Patent Publication Number: US-11392990-B2

Title: Management of moving outdoor advertising

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/452,853, filed Jun. 26, 2019 entitled MANAGEMENT OF MOVING OUTDOOR ADVERTISING which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/012,278, filed Jun. 19, 2018 entitled MANAGEMENT OF MOVING OUTDOOR ADVERTISING, which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/653,894 filed Apr. 6, 2018 entitled MANAGEMENT OF MOVING OUTDOOR ADVERTISING. This application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/012,278, filed Jun. 19, 2018 entitled MANAGEMENT OF MOVING OUTDOOR ADVERTISING, which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/653,894 filed Apr. 6, 2018 entitled MANAGEMENT OF MOVING OUTDOOR ADVERTISING. The contents of all of the above-noted applications are incorporated by reference into the DETAILED DESCRIPTION herein below. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     The present application relates generally to advertising and, more specifically, to management of moving outdoor advertising. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Outdoor advertising is one of the oldest types of advertising known to exist. Outdoor advertising also may be considered a type of advertising that is ubiquitous. That is, in today&#39;s society, it may be considered to be impossible to not see billboard advertising, transit vehicle advertising, bus shelter advertising and transit bench advertising; all of which may be termed “Outdoor Advertising” or “Out of Home Advertising.” 
     An advertising campaign may be carried out using moving outdoor advertising. 
     Advertisers typically like to manage and track the success of their advertising campaigns. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings which show example implementations; and in which: 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a vehicle equipped to advertise and collect impression information according to aspects of the present application; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates, in block diagram format, a device for collecting impression information according to aspects of the present application; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates example steps in a method of scanning impression information according to aspects of the present application; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates the vehicle of  FIG. 1  and a representation of transmission of collected data to an analytics site according to aspects of the present application; 
         FIG. 5  illustrates example steps in a method of providing analytics according to aspects of the present application; and 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a heat map resulting from analyzing information collected at the device of  FIG. 2  in accordance with aspects of the present application. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     It may be considered that the vast majority of Outdoor Advertising is carried out for the purposes of general brand awareness. It may be speculated that a lack of Outdoor Advertising carried out for the purposes of promoting specific products is due to a perception that so-called “conversion metrics” are hard, if not impossible, to determine for Outdoor Advertising. 
     “Moving” or “Mobile” Outdoor Advertising has become more prevalent in recent years, as advertisers seek out new and more effective ways to advertise. This increase in prevalence may be due to a number of factors including, but not limited to, an overall increase in Outdoor Advertising spending and a shrinking supply of traditional, static Outdoor Advertising locations such as billboards or “wallscapes.” 
     Advertising on handheld mobile devices has also become popular recently, responsive to a boom in use of smart phones and smart devices. For example, as the number of people using mobile devices has increased dramatically, advertisers have come to rely on media and services offered over mobile devices as a way to advertise. Retargeting tools offered for mobile phones and mobile devices enable advertisers to measure effectiveness for specific advertising campaigns. Such retargeting tools are known to have accurate analytics regarding conversions, activations and sign ups. 
     Targeted Ads are more likely to be meaningful to end users since the advertisement is more relevant to users activities. 
     Aspects of the present application offer advertisers an ability to combine outdoor advertising impression analytics with mobile retargeting tools to, thereby, close a perceived gap between so-called “Awareness Advertising” and “Conversion-Based Advertising” for moving outdoor advertising. 
     For example, Company X wants to participate in Moving/Mobile Outdoor Advertising with Retargeting abilities. Once signage has been installed on to a vehicle for the purposes of moving advertising, aspects of the present application may be installed into the same vehicle. 
     When a given passer-by having a mobile device with an active Wi-Fi radio or an active Bluetooth radio, aspects of the present application relate to sensing the active radio and collecting data specific to the mobile device. 
     The collected data may then be used to target advertising, via a Mobile Device Retargeting System, to the given passer-by. Accordingly, conversion metrics may be tracked, where the conversion metrics are specific to the moving advertising. 
     In electronic commerce, “conversion marketing” is a type of marketing associated with intention of increasing a quantity of conversions. A “conversion” is a site visitor that is converted into a paying customer. The process of improving a conversion rate is called conversion rate optimization. Notably, different commercial entities may define the term “conversion” to be some sort of result other than a sale. 
