Dynamic advertising system for interactive games

Abstract

The invention is a system for displaying objects within an interactive game program, in which, the objects can be added during the game program creation and afterwards. Additionally, a component within the game program itself updates these objects and communicates with a centralized server that manages and controls the objects through a number of utilities. One embodiment of the invention is a system providing dynamically changing advertisements within interactive video games. Additionally, a centralized server communicates with an internal Ad Engine to update interactive game ads without impeding on the game performance or affect the game play in any unintended way. Furthermore, the invention provides various management suites for interactive game program developers, game program publishers, and advertisers to update and manage the advertising objects within the game program.

Description

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of Invention [0002] The invention relates to interactive computer and video games and, in particular, to the creation and control of advertisements within. [0003] 2. Description of Related Art [0004] As the computer and video games evolved in the last few years, more and more games have integrated brand advertisements into the worlds they have built. Drivers in race car simulators can see ads next to the race track, soccer and basketball players play in fields surrounded by ads, game characters wear fashion garments of known brands and players of the popular “the Sims” game can buy their food at McDonalds™. [0005] Up to this point, each game developer integrated ads and products at the time of creation, with game publishers and business development people bringing the advertisers. Unlike the on-line market, there are no central aggregators or providers of ads for the games. What is needed is a solution that allows different publishers and deve...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012] Another objective of the invention is to create advertisements in the interactive game program, and allow game publishers and advertisers add and update the advertisements after the interactive video game creation, without affecting game performance.

[0013] Another objective of the invention is to track ad effectiveness for both game publishers and advertisers and enhance the ability to focus the ads toward a target audience.

[0015] Accordingly, the invention is an apparatus for displaying objects within an interactive game program that includes a developer suite for creating the objects within the game both at the time of game creation and after publishing and releasing the game. Additionally, a component within the game program itself updates these objects and communicates with a centralized server that manages and controls the objects through a number of utilities. The embodiment consists of a client / server system providing dynamically changing advertisements within PC and Video games. A centralized server updates the clients interactive game ads without impeding on the game performance or affect the game play in any unintended way. Furthermore, the system can integrate additional ads within the 3D environment of the game in a natural manner, using multiple ad data formats. Moreover, the invention includes the ability to select the content of the displayed ad based on various demographic criteria of the player, (e.g. select the English ad for a player in the US and a French version for a player in France, target specific age groups or genders), based upon collected tracking data.

[0017] In addition to the Ad Engine and the servers, the invention includes a suite of management tools for the game developers, the game publishers and the advertisers. A game developer ad object Management Studio and Software Development Kit (SDK) allows game developers integrate the d engine in their interactive game and include ad enabled objects to support various types of advertisements, including banners, animations, video and 3D objects. In addition, the ad object Management Studio allows game developers add additional ad objects into the game after publication and release. The game publishers use an ad object Management Suite to set and control the parameters of the various characteristics of the displayed ads. Finally, a network of advertisers uses an ad campaign Management Suite to provide the content for the displayed advertisements, including the ability to add additional ad objects after the game is created. With the ad campaign Management Suite, advertisers can select and control the target audience and other important aspects of their ad campaigns.

Problems solved by technology

In addition, once the ads are integrated within the game, they are fixed and cannot be changed throughout the lifecycle of the game.

Furthermore, because the game development process itself could take two years or more, the advertisements need to be

In addition, once the ads are integrated within the game, they are fixed and cannot be changed throughout the lifecycle of the game.

Furthermore, because the game development process itself could take two years or more, the advertisements need to be determined long before they are seen by the target audience.

As a result, the lack of ability to change the ad's content as time passes significantly reduces the effectiveness of games as an advertising medium.

This is due to what is known as “Ad wear-out”—a term describing the phenomenon where the effectiveness of advertising on a viewer diminishes after a certain small number of exposures.

These issues limit the scope of potential advertisers to only a select group of well-known international mega-brands, such as Coca Cola™ or Nike™, who use the medium for brand awareness and not direct advertising.

Furthermore, currently there is no mechanism to accurately track the actual exposure to the advertisement.

Hence, there is no systematic metric that can be used by advertisers and publishers to gauge the effectiveness of ad campaigns, and therefore, no way to determine pricing systematically.

An additional problem with current game advertising solutions is the incompatibility of media types between the game world and the advertising world.

Flash and jpeg formats are not typically supported by games, which requires advertisers to adapt their content and creation processes at an increased cost.

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