Systems, methods and articles to facilitate selling of advertising inventory

Systems and methods for providing an advertisement marketplace where buyers and sellers can trade mediacast advertisement inventory programmatically at local, national, and/or worldwide levels. The marketplace system may include a seller-controlled marketplace system which connects sellers with buyers and offers revenue management tools for optimizing yields across direct and programmatic channels. The advertisement inventory is bought and sold as canonical inventory units which group similar but discrete advertisement slots together. The marketplace system may include a seller side platform (SSP) for sellers through which sellers can access demand across multiple sales channels and can make advertisement inventory available and accept or reject bids based on marketplace demand.

BACKGROUND

Field

This disclosure generally relates to computer-implemented systems and methods which facilitate the selling of advertising inventory.

Description of the Related Art

Content providers such as radio stations and networks, television stations and networks, and Webcasters provide programming including content which is the subject of programming. Content providers' delivery of content is often via broadcasts or Webcasts (collectively, “mediacasts”). While content providers may employ repeaters and the like, broadcasts are typically limited in range to a geographic region.

Programming often includes advertisements interspersed with the subject matter of the programming. The advertisements may occur in segments or slots sometimes referred to as “ad breaks.” Content providers typically sell advertising time to generate revenue to fund operation, as well as generate profits, where the content provider is a commercial entity rather than a nonprofit entity. Given that most broadcasts are local in nature or extent, content providers often carry advertisements and other material which is of a somewhat local or parochial interest. For example, a local chain may place advertisements with a local broadcaster since the audience targeted by the local chain is also often local and local advertising tends to be less expensive than regional or national advertising.

New approaches that automate the various activities related to buying, selling and placement of new materials, for instance, advertisements, in mediacasts are desirable.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A system to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts may be summarized as including: at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium that stores an inventory of advertisement placement opportunities to place advertisements in at least one of a number of linear mediacasts for each of a plurality of mediacast content providers (MCPs) that transmit the mediacasts to a plurality of media consumers, each of the advertisement placement opportunities represented in a canonical form that specifies at least a respective period of time of the advertisement placement opportunity during a mediacast day of the MCP; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium and which implements an MCP-facing interface that provides access to offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers received through at least one programmatic sales channel and through at least one non-programmatic sales channel.

The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which provides access to offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers received through at least one direct sell sales channel. For each advertisement placement opportunity, the at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which presents a comparison between at least one offer received through the at least one programmatic sales channel and at least one offer received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel. The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which presents a difference between an offer price for an offer received through the at least one programmatic sales channel and an offer price for an offer received through the at least one non-programmatic sale channel. The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which presents a difference between an offer price for an offer received through the at least one programmatic sales channel and at least one of: a minimum offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel, a maximum offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel, or an average offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel. For each MCP, the at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which provides access to offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers for periods of time which span an entire mediacast period of time for the MCP. The mediacast period of time for the MCP may include at least one of a mediacast day or a mediacast week. The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which provides access to the offers for advertisement placement opportunities via a calendar-based heat map. The calendar-based heat map may be color-coded based at least in part on at least one of: amount of uplift, offer price, availability of inventory, or offer density. Responsive to selection of an inventory unit in the calendar-based heat map, the MCP-facing interface provides access to a plurality of offers for advertisement placement opportunities received for that inventory unit. The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which permits simultaneous acceptance of a plurality of the offers for advertisement placement opportunities as rotators. The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which permits selection of a number of slots to accept in a plurality of offers for advertisement placement opportunities accepted as rotators. The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which provides a credit approval interface which permits credit approval by an MCP for a plurality of advertisers. The credit approval interface may present credit decision information to an MCP for an advertiser which indicates a previous credit decision for the advertiser by at least one other MCP. The credit approval interface may present payment history information to an MCP for an advertiser which indicates a payment history for the advertiser. The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which provides a creative approval interface which permits approval of creatives by an MCP. The creative approval interface may permit approval of creatives based at least in part on at least one of: channel topic, geographic area, or time of day. The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which provides at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections of offers for advertisement placement opportunities. The at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections may be based at least in part on a source of the offer, the content of a creative associated with the offer, or an offer price of the offer. The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which provides at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections of offers for advertisement placement opportunities based at least in part on at least one rule input by a user associated with an MCP via the MCP-facing interface. The at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections may be based at least in part on a source of the respective offer for an advertisement placement opportunity and an offer price for the offer compared to one or more offer prices of one or more other offers received for the advertisement placement opportunity. The at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections may be based at least in part on a source of the respective offer for an advertisement placement opportunity and an offer price of the offer compared to a highest offer price received for the advertisement placement opportunity. The at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections may be based on conclusions from an automated system which uses historical offer data to estimate how individual offers for an advertisement opportunity are best placed for any slot versus other potential slots in which the individual offers for an advertisement opportunity may be placed. The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which permits automatic acceptance of an offer for an advertisement placement opportunity based at least in part on at least one factor in a group of factors which excludes offer price. For at least one of the advertisement placement opportunities in the inventory, the canonical form may specify the respective period of time of the advertisement placement opportunity by at least two of: i) a start time of the respective advertisement placement opportunity, ii) an end time of the respective advertisement placement opportunity, and iii) a duration of the respective advertisement placement opportunity. For at least one of the advertisement placement opportunities in the inventory, the canonical form may further specify at least one of a day of the week, a network, a network affiliate, or a channel of the advertising placement opportunity. The at least one processor may implement a daily close of all offers for advertisement placement opportunities pertaining to a given mediacast day. The specified period of time for at least some of the advertisement placement opportunities may comprise thirty minutes. Each of the advertisement placement opportunities may include a plurality of slots in the respective period of time of the advertisement placement opportunity, at least some of the plurality of slots may have a duration shorter than the specified period of time of the respective advertising placement opportunity. The MCP-facing interface may provide access to a booking interface which identifies whether accepted offers for advertisement placement opportunities have been successfully booked a traffic management system.

The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which runs an auction for all received programmatic offers, each auction includes an auction reserve price which is one of: a minimum offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel, a maximum offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel, or an average offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel. The auction may include a first price descending auction in which the advertiser is charged a price offered by the advertiser. The auction may include a second price descending auction in which the advertiser is charged a price of a next highest offer price. The auction may include a multi-lot second price auction in which all available slots in the advertisement placement opportunity are sold for the same price which is the lowest price offered which qualifies to win.

A method to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts may be summarized as including: storing, in at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium, an inventory of advertisement placement opportunities to place advertisements in at least one of a number of linear mediacasts for each of a plurality of mediacast content providers (MCPs) that transmit the mediacasts to a plurality of media consumers, each of the advertisement placement opportunities represented in a canonical form that specifies at least a respective period of time of the advertisement placement opportunity during a mediacast day of the MCP; receiving, by at least one processor, offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers through at least one programmatic sales channel; receiving, by the at least one processor, offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers through at least one non-programmatic sales channel; and providing, by the at least one processor, access to the received offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers via an MCP-facing interface.

The method to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts may further include implementing an MCP-facing interface which runs an auction for all received programmatic offers, each auction includes an auction reserve price which is one of: a minimum offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel, a maximum offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel, or an average offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel. The auction may include a first price descending auction in which the advertiser is charged a price offered by the advertiser. The auction may include a second price descending auction in which the advertiser is charged a price of a next highest offer price. The auction may include a multi-lot second price auction in which all available slots in the advertisement placement opportunity are sold for the same price which is the lowest price offered which qualifies to win.

The method to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts may further include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides access to offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers received through at least one direct sell sales channel.

The method to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts may further include implementing an MCP-facing interface which, for each advertisement placement opportunity, presents a comparison between at least one offer received through the at least one programmatic sales channel and at least one offer received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel.

The method to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts may further include implementing an MCP-facing interface which, for each advertisement placement opportunity, presents a difference between an offer price for an offer received through the at least one programmatic sales channel and an offer price for an offer received through the at least one non-programmatic sale channel.

The method to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts may further include implementing an MCP-facing interface which, for each advertisement placement opportunity, presents a difference between an offer price for an offer received through the at least one programmatic sales channel and at least one of: a minimum offer price for a plurality of offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel, a maximum offer price for a plurality of offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel, or an average offer price for a plurality of offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel.

The method to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts may further include, for each MCP, implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides access to offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers for periods of time which span an entire mediacast period of time for the MCP.

Providing access to the received offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers via an MCP-facing interface may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides access to the offers for advertisement placement opportunities via a calendar-based heat map. Implementing an MCP-facing interface may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides access to the offers for advertisement placement opportunities via a calendar-based heat map, the calendar-based heat map being color-coded based at least in part on at least one of: amount of uplift, offer price, availability of inventory, or offer density.

The method to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts may further include, responsive to selection of an inventory unit in the calendar-based heat map, providing, by the at least one processor, access to a plurality offers for advertisement placement opportunities received for that inventory unit.

Providing access to the received offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers via an MCP-facing interface may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which permits simultaneous acceptance of a plurality of the offers for advertisement placement opportunities as rotators. Providing access to the received offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers via an MCP-facing interface may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which permits selection of a number of slots to accept in a plurality of offers for advertisement placement opportunities accepted as rotators. Providing access to the received offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers via an MCP-facing interface may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides a credit approval interface which permits credit approval by an MCP for a plurality of advertisers. Implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides a credit approval interface which permits credit approval may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides a credit approval interface which permits credit approval, the credit approval interface presenting credit decision information to an MCP for an advertiser which indicates a previous credit decision for the advertiser by at least one other MCP. Implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides a credit approval interface may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides a credit approval interface, the credit approval interface presenting payment history information to an MCP for an advertiser which indicates a payment history for the advertiser. Providing access to the received offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers via an MCP-facing interface may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides a creative approval interface which permits approval of creatives by an MCP. Implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides a creative approval interface may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides a creative approval interface, wherein the creative approval interface may permit approval of creatives based at least in part on at least one of: channel subject matter, geographic area, or time of day. Providing access to the received offers for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers via an MCP-facing interface may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections of offers for advertisement placement opportunities. Implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections of offers for advertisement placement opportunities may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections of offers for advertisement placement opportunities, the automatic acceptances or automatic rejections based at least in part on a source of the offer, the content of a creative associated with the offer, or an offer price of the offer. Implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections of offers for advertisement placement opportunities may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections of offers for advertisement placement opportunities, the automatic acceptances or automatic rejections of offers for advertisement placement opportunities based at least in part on at least one rule input by a user associated with an MCP via the MCP-facing interface. The at least one processor may implement an MCP-facing interface which permits automatic acceptance of an offer for an advertisement placement opportunity based at least in part on at least one factor in a group of factors which excludes offer price. Storing an inventory of advertisement placement opportunities may include storing an inventory of advertisement placement opportunities and, for at least one of the advertisement placement opportunities in the inventory, the canonical form may specify the respective period of time of the advertisement placement opportunity by at least two of: i) a start time of the respective advertisement placement opportunity, ii) an end time of the respective advertisement placement opportunity, and iii) a duration of the respective advertisement placement opportunity. Storing an inventory of advertisement placement opportunities may include storing an inventory of advertisement placement opportunities wherein, for at least one of the advertisement placement opportunities in the inventory, the canonical form further specifies at least one of a day of the week, a network, a network affiliate, or a channel of the advertising placement opportunity.

Implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections of offers for advertisement placement opportunities may include implementing an MCP-facing interface which provides at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections of offers for advertisement placement opportunities, the at least one of automatic acceptances or automatic rejections are based on conclusions from an automated system which uses historical offer data to estimate how individual offers for an advertisement opportunity are best placed for any slot versus other potential slots in which the individual offers for an advertisement opportunity may be placed.

The method to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts may further include implementing, by the at least one processor, a daily close of all offers for advertisement placement opportunities pertaining to a given mediacast day.

The method to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts may further include providing, by the at least one processor, access to a booking interface which identifies whether accepted offers for advertisement placement opportunities have been successfully booked a traffic management system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Implementations of the present disclosure are directed to computer-implemented systems and methods for providing an autonomous advertisement marketplace or exchange system where buyers and sellers can trade mediacast (e.g., broadcast, Webcast) advertisement inventory programmatically at local, national, and/or worldwide levels. The types of media traded via the marketplace may simultaneously include numerous types of media, including TV, cable, satellite, radio, outdoor, print, etc. Such programmatic advertising implements data-driven automation of audience-based advertising operations which inverts the industry standard in which marketers rely on show ratings to determine desirable audiences for the marketers' advertisements. Instead, with programmatic, marketers may use audience data to pipe advertising to optimal places. For example, marketers may use programmatic technology to reach a more specific set of consumers regardless of the programs on which the advertisements appear.

The marketplace systems disclosed herein seamlessly blend traditional linear media (e.g., TV, cable, satellite, radio, outdoor, print) sales practices with data-driven digital advertisement buying methods. In some implementations, the marketplace systems are fully automated seller-controlled marketplace systems which connect linear mediacasters (e.g., broadcasters, Webcasters) with new and existing demand sources and offer revenue management tools for optimizing yields across direct and programmatic channels. Transactions may be demand-led, which allows sellers to view the demand across the sellers' entire landscape of potentially available advertisement inventory. Further, in some implementations, the sellers may autonomously accept or reject bid responses from buyers without revealing price floors or available advertisement opportunities to any of the buyers.

In some implementations, the advertisement marketplace systems disclosed herein interface with demand side platforms that make automated media advertisement purchases. Participating sellers enjoy seamless transaction workflow for getting advertisements from proposal, to publishing, and to billing that delivers a significant reduction in time spent on reconciliation and “make-goods” and streamlines processes for creative management and revenue management across direct and programmatic sales channels.

The marketplace systems may include a seller side platform (SSP) or seller console for sellers (e.g., broadcasters, Webcasters, printed content providers) and an advertiser-facing interface or console for demand side platform (DSP) entities to interface with the marketplace systems. Through the SSP, sellers can access demand and make advertisement inventory available and accept or reject bid responses based on marketplace demand.

