DISTRIBUTION

Technical Field of the Present Invention

The present invention relates to a system for rewarding internet and social media users in return for watching advertisement videos. In particular, the present invention relates to a system for making limited amount payments or micro-loans to advertisement watchers and providing relevant information for advertisers, such as consumer trends, purchasing habits and demographic data. Moreover, the present invention relates to the arrangement of cost reduction for accessing the above-mentioned relevant information on the part of advertiser. A further bonus effect could be formulated as increasing the reliability of the obtained information.

Background of the Present Invention

The fact that internet access and social media have been leading advertising circles has substantially affected the advertising sector and Internet advertisements gained widespread attention along with increased competition.

On the other hand, the advertising content that users are provided with while accessing certain web contents on the Internet and social media are generally perceived as repulsive and unwanted distractions that affect work and entertainment and basically reduce the effectiveness of such advertisements. Also, although the techniques that enable the follow-up of user habits provide targeting audience access to the services of advertisers, the aforementioned sense of repression also limits their effectiveness. Some debugger applications and software barriers to combat them increase advertising costs, increase dependency on application developers, and potential platform incompatibilities of the software barriers also reduce the effectiveness of advertising in reaching consumers.

Different strategies have been proposed to make more people to be exposed to advertisement mediums. The proposed invention promotes Internet and social media advertisements to become profitable mediums rather than unwelcome distractions and to increase mass adoption of such advertisements with a significant change in user experiences when accessing advertisement multimedia contents.

One of the prior art disclosures in the technical field of the present invention could be referred to as patent document US2014259056, disclosing identified objects in a video, linking the same to e-commerce sites and advertisements. A user may select an object and be provided with information about the specific services associated with the object. A video stream may be encoded with a separate metadata stream that contains the identity of each object on each frame of the video. The metadata channel may be extracted from a video stream and displayed to a user when the user clicks on the corresponding object. A device may take a video input, analyze it, and recognize the video. The device may look up said video in a database of tagged videos, output as an overlay or separate window to a video display device stream with information about the item. A user interface device may allow a user to select objects on a video screen and select and choose said object for integration with the other components of the system.

Moreover, another prior art disclosure in the technical field of the present invention could be referred to as patent document KR20030011168, disclosing a method of producing digital television interactive advertisements being provided to raise viewer interest in advertisements to maximize advertising effect. Advertisement is provided through an interactive commercial game. The interactive commercial game includes a slot machine game using goods, images of goods, company images, company logos, goods logos, characters of goods and companies. The interactive commercial game further includes an input and output game using goods, a shooting game using logos of goods, a sports game using company logos, goods logos, goods and characters, a fighting game using goods and company characters and a quiz game. The interactive game also includes a bubble game and also a catch game in which a specific preconfigured event occurs when goods or logo of goods are caught bu the user.

However, these systems do not contain a frame that has random objects or interactions to keep the viewer attracted and also a system that awards the users on a per interaction basis.

The present invention provides an advertisement interaction system as provided by the characterizing features defined in Claim 1.

Objects of the Present Invention

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a system for rewarding Internet and social media users by simply watching advertisement contents and/or videos.

Another object of the invention is to provide a system for making a plurality of limited value payments or micro-loans to advertisement watchers and providing user pool information for advertisers, such as consumer trends, purchasing habits and demographic data.

Further an object of the present invention is to reduce cost of accessing user pool information and to increase the reliability of such information.

Brief Description of the Technical Drawings

Accompanying drawings are given solely for the purpose of exemplifying an advertisement interaction system, whose advantages over prior art were outlined above and will be explained in brief hereinafter.

The drawings are not meant to delimit the scope of protection as identified in the Claims, nor should they be referred to alone in an effort to interpret the scope identified in said Claims without recourse to the technical disclosure in the description of the present invention.

The drawings are only exemplary in the sense that they do not necessarily reflect the actual dimensions and relative proportions of the respective components of the system.

Figure 1 demonstrates a front view of an advertisement interaction system comprising a plurality of interaction objects according to the present invention. Figure 2 demonstrates another front view of an advertisement interaction system with an interaction code shown according to the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Present Invention

The following numerals are referred to in the detailed description of the present invention:

11) Display

12) Interaction objects

13) Interaction code

In accordance with the present invention, a display (11) is designated as the physical medium that is provided to user to watch advertisements. The medium can be provided on any conventional software interface, such as mobile browser, PC video streaming software, smart TV application etc. Particularly, the user interaction medium can be a video streaming applet running on a web page.

