Advertisement selecting apparatus, advertisement selecting method, and storage medium

Abstract

An advertisement selecting system is disclosed providing, when selecting advertisements to be exposed to subscribers over the Internet, exposure control reflecting the inventory of advertisements by taking into account results of past exposure of each of the advertisements. When subscribers with a particular profile biased to specific tastes or preferences gain access to contents carrying advertisements, the first-ranked advertisement, i.e., the one best targeted for the subscribers in question, is exposed repeatedly but in a manner also making way for the advertisements in second and subsequent places which would be less likely to be exposed if handled conventionally, so that the stocked advertisements are exposed in fairly averaged fashion. Advertisement exposure is thus controlled in a manner averting lopsided exposure of certain (or partial) advertisement information by giving consideration to the advertisement inventory.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD[0001]The present invention relates to an advertisement selecting apparatus, an advertisement selecting method, and a storage medium for properly selecting advertisements to be inserted into contents. More particularly, the invention relates to an advertisement selecting apparatus, an advertisement selecting method, and a storage medium for suitably selecting advertisements to be inserted into contents that are distributed over a wide-area network such as the Internet.[0002]Even more particularly, this invention relates to an advertisement selecting apparatus, an advertisement selecting method, and a storage medium for selecting, in a manner personalized for each subscriber, advertisement information used in contents that are offered to the subscribers under a so-called pull-type distribution scheme over the Internet or similar networks. Still more particularly, the invention relates to an advertisement selecting apparatus, an advertisement selecting method, and a sto...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0025]In achieving the foregoing and other objects of the present invention and according to a first aspect thereof, there is provided an advertisement selecting system or method for selecting advertisement information to be inserted into contents requested by a subscriber for audiovisual use in an information-providing space, involving parties made up of a content provider providing contents, a commercial sponsor offering advertisement information to be attached to the contents, and the subscriber, and the advertisement selecting system or method including means or steps of: comparing means or step for comparing attribute information held individually by the contents, the advertisement information, and the subscriber, with requirements held individually by the contents, the advertisement information, and the subscriber regarding the selection of advertisements, in order to acquire individual degrees of satisfaction for the content provider, the commercial sponsor, and the subscriber; and selecting means or step for selecting the advertisement which maximizes the overall degree of satisfaction for the content provider, the commercial sponsor, and the subscriber, as the selected advertisement to be inserted into the contents requested by the subscriber for audiovisual use.

[0028]Therefore, the advertisement information is selected in a manner not excessively favoring any one of the parties making up the information-providing space, but maximizing the degree of satisfaction for the system as a whole, whereby the contents are offered to subscribers in personalized fashion.

[0042]Preferably, where the attribute information held individually by the contents, the advertisement information, and the subscriber is made up of a plurality of items; and the requirements held individually by the contents, the advertisement information, and the subscriber regarding the selection of advertisements with respect to the other parties involved are constituted by a plurality of items, the content provider, the commercial sponsor and the subscriber may each set the items making up the attribute information and the items constituting the requirements for the selection of advertisements in one of the manners consisting of a restricting manner, a preferring manner, an inhibiting manner, and a grading manner. The restricting manner may consist of making the selection exclusively if a requirement is met; the preferring manner may consist of making the selection preferably, not exclusively, if a requirement is met; the inhibiting manner may consist of inhibiting the selection if a requirement is met; and the grading manner may consist of representing in numbers the degree of preference for each requirement. In such cases, the comparing means or step may compare initially the items set in the restricting manner and in the inhibiting manner, before comparing the items set in the grading manner. This feature is designed to reduce the workload on the selecting means or step above in extracting candidate advertisements.

[0043]Preferably, the comparing means or step above may verify initially the items set in the restricting manner before verifying the items set in the inhibiting manner. This feature is also designed to reduce the workload on the selecting means or step in extracting candidate advertisements.

[0044]According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a storage medium which stores physically, in a computer-readable format, computer software for causing a computer system to select advertisement information to be inserted into contents requested by a subscriber for audiovisual use in an information-providing space involving parties made up of a content provider providing contents, a commercial sponsor offering advertisement information to be attached to the contents, and the subscriber, and the computer software including the steps of: a comparing step for comparing attribute information held individually by the contents, the advertisement information, and the subscriber, with requirements held individually by the contents, the advertisement information, and the subscriber regarding the selection of advertisements, in order to acquire individual degrees of satisfaction for the content provider, the commercial sponsor, and the subscriber; and a selecting step for selecting the advertisement which maximizes the overall degree of satisfaction for the content provider, the commercial sponsor, and the subscriber, as the selected advertisement to be inserted into the contents requested by the subscriber for audiovisual use.

[0056]The inventive apparatus and method thus allow commercial sponsors to schedule their advertisement exposure. As a result, content / advertisement providing systems implementing this invention have their values significantly enhanced as viable advertising media.

Problems solved by technology

In other words, attaching ineffective advertisement information to contents yields few benefits for the subscribers, commercial sponsors, or content providers.

However, pursuing the subscribers' requirements alone conflicts with commercial sponsors' desires to insert their advertisement information into those contents related to the products or services marketed or offered by the sponsors.

However, there has been few advertisement information offering services that would selectively offer advertisement information by taking into account the overall benefits of the three parties, i.e., subscribers, sponsors, and content providers.

However, if the calculated values of cost effectiveness are used as the sole criteria for selecting advertisement information to be exposed, only the first-ranked advertisement information, i.e., information deemed to be the most applicable to the subscriber, is repeatedly exposed; and the information ranked in second and subsequent places tends to be slow in getting exposed.

In such cases, the prepared inventory of advertisements is not effectively utilized.

Indeed, most of the stored advertisement information is just hoarded up and remains idle.

When the income picture is one-sided in favor of particular sponsors, other sponsors cannot get their advertisement information exposed in desired volumes.

Subscribers, for their part, watch certain advertisements so frequently that they become tired of them.

The effectiveness of advertisements as a whole thus dwindle down.

As a result, the content distribution services may let their viability and their functionality as advertising media be seriously compromised in the eyes of those they do business with.

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