Description

METHOD FOR PROVIDING ADVERTISEMENT SERVICE

WITH QUIZ GAME

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a method for providing online advertisement service, and more particularly, to a method for providing online advertisement service that efficient target marketing is possible and advertising effect is enhanced by giving benefit to the user and inducing interest of the user when the advertising is performed with advertisement contents provided on the online. Background Art

[2] A variety of techniques for advertising on the Internet have been developed along with the development of the Internet. Banner style advertisement is one of the most general advertising methods on the Internet. The banner advertisement employs the method that the advertisement contents of an advertiser is published on an advertising area of whish shape is like a banner and a wibsite for selling the products or service is linked when the user clicks the advertisement contents.

[3] However, the banner advertisement has a shortcoming that the advertiser cannot achieve an effective target advertising since the banner is displayed in a random manner irrespective of the property of the user who has connected to the website. In other words, the advertiser will hope that teenagers mainly refer his advertisement contents if his product is used by the teenagers, however, a meanlingless banner advertisement is provided in a random manner even when the users who has contacted to the website are not the teenagers. Accordingly, in order to get the target advertising effect, the advertiser has no chice but to depend on the statistics data of the visitors to the website at which the advertisement contents is published. Furthermore, such a random banner advertising induces the inconvenience and disagreeable feeling of the user by the undesired banner advertisement or pop-up window.

[4] In order to overcome such a shortcoming, various online advertisement techniques have been developed for the effective target marketing. One of such techniques is keyword advertisement. The keyword advertisement is a method that the keyword input by the user for finding desired information is analysed in order to provide the user with the advertisement contents corresponding to the main concern of the user. For example, when the user inputs the terms "movie" and "reservation" as the keyword, the advertisement about the website for reservation of the movie tickets is displayed as the banner or the popup window since the user may have the interest about the reservation of the movie tickets.

[5] Such an advertisement techneque has the advantages that the advertiser can provide the advertisement contents selectively to the users who are interested in the website of the advertiser even if the costs for unit advertisement increase, which results in the cheap costs in comparison with the real advertisement effect, and the user can be provided with the advertisement contents which are in conformity with the information he wants to find. However, even in the target marketing by the keyword advertisement, it is impossible to analyse the property of the users exactly through the keywords, and accordingly, the advertisement contents may be deemed to be a spam for the most users.

[6] As another manner, there has been many kinds of trials for enhancing the advertisement effect by giving the user the advantage for seeing the advertisement contents. For example, the user who has seen the advertisement contents is endowed with point as a form of cyber money or the like. In such a situation, the costs for the point is payed by the advertiser.

[7] However, such a method cannot ensure the advertiser about the advertisement effect, even though it has the advantage that the advertiser can pay reasonable costs since the advertiser will pay the costs for the user who has seen the advertisement contents in fact. For example, if the user clicks the advertisement contents image or popup window meaninglessly and then eleminates it without any recognition or memory about the contents of the advertisement, the advertisement is referred in vain, which results in little effect of advertisement. Many netizens refer the advertisement contents only for the purpose of getting the point, so such a method cannot ensure the advertiser about the advertisement effect any more. Disclosure of Invention

Technical Problem

[8] The present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems, and it is the object of the present invention to provide online advertisement service that general users can achieve the profit as they see the advertisement contents, and furthermore they feel interesting to see the advertisement contents. It is also the object of the present invention to provide online advertisement service that the advertiser pays the costs for advertising only to the reference of the advertisement contents that is credible in fact. Technical Solution

[9] According to one aspect of the present invention, the objects of the present invention can be achieved by a method for providing online advertisement service that an advertisement server provides advertisement requested by an advertiser directly on a web or through a certain website, the method comprising: a step (a) that the ad-

vertisement server receives advertisement contents from an advertiser computer managed by the advertiser; a step (b) that the advertisement server provides the advertisement contents on web so that a user can refer the advertisement contents through a user computer; a step (c) that the advertisement server endows the user of the user computer who has referred the advertisement contents on the web with a lottery number of a predetermined format to which a predetermined point is given by lottery; a step (d) that the advertisement server publishes a quiz game that the user to whom the lottery number has been endowed in the step (c) or the point has been given by the lottery after the step (c) can participate and then play on the web; and a step (e) that the advertisement server redistributes the lottery number or the point to the users according to the result of the quiz game of the users who have participated in the quiz game.

[10] In the step (a), the advertisement server receives the advertisement contents together with a predetermined weight concerning to the advertisement contents from the advertiser computer. The advertisement server determines priority of publishing position or publishing time of the advertisement contents on the web in consideration of the weight in the step (b). The advertisement server generates the lottery number in consideration of the weight in the step (c). Meanwhile, the advertisement server reflects the weight by generating the lottery numbers of which number corresponds to the weight in the step (c).

[11] The quiz provided in the quiz game relates to information included in the advertisement contents provided by the advertiser. The quiz provided in the quiz game may include one of public benefit information, campaign information, and current information.

[12] The lottery is performed by a method that a random number is selected as the lottery number by the advertisement server, or by a method that the lottery number is determined by an outside factor irrespective of the advertisement server.

[13] Meanwhile, the advertisement contents has a form of a quiz in the step (a), and in such a situation, the lottery number is endowed to the user who gives right answer to the quiz of the advertisement contents in the step (c).

[14] According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for providing online advertisement service comprising: a step (a) that the advertisement server receives data including advertisement contents and a quiz about information included in the adversitement contents from an advertiser computer managed by an advertiser; a step (b) that the advertisement server makes and stores database of the data transmitted from the advertiser computer; a step (c) that the advertisement server publishes the advertisement contents on web so that a user can refer the advertisement contents on the web through a user computer; a step (d) that the advertisement server publishes a quiz game including the quiz that the user who has referred the ad-

vertisement contents can participate and play; a step (e) that the advertisement server redistributes points endowed to the users who have referred the advertisement contents to the users who have participated in the quiz game according to the result of the quiz game; and a step (f) that the advertisement server adjusts costs for advertising and the points endowed to the users with respect to the advertiser computer.

Advantageous Effects

[15] According to the present invention, general users can achieve the point as they see the advertisement contents and also achieve greater profit if they memorize the information in the advertisement contents, so the advertiser can pay the costs for the advertising only to the advertisement contents of which advertising effect is credible. Brief Description of the Drawings

[16] FIG. 1 shows the overall system for providing the online advertisement service according to the present invention;

[17] FIG. 2 is a folw chart showing the process for providng the online advertisement srvice performed by the system shown in FIG. 1 ;

[18] FIG. 3 shows the advertisement contents published on web;

[19] FIG. 4 is the image provided to the user when the user chooses one of the advertisement contents shown in FIG. 3; and

[20] FIG. 5 shows the example for providing the quiz game.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[21] Hereinafter, the preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[22] FIG. 1 shows the overall system for providing the online advertisement service according to the present invention. In the description of the present invention, one server can be implemented by a plurality of servers that have the equal function, and to the contrary, a plurality of servers can be implemented by one server having the equal function.

[23] The overall system for providing the online advertisement service according to the present invention is comprised of user computers 40, a portal site 30, an advertisement server 10, and an advertiser computer 20.

[24] The user computer 40 is the computer used by the user in order to connect to the wired/wireless Internet (hereinbelow referred to as "web"), and then refer the advertisement contents provided online and participate in the quiz game according to the present invention. That includes all kinds of terminals that can connect to the wired/ wireless Internet.

[25] The portal site 30 is a website that cooperates with the manager of the advertisement server 10 in order to publish the advertisement contents of the ad-

vertisement server 10. The advertisement server 10 can publish the advertisement contents directly on the web in person (or through a web server connected to itself), or can publish the advertisement contents indirectly through the portal site 30. FIG. 1 shows the example that the advertisement contents are published indirectly through the portal site 30, however, the advertisement service according to the present invention can be provided directly to the user computer 40 when the user computer 40 is directly connected to the website of the advertisement server 10.

[26] The advertisement server 10 is the main server performing the advertisement service according to the present invention, which receives the advertisement contents and other commands and information required for the advertising from the advertiser computer 20, and provides them to the portal site 30 to publish.

[27] The advertiser computer 20 is the termial managed by the advertiser who requests the advertising to the advertisement server 10 on behalf of himself .

[28] Hereinafter, the precess for providing the online advertisement service according to the present invention performed by the system shown in FIG. 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2.

[29] In FIG. 2, the example that the advertisement server directly advertises for the advertiser on the web, and accordingly, the user computers 40 are directly connected to the advertisement server to perform the process. However, as mentioned above, the user computers 40 are connected to the portal site 30 when the advertisement server 10 publishes the advertisement contents through the portal site 30, and the result performed by the user computer 40 is transmitted to the advertisement server 10 from the portal site 30. In such a situation, the advertisment server 10 also provides the result of process performed by itself to the user computers 40 through the portal site 30.

[30] Furthermore, the quiz advertisement game that will be described later can be processed by the portal site 30 itself under the cooperation with the advertiser computer 20 without the advertisement server 10. However, it means that the function of the advertisement server 10 is performed by the portal site 30 (more exactly, by the web server providing the portal site), such a modification will be included in the scope of technical concept of the present invention.

[31] Step SlO :

[32] In order that the advertisement server 10 execute the advertising on behalf of the advertiser, the advertisement serer 10 is provided with the information about the advertisement. The advertisement information includes a plurality of advertisement contents, weights for the respective advertisement contents, and quizes concerning to the advertisement contents.

[33] The advertisement contents are the substantial contents that the advertiser wants to

be advertised, and a plurality of advertisement contents according to the number of products to be advertised are sent to the advertisement server 10 from the advertiser computer 20.

[34] The weights are given to the respective advertisement contents by the advertiser, which are proportional to the points endowed to the user who has referred to the advertisement contents. Further, the weights are used in determining the priority such as publishing position or the publishing time when the advertisement contents are published by the advertisement server 10. According to the modification of the present embodiment, the request about the publishing position or the publishing time of the advertisement contents can be provided separately irrespective of the weights.

[35] The quizes includes the questions to be provided to the users when the users who have referred and memorized the advertisement contents participate in the quiz game afterwadrs. Furthermore, besides the questions about the advertisement contents, the quiz can include public benefit information, campaign information, and current information, and such a question that is not related to the advertisement contents may not be transmitted from the advertiser computer 20 and can be equipped in the advertisement server 10 itself.

[36] Meanwhile, the advertisement contents itself can be the quiz.

[37] Step S20:

[38] The advertisement server 10 makes and stores the database of the data about the advertisement contents, the weights, the quizes, and the like. The established database can be added, deleted, or amended according to the data communication with the advertiser computer 20 afterwards.

[39] Step S30:

[40] The advertisement server 10 publishes the advertisement contents on the web so that the general users can refer the advertisement conents with their computers 40 through the web server or the portal site 30. In such a situation, the advertisement server 10 can publish the advertisement contents on the web in consideration of the priority of the publishing time or publishing position based on the weights transmitted in the Step SlO, or in consideration of the separate request about the publishing time or the publishing position transmitted irrespective of the weights.

[41] FIG. 3 shows the advertisement contents published on web. When the user selects

"Advertisement Quiz" item through the user computer 40, a plurality of advertisement contents are display under the title « Today's Quiz ». The respective advertisement contents are displayed in consideration of the priority about the publishing time, the publishing position, etc. which have been stored in the database established on the basis of the data transmitted from the advertisers. In the case of FIG. 3, the respective advertisement contents are arranged so that the advertisement contents of which

weights are greater are located at the upper position, by which the weights provided by the advertisers are reflected. The weights for the respective advertisement contents are displayed by numbers at the right side of the respective advertisement contents.

[42] Furthermore, the respective advertisement contents themselves are provided as a form of a quiz list.

[43] Step S40:

[44] When the user clicks the first advertisement contents for example, the contents of the first advertisement contents are displayed as shown in FIG. 4. In FIG. 4, the clicked advertisement conents are the quiz asking the brand name of the new refrigerator of Samsung Electronics, and four answers are given for the corresponding quiz. When the user clicks one of the answers to choose the right answer, the advertisement server 10 determines whether the user's choice is the right answer.

