Abstract:
The embodiments disclosed herein provide a mechanism for obtaining a plurality of advertisements and program content from an announcer, to store associated metadata with each advertisement, to obtain user profile information, and to provide program content and a selected advertisement from the plurality of advertisements to a client.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    An improved advertising generation and provisioning system for podcasts is disclosed. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Podcasts are well-known in the prior art. A podcast generally comprises a program, typically of audio content, made available in digital format to a client device for automatic download or streaming over the Internet. A podcast sometimes comprises an episodic series of files subscribed to and downloaded by the client device. 
         [0003]    The content of a podcast often comprises audio content created by one or more announcers. For example, “talk radio” programs often involve an announcer who provides his or her commentary, analysis, opinions, etc. to his or her listeners. Such programs traditionally were provided over broadcast radio but today often are provided by podcast. 
         [0004]    Providing advertising during a podcast also is known in the prior art.  FIG. 1  shows prior art podcast system  100 . Content engine  110  provides content  140  (such as a recorded talk radio show) to advertising engine  120 , which in turn appends advertisement  150  to content  140 , which together are provided to client  130  as a podcast. 
         [0005]    In prior art podcast system  100 , the content provider sometimes provides advertisement  150  that contains the same announcer&#39;s voice as in content  140 . This is similar to the situation where a talk radio announcer records an audio advertisement for a product and plays that advertisement during his or her radio show. This can be a very powerful advertising method, as the listeners often are heavily influenced by the announcer. 
         [0006]    However, what is lacking in the prior art is the ability to obtain a plurality of advertisements and program content from an announcer, to receive profile data about a particular user from a plurality of sources, to select one of the plurality of advertisements that is best suited for the user based on the profile data, and to provide the selected advertisement with the program content to the user through a podcast. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    The embodiments disclosed herein provide a mechanism for obtaining a plurality of advertisements and program content from an announcer, to store associated metadata with each advertisement, to obtain user profile information, and to provide program content and a selected advertisement from the plurality of advertisements to a client. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  depicts a prior art podcast system. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  depicts a first embodiment of a digital content and customized advertising system. 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  depicts a second embodiment of a digital content and customized advertising system. 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  depicts a system for generating and storing program content and a plurality of advertisements and related metadata. 
           [0012]      FIG. 5  depicts a system for compiling user profile information from a plurality of sources. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0013]      FIG. 2  depicts digital content distribution system  200 . Digital content distribution system  200  comprises content engine  210 , advertising engine  220 , client  230 , user profile database  270 , and advertising database  290 . In the preferred embodiment, digital content distribution system  200  is a podcast system, but it is to be understood that other mechanisms of distributing digital content (such as streaming of radio content) can be used as well. 
         [0014]    Advertising database  290  contains a plurality of advertisements and associated metadata, including exemplary advertisements  250   a,    250   b, . . . ,    250   n  and associated metadata  260   a,    260   b, . . .    260   n  (where n is an integer). Based on data in user profile database  270  regarding the user of client  230  and the metadata  260   a,    260   b, . . .    260   n,  advertising engine  220  selects the most appropriate advertisement for the user. The selected advertisement  280  is appended to content  240  provided by content engine  210  and provided to client  230  as digital content, such as a podcast. Thus, advertisement  280  is customized for the user of client  230 . 
         [0015]      FIG. 3 . depicts digital content distribution system system  300 . In the preferred embodiment, digital content distribution system  300  is a podcast system, but it is to be understood that other mechanisms of distributing digital content (such as streaming of radio content) can be used as well. Digital content distribution system  300  is similar to digital content distribution system  200 , except that content  240  is separated into clips  241   a,    241   b, . . . ,    241   m  and advertisements  281   a,    281   b, . . . ,    281   m  are provided to client  230  along with clips  241   a,    241   b, . . . ,    241   m  (where m is an integer). That is, instead of providing one advertisement and one content piece to client  230 , a plurality of advertisement and a plurality of pieces of content are provided to client. 
         [0016]    Figure depicts advertisement creation system  400 . Advertising creation system  400  comprises microphone  410 , which receives audio from the Announcer, input device  420  (such as a keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, or network interface). content generation device  430 , and advertisement database  290 . The Announcer creates content  240  (such as a talk radio program) as well as a plurality of advertisements, such as advertisements  250   a,    250   b, . . .    250   n.  Input device  420  is used to generate metadata for each advertisement, such as metadata  2601 ,  260   b, . . .    260   n.    
         [0017]    Examples of metadata include: advertised product name; sales price of advertised product; demographic information of target audience, such as age, gender, location of residence, amount of formal education, occupation, income range, number of children, marital status; target audience age range, target audience geography; and other information specific to the advertised product, target audience, or other factors. 
         [0018]      FIG. 5 . depicts user profile collection system  500 . User profile collection system  500  comprises user profile database  270  and a plurality of user profile sources, such as exemplary user profile sources  510   a,    510   b, . . . ,    510   j  (where j is an integer). Examples of user profile sources include websites, web servers, input devices, data collected from applications, social networks, and other sources. For example, user profile source  510   a  might include data gathered from facebook regarding the user of client  230 , such as age and gender of user. Using that information, advertising engine  220  can select the most appropriate advertisement for a person of that age and gender. One or more of user profile sources  510   a,    510   b, . . . ,    510   j  also can be client  230  itself. For example, client  230  can provide the following types of data to user profile database  270 : type of listening device (e.g., smart phone, tablet, car, etc.); model of listening device (e.g., iPhone 5, iPhone 6, etc.); type of application used for listening; other shows or podcasts that are listened to using that application; online purchase history; time spent listening to podcasts or other digital content; if a particular advertisement has been skipped or fast forwarded over; how many times a user has actioned or clicked on a previous advertisement. Using that information, advertising engine  220  can select the most appropriate advertisement for the user of client  230  (e.g., an advertisement targeted for users of iPhone 6, or an advertisement targeted for users with a short attention span who will only listen to short advertisements). 
         [0019]    Through the embodiments described herein, customized advertising is provided to the user of a client along with program content in digital content such as a podcast. 
         [0020]    References to the present invention herein are not intended to limit the scope of any claim or claim term, but instead merely make reference to one or more features that may be covered by one or more of the claims. Materials, processes and numerical examples described above are exemplary only, and should not be deemed to limit the claims.