     It is known to track conversion metrics associated with static advertising. However, many factors contribute to less than satisfactory results. Such factors include signal variability and directional interferences. Indeed, a static billboard can only be seen within a range of angles on the front side of the billboard. 
     Wi-Fi signals and Bluetooth signals are both electromagnetic signals that vary in strength based, in part, on distance and multipath interference. Notably, data from electromagnetic signals that emanate from a mobile device positioned behind a static outdoor advertisement may be collected in a manner that does not take into account that the individual associated with the mobile device cannot see the static outdoor advertisement. Accordingly, a Mobile Device Retargeting System may incorrectly target the individual for follow-up mobile device advertising. Such incorrect targeting may be considered to be a waste of an advertiser&#39;s budget, since individuals that have not experienced the initial influence of the static outdoor advertisement may be considered unsuitable for follow-up mobile device advertising. 
     An advertising campaign may be carried out using moving outdoor advertising. Moving outdoor advertising may be seen to have the ability to be seen by a variety of more angles compared to Static Billboards. This makes impression analytics accurately trackable on this application. Advertisers typically like to manage and track the success of their advertising campaigns. Aspects of the present application may be seen to assist with such management and tracking by providing impression analytics, location analytics, time analytics and frequency reports. Furthermore, aspects of the present application may be seen to provide an ability to augment a moving outdoor advertising campaign with a mobile device retargeting advertising campaign. Then, such metrics as return on investment, profit and gross profit may be tracked. In some aspects, Wi-Fi signals and Bluetooth signals may be collected from mobile devices that are in the range of a Moving Impression Analytics Tracking Device. 
     Manifestations consistent with aspects of the present application may be used to help advertisers manage and optimize moving outdoor advertising and retargeting advertising campaigns. For example, at least one manifestation consistent with aspects of the present application may help advertisers by estimating and/or tracking some business metric, such as return on investment (ROI), gross profit, profit, etc., with respect to a moving outdoor advertising campaign in relation to campaign analytics and or retargeting enabled by aspects of the present application. 
     For advertisers to avoid wasting budget allocations and gain desired results, the advertisers prefer accurate analytics related to campaigns performance. It may be considered that aspects of the present application enable advertisers to track metrics such as ROI, gross profit and profit for a particular advertising campaign, both in real time and for past time frames. Advertisers can use these metrics to gain an understanding of campaign performance. That understanding can be employed when making informed decisions regarding whether to continue the campaign, stop the campaign, expand the campaign, etc. The advertiser can also set campaign limits on a number of outdoor advertising impressions to target, thereby avoiding overspending or underspending. 
     According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of collecting impression information. The method includes scanning radio frequencies, collecting, based on the scanning, an identifier of a mobile communication device, polling a global positioning module to determine location information and processing the identifier in association with the location information. 
     According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a system for collecting impression information. The system includes a vehicle, a means for displaying advertising on an external surface of the vehicle and a moving impression analytics tracking device. The moving impression analytics tracking device includes a wireless local area network adapter configured to scan radio frequencies, a global positioning module and a central processing unit. The central processing unit is configured to collect, based on the scanning, an identifier of a mobile communication device, poll the global positioning module to determine location information and process the identifier in association with the location information. 
     Other aspects and features of the present disclosure will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following description of specific implementations of the disclosure in conjunction with the accompanying figures. 
     In overview, a mobile vehicle is festooned with advertising. While in a target area, a device carried by the vehicle, representative of aspects of the present application, collects impression information. Impression information may be collected by uniquely identifying each mobile device with a radio that is sensed by the device. The impression information may be processed in association with location information, where the location information specifies the location of the vehicle at the time that the impression information was collected. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an environment  100  in which aspects of the present application may find use. The environment  100  includes a plurality of people  104 . As is common in the present day, each of the people  104  is expected to be associated with a mobile communication device (not explicitly shown). The term mobile communication device may be understood to encompass feature cellular telephones, smart phones, tablet computers and notebook computers, among an increasingly wide variety of wireless network-connectable mobile devices. Furthermore, each mobile communication device is assumed to have at least one radio activated. For example, a Wi-Fi radio is typically included in a mobile communication device. Additionally, a Bluetooth radio is typically included in a mobile communication device. 