In a particularly preferred embodiment according to the present invention, some interaction objects (12) can be spawned on some predetermined regions of the playing video and at least one interaction code (13) can be popped at any time instance of the video advertisement that is being shown. Some promotion cases and further specific embodiments of the present invention will be delineated in more detail hereinafter. In the case of prepaid promotion, the user who is a member of the system downloads a given subscribed application to any device and becomes a registered user of the application by logging into the system. From that moment on, the user is allowed to request a loan in a predetermined amount through the application from the designated banking establishment. Allocated debt can then be reimbursed in view of the total amount of accumulated credits by way of watching the advertisements in predetermined viewing formats. For instance the user might need to view a given multimedia content from the beginning to the end or may alternatively need to interact with a predetermined minimum amount of interaction objects (12) throughout the video stream.

In an alternative manner, in the event that the amount of the sum accumulated by the user at the end of a preconfigured credit period is not sufficient, in order to reduce the risk of non-repayment of the micro-credit, the remaining amount may be reflected to the user's mobile phone bill or credit card statement. The payment of the loan can also be made through conventional channels by using an ATM by way of inputting a respective code the associated bank provides using the application platform, or by transferring the necessary amount to the designated account of the banking establishment.

In a promotional system in a non-prepayment setup, alternatively, the user can monitor the award amount corresponding to the points accumulated in the application for each advertisement that the user will watch using the dedicated subscribed application. The reward points can be converted to cash to be withdrawn in cash from ATMs of the bank with which the service provider has a contract. The user will typically have a user-specific authorization passcode issued by the service provider. Alternatively, the user can be also offered the option to claim financial awards to be used as payments transferred to the bank account or credit card.

The above-mentioned prepaid promotion and non-prepayment promotional system options are profitable operations in terms of bringing new customers to the banking establishment, as well as bringing with it the potential to sell a large amount of credit contracts at low cost and risk. It is also to be noted that these are also very productive operations for advertisers to increase the accuracy of target audience categorization and to increase the advertisement watch rates, thanks to the demographics of the advertisements directly collected from the source, i.e. a subscribed software platform. In addition to this, the customer profits from this service because the respective fees are received thanks to advertisement watching activities. Considering the number of people spending a significant part of their time in social media, the advantageous nature of the system is apparent.

In a system where the service provider creates their own social media, the advertisers' ads are published directly on the generated site. A system is created in which advertisers can directly sell media when subsidiary applications (socialization applications, blog media, job advertisements, visual content sharing, etc.) are encouraged to provide users with attractive future content.

One of the mentioned additional apps can be called "Watch and Win". In this application, the effectiveness of the advertisements is increased by urging people to watch the advertisement until the end of the advertisement, measuring the reactions shown to the advertisement contents and directly collecting consumer preferences through the tracking information on the advertisement broadcast.

Viewers who want to reach the interaction code (13) shown at random times will follow the ad from the beginning to the end. The displayed interaction codes (13) may be QR codes as well as sequences of lowercase or uppercase letters, numbers and symbols. It will be a practical way for the user to scan and upload all the QR codes that will be shown in the course of an advertisement with the help of the application.

Another one of the proposed applications provides short surveys for consumers to directly collect market and consumer behavior information. The user earns reward points for real-time surveys and can cash these points afterwards.

In another embodiment as illustrated in Fig. 1, the advertisement can be provided with randomly appearing clickable interaction objects (12) animated on the advertisement broadcast. An example of this practice is blasting of balloons circulating on the ad on the display (11). Interactive interaction objects (12) provide incentive motivation that allows the ad to be followed uninterruptedly, as well as encourage the user to open and watch other ads on their own initiative. The masses that spend most of their time online will be spending time in the proposed environment with mentioned social media content, where earning money and/or points will depend on the amount of interactive actions.

Interaction objects (12) that spawn randomly in random areas of the display (1) may appear in areas with pixels having nearly identical colors in order not to hinder the advertisement viewing experience. For example, interaction objects (12) that appear in an image section where the color diversity is within a predetermined range, such as the blue sky can be a suitable location for displaying an interaction object (12), in which case the object will have less impact on the advertisement viewing experience compared to the case where interaction objects (12) appear completely randomly.

Because different reward schemes can be provided for different types of ads, longer promotions and ads, different ad pricing, and different reward amounts can be applied for age groups with higher consumption potentials. On the other hand, the feasibility risk is relatively low due to the direct income diversifying factor that it offers to the consumer. Because of the effectiveness of the ads, verifiable tracking rates, and direct appeal to the target audience, the efficiency rate for advertisers is much higher than the alternatives and provides more valuable environment for advertisers.

Modern authentication methods have to be devised both in information system infrastructures of the service providers and in mobile and web user applications in order to eliminate the security and fraud risks of interactive applications accessed via the Internet.

In a lottery game promotion scenario, a prize to award can be a lottery game ticket instead of paying direct cash. In this manner, the service provider purchases a certain large number of lottery game tickets from the respective lottery authority and uses the same as awarded prizes as in the previous scenarios where users complete certain tasks. The users can be entitled to claim a number of tickets or alternatively in each draw, the total amount awarded to all the tickets in the pool is shared among subscribed users in proportion with the reward points they collected so far, engaging in video watching activities.

