciate that the server, running on a computer system, would include the features of a typical computing system. These include the aforementioned storage means and a processor, which would implement instructions by the modules, such as the storage module and interface module, typically in collaboration with a software operating system, to access the storage means and provide the requisite functionality.
The participating websites or offline businesses access the interface module 62 to register details including details of at least one corresponding industry category, as described above, which is stored as industry data in the data structure. There may also be an industry category module to ensure that industries are categorised consistently, with regard to the business of the relevant website or offline business. In association with this industry category data, details of users are stored in the data structure. The interface module 62 also includes a user module to store the user data in association with industry category data of the industry category of the website, or offline business, where the user first registered to receive targeted advertising content. The user may register details via a participating website or directly in the advertising system using the interface module which allows read/write access to the data structure.
User data stored in the data structure is sent to a list generation module 70, which generates a list of users wishing to receive targeted advertising content in a format suitable for receipt by an advertiser. That is, the list generation module accesses the data structure and provides a sorted list of users and their at least one industry category preference corresponding to the at least one industry category of the participating website or offline business where they first registered. As discussed with respect to the above example, the user may enter further details, for example, age, sex, etc, and these further details are also compiled by the list generation module 70 for access by an advertiser wishing to further target the advertising content. Furthermore, while it is shown that the list generation module is within the server 60, it would be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that this module need not be physically located on the server 60 and may be located remotely.
The list generation module 70 may also be further adapted to contain a targeting module, which provides, in addition to a sorted list of users according to preferred industry categories, a further sorted list according to the further details, such as age. For example, a list may be provided to the advertiser, upon request, of women users aged 25-50 to receive advertising for a particular brand of car. However, it is envisaged that this targeting module need not be located with the list generation module 70 and may reside with the advertiser. In this case, the list generation module need only provide the list of users and their details to the advertiser.
In another embodiment, the targeting module is associated with a module adapted to detect the location of a mobile user, so that the geographical location is communicated to the server via the interface module 62 and stored into the data structure in association with the user details and industry category data. The updated location data from the location module could then be used to generate an updated list by the list generation module 70, and this list can be provided to the advertiser to send further targeted mobile advertising. For example, if a user is in a particular area near a movie cinema and first registered with, or registered interest in receiving targeted advertising content from, Disney.com, advertising content may be sent to the user advertising a Disney movie currently being shown in the nearby cinemas .
Also shown is an access module 72 located on the server 60. The access module is arranged to provide the generated list to an advertiser wishing to provide targeted advertising content. The access module could include a modem for sending data to an advertiser and it will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that this module may be located remotely from the server, for example also with the advertiser. In the case where there access module 72 is remote from the list generation module 70 and the server 60, a suitable communication link is implemented between the modules, so that information can be transmitted therebetween. Communication modules to ensure information is transmitted in the same format between modules may be employed by the system for this purpose .
The access module 72 can also be adapted to be accessed periodically by an advertiser wishing an updated list of users or adapted to transmit the updated generated list of users periodically, depending on the arrangement with the advertiser. A list transmission module adapted to transmit the list from the access module 72 may be employed by the system to implement the above mentioned methods of obtaining an updated list.
Furthermore, although not shown in Figure 4, a transmission module may be utilised by the system for providing advertising content to enable an advertiser to transmit the advertising content to the users. In the example where the users are mobile users, the transmission module could be a SMS or MMS module adapted to send advertising content in the form of a message to mobile users. Other formats of transmission may include EMS, Web Text Ad, Web Text Banner, Web Video, Mobile Video Message, Streaming Video, Fixed Mobile Page for web based transmission, Mobile Games, Mobile Software, or WAP for wireless devices. It is envisaged that the web based transmission of advertising content can be viewed by the browsing facilities of the Internet user, mobile, or wireless device user, without the need for specialised software to be installed. The remote transmission of advertising content is more clearly shown in Figure 5 where a network 74, for example the Internet or a mobile network, is shown. It can be seen from this figure that the users 66, participating websites/offline businesses 64 and a sample advertiser 76 are remote from the server 60 and each access the network to register details, receive and provide targeted advertising content.
With regard to the above example of the advertiser 76 being a toy manufacturer and the website 64 being Disney.com, Disney.com realises that a greater income stream can be generated by referring users of its website to advertisers of goods in similar industry categories and accesses the server interface across the network to register its details. Also, a user 66, typically a mobile user, accesses Disney.com' s website via the Internet, via a mobile device or desktop, and decides that he/she wishes to receive advertising content from Disney.com on their mobile phone. As a result, the user registers his/her details over the network and they are saved in association with the industry category data corresponding to Disney. com' s relevant industry categories in the data structure on the server. The list of users is then generated and provided to the advertiser 76 across the network 74, so that the advertiser can provide and transmit targeted advertising content to users based on the industry categories of Disney.com.