     The environment  100  also includes a vehicle  102 . The vehicle  102  may be, for several non-limiting examples, a delivery truck, a semi-trailer, a taxi cab, a bicycle, a commuter vehicle, a bus, a train, a street car, a subway car, an airplane or a boat. 
     According to aspects of the present application, the vehicle  102  displays advertising and carries a Moving Impression Analytics Tracking Device (“MIATD,”  200 , see  FIG. 2 ). The MIATD  200  is adapted to track the location of the vehicle  102  using known Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. The MIATD  200  is also adapted to scan Wi-Fi radio frequencies using a Universal Serial Bus (USB) Wi-Fi adapter. Additionally, the MIATD  200  may be adapted to scan Bluetooth radio frequencies. 
     In accordance with standards related to the operation of a Wi-Fi radio, a mobile communication device with the Wi-Fi radio enabled typically broadcasts an identifier that uniquely identifies the mobile communication device. 
     In accordance with standards related to the operation of a Bluetooth radio, a mobile communication device with the Bluetooth radio enabled typically broadcasts an identifier that uniquely identifies the mobile communication device. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a hardware configuration for the MIATD  200 . The MIATD includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU)  202 . In one implementation, the CPU is a Raspberry Pi (both version 0 and version 3 have been successfully used). Connected to the CPU  202  may be a wireless cellular modem  204 . Colloquially, the wireless cellular modem  204  may be referred to as a “3G dongle.” The “3G” part of the name is a reference to a third generation of wireless mobile telecommunications technology. Other telecommunications technologies may be used including General Packet Radio Service, long term evolution (LTE) telecommunications technologies and 4G (soon, 5G) telecommunications technologies. Also connected to the CPU  202  may be a global positioning system (GPS) module  206 . The CPU  202  further maintains a connection to a wireless local area network (LAN) adapter  208  and a memory  210 . 
       FIG. 3  illustrates example steps in a method to be carried out at the MIATD  200  as the vehicle  102  (see  FIG. 1 ) moves about in the environment  100 . As discussed hereinbefore, the MIATD  200  scans (step  302 ) radio frequencies to collect (step  304 ) an identifier of a mobile communication device associated with one of the people  104  within range of the vehicle  102 . More specifically, the scanning is carried out by the wireless LAN adapter  208 . 
     When mobile communication device users leave Wi-Fi turned on for their mobile communication devices, the mobile communication device is constantly sending out a Wi-Fi beacon. The Wi-Fi beacon can generally be detected within a particular range of the mobile communication device. The wireless capture range of the USB Wi-Fi adapter has been tested in an indoor setting to be typically 30 meters. The outdoor range is greater than 30 meters but cannot be accurately determined since the range depends on several environmental factors. Since, the MIATD  200  is placed within a moving vehicle, we can safely assume the range is approximately 30 meters. It is known that it is possible to determine an identity for a manufacturer of a Wi-Fi chipset from the first six characters of a Media Access Control (MAC) address received as part of the Wi-Fi beacon. For example, using a Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI) lookup tool, a MAC with the leading six characters “8C-71-F8” can be associated with a manufacturer named “Samsung.” Each manufacturer has a set of unique OUIs and those OUIs are tied to a type of chipset. 
     In general, a Wi-Fi chipset used in smartphones is distinct from a Wi-Fi chipset used in tablet computers and both of those are distinct from a Wi-Fi chipset used in laptop computers, which are distinct from a Wi-Fi chipset used in home routers. Accordingly, using the OUI information, the CPU  202  may use the MAC address in a collected impression to determine a device type associated with a particular impression. 
     Instead of collecting (step  304 ,  FIG. 3 ) impressions using Wi-Fi beacons, impressions may be collected using another wireless networking protocol, such as Bluetooth. In a manner very similar to the collection of an impression through the receipt of a Wi-Fi beacon from a mobile communication device with the Wi-Fi radio left on, the MIATD  200  may collect (step  304 ,  FIG. 3 ) an impression through the receipt of a Bluetooth beacon from a mobile communication device with the Bluetooth radio left on. 
     The wireless LAN adapter  208  may, in some embodiments, be specific to known Wi-Fi frequencies. That is, the wireless LAN adapter  208  may operate according to standards established by the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). These standards include those known by references 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n and 802.11ac. The wireless LAN adapter  208  may be chosen specifically for a dual-mode ability to capture surrounding Wi-Fi traffic. This mode is called “monitor mode” where the Wi wireless LAN adapter  208 , instead of sending out a Wi-Fi beacon in space, the wireless LAN adapter  208  listens for and captures Wi-Fi beacons sent out by other devices in a space that surrounds the MIATD  200 ; typically, the space has an approximately 40 meter radius. 
     The wireless LAN adapter  208  may be implemented, for example, as a TP-Link TL-WN722N Wi-Fi adapter. 
     On an ongoing basis, the GPS module  206  receives satellite data and is adapted to provide the CPU  202  with longitude and latitude coordinates. 
     In conjunction with collecting (step  304 ) the identifier of the mobile communication device, the CPU  202  polls the GPS module  206 . The CPU  202  may then process (step  306 ) the identifier in association with location data representative of the location of the vehicle  102  at the time that the identifier was collected. The identifier in association with the location data may, collectively, be called “impression information.” The impression information may also include an indication of the advertising being displayed by the vehicle  102  at the time that the identifier was collected. 
     In addition to processing (step  306 ) the impression information, the CPU  202  may also package and transmit (step  308 ), using the wireless cellular modem  204 , the impression information to an analytics site  406  (see  FIG. 4 ) or analytics system.  FIG. 4  illustrates the vehicle  102  of  FIG. 1  and a representation of transmission (step  308 ) of collected data to the analytics site  406 . The analytics site  406  or analytics system can include one or more processors, and a network interface. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates example steps in a method to be carried out at the analytics site  406 . Initially, the analytics site  406  receives (step  502 ) the impression information. The analytics site  406  may then determine (step  506 ) whether a request has been received for an analysis of the impression information. Upon determining (step  506 ) that such a request has not been received, the analytics site  406  may return to receiving (step  502 ) further impression information. Upon determining (step  506 ) that such a request has been received from a requestor, the analytics site  406  may analyze (step  508 ) the impression information to generate analytics. Analytics is the discovery, interpretation and communication of meaningful patterns in data. Particular analytics that may be of interest to a given advertiser may include analytics related to such factors as location, time and frequency. 
     Results of analyzing (step  508 ) the impression information may be presented in the form of a so-called heat map  600  (see  FIG. 6 ) of impressions collected while the vehicle carried out a route. The heat map  600  illustrates more darkly colored areas corresponding to a greater density of collected impressions. In addition to the heat map, data that may result from analyzing (step  508 ) the impression information may include average daily impressions for a selected date range, total number impressions for a selected date range and frequency of collecting an impression for the duration of a selected date range. Furthermore, impression data may be presented by city or state. To help an advertiser visualize impact, a bar graph may be generated to illustrate number of impressions in each day in a selected time period or in each hour of a generic day. The results of analyzing (step  508 ) the impression information may be presented in a “user dashboard” that summarizes, and allows for visualization of, all of this information. 
     An advertiser may choose to expand a given moving outdoor advertising campaign to include so-called “Retargeting Abilities.” “Retargeting” involves marketing to those mobile devices that have come into proximity to a Moving Outdoor Advertising Campaign. Such marketing to the mobile devices may, for example, involve transmitting, to a retargeted mobile device, a text-based advertising message via the well-known short messaging service (SMS). Such marketing to the mobile devices may, for another example, involve causing a banner advertisement to appear on a retargeted mobile device, where the banner advertisement is embedded in website configured for viewing on the retargeted mobile device, embedded in an application downloaded to the retargeted mobile device or embedded in a game configured for being played on the retargeted mobile device. 
     Conveniently, retargeting enables a Moving Outdoor Advertising campaign to move beyond effectiveness as an Awareness Advertising initiative. Indeed, by enhancing, through the addition of retargeting, a Moving Outdoor Advertising campaign, the campaign becomes a Conversion-Based Advertising Campaign. Conversion-Based Advertising Campaign are known to be advantageous because of an ability to generate ROI analytics, gross profit analytics and profit analytics. Accordingly, by using an enhanced Moving Advertising Campaign, an Advertiser is in a position to measure a true effectiveness and make adjustments with an eye to reaching goals set out in advertising budgets. 
     Cost per thousand (CPM) is a common method for pricing advertising on the world wide web. Advertisers frequently measure the success of a CPM campaign by its click-through rate (CTR), the ratio of the number of times an ad is clicked compared to the total number of ad impressions. For example, an advertisement that receives two clicks for every 100 impressions has a CTR of 2%. An advertisement&#39;s success cannot be measured by CTR alone because an ad that is viewed but not clicked on may still leave and impression. 
     It is contemplated that aspect of the present application may be billed to clients on a CPM basis. Additionally, a price for each conversion may also be used to bill clients. For a comprehensive strategy for managing on-line advertising using metrics, the methods of U.S. Pat. No. 7,734,503 may be reviewed. Indeed, many of the strategies promoted in U.S. Pat. No. 7,734,503 may be employed in conjunction with aspects of the present application. 
     Beacon technology is one name for a type of advertising that is displayed statically, that is, displayed on a bus shelter or other immobile structure. Such advertising may be associated with a beacon that that may collect identifiers of nearby mobile communication devices. Aspects of the present application may be differentiated from beacon technology since beacon technology lacks location or GPS tracking capabilities. Indeed, for an immobile structure, there is little need to associate an identifier with location data, such as is proposed in aspects of the present application. 
     It may be considered that mobile, or so-called “moving billboard,” advertising does not have the downfall, associated with beacon technology, of recording an impression where there has been no impression, such as when a person associated with a mobile device passes behind a static advertisement, thereby not seeing the static advertisement and, yet, the beacon technology records an impression. 
     To date, mobile advertising has not been able to be priced as a conversion-based model due to it not being possible or not being accurate enough for it to be viable. Aspects of the present application may be seen to enable accurate measurement of mobile advertising effectiveness by allowing advertisers to track conversions. This mobile tracking of conversion may be seen to significantly change the landscape of moving outdoor advertising and the ability of moving outdoor advertising to be an effective advertising medium. 
     Through the data derived from the MIATD  200 , it may be considered to be possible to pair the live location data from Moving Advertising Signage with live mobile phone location data. The live mobile phone location data may be available through advertising Demand Side Platforms (DSPs). At DSPs, digital ads are bought and sold in online trading. It is contemplated that, in view of live location data from the Moving Advertising Signage paired with live mobile phone location data, digital ads may be served onto mobile devices with live mobile phone location data indicative of a location matching a known location of Moving Advertising Signage. 
     In this way, advertisers may be enabled to serve digitally retargeted ads to specific customer segments that have a location matching a location of the Moving Advertising Signage. Thus, Moving Outdoor Advertising may be paired with Online Digital Advertising into one “Omni Channel” advertising platform. 
     An Omni Channel advertising platform may be understood to allow brands to: measure numbers of outdoor advertising impressions; measure frequency of outdoor advertising impressions; measure numbers of online digitally retargeted advertisements served to location-matched devices; and perform an analysis on the various measurements in the context of further data regarding online conversions (signups, downloads, etc.). This analysis makes it possible for advertisers to determine an extent to which Moving Outdoor Advertising increases or decreases the amount of online activity and online conversions for the product or service. The frequency of outdoor impressions or the number of outdoor impressions can be analyzed by the analytics site (or analytics system) in association with the identifier of the mobile communication device. 
     As an example, an advertiser can set up a campaign so that, responsive to reaching a frequency of eight (location for a particular mobile device matching eight times with location for the Moving Advertising Signage, that is, eight exposures) for the particular mobile device, a digitally retargeted ad is served to the particular mobile device. The advertiser can then change the campaign from a frequency of eight to a frequency of 12 and see how that change affects the conversion rate of the Online Digitally Retargeted Ads. 
     Accordingly, brands may be enabled to optimize their Moving Outdoor Advertising and Digitally Retargeted Advertising Campaigns for maximum effectiveness. 
     The above-described implementations of the present application are intended to be examples only. Alterations, modifications and variations may be effected to the particular implementations by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the application, which is defined by the claims appended hereto.