The lottery game promotion scenario is profitable for the banking system by gaining new customers to the banking establishment and also profitable for the advertiser in order to increase the accuracy of target audience classification and to increase the audience rate of the advertisement thanks to the demographic information directly collected from the advertisement viewing subscription platform/application.

In a nutshell, the system as described encourages users to watch advertisements; a new interactive advertising scheme that all parties will benefit including advertisers, banking establishments and consumers, including various service scenarios and payment schemes.

In one aspect of the present invention, an electronic display interaction system is provided, comprising an interaction display (11) for playing a video stream comprised of a plurality of frames forming a video stream, said video stream comprising at least one interaction means and a plurality of interaction objects (12) in the form of visually interactable shapes that are capable of changing their shape depending on the interaction point with said interaction objects (12) by means of said at least one interaction means.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said interaction objects (12) are configured to appear during the course of said video stream in a timewise random manner such that said electronic display interaction system keeps record of interactions with said interaction objects (12) by means of said at least one interaction means.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said interaction objects (12) are configured to change their appearance depending on a specific interaction point such that at least one of the predetermined interaction points is visually distinguished and interaction with said predetermined interaction points is monitored by said electronic display interaction system said video stream.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said specific predetermined interaction points of an interaction object (12) randomly changes for each interaction object (12) during the video stream and said electronic display interaction system keeps record of interactions with said predetermined interaction points and other interaction points of all interaction objects (12) to determine amount of interaction with predetermined and other interaction points during a single video stream.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said interaction objects (12) are configured to change their appearance differently depending on a first type of predetermined interaction in the form of a non-continuous interaction with a predetermined interaction point and a second type of interaction in the form of at least partially continuous interaction with a predetermined interaction point.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said interaction means is a mouse pointer or a manual touch input integrated into said electronic display interaction system hardware. In a further aspect of the present invention, said first type of interaction is performed in the form of a non-continuous interaction by a single mouse click or touch input and second second type of interaction is performed in the form of at least partially continuous interaction by an at least partially continuous mouse click or touch input drag and drop action.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said interaction objects (12) are spawned on random locations on said display playing said video stream.

In a further aspect of the present invention, at least one interaction code (13) is provided on said display (11) in response to said first or second type of predetermined interactions with said predetermined interaction points and no interaction code (13) is provided in response to interactions with said interaction objects at any point other than said predetermined interaction points thereof.

In a further aspect of the present invention, different interaction codes (13) are provided in response to said first or second type of predetermined interactions with said predetermined interaction points.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said second type of interaction in the form of at least partially continuous mouse click or touch input drag and drop action is direction dependent and different interaction codes (13) are provided in dependence with the direction of at least partially continuous mouse click or touch input drag and drop action.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said interaction codes (13) are QR codes or sequences of lowercase or uppercase letters, numbers and symbols. In a further aspect of the present invention, said interaction objects (12) appear in areas of the video stream with pixels having substantially identical colors with color diversity within a predetermined range.

In a further aspect of the present invention, a method for providing user interaction with an electronic display interaction system is provided, said method comprising the steps of: allowing a registered user as a member of the interaction system application to request a predetermined amount of loan or allowing a registered user as a member of the interaction system application to claim reward points collected using said electronic display interaction system and in the case of a predetermined amount of loan, reimbursing the allocated debt to said registered user by way of calculating the total amount of reward points accumulated by way of using said electronic display interaction system.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said method comprises the step of downloading a given subscribed application to an electronic device such as smart TV, mobile phone, computer or portable computer.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said method comprises the step of reflecting at least a partial amount the allocated debt to a user's mobile phone bill or credit card statement.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said method comprises the step of receiving at least a partial amount the allocated debt by use an ATM upon inputting of a respective code being provided or by transfer the at least partial amount to a designated bank account. In a further aspect of the present invention, said method comprises the step of converting reward points to cash to be withdrawn in cash from a bank or to be received as payments transferred to a bank account or credit card.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said method comprises the step of receiving at least one interaction code (13) using said electronic display interaction system and scan said interaction code (13) and uploading the same to said interaction system application.

In a further aspect of the present invention, said method comprises the step of converting said reward points to a lottery game tickets.

In a further aspect of the present invention, a method for providing user interaction with an electronic display interaction system is provided, said method comprising the steps of: purchasing a certain number of lottery game tickets by a service provider to be collected in a pool of lottery game tickets and allowing a registered user as a member of the interaction system application to claim reward points collected using said electronic display interaction system as awarded prizes such that the total amount awarded to all the lottery game tickets in the pool as purchased by the service provider is shared among registered users in proportion with their reward points collected using said electronic display interaction system.