INTERACTIVE PRODUCT PLACEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD THEREFOR
A method for presenting advertisements for commercial products in video productions, whereby the commercial product is placed in the video production as an element of the video production. A viewer is enabled to interact with the video production to select the product. Information is then displayed about the selected product; and the viewer is enabled to purchase the selected product.
1 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions, the instructions when executed by at least one computer processor causing the at least one computer processor to:
send a request for a video for playback to a user based on user input;
receive video data associated with the video from one or more video servers in response to the request, the video including at least one product or service that is displayed during playback;
receive, separate from receipt of the video data, a cue point data structure associated with the video, the cue point data structure including cue point metadata having:
(a) an identifier associated with an at least one advertisement;
(b) an indicator of an elapsed time at which an advertisement associated with the identifier is to be displayed relative to a playback time of the video, and
(c) an expiration after which the advertisement is not to be displayed unless user-interaction with the advertisement occurs;
retrieve an advertisement based on the identifier in the cue point metadata;
initiate playback of the video based on receipt of the video data;
initiate display of the retrieved advertisement at the elapsed time indicated in the cue point metadata during the playback of the video;
monitor for user-interaction with the advertisement during display of the advertisement; and
stop display of the advertisement at the expiration indicated in the cue point metadata if no user-interaction with the advertisement is monitored.
2 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions to:
display a timeline for the video, the timeline including a visual calling cue point.
3 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions to:
display a timeline for the video, the timeline including a visual calling cue point, a position of the visual calling cue point along the timeline is based on the elapsed time indicated in the cue point metadata relative to an overall playback time of the video.
4 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to retrieve an advertisement include instructions to:
send an advertisement request to an at least one ad server; and
receive a response to the advertisement request.
5 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the instructions to send the advertisement request include instructions to send the advertisement request to at least one ad server prior to initiating playback of the video.
6 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to retrieve the advertisement include instructions to:
send an advertisement request to an at least one ad server, the advertisement request including cue point metadata; and
receive a response to the advertisement request.
7 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to retrieve the advertisement include instructions to:
send an advertisement request to an at least one ad server, the advertisement request including a video identifier associated with the video; and
receive a response to the advertisement request.
8 . A processor-implemented method, comprising:
sending a request for a video for playback;
receiving video data associated with the video in response to the request, the video including at least one product or service that is displayed during playback of the video;
receiving, separate from receiving the video data, a cue point data structure associated with the video, the cue point data structure including at least one set of cue point metadata, each set of cue point metadata having:
(a) an identifier for advertising material;
(b) an indicator of an elapsed time during playback of the video at which advertising material associated with the identifier is to be displayed relative to a time of the video being played, and
(c) an expiration after which display of the advertising material associated with the identifier is to be stopped unless a user has interacted with the advertising material associated with the identifier;
starting playback the video after receiving the video data; and
displaying, during playback of the video, advertising material based on the received cue point data structure such that, for each set of cue point metadata, the advertising material according to the identifier in that set of cue point metadata is displayed at the elapsed time indicated in that set of cue point metadata until the expiration indicated in that set of cue point metadata.
9 . The processor-implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising:
displaying a timeline for the video.
10 . The processor-implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising:
displaying a timeline for the video; and
displaying a visual calling cue point in the timeline for each set of cue point metadata.
11 . The processor-implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising:
displaying a timeline for the video; and
displaying a visual calling cue point in the timeline for each set of cue point metadata, a location along the timeline for the display of the visual calling cue point being based on the elapsed time indicated in the corresponding set of cue point metadata relative to an overall playback time of the video.
9 . The processor-implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising:
tracking user interaction with displayed advertising material.
13 . The processor-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein at least some of the displayed advertising material is related to the at least one product or service.
14 . The processor-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the at least some of the displayed advertising material is related to the at least one product or service and configured to enable purchase the at least one product or service.
15 . The processor-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein at least some of the advertising material includes a portion that is displayed as an overlay upon user interaction.
16 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions, the instructions when executed by at least one computer processor causing the at least one computer processor to:
receive video data associated with a video, the video including at least one product or service that is displayed during display of the video;
receive, separate from receipt of the video data, a cue point data structure associated with the video, the cue point data structure including at least one set of cue point metadata, each set of cue point metadata having:
(a) an indicator of an elapsed time at which advertising material is to be displayed relative to a time of the video being played,
(b) an advertising material identifier, and
(c) an expiration after which advertising material is not to be displayed unless a user has interacted with the advertising material;
start playback of the video after receiving the video data; and
display advertising material based on the cue point data structure such that advertising material associated with the advertising material identifier in each set of cue point metadata is displayed at the elapsed time indicated in that set of cue point metadata during display of the video until the expiration indicated in that set of cue point metadata.
17 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein at least some of the advertising material is related to the at least one product or service.
18 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein at least some of the advertising material is configured to be displayed as an overlay.
19 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions to:
track user interaction with advertising material.
20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions to:
display a timeline for the video.
21 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions to:
display a timeline for the video, the timeline including a visual calling cue point for each set of cue point metadata.
22 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions to:
display a timeline for the video, the timeline including a visual calling cue point for each set of cue point metadata, a relative location of each visual calling cue point on the timeline is based on the elapsed time indicated in the corresponding set of cue point metadata.