Providing advertising content to at least one communicating terminal
View Patent ↗An apparatus for providing advertising content to terminals communicating over a communications network is provided. The apparatus includes a processing element that communicates with network elements residing on the network or other networks to receive information regarding the terminals and their users. At least one of the terminals may be a mobile terminal. The processing element communicates an instruction to an advertising platform based on this information, and the advertising platform in turn selects and transmits advertising content to the respective terminals according to the instruction. Such content may include text messages, voice messages, picture messages, video clips, and more. In some cases, the processing element may determine a common characteristic of two or more terminals and their users based on the information received, and advertising content based on that common characteristic may be sent to the terminals. A method, system, and computer program product are also provided.
1. An apparatus for automatically selecting and transmitting targeted advertisement content to mobile terminals, comprising:
at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
receive a first communication associated with a first mobile terminal communicating over a communications network;
receive a second communication associated with a second mobile terminal communicating over the communications network,
wherein the first and second communications are received during a terminal communication between the first and second mobile terminals;
determine one or more tags based on a content of the first communication, wherein the one or more tags define a first information;
determine one or more tags based on a content of the second communication, wherein the one or more tags define a second information;
automatically compare in real time the first information associated with the first mobile terminal and the second information associated with the second mobile terminal to each other based, at least in part, on the content of the communications transmitted by one of the mobile terminals to the other of the mobile terminals upon the terminal communication between the first and second mobile terminals, wherein the communication is a multimedia communication such that the content of the communication includes multimedia images and the one or more tags associated with the multimedia communication are determined from multimedia images;
automatically determine a common characteristic comprising a match between the one or more tags of a user of the first mobile terminal and a user of the second mobile terminal based on the comparison of the information associated with the one or more tags of the content of the communications; and
communicate in real time during the terminal communication an instruction that includes the common characteristic for communication to the advertising platform, wherein the instruction directs the selection and transmission of advertising content relating to the common characteristic to at least one of the mobile terminals.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to communicate with at least one external source connected to the communications network selected from the group consisting of an Application Server, an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem, a Multimedia Messaging Service Center, a Short Messaging Service Center, a Mobile Switching Center, and an Intelligent Network Server.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to receive the first and second information and to communicate the corresponding instruction to the advertising platform in real time.
4. A method for automatically selecting and transmitting targeted advertisement content to mobile terminals comprising:
receiving a first communication associated with a first mobile terminal communicating over a communications network;
receiving a second communication associated with a second mobile terminal communicating over the communications network,
wherein the first and second communications are received during a terminal communication between the first and second mobile terminals;
determining one or more tags based on a content of the first communication, wherein the one or more tags define a first information;
determining one or more tags based on a content of the second communication, wherein the one or more tags define a second information;
automatically comparing in real time the first information associated with a user of the first mobile terminal and the second information associated with a user of the second mobile terminal to each other based, at least in part, on the content of the communication transmitted by one of the mobile terminals to the other of the mobile terminals upon the terminal communication between the first and second mobile terminals, wherein the communication is a multimedia communication such that the content of the communication includes multimedia images and the one or more tags associated with the multimedia communication are determined from the multimedia images;
automatically determining a common characteristic comprising a match between the one or more tags of the user of the first mobile terminal and the user of the second mobile terminal based on the comparison of the first and second information associated with the one or more tags of the content of the communications; and
communicating real time during the terminal communication an instruction that includes the common characteristic to an advertising platform, wherein the instruction directs the selection and transmission of advertising content to at least one of the terminals.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein a database resides outside of the communications network and stores profile information comprises identifying information selected from the group consisting of a name, address, age, occupation, and ethnic background of a user.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the profile information comprises information regarding interests selected from the group consisting of a hobby, sport, political affiliation, musical preference, literary preference, and religious preference of a user.
7. The method of claim 5 wherein the profile information comprises personal information selected from the group consisting of a familial status, contact name, contact phone number, and contact relationship.
8. The method of claim 4 wherein receiving the first or second information comprises receiving at least some of the first or second information from at least one external source connected to the communications network selected from the group consisting of an Application Server, an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem, a Multimedia Messaging Service Center, a Short Messaging Service Center, a Mobile Switching Center, and an Intelligent Network Server.
9. The method of claim 4 wherein receiving the first or second information comprises receiving the first or second information based at least partially on the content of a communication transmitted by at least one of the terminals to the other of the terminals, wherein the communication is a multimedia communication and the content includes one or more tags associated with the multimedia communication.