The advertiser-facing interface facilitates creative placement and reviewing for the buy side, and may have transcoding and approval tools for the sell side. For example, in some implementations, once an advertisement transaction is approved, the advertiser-facing interface sends the advertisement directly to a broadcaster's traffic system. In some implementations, the marketplace system is a sell-side powered marketplace, which allows sellers to set price floors and to retain the right to accept or reject any offer which comes through the marketplace system.

In some implementations, the advertisement marketplace systems disclosed herein automate aspects of billing, reconciliation, and creative execution. In some implementations, the advertisement marketplace systems may be integrated with advertisement management software and sales and traffic management systems. In one or more implementations disclosed herein, the marketplace systems do not require sellers to offer particular day parts or times when advertisement inventory is available. That is, “carve-outs” are not required. Rather, buyers can extend offers for the entire roster or landscape for a particular channel for a particular period of time (e.g., mediacast day, mediacast week). Thus, sellers may peruse this demand and decide which offers to accept or not to accept.

As discussed further below, in some implementations, the advertisement inventory is bought and sold as canonical inventory units which group similar but discrete advertisement slots together. For example, for linear media an inventory unit may be defined as a specific channel, day and time period (e.g., 30 minutes). When the marketplace opens for a given mediacast day, the marketplace may issue requests for bids (RFBs) for all inventory units for that mediacast day. Buyers may price the inventory units and provide a bid for any of the inventory units. At a daily market close, the advertisement marketplace may notify the buyers of the win/loss outcomes. In some implementations, the demand (e.g., bid responses) may be expressed for future slots but sellers may accept near publishing time (e.g., 10 seconds before airtime, 10 minutes before airtime).

As discussed further below, the SSPs disclosed herein allow mediacasters to evaluate an offer in the context of a market, then autonomously accept or reject the offer based on rules set by the mediacaster. Mediacasters need only accept offers which are right for their total business, including their yields across their entire inventory (e.g., linear, digital), their audience's experience, and the need to manage channel conflicts with other sales methods (e.g., direct sell).

Using the systems and methods discussed herein, mediacasters are able to accelerate revenue and advertising monetization through direct access to an ecosystem of buying partners and their advertising clients who demand local audiences. The systems and methods discussed herein allow mediacasters to control precisely what they choose to sell and to maximize revenue across their portfolio, and enables advertisers to achieve more impact and return on investment (ROI) by reaching their targeted audiences. Such features allow for increased revenue by providing seamless access to additional demand sources including national traditional buyers as well as digital buyers, which is seller-controlled through the SSP.

As discussed further below, the SSP of the marketplace system revolves around the broadcaster's SSP dashboard. Seller features in the SSP dashboard include pricing controls, support for rotators, and integrated credit approval. The SSP dashboard also allows sellers to preview and pre-approve the creative associated with marketplace offers. In some implementations, the SSP also incorporates an integrated payment service that automates the process of invoicing and collecting media fees.

As discussed below, one or more implementations of SSPs discussed herein include powerful yield management tools that give participating mediacasters the power to retain full control of pricing floors and inventory allocation across non-programmatic (e.g., direct) and programmatic sales channels. The SSP dashboard offers sellers an unprecedented view of marketplace demand with direct sold deals and avails along with placement and exclusion rules.

FIG.1shows a networked environment100according to one illustrated implementation in which various apparatus, methods and articles described herein may operate. The environment100includes an advertisement marketplace or exchange system102, an advertiser-facing interface (AFI)103, a number of sellers or content providers104A-104N (collectively104), traffic management systems106A-106N (collectively106), a supply side platform (SSP)108, a number of demand side platforms (DSPs)110A-110N (collectively110), and a number of buyers112A-112N (collectively112), all communicatively coupled by one or more networks or other communications channels.

The sellers104may take a variety of forms, for example, radio stations or broadcasters, television stations or broadcasters, other terrestrial or satellite broadcasters or multicasters (not shown), Webcasters, printed content (e.g., print media) providers, outdoor content (e.g., billboards) providers, etc., or combinations thereof. The sellers104may, or may not, own the content that they provide. The sellers104utilize the SSP108to access the advertisement marketplace system102and may use the traffic management systems106A-106N for traffic management. On the buy side, the buyers112(e.g., advertisers, agencies) may interface with the marketplace system102via the AFI103through the buyers' respective DSPs110.

FIG.2shows an example workflow200for implementing the marketplace system102in the environment100ofFIG.1between a buyer112, a buyer's DSP110, the marketplace system102, and a seller104interfacing with the marketplace system102through the SSP108and the traffic management system106. Generally, the AFI103exposes future advertisement inventory (avails) to DSPs which can bid on the entire supply landscape and receive daily win/loss notifications for the inventory (e.g., for the following week).

At202, the buyer112may enter advertising campaign constraints through the DSP110. Such campaign constraints may include budget, target audience, channels, day parts, etc. The campaign constraints may be cross-media types (e.g., TV, cable, radio, satellite, outdoor, print). At204, the buyer112may send an advertiser and/or agency name mapping to the advertisement marketplace102via the DSP110based on agencies and advertisers already existing in the advertisement marketplace so that the buyer is associated with an advertiser and/or agency name in the marketplace. At206, a creative agency associated with the buyer112may upload a creative (e.g., advertisement content) which will be used in campaigns through the DSP110. The DSP110may provision the creative to the advertisement marketplace102, which may download, ingest and validate the creative, and may then send an identifier (e.g., “creative ID”) back to the DSP for use in a subsequent bid response.

At208, the advertisement marketplace102may send a request for bids (RFBs) to the DSP110for every canonical inventor unit. As noted above, in some implementations, a canonical inventory unit is defined as a time period in a mediacast period of time (e.g., mediacast day) for a particular channel and/or market (e.g., Channel X, Market Y, Nov. 3, 2015, 5:30-6:00 am). The advertisement marketplace system102may send RFBs for all canonical inventory units in the marketplace for a particular period of time (e.g., day, week). In some implementations, each inventory unit in the advertisement marketplace system has a unique channel, market, and time period combination. In some implementations, the advertisement marketplace system operates one week ahead of a publication date (e.g., airdate), but other future time windows may also be used.

At210, the DSP110responds to the RFBs provided by the advertisement marketplace system102with demand for one or more of the inventory units. The DSP110may apply targeting criteria prior to issuing bids. In some implementations, the DSP110does not need to notify the advertisement marketplace system102of the targeting data source or attributes used to determine the bids or inventory unit selection.

At212, the advertisement marketplace system102validates received bids and begins matching bids with inventory supply. At214, the SSP108pulls creative previews and alerts the seller104to possible bids to approve. The seller may approve the creatives and bids and may then send the approvals to the advertisement marketplace system102for consideration.

At216, the advertisement marketplace system102closes the marketplace for the day. The winning spots are sent to the traffic management system106for publishing (e.g., airing, printing). At218, the advertisement marketplace system102may send a “win” beacon to the DSP110, which allows the buyer112to decrement the buyer's budget through the DSP as needed.

At220, the seller104may process orders through the traffic management system106. At222, the seller104may reconcile actual air times with the advertisement marketplace system102through the traffic management system106.

At224, the advertisement marketplace system102may send impression and completion event beacons to the buyer112through the DSP110. Such beacons may be sent after the spot has aired (e.g., up to 30 days later).