Also not shown in the figures is a remuneration module employed by the system to remunerate users 64 upon receipt of the advertising content and to remunerate participating websites or offline businesses 66 for referring users. The remuneration module is thus further adapted to include a referral module adapted to store into the data structure referral data to identify the referring website for remuneration. As described above, methods of providing referral data, such as providing a web bug in the website, are implemented by the referral module. It will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that the web bug may be implemented as a tracking cookie or a transparent GIF or PNG image, typically 1x1 pixel, embedded into a HTML page of a website or an email. Furthermore, web bugs or tracking cookies may also include user HTML IFrames, style script, input link, embed, object and other tags to track usage and to track whenever a user opens a website. In one example, the participating websites, when registering details with the system store an image or tag on the server, corresponding to a web bug, so that when the image or tag is accessed by a user and the server is aware of this action.
It is also envisaged that this referral information could be passed to the user in the form of a raw alphabetic, numeric or alphanumerical code which the user could enter manually when registering their details. Thus, if the user has registered details to receive advertising content, the industry category of subsequent browsed websites can be stored on the server along with referral details for remuneration. It is envisaged that the user may also receive a discount on any goods purchased as a result of receiving the targeted advertising content. By way of example, this scenario may be implemented using the alphanumeric code, for example XY1234, as a coupon, identifiable by staff at a participating business, for the user to receive a discount on the goods purchased.
Also implemented by the remuneration module are predetermined rules, agreed to by the advertisers, users and participating websites and offline businesses, to allocate remuneration accordingly. Examples of such rules include providing one fixed fee to the website where the user first registered upon receipt of advertising content by the user and providing a smaller fixed fee to subsequent websites when the user registers with these. Also envisaged is a tiered type fee structure where the first referring website receives a percentage of the smaller fixed fee allocated to the subsequent registered websites. Further envisaged is a fee structure where the advertising system pays the participating websites, or offline businesses, a referral fee when the users registers interest by selecting a link to register details with the advertising system website, but does not fulfil the registration.
In an alternative embodiment, rather than the advertiser receiving a list of users, the advertiser could submit the advertising content to the system for sending out on their behalf and accordingly, the system could employ an advertising module to store advertising content and determine to which users in the generated list the content is to be sent. The advertising module may also have a filtering capability to avoid such situations as the advertisers sending repeated advertising content to users and to prevent competing advertisers sending similar content to the users.
In a further alternative embodiment, the users registering details over the network with a website, such as Disney.com, are registering details to be stored on the server for use in a social networking website, in addition to their use in the advertising system. In this embodiment, users wishing to receive advertising content from a website such as Disney.com will see a web link displayed from the Disney.com website directing the user to a social networking website, where the user can register details to be stored on the server. In the above example where referral data is used to identify the website, this data is also stored in the data structure in association with the user registered details so that both the social networking website and the advertising system know where the user originated from. This information can then be presented to advertisers so that they can individually target users in the social networking website who originated from Disney.com, or alternatively, narrow their targeting to other users on the social network website who are in similar categories as the Disney.com website. As stated above, this information can then be used to identify the referring website for remuneration. It is envisaged that the social networking website is accessible to Internet, mobile and wireless web space users .
It will be understood to persons skilled in the art of the invention that many modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
In the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising" is used in an inclusive sense, i.e. to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention.
It is to be understood that, if any prior art publication is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms a part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country.

Claims

Claims :
1. A method of providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites, the method comprising the steps of: storing on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating website; registering details of users to receive advertising content; storing the registered details of the users in association with industry category data of the website where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content into a data structure on the server; generating a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and providing the list to an advertiser, so that the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the website where the users first registered.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of registering details of users to receive advertising content further comprises registering details of users via at least one of the participating websites .
3. The method of claim 1 or 2, further comprising the step of further storing the registered details of the users in association with industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each subsequent participating website selected by the users into the data structure.
4. The method of any of claims 1 to 3, further comprising the step of generating the list of users to receive advertising periodically from the data structure.
5. The method of claim 4, further comprising providing the periodically generated list to the advertiser periodically, or upon request by the advertiser.
6. The method of any of claims 1 to 5, further comprising the steps of further storing on the server referral data for each participating website in association with the registered details of users and the industry category data into the data structure, to provide remuneration to each website where the respective users first registered based on the referral data when targeted advertising content is provided to the respective users.
7. The method of any of claims 1 to 6, further comprising the step of renumerating each user for registering details to receive advertising content.