10. The method of claim 4 wherein providing the instruction to the advertising platform comprises communicating the instruction to the advertising platform in real time, and wherein the instruction directs the transmission of the advertising content by the advertising platform to the at least one of the terminals to occur during the terminal communication between the first and second terminals.
11. A computer program product for automatically selecting and transmitting targeted advertisement content to mobile terminals, the computer program comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:
a first executable portion for receiving a first communication associated with a first mobile terminal communicating over a communications network;
a second executable portion for receiving a second communication associated with a second mobile terminal communicating over the communications network,
wherein the first and second communications are received during a terminal communication between the first and second mobile terminals;
determine one or more tags based on a content of the first communication, wherein the one or more tags define a first information;
determine one or more tags based on a content of the second communication, wherein the one or more tags define a second information;
a third executable portion for comparing in real time the first information associated with the first mobile terminal and the second information associated with the second mobile terminal to each other based, at least in part, on a content of the first communication transmitted by the first mobile terminal to the second mobile terminal upon the terminal communication between the first and second mobile terminals, wherein the communication is a multimedia communication such that the content of the communication includes multimedia images and the one or more tags associated with the multimedia communication are determined from multimedia images, and
determining a common characteristic comprising a match between the one or more tags of a user of the first mobile terminal and a user of the second mobile terminal based on the comparison of the information associated with the one or more tags of the content of the communications; and
a fourth executable portion for communicating in real time during the terminal communication an instruction to an advertising platform, wherein the instruction directs the selection and transmission of advertising content to at least one of the mobile terminals based on the common characteristic between the user of the first mobile terminal and the user of the second mobile terminal.
12. A computer program product according to claim 11 , wherein at least one of said first and said second executable portions is further configured for receiving at least some of the first or second information from at least one external source connected to the communications network selected from the group consisting of an Application Server, an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem, a Multimedia Messaging Service Center, a Short Messaging Service Center, a Mobile Switching Center, and an Intelligent Network Server.
13. A computer program product according to claim 11 , wherein at least one of said first and said second executable portions is further configured for receiving at least some of the first or second information based at least partially on the content of a communication transmitted by at least one of the terminals to the other of the terminals, wherein the communication is a multimedia communication and the content includes one or more tags associated with the multimedia communication.
14. A computer program product according to claim 11 , wherein said fourth executable portion is further configured for communicating the instruction to the advertising platform in real time.
15. A system for automatically selecting and transmitting targeted advertisement content to mobile terminals, comprising:
a server computer configured to receive a first communication associated with a first mobile terminal and a second communication associated with a second mobile terminal, wherein the first and second communications are received during a terminal communication between the first and second mobile terminals over a communications network; and
an advertising platform comprising a processor configured to receive an instruction from the server computer and to transmit advertising content to at least one of the terminals;
wherein the server computer provides communicates the instruction to the advertising platform in real time during the terminal communication, the instruction including a common characteristic of a user of the first mobile terminal and a user of the second mobile terminal based, at least in part, on a:
determination of one or more tags based on a content of the first communication and the second communication that define a first information and a second information;
comparison of the first information associated with the first mobile terminal from the one or more tags of the content and the second information associated with the second mobile terminal from the one or more tags of the content to each other upon the terminal communication between the first and second mobile terminals, the common characteristic comprising a match between the one or more tags of the first information and the second information, wherein the server computer transmits the advertising content to at least one of the terminals.
16. The system of claim 15 further comprising an external source m communication with the server computer selected from the group consisting of an Application Server, an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem, a Multimedia Messaging Service Center, a Short Messaging Service Center, a Mobile Switching Center, and an Intelligent Network Server, wherein the server computer is configured to receive at least some first or second information from at least one of the external sources with which the server computer communicated.
17. The system of claim 15 wherein the server computer is configured to receive the first or second information based at least partially on the content of a communication transmitted by at least one of the terminals to the other of the terminals, wherein the communication is a multimedia communication and the content includes one or more tags associated with the multimedia communication.
18. The system of claim 15 wherein the advertising platform is configured to transmit the advertising content to at least one of the terminals such that the advertising content is provided to a user of the respective terminal during a communication of the respective terminal.
19. The system of claim 15 wherein the advertising platform is configured to transmit the advertising content to at least one of the terminals such that the advertising content is provided to a user of the respective terminal after a communication of the respective terminal.
20. The system of claim 19 wherein the advertising platform is configured to transmit the advertising content to the respective terminal such that the advertising content is provided to the user of the respective terminal upon a subsequent interaction of the user with the terminal.