In some implementations, before a DSP can win bids, creative should be sent to the advertisement marketplace system102to be stored in a nontransitory processor-readable storage medium accessible thereby. As noted above, when a creative is submitted by a DSP to the advertisement marketplace system102through the AFI103, an identifier is sent back to the DSP. Then, advertisement marketplace system102ingests the creative and validates that the creative assets meets the technical requirements necessary for the creative to be trafficked and aired successfully. In some implementations, creatives are pre-registered. In such cases, bid responses from DSPs designate a pre-registered creative identifier.

As noted above, for linear media a canonical inventory unit may be defined a specific channel, market, day, and time period (e.g., half hour, one hour). Each canonical inventory unit may include a plurality (e.g., 12-18) of discrete advertisement slots which have a duration that is shorter than the specified time period for the inventory unit. For example, the durations for the advertisement slots may be 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds, etc., while the specified time period for the canonical inventory unit may be 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours, etc. The precise time or position of these slots in the corresponding specified time period may or may not be defined at the time of a bid or known by the bidder. Even the seller may not know the precise time or the precise order of the slots prior to publication (e.g., broadcast).

When the marketplace opens for a particular mediacast day, RFBs are issued for all canonical inventory units for the mediacast day. Buyers are able to price the inventory units individually to provide spot bids. At the daily close of the marketplace, the advertisement marketplace system102notifies buyers112through respective DSPs110of the win/loss outcomes.

In cases of print media, a canonical inventory unit may be defined in a way such that similar but discrete advertisement slots are grouped together. For instance, for a daily newspaper, a canonical inventory unit may be defined by a section of the newspaper and by date (e.g., Sports section, May 3; Business section, May 6). In such instances, a seller may issue RFBs for all canonical inventory units in a future week of the newspaper.

The advertisement marketplace system102may operate on a mediacast day schedule, which may vary between sellers (e.g., mediacast stations). Most commonly, mediacast day is from 5:00 AM to 4:59 XM (the next calendar day). The time period from 12:00 AM to 4:59 AM is represented as 12:00 AM to 4:59 XM, wherein the XM indicates that the time period is actually part of the next calendar day.

In some implementations, the advertisement marketplace system102issues a unique RFB to the DSP110for every canonical inventory unit in the landscape (e.g., channels, markets) of the advertisement marketplace system for a particular future time period (e.g., one upcoming mediacast day). Once the RFBs are sent to the DSP110, the DSP may have an opportunity each day to submit a bid for each inventory unit. The availability of inventory may not be revealed to the buyers in these bid requests.

In some implementations, the advertisement marketplace system102may perform a full landscape sweep on day X for inventory units containing spots which will air on the mediacast day one week later. For example, on a given Monday, the advertisement marketplace system102may issue RFBs for all inventory units covering the mediacast day for the next Monday. This window may be more or less than one week in other implementations.

In some implementations, the advertisement marketplace system102may allow DSPs to express demand (i.e., bids) for days beyond a single day one week ahead of the current day. For example, a DSP may wish to see RFBs on a rolling mediacast week basis. In such cases, the advertisement marketplace system102may issue RFBs on a given Monday for all canonical inventory units for the next Monday through the next Sunday. Then, on Tuesday of the same week, the advertisement marketplace system102may issue RFBs for all canonical inventory units for the next Tuesday through the next Monday, and so on. This configuration allows the DSP110to have more chances to bid on inventory units throughout the week, which can help fine tune bidding strategies and may facilitate campaign pacing.

Once all of the daily bids are collected, the advertisement marketplace system102matches offers with inventory supply and generates orders that are integrated with the traffic management system106. At this point, the bid status for each bid may be classified as Win, Loss, or Hold. The Win bid status indicates the offer has been accepted by seller for a specific canonical inventory unit. The Loss bid status indicates the offer was declined by seller, and may specify one or more loss reason codes. The Hold bid status indicates the offer has been accepted by the seller as part of a rotator. In some implementations, all bids in a rotator are set to the lowest bid rate in a particular grouping.

In some implementations, the system may run an auction for all received programmatic offers for an inventory unit. As non-limiting examples, each auction may include an auction reserve price which is one of: a minimum offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel, a maximum offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel, or an average offer price for one or more offers received through the at least one non-programmatic sales channel. In some implementations, the auction may include a first price descending auction in which the advertiser is charged a price offered by the advertiser. In some implementations, the auction may include a second price descending auction in which the advertiser is charged a price of a next highest offer price. In some implementations, the auction may include a multi-lot second price auction in which all available slots in the advertisement placement opportunity are sold for the same price which is the lowest price offered which qualifies to win.

In some implementations, automatic acceptances and/or automatic rejections may be based on conclusions from an automated system which uses historical offer data to estimate how individual offers for an advertisement opportunity are best placed for any slot versus other potential slots in which the individual offers for an advertisement opportunity may be placed.

Given the nature of the advertisement marketplace system102operations, budget management may be more complex than in a digital advertisement ecosystem. To facilitate budget management and to assist DSPs with expressing enough demand to meet their campaign objectives given the challenges introduced by the bid feedback latency, the advertisement marketplace system102may utilize “bid group objects.” Each bid response can include a bid group object. A bid group object is a budget cap and/or a maximum spot wins constraint that can be assigned across multiple bids (and multiple media types) to avoid over-spending/over-winning during the feedback window. These budget caps and/or maximum spot wins may operate in a “first triggered” model, meaning that no more bids will be permitted to win after the budget cap or maximum spots cap are hit.

For example, the DSP110may group all bids for one campaign, for one day, into a bid group with a budget cap for the day. Then, the DSP110may issue bids for orders of magnitude more inventory and/or cost (e.g., $1,000,000) than the budget (e.g., $10,000) will support. The budget cap protects the buyer from winning all of the bids, which would exceed the budget. Thus, a buyer may issue bids as though the buyer has an “infinite budget” without the risk of exceeding the buyer's actual budget. Using such functionality, buyers can place bids in parallel without having to iteratively place bids, wait and see which bids are accepted, and place additional bids to fulfill their budget for a campaign. Such functionality also avoids the need for buyers to model acceptance rates to determine how much over the budget the buyer can safely bid without exceeding the budget. Depending on the accuracy of such model of acceptance rates and how aggressive a buyer is placing bids, there is the potential for the buyer to exceed the budget if the actual acceptance rate is higher than expected or for less than the budget to be spent if the actual acceptance rate is lower than expected. Such issues are avoided by use of the bid groups discussed above.

As another example, the DSP100may group all bids for a particular channel into a bid group object and set a maximum spot cap which limits the number of spots which will be purchased for the channel. Such feature may allow for “smoothing” a campaign across multiple channels and/or times without overly concentrating the buyer's budget on a particular market, affiliate, period of time, media outlet, geographical area, group of consumers, etc. As an example, a maximum spot cap may be established which limits the frequency which an advertisement is provided to the same group of consumers. The group of consumers may be determined statistically (e.g., by station times, programming) so that a particular advertisement is not provided to the same group of consumers more than N times over a time period.

FIG.3shows a networked environment300comprising one or more advertisement marketplace computer systems302(only one illustrated) and one or more associated nontransitory computer- or processor-readable storage medium304(only one illustrated). The associated nontransitory computer- or processor-readable storage medium304is communicatively coupled to the advertisement marketplace computer system(s)302via one or more communications channels, for example, one or more parallel cables, serial cables, or wireless channels capable of high speed communications, for instance, via FireWire®, Universal Serial Bus® (USB) 2 or 3, Thunderbolt®, and/or Gigabit Ethernet®.

The networked environment300also includes one or more external processor-based computer systems306(only one illustrated). For example, the external processor-based systems306may be representative of a processor-based system associated with an SSP108or a DSP110ofFIG.1. The external processor-based systems306are communicatively coupled to the advertisement marketplace computer system(s)302by one or more communications channels, for example, one or more wide area networks (WANs)310, for instance the Internet or Worldwide Web portion thereof.

The networked environment300may employ other computer systems and network equipment, for example, additional servers, proxy servers, firewalls, routers and/or bridges. The advertisement marketplace computer systems302will at times be referred to in the singular herein, but this is not intended to limit the implementations to a single device since in typical implementations there may be more than one advertisement marketplace computer systems302involved. Unless described otherwise, the construction and operation of the various blocks shown inFIG.3are of conventional design. As a result, such blocks need not be described in further detail herein, as they will be understood by those skilled in the relevant art.

The advertisement marketplace computer systems302may include one or more processing units312a,312b(collectively312), a system memory314and a system bus316that couples various system components, including the system memory314to the processing units312. The processing units312may be any logic processing unit, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs)312a, digital signal processors (DSPs)312b, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), etc. The system bus316can employ any known bus structures or architectures, including a memory bus with memory controller, a peripheral bus, and/or a local bus. The system memory314includes read-only memory (“ROM”)318and random access memory (“RAM”)320. A basic input/output system (“BIOS”)322, which can form part of the ROM318, contains basic routines that help transfer information between elements within the advertisement marketplace computer system(s)302, such as during start-up. The advertisement marketplace computer systems302may include a hard disk drive324for reading from and writing to a hard disk326, an optical disk drive328for reading from and writing to removable optical disks332, and/or a magnetic disk drive330for reading from and writing to magnetic disks334. The optical disk332can be a CD-ROM, while the magnetic disk334can be a magnetic floppy disk or diskette. The hard disk drive324, optical disk drive328and magnetic disk drive330may communicate with the processing unit312via the system bus316. The hard disk drive324, optical disk drive328and magnetic disk drive330may include interfaces or controllers (not shown) coupled between such drives and the system bus316, as is known by those skilled in the relevant art. The drives324,328and330, and their associated computer-readable media326,332,334, provide nonvolatile storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the advertisement marketplace computer system302. Although the depicted advertisement marketplace computer systems302is illustrated employing a hard disk324, optical disk328and magnetic disk330, those skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that other types of computer-readable media that can store data accessible by a computer may be employed, such as WORM drives, RAID drives, magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks (“DVD”), Bernoulli cartridges, RAMs, ROMs, smart cards, etc.

Program modules can be stored in the system memory314, such as an operating system336, one or more application programs338, other programs or modules340and program data342. The system memory314may also include communications programs, for example, a server344that causes the advertisement marketplace computer system302to serve electronic information or files via the Internet, intranets, extranets, telecommunications networks, or other networks as described below. The server344in the depicted implementation is markup language based, such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML) or Wireless Markup Language (WML), and operates with markup languages that use syntactically delimited characters added to the data of a document to represent the structure of the document. A number of suitable servers may be commercially available such as those from Mozilla, Google, Microsoft and Apple Computer.

While shown inFIG.3as being stored in the system memory314, the operating system336, application programs338, other programs/modules340, program data342and server344can be stored on the hard disk326of the hard disk drive324, the optical disk332of the optical disk drive328and/or the magnetic disk334of the magnetic disk drive330.

An operator can enter commands and information into the advertisement marketplace computer system(s)302through input devices such as a touch screen or keyboard346and/or a pointing device such as a mouse348, and/or via a graphical user interface. Other input devices can include a microphone, joystick, game pad, tablet, scanner, etc. These and other input devices are connected to one or more of the processing units312through an interface350such as a serial port interface that couples to the system bus316, although other interfaces such as a parallel port, a game port or a wireless interface or a universal serial bus (“USB”) can be used. A monitor352or other display device is coupled to the system bus316via a video interface354, such as a video adapter. The advertisement marketplace computer system(s)302can include other output devices, such as speakers, printers, etc.

The advertisement marketplace computer systems302can operate in a networked environment300using logical connections to one or more remote computers and/or devices. For example, the advertisement marketplace computer systems302can operate in a networked environment300using logical connections to one or more external processor-based systems306. Communications may be via a wired and/or wireless network architecture, for instance, wired and wireless enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, extranets, and/or the Internet. Other implementations may include other types of communications networks including telecommunications networks, cellular networks, paging networks, and other mobile networks. There may be any variety of computers, switching devices, routers, bridges, firewalls and other devices in the communications paths between the advertisement marketplace computer systems302and external processor-based systems306.

FIG.4shows a method400of operating an advertisement marketplace computer system to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts (e.g., broadcasts, Webcasts). At402, at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may store, in at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium thereof, an inventory of advertisement placement opportunities to place advertisements in at least one of a number of linear mediacasts for each of a plurality of mediacast content providers that transmit the mediacasts.

Each of the advertisement placement opportunities (“avails”) may be represented in a canonical form that specifies at least a respective period of time (e.g., 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour) of the advertisement placement opportunity during a mediacast day of the mediacast content provider. For example, each inventory unit may correspond to a specific 30 minute window of a mediacast day of the mediacast content provider. Each of the advertisement placement opportunities may include a plurality (e.g., 12-18) of slots in the respective period of time of the advertisement placement opportunity. In some implementations, at least some of the plurality of slots have a duration shorter than the specified period of time of the respective advertising placement opportunity.

In some implementations, the canonical form of at least some of the advertisement placement opportunities in the inventory specifies the respective period of time of the advertisement placement opportunity by at least two of: i) a start time of the respective advertisement placement opportunity, ii) an end time of the respective advertisement placement opportunity, and iii) a duration of the respective advertisement placement opportunity. In some implementations, the canonical form of at least some of the advertisement placement opportunities in the inventory specifies a day of the week of the advertising placement opportunity. The canonical form of at least some of the advertisement placement opportunities in the inventory may specify at least one of a network, a network affiliate, or a channel of the advertising placement opportunity. In some implementations, the canonical form represents the advertising placement opportunity without specification of any asking price by the mediacast content provider for any slot in the respective advertising placement opportunity. In some implementations, the canonical form of at least some of the advertisement placement opportunities in the inventory represents the advertising placement opportunity without specification of either a specific start time or a specific end time for any of the respective slots of the advertising placement opportunity.

In some instances, the canonical form of inventory units may vary based on media type. For instance, TV, satellite, cable and outdoor billboards may utilize a canonical form defined by time period (e.g., 30 minutes), while print media may utilize a canonical form defined by sections (e.g., table of contents, feature article, back cover) of a publication and/or defined by two dimensional areas (e.g., ½ page, 1 page) of a publication.

At404, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may provide access to the inventory of advertisement placement opportunities to advertisers via an advertiser-facing interface (AFI). As discussed above, DSPs may access the AFI to view inventory units across a media content provider's landscape for a particular period of time (e.g., a mediacast day). In some implementations, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may provide access to the inventory of advertisement placement opportunities to advertisers without specification of any asking price by the mediacast content provider for any slot in the respective advertising placement opportunity. In some implementations, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may provide access to the inventory of advertisement placement opportunities to advertisers without revealing of a total number of slots available in the respective advertising placement opportunity to any of the advertisers.

At406, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may receive, via the AFI, requests for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers without exposing information specific to the request for advertisement placement opportunities to other advertisers. Each request may be a request for at least one undisclosed slot in one of the advertisement placement opportunities. For example, an advertisement placement opportunity may be for a specific channel, on a specific day, and during a specified 30 minute time window. A buyer may place a bid for the advertisement placement opportunity which purchases a slot (e.g., a 30 second slot) within the specified 30 minute time window.

The at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may receive the requests for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers without exposing information specific to the request for advertisement placement opportunities to mediacast content providers other than a respective mediacast content provider that provides the respective mediacast that includes the respective requested advertisement placement opportunity. In some instances, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may provide a mediacast content provider-facing user interface that receives requests for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers without exposing information that identifies a price offered for the respective advertisement placement opportunity to any other ones of the advertisers.

FIG.5shows a method500of operating an advertisement marketplace computer system, according to one illustrated implementation. The method500may be employed in performing the method400(FIG.4).

At502, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace computer system provides notification of an acceptance of a request for advertisement placement opportunities to a respective first one of the advertiser without exposing information that identifies a price offered for the respective advertisement placement opportunity to any other ones of the advertisers.

FIG.6shows a method600of operating an advertisement marketplace computer system, according to one illustrated implementation. The method600may be employed in performing the method400(FIG.4).

At602, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace computer system implementing a budget capping that prevents acceptance of requests from the advertiser once an advertiser specified budget for a defined campaign is exceeded by acceptance by the mediacast content providers of other requests by the advertiser for the defined campaign.

FIG.7shows a method700of operating an advertisement marketplace computer system, according to one illustrated implementation. The method700may be employed in performing the method400(FIG.4).

At702, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace computer system implements a smoothing that prevents acceptance of requests from the advertiser once an advertiser specified maximum concentration for a defined campaign is exceeded by acceptance by the mediacast content providers of other requests by the advertiser for the defined campaign.

FIG.8shows a method800of operating an advertisement marketplace computer system, according to one illustrated implementation. The method800may be employed in performing the method400(FIG.4).

At802, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace computer system implements a daily close of all advertisement placement opportunities pertaining to a given mediacast day, requests for advertisement placement opportunities pertaining to the given mediacast day, and acceptances of requests for advertisement placement opportunities pertaining to the given mediacast day.

FIG.9shows a method900of operating an advertisement marketplace computer system, according to one illustrated implementation. The method900may be employed in performing the method400(FIG.4).

At902, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace computer system updates the inventory of advertisement placement opportunities from time-to-time to reflect advertisement placement opportunities no longer available and new advertisement placement opportunities that are available.

FIG.10shows a method1000of operating an advertisement marketplace computer system to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts (e.g., broadcasts, Webcasts). At1002, at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may store in at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium an inventory of advertisement placement opportunities to place advertisements in at least one of a number of linear mediacasts for each of a plurality of mediacast content providers that transmit the mediacasts via mediacast channels. For each mediacast channel of each of the mediacast content providers, each of the advertisement placement opportunities may specify one of a plurality of periods of time which in aggregate cover a mediacast day of the mediacast channel. Each of the advertisement placement opportunities may include a plurality of slots in the respective period of time of the advertisement placement opportunity. In some instances, at least some of the plurality of slots have a duration shorter than the specified period of time of the respective advertising placement opportunity.

At1002, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may provide access to the inventory of advertisement placement opportunities to advertisers via an advertiser-facing interface.

At1004, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may receive, via the advertiser-facing interface, requests for advertisement placement opportunities from one or more advertisers without exposing information specific to the request for advertisement placement opportunities to other advertisers. Each request may include a request for at least one undisclosed slot in one of the advertisement placement opportunities.

FIG.11shows a method1100of operating an advertisement marketplace computer system to automate advertisement placement in linear mediacasts (e.g., broadcasts, Webcasts). At1102, at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may, for each mediacast channel of each mediacast content provider, partition a mediacast day into a number of advertisement inventory units. Each of the number of advertisement inventory units may correspond to a respective period of time of the mediacast day and may include a plurality of advertisement slots.

At1104, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may store in at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium the advertisement inventory units for each of the mediacast channels of the plurality of mediacast content providers.

At1106, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may provide access to the advertisement inventory units to advertisers via an advertiser-facing interface.

At1108, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may receive, via the advertiser-facing interface, requests for advertisement inventory units from one or more advertisers without exposing information specific to the request to other advertisers. Each request may include a request for at least one slot in one of the advertisement inventory units without specifying a particular slot in the one of the advertisement inventory units.

FIG.12shows a method1200of operating an advertisement marketplace computer system to automate advertisement placement in printed media (e.g., newspapers, magazines, books, signs). The method1200may be executed in conjunction with and by the same advertisement marketplace system which performs any of the methods discussed above.

At1202, at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may, for each printed media channel of each printed media content provider, partition the printed media channel into a number of canonical advertisement inventory units. Each of the number of advertisement inventory units may be defined by a respective portion of the printed media channel and may include a plurality of advertisement slots. For instance, in the case of a magazine, each canonical inventory unit may define a particular section (e.g., table of contents, feature stories, letters to the editor) of the magazine and a particular publication date, and each inventory unit may include multiple advertisement slots.

At1204, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may store in at least one nontransitory processor-readable storage medium the advertisement inventory units for each of the printed media channels of the plurality of printed media content providers.

At1206, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may provide access to the advertisement inventory units to advertisers via an advertiser-facing interface.

At1208, the at least one processor of the advertisement marketplace system may receive, via the advertiser-facing interface, requests for advertisement inventory units from one or more advertisers without exposing information specific to the request to other advertisers. Each request may include a request for at least one slot in one of the advertisement inventory units without specifying a particular slot in the one of the advertisement inventory units.

As discussed above, the advertisement marketplace or exchange system100(FIG.1) includes a seller console or SSP108which allows sellers to preview creative, view and accept offers, create orders, and send orders to a traffic management system for publishing (e.g., broadcast). Before the seller console is utilized for recurring activities, sellers may complete a setup process which includes enabling channels and billing groups in the traffic management system and creating a programmatic agency in the traffic management system.

The setup process may also include configuring channels in the seller console so that the channels are available for buyers to target when creating campaigns. In some implementations, the seller may configure a new channel by indicating the following marketplace fields for a channel: name, affiliation, Nielsen call letters, video definition, media type and sign on. The name of the channel is how the channel will be displayed on all screens viewable by buyers and sellers. The affiliation is the broadcasting network with which the channel is affiliated. Such association may be used by buyers to target channels with specific affiliates. The video definition is the media definition which the channel supports (e.g., high definition, standard definition). The media type is the type of media which airs on the channel, such as broadcast TV, cable network, radio, satellite, etc. The “sign on” field is the time of the mediacast day. In some implementations, the sign on field defaults to 12:00 AM but should be updated to match the sign on time of the channel in the traffic management system.

The seller may also setup various fields which relate to the traffic management system. As an example, such fields may include: Central Property, Electronic Contract (EC) name, Send Orders, Traffic Channel, and Use Single Inventory Code. The EC Name is the name that matches the EC Name on the channel in the traffic management system. The EC name may be stamped on each line of the order in the traffic management system. Regarding the Send Orders field, when an offer is accepted, the seller can either send the order to the traffic management system manually, automatically send the order immediately, or automatically send the order right after the daily marketplace close. The Traffic Channel field specifies the channel in the traffic management system. The Material Group field identifies the material group in the traffic management system that the seller wants to use for this channel. Regarding the Use Single Inventory Code field or checkbox, if a single inventory code is being used in the traffic management system for all orders received from the marketplace, this box may be checked or otherwise selected so that inventory code mapping only has to be created once. Such allows orders to be automatically imported.

The seller console may also allow the seller to select the priority codes which are eligible to be preempted by programmatic spots. For example, if a spot in a time block is already filled in the traffic management system, an accept rule may only accept a programmatic spot if the spot in the traffic management system has a selected priority code which indicates the spot is preemptible.

During setup of the seller console, the seller may also configure the revenue method the seller wants the system to utilize when showing the seller uplift (e.g., how much higher a programmatic offer is compared to spots booked through other sales channels) on a color-coded calendar-based heat map (seeFIGS.17-18). Such revenue methods may include average, maximum, average preemptible, maximum preemptible, and lowest, for example. For the lowest, average, and highest revenue methods, the acceptance rules and the calendar area are based on the lowest, average, and highest rates, respectively, of all placed spots in each half hour block in the traffic management system. For the average preemptible revenue method and the highest preemptible method, the acceptance rules and the calendar area are based on the average and highest rate, respectively, of only the preemptible spots in each half hour block in the traffic management system. Preemptible spots may be determined based on the selected priority codes, as discussed above.

Once the seller has setup the seller console, the seller console may be used for recurring activities.

FIG.13shows a new direct response avail window1300which allows a seller to define a new direct response avail time. Generally, if there are specific times on a channel's log where direct response (DR) inventory can be placed and the seller wants to receive bids for DR inventory, the seller may define times and days via the new direct response avail window1300in the seller console.

The new direct response avail window1300may include three tabs: a description tab1302, a pricing tab1304, and a reserve rule tab1306. Fields under the description tab1302are shown inFIG.13. In the description tab1302, the seller may select a name1308, program notes1310, channel1312, start time1314, end time1316, days1318, and acceptable unit lengths1320.

Under the pricing tab1304, the seller may define a date range for the rule and the percentage higher (“increase”) the DR offer must be to be accepted over already booked inventory. The seller may also define the minimum acceptable rate (“floor”), the maximum spots which will be accepted for the week for the rule (“Max Units per Order”), and whether the seller wants to have a set floor (“ask”) price or increase the floor (“ask”) based on the lowest placed rate.

Under the reserve rule tab1306, the seller may set the number of offers which are held for the avail and may choose whether the seller wants to increase the floor if the number of held offers is exceeded.

Once the new DR avail has been setup, buyers may then request avails and the times defined by the seller are returned to the buyers. Buyers may then submit offers for the defined DR avail times. The offers may be held in a “holding tank” which may be used to fill open capacity. For example, the offers may be ranked by rate and selected in a manner which maximizes revenue for the seller.

FIG.14shows a new accept rule window1400which includes a description tab1402and a rule items tab1404. To avoid having to manually accept offers, the seller may create auto-acceptance rules which execute every evening on marketplace close (e.g., 4:00 PM) and may autonomously accept offers which match the rule parameters. Using auto-acceptance rules may be optional, which allows sellers to manually accept all offers if desired.

To setup a new auto-acceptance rule, the seller may select the description tab1402in the new accept rule window1402. The seller may then enter a description, channel, start time, end time, days, and the minimum amount that will be accepted for the rule (floor).

On the rule items tab1404, the seller may set a start time1406, end time1408, eligible days1410, the number of 30-second spots to sell (EU30s to sell)1412, whether to allow non-approved creative1414, and acceptable spot lengths1416. Regarding the number of EU30s to sell, the rule will stop executing after this number has been met.

The auto-acceptance rules may be simple rules or may include complex rules or groups of rules. For example, an auto-acceptance rule may specify that an offer is to be accepted if the offer is from a particular advertiser (or group of advertisers) and the offer is one of the top three offers received, or if the offer is within a certain percentage of the highest offer received, or if the offer is within a certain dollar amount of the highest offer received, etc.

The seller may also setup auto-rejection rules. Auto-rejection rules may be used to automatically reject offers from specific advertisers (e.g., advertisers which have made offers via another sales channel). Once the auto-rejection rule is set, sellers will not see offers from the chosen advertiser(s) or offers that are rejected using one or more auto-rejection rules. Using auto-rejection rules is optional. That is, seller may simply manually reject offers or just ignore offers which they do not want to accept.

The auto-acceptance and auto-rejection rules may be set based on a hierarchical permissions scheme. For example, a finance lead of a seller may set a price floor so that offers below the price floor are not seen by sales personnel. Generally, such a permissions scheme may be used by the seller to control the amount of decision making authority that is given to various personnel.

The activities which may be completed on a daily or recurring basis include: pre-approving creative, reviewing and accepting offers, sending orders to the traffic management system, importing and processing orders in the traffic management system, monitoring activity in the marketplace, and invoicing and collecting. Each of these activities is discussed below with reference toFIGS.15-22.

FIG.15shows a creative area window1500. When an offer is submitted, creative is submitted with the offer and displays in the creative area window1500. The media types for the creatives may be any suitable media types. For example, for TV, media types may include MPEG, ProRes, Avid, etc.

If the seller is using auto-acceptance rules to accept offers, the seller should pre-approve creative before the marketplace closes for the day. If the seller is manually accepting offers, the seller may choose whether to pre-approve creative or not. Creative may also be approved during manual offer acceptance.

To pre-approve a creative, the user may select an approvals tab1502in the creative area window1500. The user may then select a review icon1504next to a particular creative, which causes a review creative window to display. The user may then review the creative and watch a preview of the creative. The user may then approve or reject the creative.

Once the seller's channels have been enabled and configured, buyers will begin submitting offers for those channels. Offers may be reviewed and accepted or rejected in several different ways, including: reviewing offers from a dashboard window1600shown inFIG.16, reviewing and accepting offers from a calendar area window1700shown inFIGS.17and18, reviewing and accepting offers from a rotations area window1900shown inFIG.19, automatically accepting offers using rules, or automatically reject offers using rules.

As shown inFIG.16, the dashboard area window1600displays a list1601of channels which have offers for the upcoming week. The user may select a calendar icon1602next to a channel to view the offers which have been submitted for that channel in a calendar view of the next week, broken into half hour blocks in the calendar area window1700(FIGS.17and18). The user may also select a rotations icon1604next to a channel to view the offers which have been submitted for that channel in a list format, grouped into rotations in the rotations area window1900(FIG.19).

FIGS.17and18show the calendar area window1700. The calendar area window1700allows the user to view the offers which have been submitted for a selected channel1702and week1704in a color-coded calendar-based heat map1706.

In some implementations, there are multiple demand lenses which may be used to view the offers in different ways. Such lenses may be selected by a demand lens view icon1708. As an example, demand lenses may include uplift amount, offer rate, DR avails, offer count, and open capacity. The uplift amount view displays darker shades of color (e.g., green) for higher uplift amounts. Uplift is the amount that a submitted offer is higher than spots sold through another sales channel (e.g., through the traffic management system). The offered rate view displays darker shades of color for higher offers. The DR avails view shows defined DR time blocks with the number of offers, offer amounts and uplift for each block. The offer count view shows darker shades of color for half hour blocks with a higher number of submitted offers. The open capacity view shows darker shades of color for half hour blocks that have more slots that are open or preemptible slots in the traffic management system.

Once the user selects a channel, week and demand lens view, the user may select a campaign1710displayed on the left side of the calendar area window1700. For each half hour block (“inventory unit”), the heat map1706displays the number of open and preemptible equivalent 30-second spots on the traffic management system log, the offer amount equivalized to 30 seconds, and the uplift, which is the difference between the offer amount and the average, maximum, or lowest rate for spots booked in the traffic management system.

The colors on the heat map1706may indicate the amount of deviation from the average based on the selected demand lens. For example, lower than average may be represented by light green, average may be represented by a medium green, and higher than average may be represented by a dark green.

In some implementations, the user may click on or otherwise select an inventory unit block to view some or all of the offers received for that block in a list (e.g., pop-up window), rather than just the highest offer which may be displayed in the heat-map1706. Such functionality allows the user to view or accept an offer for the block which is not the highest offer, for example. The multiple offers for a single block may be sortable based on various factors, such as offer price, advertiser name, time submitted, agency, category, status, credit, etc.

To accept an offer, the user may select a channel, week, and campaign. The user may then click on or select a single block, or the user may drag across the days and times for which the seller wants to accept offers. As shown by an elliptical-shaped annotation1712inFIG.18, an area selected by the user may turn a different color (e.g., teal) to indicate that multiple blocks have been selected.

When multiple blocks are selected as shown inFIG.18, the user may select an accept rotation icon1714which causes an accept rotation window to be displayed. The accept rotation window may allow the user to configure the rotation start time, days, and number of spots to sell in the rotation. As noted above, in some implementations, all bids in a rotator are set to the lowest bid rate in a particular grouping. The user may also select a creative icon1716to review and approve the creative before accepting the rotation. In some implementations, creatives may be approved by group. For example, creatives relating to a particular topic (e.g., alcoholic beverages, politics) may be accepted for a first group of channels (e.g., sports channels, movie channels) but rejected for a second group of channels (e.g., religious channels, children's programming channels).

The user may also select a credit icon1718to review and approve the credit of the advertiser before accepting the rotation. As an example,FIG.23shows a review credit window2300which provides details for an advertiser or agency (e.g., Advertiser A) including credit limit2302, credit available2304, status information2306, days outstanding2308, advertiser categories2310, an agency of record form icon2312which provides access to an agency of record form, and a credit application icon2314which provides access to the advertiser's credit application. The status information2303may include credit information about an advertiser or agency relating to other sellers. For example, the status information2303may include credit approval information for the advertiser from other sellers and may indicate whether the advertiser is making payments to other sellers on time. Such features allow sellers to view how much good or bad credit an advertiser has across the entire marketplace.

FIG.19shows the rotations area window1900which displays a list1902of the offers submitted by buyers for the selected channel and day. Offers may be grouped into rotations by channel, agency, advertiser and adjacent half hour blocks.

To accept an offer from the rotations area window1900, the user may select the rotations icon1604(FIG.16) from the dashboard area window1600to cause the rotations area window to be displayed. The user may then click on a manually accept offer icon1904next to a rotation to accept a rotation from the list1902. Upon selecting the manually accept offer icon1904, an accept rotation window may be displayed which allows the user to configure the rotation start time, days, and number of spots to sell for the rotation.

In addition to manually accepting offers, the user may also create automatic acceptance and rejection rules, as discussed above with regard to the setup of the seller console.

FIG.20shows a screenshot of an order status area window2000of a results module of the seller console. When an order is manually accepted or the marketplace window closes and auto-accept rules execute, a list2001of orders are displayed in the order status area window2000of the results module. If an order has not yet been sent to the traffic management system, an Alt Order Number column2002is left blank. Before sending the order, the user may view the spots included by selecting a view icon2004next to an order. To send the order to the traffic management system, the user can select a create order icon2006next to an individual order or may select a create orders icon2008above the list2001to send all unsent orders to the traffic management system.

Once orders have been sent to the traffic management system, the orders are displayed in an electronic orders task where the orders can be imported into the traffic management system. Once an order is imported into the traffic management system, it may be approved and processed.

After the seller has started using the system to accept offers and to send orders to the traffic management system, and spots have begun publishing (e.g., airing), the user may want to monitor the activity. Such monitoring may be provided via the dashboard area window or the order status area window of the seller console.

In some implementations, a booking interface may be provided to show the seller whether accepted offers were booked correctly in the traffic management system. For example, in some instances, a traffic manager may move the spot around so that the sold advertisement airs outside of the agreed upon window. In such instances, the seller may not get paid. Using the booking interface, the seller can quickly identify which accepted offers have been book correctly and which accepted offers have been booked incorrectly in the traffic management system.

FIG.21shows a dashboard area window2100which shows claimed (accepted) dollars2102, unclaimed (submitted) dollars2104, and the number of orders2106ready to be sent to the traffic management system. The dashboard area window2100also provides a demand summary section2108which allows the user to view an overview of the demand for each channel with offers for the upcoming week.

FIG.22shows an order status area window2200which includes status icons2202next to each order. A first status icon2202may indicate that all spots in the order are in one of the following states: not sent to the traffic management system, not placed in the traffic management system, or not placed in the correct half hour block in the traffic management system. A second status icon2204may indicate that some spots are placed in the correct half hour block in the traffic management system and some spots are either not placed in the traffic management system or are not placed in the correct half hour block. A third status icon2206may indicate that all spots in the order are placed in the correct half hour block in the traffic management system.

Sellers may generate an invoice for a “programmatic agency” in the traffic management system which causes the traffic management system to generate monthly invoices. The invoice line items may detail all purchased spots that were certified as aired within the mediacast month, for example.

The above description of illustrated implementations, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the implementations to the precise forms disclosed. Although specific implementations of and examples are described herein for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure, as will be recognized by those skilled in the relevant art. The teachings provided herein of the various implementations can be applied to other systems, not necessarily the exemplary system generally described above.

Various methods and/or algorithms have been described. Some or all of those methods and/or algorithms may omit some of the described acts or steps, include additional acts or steps, combine acts or steps, and/or may perform some acts or steps in a different order than described. Some of the method or algorithms may be implemented in software routines. Some of the software routines may be called from other software routines. Software routines may execute sequentially or concurrently, and may employ a multi-threaded approach.