Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a server, which enables performing various actions depending on the content of the advertisement transmitted to the user, and to a method for transmitting advertisements.

Prior Art

In the state of the art, advertisement contents are transmitted to users via various ways through media like cellular phones, televisions and internet. These advertisements transmitted to the user via digital media can be displayed in image, audio or video format as if they are being displayed on Internet, and a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) which will direct the user to another internet page can be displayed in these advertisement contents. When the user clicks on the URL, s/he is connected to the page intended by the advertisement provider.

One of the state of the art applications is described in the Korean patent document KR20010076148. In the application disclosed in the said document; the user, advertisement provider and the advertisement database are connected to each other through a computer communication network. The user is directed to another advertisement page when s/he clicks on the advertisement delivered to her/him by the advertisement provider.

In the state of the art applications, in order for the user's device, to which the advertisement is transmitted, to use its own functions related to the transmitted advertisement, the advertisement application should be preinstalled to the device in the form of software. If a special software related to the advertisement application is not installed to this device, the user can not perform any additional operations on the advertisement which will allow using the features of the device apart from clicking and reaching the page designated by the advertisement provider. For this reason, there are difficulties experienced in the user providing feedback for having read the advertisement content and in following up how much the advertisements reach their target.

Additionally, since applications are installed separately in each device in order for certain advertisement features to be used in the said advertisement transmission methods, the server which will send the advertisement can send the advertisement having the desired features only to the devices to which the application is installed. This situation reduces widespread use of the application hindering use of a common advertisement broadcasting platform.

Another disadvantage in the state of the art is that since each server supports only one protocol, advertisements can not be sent to the devices that do not support this protocol. For example in the state of the art applications, the server communication protocol is developed to comply with the features of the cellular phone if it is going to send data to a cellular phone; or with the features of the television if it is going to send data to a television.

Summary of the Invention

The objective of the present invention is to realize an advertisement server which enables performing various operations when the advertisements broadcasted in digital media are clicked.

Another objective of the invention is to realize an advertisement server which can provide service to all of different types of devices such as mobile devices and televisions due to the fact that it has certain general protocols.

A further objective of the invention is to realize an advertisement server which, when the user reads the advertisement and/or the predetermined action is performed, automatically provides feedback informing how much of the advertisement is viewed by the user.

Detailed Description of the Invention

The method for transmitting advertisements realized to fulfill the objective of the present invention is illustrated in the accompanying figure wherein,

Figure 1 is the schematic view of the assembly wherein the advertisement transmission method is realized.

The parts in the figure are each given a reference numeral where the numerals refer to the following:

1. Server

2. Database

3. Client

4. Advertisement provider

The inventive method for transmitting advertisements is realized by at least one server (1), at least one database (2), at least one client (3) and at least one advertisement provider (4).

The server (1) is a data provider which is connected to the Internet and which enables the advertisement contents to be displayed on the user's device.

The database (2) is the data storage which stores the actions that will be added to the advertisement features.

The client (3) is any device, which is used by the user, having a screen like a computer, cellular phone or a television. The advertisement provider (4) is the agent, corporation or person which is in communication with the server (1), database (2) and the client (3), and which determines the options of the advertisement contents and/or features.

The inventive method for transmitting advertisements is based on XML based WEB services which is a universal protocol.

In the invention, operations like sending SMS, starting a call, URL routing, VIDEO playing, AUDIO playing are defined as "actions".

In the invention, actions are embedded in the advertisement transmitted to the user according to the advertisement content determined by the advertisement provider (4). When the user clicks on the advertisement sent to her/him, the predetermined action is performed.

Files having advertisement features are kept in the server (1). Advertisement features are features like screen resolution, preferred advertisement sizes, key words of the advertisements, advertisement category, desired multimedia type. The user can choose the advertisement features among the options determined by the advertisement provider (4) or the advertisement provider (4) defines fixed features that will be same for each user.

The actions which are planned to be performed and which constitute the advertisement content are stored in the database (2) completely independent from the files having advertisement features.

In one embodiment of the advertisement transmission method, the client (3) types, and the advertisement features and contents that may be sent according to the client (3) types are defined in the server (1). The client requests advertisement from the server (1) at any t(0) time by sending to the server (1) the identification (ID) number predetermined for itself. The server (1) detects the type of the client (3) from its identification number and determines the advertisement having the feature and action content suitable to it and transmits the advertisement to the client (3).

In another embodiment of the invention, the client (3) requests advertisement from the server (1) for the feature and/or content desired by the user. If it is the first time that the user is going to request an advertisement from the server (1) through its client (3), s/he first requests from the server (1) the action options that will be added to the advertisement feature and/or advertisement content. The server (1) in turn transmits to the client (3) the features and contents applicable for the client (3) such as category list, multimedia types, action types. Thus the user learns the advertisement features and contents that are applicable to her/his client (3) device.