[45] Meanwhile, an advertisement image for the "Zipel" which is the new refrigerator of

Samsung Electronics is displayed under the quiz. The information required for the right answer of the quiz is included in the advertisement image as such. Therefore, the user can choose the right answer for the quiz of the advertisement contents easily. In the advertisement image, "Further Information" icon for requesting detailed information and "Purchase" icon for purchasing the corresponding product are provided.

[46] The advertisement contents may not be provided as the form of the quiz, but can be provided as a general image of advertisement as shown in the lower area of FIG. 4.

[47] Step S50:

[48] When the user who has referred the advertisement contents in the Step S40 chooses the right answer, the advertisement server 10 endows the user with the corresponding compensation. If the advertisement contents include only the general advertisement information as mentioned above, the compensation are endowed to all of the users who have referred the advertisement contents.

[49] In the present embodiment, the compensation is endowed as a form of a lottery number. The lottery number is the number that can be used in lottery afterwards. In such a situation, the number of the lottery numbers is proportional to the weight corresponding to the advertisement contents. For example, five lottery numbers are endowed to the user who has chosen the right answer for the quiz number 1 in FIG. 3.

[50] Meanwhile, the lottery number may not be issued at online but can be sent by direct mail DM. That is, a ticket on which the lottery number is printed is issued when the lottery number is generated, and then the ticket can be transmitted to the user by mailing of letter.

[51] Step S60:

[52] The advertisement server 10 performs the lottery for the lottery number after a predetermined period of time. The lottery in such a situation can be performed by a

method that a random number is selected as the lottery number by the advertisement server 10 itself, or by a method that the lottery number is determined by an outside factor irrespective of the advertisement server 10. In the latter case, for example, the lottery can be performed by the method that the lottery number is compared with lotto number that is determined once a week. In such a situation, the lottery number is preferably has the format same with that of the lotto, that is, the lottery number consists of six numbers between 1 and 45. If the lottery is performed on the basis of the outside factor irrecpective of the advertisement server 10, the advertisement server 10 cannot manipulate the numbers for the lottery arbitrarily, so the credibility of the lottery can be increased for the users and the advertisers.

[53] Step S70:

[54] The user who has won in the lottery is endowed with a predetermiend amount of point according to the winning grade. For example, in the case of the lotto type lottery, the point can be determined as the cyber money of which amount is the same with that of the lotto prize. Meanwhile, it is possible that even the users who have lost in the lottery is also endowed with a little point so that they can participate in the quiz game afterwards.

[55] Step S80:

[56] The users who have the point can participate in the advertisement quiz game. In the image shown in FIG. 3, the advertisement quiz game is displayed as the "Advertisement Battle" icon. As the user clicks this icon, the image as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed.

[57] In FIG. 5, the advertisement quiz game is composed of various kinds of games, such as one-to-one game, ten-men game, O/X game, current game, refrigerator game, MP3 game, etc. The one-to-one game and the ten-men game are the games that a plurality of users fight each other according to the relative game records, and the O/X game is the game that one user plays to choose the right answer. The current game is the game that inculdes the questions about the current information irrespective of the advertisement contents as mentioned above, and the refrigerator game or the MP3 game is the game including the information of the advertisement contents about the corresponding product. The quiz question in the quiz game about the products such as the refrigerator game is provided from the respective advertisers.

[58] Step 90:

[59] The points endowed to the users are redistributed between the users who have participated in the quiz game according to the relative game records or the private game record. For example, in the ten-men game, questions are consecutively given to all of the participants until only one final man wins the game, and the final man is endowed with all of the points of all of the participants and all of the the loser's points are

eliminated.

[60] In such a quiz game, the quiz is mainly consists of the question that asks the information in the various advertisement contents as shown in FIG. 3. Accordingly, the possiblity of winning the game increases for the user who can memorize the information in the advertisement contents, so the users will read the information in the advertisement contents deliberately when they refer the advertisement contents.

[61] Step SlOO:

[62] The advertisement server 10 performs the pubsishing of the advertisement contents for the reference of the user and the quiz game about the published advertisement contents for a predetermined period of time, for example one week, and then notifies the details about the result such as the amount of the endowed points to the advertiser computer 20. Then, the advertiser can get the feedback for the result such as the reference frequency of the advertisement contents of his own.

[63] Step SI lO:

[64] The advertiser computer 20 that has received the result of advertising pays the costs for the advertising. The payment can be performed by a method such as to deem one hundred points as one dollar. The fee that the advertisement server 10 receives becomes the income after deducting the overall costs due to the endowed points.

[65] Meanwhile, the detailed processes of the present invention can be modified in diverse manners as the following.

[66] For example, in the aforementioned embodiment, the user who has referred to the advertisement contents or who has given the right answer to the quiz is endowed with the lottery number, and is endowed with the point after the lottery for the lottery number, and then participates in the quiz game. However, it is possible that the user participates in the quiz game with the endowed lottery number before the lottery is performed. In such a situation, the object of the redistribution in the quiz game is not the points but the lottery numbers. In such a situation, the lottery about the lottery number is performed after the redistribution.

[67] Meanwhile, in the present embodiment, it is possible that only the user who has subscribed in the portal site or advertisement server 10 as a member can be endowed with the lottery number according to the reference of the advertisement contents. In other words, the lottery number according to the reference of the advertisement contents is endowed only to the user who is in login status as the member by inputting the ID and password into the portal site. Then, the users to whom the points or the like have to be payed are not needed to be identified separately, and the users who are not the member are not endowed with the points or the like in order to make the treatment of the members different. Furthermore, the advertiser can achieve the additional effect that the costs for the advertising effect do not occur.

[68] Furthermore, the advertisement contents can be selected to be proper to the users.

For example, the private information about the user who is in login status as the member is stored in the advertisement server or the portal site as a database, so the age, the hobby, the gender, or the residence can be recognized according to the private information. (It is preferable that such a recognition of the private information is performed under the precedent approval of the user for the protection of the private information.) Then, if the user is teenager whose hobby is listening music for example, the advertisement contents concerning to the music file download service or the MP3 player can be selected to the user in the Step S30.

[69] Accordingly, the user who is in login status can be provided with the advertisement contents related to his concern, so the target marketing effect can be achieved and the user can face only the information of his concern.

[70] Meanwhile, in order to make it easy to select the advertisement contents based on the private user information, it is preferable that the advertisement server 10 receives the information about the kind of the users to which the advertisement contents are to be provided from the advertiser computer 20 in the Step SlO. For example, if the advertiser wants to provide his advertisement contents only to the teenagers whose hobby is listening music, the request information about such an object to whom the advertisement is to be provided is transmitted together. Then, the advertisement server 10 provides the advertisement contents only to the users conforming with such a condition.

Industrial Applicability

[71] As described above, according to the present invention, general users receive the compensation for the reference of the advertisement contents and can participate in the quiz game with that compensation, so the reference of the advertisement contents and the recognition of the information become the tool for the good play of the game. Therefore, great interest can be induced and to refer the advertisement contents becomes a pleas ant job.

[72] Furthermore, the advertiser can get a great credibility for the effect of the advertising per unit costs in comparison with the conventional method such as the banner advertisement or the like, since the detailed information is recognized by the user by the quiz game that the winner can get the points of others.

[73] Therefore, all of the advertiser and the user can be satisfied since the effective target marketing is achieved and the advertising effect is maximized.

[74] Furthermore, the advertiser can control the costs by setting the weight of the compensation endowed to the user. Therefore, the overall costs for the advertising can be controlled properly. Furthermore, the advertising with a desired priority can be

achieved by controlling the compensation when the priority for the arranging position or the advertising order of the advertisement contents accroding to the weights. [75] The preferred embodiments have been illustrated and described so far, however, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made within the spirit and the scope of the present invention, and accordingly, the scope of the present invention is not limited within the described range but the following claims and the equivalents thereof.