8. The method of any of claims 1 to 7, further comprising the step of renumerating each user upon receipt of advertising content.
9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the step of the users registering details to receive advertising content on the server includes registering personal details in the form of age, sex, date of birth and location, and contact details in the form of a mobile phone number or an IP address.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of the advertiser providing targeted advertising content to the users includes further targeting advertising content to users based on the registered personal details in addition to the at least one industry category of the website where the respective users first registered
11. The method of any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the step of registering details of users to receive advertising content further includes users registering details to join a social networking website.
12. The method of any one of claims 1 to 11, further comprising the step of registering details including at least one industry category by each participating website and storing the details on the server.
13. A method of providing targeted advertising content to users of participating offline businesses, the method comprising the steps of: storing on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating offline business; registering details of users to receive advertising content; storing the registered details of the users in association with industry category data of the offline business where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content into a data structure on the server; generating a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and providing the list to an advertiser, so that the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the offline business where the users first registered.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of registering details of users to receive advertising content further comprises registering details of users via at least one of the participating offline businesses.
15. The method of claim 13 or 14, further comprising the steps of further storing on the server referral data for each participating website in association with the registered details of users and the industry category data into the data structure, to provide remuneration to each offline business where the respective users first registered based on the referral data, when targeted advertising content is provided to the respective users.
16. The method of any of claims 12 to 14, further comprising the step of remunerating each user for registering details to receive advertising content.
17. The method of any of claims 12 to 15, further comprising the step of renumerating each user upon receipt of advertising content.
18. A system for providing targeted advertising content to users of participating websites, the system comprising: a server storage module arranged to store on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating website and arranged to store registered details of users wishing to receive advertising content registered; a user module arranged to store the registered details of the users in association with industry category data of the websites where the respective users first registered into a data structure on the server; a list generation module arranged to generate a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and an access module arranged to provide the list to an advertiser, whereby the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the website where the users first registered
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the server storage module is further arranged to store registered details of users wishing to receive advertising content via at least one of the websites.
20. The system of claim 18 or 19/ further comprising a transmission module arranged to provide targeted advertising content from the advertiser to the respective users .
21. The system of any of claims 18 to 20, wherein the user module is further arranged to store industry category data of subsequent websites selected by the users into the data structure.
22. The system of any of claims 18 to 21, wherein the list generation module is further arranged to generate the list of users to receive advertising periodically from the data structure.
23. The system of claim 22, wherein the access module is further arranged to provide the periodically generated list to the advertiser periodically, or upon request by the advertiser.
24. The system of any of claims 18 to 23, wherein the system further comprises a referral module arranged to store referral data for each participating website in association with the registered details of users and the industry category data into the data structure, to provide remuneration to each website where the respective users first registered based on the referral data, when targeted advertising content is provided to the respective users.
25. The system of claim 24, wherein the referral data is accessed by a web bug, a tracking cookie, or a alphanumeric code embedded or stored in each participating website.
26. The system of any of claims 18 to 25, wherein the users are mobile or wireless users.
27. The system of claim 26, wherein the targeted advertising content is provided in the form of a SMS, MMS, Mobile Text, Mobile Picture, Mobile Banner, Mobile Video , Mobile Audio, Mobile Games, Mobile Software or WAP message to the mobile or wireless users.
28. The system of claims 18 to 27, wherein the registered details of users stored on the server include personal details in the form of age, sex, date of birth and location, and contact details in the form of a mobile phone number or an IP address.
29. The system of claim 28, wherein the advertiser can provide further targeted advertising content to the users based on the registered personal details in addition to the at least one industry category of the website where the respective users first registered.
30. The system of claims 18 to 29, wherein the server storage module is further arranged to store the registered details of users wishing to receive advertising content for a social networking website.
31. A system for providing targeted advertising content to users of participating offline businesses, the system comprising: a server storage module arranged to store on a server industry category data corresponding to at least one industry category of each participating offline business and arranged to store registered details of users wishing to receive advertising content registered; a user module arranged to store the registered details of the users in association with industry category- data of the offline businesses where the respective users first registered to receive targeted advertising content into a data structure on the server; a list generation module arranged to generate a list of users to receive targeted advertising content based on the industry category data stored in association with the user details in the data structure; and an access module arranged to provide the list to an advertiser, whereby the advertiser can provide targeted advertising content to the users corresponding to the at least one industry category of the offline business where the users first registered.
32. A computer program code which when executed implements the method of any one of claims 1-17.
33. A computer readable medium comprising to the program code of claim 32.
34. A data signal comprising the program code of claim 33.
PCT/AU2008/001459 2007-10-03 2008-10-03 Method and system for providing targeted advertising content WO2009043098A1 (en)

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