In an alternative of this embodiment of the invention, attachment of the actions in the database (2) to the advertisement files in the server (1) is performed by the advertisement provider (4). In other words, the advertisement provider (4) decides on which action content will be added to which advertisement feature. The advertisement provider (4) determines in advance which action will be attached to which advertisement or enables the actions to be randomly selected by the server (1). In this embodiment, the client (3) sends to the server (1) only the advertisement features. The server (1) in turn adds the predetermined action applicable to the advertisement content having the desired feature and transmits it to the client (3). The client (3) understands which action will be performed, through the tag of the package coming from the server (1). For example when the server (1) sends to the client (3) an advertisement whose task is to send a message, it adds the expression "SMS" as the tag of the advertisement. Thus the client (3) knows that it should send a message upon clicking the advertisement. The advantage of this embodiment is that it is possible to transmit to the client (3) advertisements having different actions at each time and that the client (3) can understand and respond to these actions.

In an embodiment where attachment of the actions in the database (2) to the advertisement files in the server (1) is performed by the advertisement provider (4), the method preferably comprises the following steps:

the client (3) requesting the advertisement feature options from the server (1) (101), - the server (1) transmitting to the client (3) the features applicable for the client (3) such as category list, multimedia types (102), the user selecting among the feature options transmitted to the client (3) and sending the selected advertisement features to the server (1) via the client (3) (103), the server (1) adding to the advertisement content having the desired feature the action which is predetermined as applicable to the said content and transmitting it to the client (3) (104), - the client (3) understanding which action will be performed, through the tag of the package coming from the server (1), the defined action taking place when the user clicks on the advertisement sent to her/him (105).

In another alternative of this embodiment of the invention, attachment of the actions in the database (2) to the advertisement files in the server (1) is performed by the user. In other words, the user decides for herself/himself which advertisement features and action types s/he wants. When any client (3) is going to request an advertisement, in addition to the advertisement features it sends to the server (1) parameters related to what the action will be. Thus, what the action will be is determined by the client (3) and the advertisement having features and contents suitable to the said request are provided by the server (1).

In an embodiment where attachment of the actions in the database (2) to the advertisement files in the server (1) is performed by the user, the method preferably comprises the following steps: the client (3) requesting from the server ( 1 ) the advertisement feature options and the action options to be added to the advertisement content (201), - the server (1) transmitting to the client (3) the features and contents applicable for the client (3) such as category list, multimedia types, action types (202), the user selecting among the content and feature options transmitted to the client (3) and sending the action to be added to the content together with the selected advertisement features to the server (1) via the client (3) (203), the server (1) adding to the advertisement content having the desired feature the action which is selected by the user as applicable to the said content and transmitting it to the client (3) (204), the defined action taking place when the user clicks on the advertisement sent to her/him (205).

Two counters are used in the inventive advertisement transmission method for obtaining feedback for the advertisements transmitted to the user. The counters are provided in the server (1). The first one of these counters is increased by one each time the server (1) sends an advertisement to the client (3). The first counter denotes that the advertisement is displayed on the client's (3) screen, but a second counter is needed in order to understand whether or not the action operation of the advertisement took place. The second counter is increased by one as the action takes place upon the user clicking on the client's (3) screen. In the method, when the action takes place, the client (3) automatically sends the action parameters to the server (1). Thus the second counter in the server (1) counts the actions by using the action parameters as inputs and the server (1) understands whether or not the actions took place. When the user clicks on the advertisement on the screen, the advertisement achieves its objective. By means of the said two counters, both the number of advertisements viewed on the user's screen and the number of the actions taking place corresponding to the number of viewed advertisements are counted, whereby a feedback is provided successfully. Otherwise, in applications where the client (3) receives advertisement to her/his cellular telephone, when it is not reported by the telephone, it can not be determined whether or not an SMS is sent or a call is made, that is it is clicked on the advertisement as an action.

This invention enables delivering action based advertisements to all kinds of mobile devices via web services protocol. By means of the server (1) and the method developed, a record of the feedbacks for all these actions are also kept. Furthermore, the requirement of the prior art that the action type should be static is also eliminated. This way, any type of client (3) can include in its application the advertisements from any type of media, having any type of actions.

By means of the server (1) and the method developed, advertisements having any type of actions can be drawn from the advertisement broadcasting platform and be displayed. Additionally, the fact that the protocol used by the server (1) has a universal infrastructure (web services) has made this process accessible from all kinds of media such as web sites, cellular phone applications, SIM cards, televisions.

It is possible to develop a wide variety of embodiments of the inventive method for transmitting advertisements. The invention cannot be limited to the examples described herein and it is essentially according to the claims.