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System for serving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/726,005, filed Mar. 20, 2007 (pending), which is incorporated by reference herein.

The present description relates generally to a system and method, generally referred to as a system, for serving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns, and more particularly, but not exclusively, to serving online advertisements based on a television advertising campaign to users capable of being exposed to the television advertising campaign.

Online advertising may be an effective method for advertisers to reach consumers. Online advertising may give advertisers the ability to directly measure the effectiveness of their advertisements, by measuring the web traffic generated by the advertisements and/or by measuring ecommerce transactions generated by the advertisements. While online advertising campaigns may continue to grow in popularity, offline advertising campaigns, such as print advertisements, radio advertisements, and television advertisements may still be the preferred form of advertising for some advertisers. Unlike an online advertising campaign, offline advertising campaigns may suffer from an inability to directly measure the effectiveness of the campaign, particularly the effectiveness of the campaign on ecommerce. Furthermore, online advertising campaigns may run independent of offline advertising campaigns and vice-versa.

A system is disclosed for serving an online advertisement based on an offline advertising campaign. The system may include a processor, a memory, and an interface. The memory may be operatively connected to the interface and the processor and may store an offline advertising campaign of an advertiser, an advertising effect period, a set of users, and an online advertisement. The interface may be operatively connected to the memory and may be used to serve the online advertisement to the users in the set of users. The processor may be operatively connected to the memory and the interface. The processor may identify the offline advertising campaign and the advertising effect period, the period when the offline advertising campaign is capable of effecting the online behavior of the set of users. The processor may identify an online advertisement relating to the offline advertising campaign. The processor may serve the online advertisement, to the users in the set of users, via the interface, during the advertising effect period.

Other systems, methods, features and advantages will be, or will become, apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the embodiments, and be protected by the following claims and be defined by the following claims. Further aspects and advantages are discussed below in conjunction with the description.

The system and/or method may be better understood with reference to the following drawings and description. Non-limiting and non-exhaustive descriptions are described with reference to the following drawings. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating principles. In the figures, like referenced numerals may refer to like parts throughout the different figures unless otherwise specified.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a general overview of a system for serving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns.

FIG. 2 is block diagram of a simplified view of a network environment implementing a system for serving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operations of the system of FIG. 1, or other systems for serving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating steps that may be taken by a user in the system of FIG. 1, or other systems for serving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating steps that may be taken by a revenue generator in the system of FIG. 1, or other systems for serving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns.

FIG. 6 is a screenshot of a web traffic graph containing data representing the web traffic related to an offline advertising campaign generated within the advertising region over both the control period and the advertising effect period that may be displayed to a revenue generator in the system of FIG. 1, or other systems for serving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns.

FIG. 7 is an illustration a general computer system that may be used in the system of FIG. 1, or other systems for serving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns.