Abstract:
A system and method for providing targeted advertising to telephone callers in mid-dial. The invention monitors the dialing activities of a caller. When a caller enters a partial desired telephone number, an embodiment of the present invention receives the partial number and determines whether an advertisement should be presented to the caller. If all of the appropriate conditions are met, a selected advertisement is transmitted to the caller&#39;s telephony device and the caller is given the opportunity to respond to the advertisement before the dialing operation completes.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
   The present invention relates to telecommunications networks. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing targeted advertising to callers during telephone number dialing operations. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   In advertising, it is considered highly desirable to target advertisements to an appropriate potential customer base, rather than to broadcast advertisements to a general segment of the population. Many companies attempt to obtain information about customers so they may identify particular customers having potential interests in specific products and services, and then directly market those customers at some time in the future. 
   Concurrently, advertisers continue to look for new ways to advertise their products, and to advertise more effectively. Methods of targeting advertisements have become increasingly sophisticated. For example, many grocery stores now print coupons for customers at the checkout counter. These coupons provide discounts for items similar to those the customers has just purchased. Similarly, revenues from Internet advertisements continue to grow as Internet web sites provide constantly updated advertisements to visiting consumers. 
   As is known, telephony-based advertising systems may include automated answering devices that queue an incoming call when no attendant is immediately available. While a caller waits in a holding queue, a processor may solicit and collect initial information from the caller. This solicited information may then be used to select and deliver to the caller customized information. Alternatively, a caller&#39;s profile may be stored in a database containing various demographic and consumer characteristics. As the caller waits on hold, a processor may select and play advertisements matching the caller&#39;s characteristics. 
   Targeted marketing during video telephone calls is also not new. Such systems operate in a telecommunications network to provide targeted advertising to callers who utilize display screens to conduct a video telephone call. While a call is in progress, advertisements matching a caller&#39;s profile may be selected and presented on the caller&#39;s display screen. 
   The present invention is directed to the problem of providing targeted advertising to telephone callers as they are dialing numbers to initiate a telephone call. Such advertisements would provide callers with targeted offers that are influenced by the partial dialing of telephone numbers, as well as related to a caller&#39;s telephone usage history. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for presenting targeted advertising to callers utilizing a telephony system. According to an embodiment, the invention monitors the dialing activities of a caller and transmits directed advertisements to the caller in mid-dial. When a caller dials a telephone number, an embodiment of the present invention monitors the dialing operation as it progresses. When the caller enters each digit of the desired telephone number, an embodiment of the present invention receives each entered digit and determines whether an advertisement should be presented to the caller. If the appropriate conditions are met, a selected advertisement is transmitted to the caller&#39;s telephony device and the caller is given the opportunity to accept the advertisement. Examples of mid-dial advertisements might include: (1) a special offer to use a different long-distance carrier at a lower rate for the current telephone call; (2) an offer to supply new calling features at a reduced rate for a limited time; or (3) a notice that the current long-distance call is free of charge because it is the tenth call to the same number this week. By making the appropriate key selection (for example, pressing the ‘#’ key), the caller may accept the advertised offer and may then be led through further automated interactions, or may be directed to a waiting operator. 
   Other embodiments of the present invention contemplate selecting targeted advertisements based on factors other than a partial telephone number. These factors may include call history, caller demographics, day of the year and time of day, as well as the operating characteristics of the specific telephony device from which the caller is calling. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is block diagram of a system including an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a call monitoring device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram of various internal components of a call monitoring device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 4  is an example of an advertising profile table according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 5  is an example of a caller profile table according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG. 6  is a flow diagram of the call monitoring control logic in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIGS. 7A and 7B  are flow diagrams showing the call monitoring control logic in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
   The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for providing targeted advertising to callers utilizing a telephony system. Referring now in detail to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout, there is illustrated in  FIG. 1  a block diagram of a system including an embodiment of the present invention. The system may comprise a call monitoring device  110  that accesses an advertising profile database  120  and a caller profile database  130 . Call monitoring device  110  may communicate with a telecommunications network  140 , which may then communicate with a telephony device  150 . Network  140  may also communicate via a wireless radio telecommunications network  160  to a wireless telephone device  170 . 
   Continuing to refer to  FIG. 1 , telephony device  150  may be any device capable of initiating and sustaining a telephone call. Thus, for example, telephone device  150  may be a standard telephone, a video telephone, a cellular telephone, or a computer configured to support a telephony application using the Internet. 
     FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a call monitoring device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. When a caller initiates a call, a telephony device  260  may transmit to call monitoring device  230  (optionally through a network  270 ) dial codes that indicate the individual digits of a desired telephone number. These codes may be in the form of DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency) signals or their equivalent. For each code transmitted by telephony device  260 , a call monitoring application  210  executing within call monitoring device  230  may receive the transmitted code and interact with an advertising module  220  to determine whether an advertisement should be presented to the caller. Advertising module  220  may submit queries to a caller profile database  240  and an advertising profile database  250  for the purpose of retrieving caller profiles and advertiser preferences, and may then select a specific advertisement for delivery to telephony device  260 . Once advertising module  220  selects an advertisement, call monitoring application  210  coordinates the delivery of the advertisement to telephony device  260  and, if necessary based on the characteristics of the individual advertisement, call monitoring application  210  may also interact with the caller via telephony device  260  to allow the caller to accept the advertisement and take advantage of its offer. 
   An advertisement that is delivered to telephony device  260  by call monitoring device  230  may be entirely auditory in nature, or exclusively visual in nature, or the advertisement may comprise both auditory and visual information. Additionally, an advertisement may be interactive, in that a caller may be given an opportunity to select from various options, in order to customize the delivery of the advertisement. Methods for delivering audio and video advertisements to telephony devices are well known in the art. Similarly, methods of determining caller acceptance of an advertisement are also well known in the art. For example, a caller may indicate acceptance of a delivered advertisement by pressing the ‘#’ key on a standard telephone. If the telephony device  260  is a computer configured to support a telephony application, caller acceptance may be indicated by pressing a special key on the keyboard, or it may be indicated by the caller pressing a mouse button while a cursor is within an “acceptance” area defined within an advertisement graphic. Caller acceptance of an advertisement may also be achieved by a caller repeating a supplied code to a particular vendor within a specified time-frame for a defined transaction. 
   One example of an advertisement is a message in which a caller is informed that his or her currently dialed long-distance call can be completed at a discount over a competitor telephone network. In this example, if the caller indicates acceptance, the call would then be placed according to the advertised conditions. 
   Another example of an advertisement is a message informing a caller that his or her currently dialed long-distance call is being made free of charge. 
     FIG. 3  is a block diagram of various internal components of a call monitoring device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Call monitoring device may include a communication medium  370  in communication with a controller  310 , a database interface module  320 , an advertising module  330 , a network interface module  340 , a memory  350 , and an optional interactive voice response module  360 . Communication medium  370  may comprise a conventional computer network and may also comprise a computer bus. Controller  310  may receive caller-initiated partial telephone numbers via the network interface module  340  and may then interact with advertising module  330  and database interface module  320  to determine whether an advertisement should be presented to a caller. If controller  310 , in cooperation with the advertising module  330 , concludes that an advertisement should be presented, controller  310  may then retrieve a selected advertisement employing coordinated operation of advertising module  330  and database interface module  320 , and may then deliver the selected advertisement to the caller via coordinated operation of network interface  340  and optionally interactive voice response module  360 . Memory module  350  may be utilized by any of the other modules when memory is necessary to store and manage information related to a call or when memory is necessary to conduct advertising search and delivery functions. 
     FIG. 4  is an example of an advertising profile table according to an embodiment of the present invention. The present invention may use an advertiser profile  400 , which may reside in an advertising profile database (see  FIG. 2 , item  250 ), to determine whether an advertisement should be presented to a caller during a monitored dialing operation. An advertiser profile  400  may contain a list of advertisers  410  and, for each advertiser, a list of advertisements  420 , the triggering conditions  430  for each advertisement  420 , and other pertinent information, including the number of times a given advertisement  420  has been presented  440 . When a caller initiates dialing operations for a new call, a call monitoring application  210  ( FIG. 2 ) may invoke an advertising module  220  ( FIG. 2 ) to determine whether any of the triggering criteria  430  for each advertisement  420  match the caller profile information (see FIG.  5 ), as well as match the accumulated partial telephone number codes received thus far. When a match occurs, the matching advertisement is identified such that call monitoring device  230  ( FIG. 2 ) may then deliver the advertisement to the caller. If more than one advertisement matches, a final selection may be made by methods known in the art, including round robin selection and random selection. 
     FIG. 5  is an example of a caller profile table according to an embodiment of the present invention. Caller profiles  500  provide information to call monitoring device  230  ( FIG. 2 ) which helps the present invention match advertisements with specific caller/callers. A caller profile  500 , which may reside in a caller profile database (see  FIG. 2 , item  240 ), may include for each telephony device (see  FIG. 2 , item  260 ) a caller identifier  510  as well as information describing each telephone number that the caller has recently called  520 . Caller profile  500  may also include for each caller a series of flags that further define the caller, including whether the caller has indicated a desire to disable an advertising feature  550 . For each called telephone number  520 , caller profile  500  may also contain a type of relationship  530  the caller has to a called number  520  and the number of times  540  the caller has called that number. 
     FIG. 6  is a flow diagram of the call monitoring control logic in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The operation may begin ( 610 ) when the call monitoring device receives a dialing signal from a caller ( 620 ) and then recognizes the dialing codes corresponding to a telephone number prefix ( 630 ). After relevant advertising profiles have been retrieved ( 640 ), the call monitoring device may compare the caller&#39;s dialed prefix with the retrieved advertising profiles ( 650 ). If the prefix matches any advertiser criteria ( 650 ), the call monitoring device may then select the advertisement ( 660 ). If the caller has not blocked advertisements ( 670 ), the call monitoring device may then deliver the advertisement ( 680 ). The operation may then end ( 690 ). 
     FIGS. 7A and 7B  are flow diagrams showing the call monitoring control logic in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. The operation may begin ( 710 ) when a call monitoring device receives dialing signal codes from a caller&#39;s telephony device ( 720 ) optionally through a telephone network, and then counts the number of codes that have been received ( 730 ) and assembles the codes into a telephone number prefix ( 740 ). If the number of codes in the received prefix does not equal a predetermined number ( 750 ), the call monitoring device may then return to receiving dialing signal codes from the caller&#39;s telephony device ( 720 ). If, however, the received prefix is large enough, the call monitoring device will then determine whether the received prefix matches any prefix of the caller&#39;s previously dialed telephone numbers ( 760 ). If not, the call monitoring device will treat the received prefix as corresponding to a new phone number. The call monitoring device will then record as much information as possible about the new phone number in the caller&#39;s profile ( 780 ) and increment a counter associated with the new phone number ( 790 ). 
   Continuing to refer to  FIGS. 7A and 7B  if the call monitoring device determines that a received prefix matches that of a previously-dialed telephone number ( 760 ), the call monitoring device will first increment a counter associated with that telephone number ( 770 ). Then, the call monitoring device will retrieve from the caller&#39;s profile the information associated with the previously dialed telephone number ( 810 ) and will determine whether that information matches any criteria in the advertising profile database ( 820 ). If a match occurs, the matching advertisement is then selected ( 830 ). If the caller has not blocked advertisements ( 840 ), the call monitoring device may then deliver the advertisement ( 850 ). 
   Several embodiments of the present invention are specifically illustrated and described herein. However, it will be appreciated that modifications and variations of the present invention are covered by the above teachings and within the purview of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and intended scope of the invention.