Patent Publication Number: US-2021182883-A1

Title: Systems and methods to identify intentionally placed products

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION 
     This patent arises from a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.: 15/360,832, entitled “Systems and Methods to Identify Intentionally Placed Products,” which was filed on Nov. 23, 2016 which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.: 12/049,077, entitled “Systems and Methods to Identify Intentionally Placed Products,” which was filed on Mar. 14, 2008 which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/896,389, filed on Mar. 22, 2007, entitled “Systems and Methods to Identify Intentionally Placed Products.” U.S. patent application Ser. No.: 15/360,832, U.S. patent application Ser. No.: 12/049,077, and U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No.: 60/896,389 are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. Priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.: 15/360,832, U.S. patent application Ser. No.: 12/049,077, and U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No.: 60/896,389 is hereby claimed. 
    
    
     FIELD OF DISCLOSURE 
     The present disclosure relates generally to media measurement and, more particularly, to systems and methods to identify intentionally placed products in media content. 
     BACKGROUND 
     As used herein, “broadcast” refers to any sort of electronic transmission of any sort of media signals from a source of any kind to one or more receiving devices of any kind. Thus, a “broadcast” may be a cable broadcast, a satellite broadcast, a terrestrial broadcast, a radio frequency (RF) free television broadcast, a radio broadcast, and/or an internet broadcast or pointcast. Broadcasts are expressly defined to include video on demand (VOD) transmission. A “broadcaster” may be any entity that transmits signals for reception by one or more receiving devices. The signals may include content (also referred to herein as “programs”), and/or commercials (also referred to herein as “advertisements”). An “advertiser” is any entity that provides an advertisement for broadcast. Traditionally, advertisers have paid broadcasters to interleave commercial advertisements with broadcast content (e.g., in a serial “content-commercial-content-commercial” format) such that, to view an entire program of interest, the audience is expected to view the interleaved commercials. This approach enables broadcasters to supply free programming to the audience while collecting fees for the programming from sponsoring advertisers. 
     To facilitate this sponsorship model, companies that rely on broadcast video and/or audio programs for revenue, such as advertisers, broadcasters and content providers, wish to know the size and demographic composition of the audience(s) that consume program(s). Merchants (e.g., manufacturers, wholesalers and/or retailers) also want to know this information so they can target their advertisements to the populations most likely to purchase their products. Audience measurement companies have addressed this need by, for example, identifying the demographic composition of a set of statistically selected households and/or individuals (i.e., panelists) and the program consumption habits of the member(s) of the panel. For example, audience measurement companies may collect viewing data on a selected household by monitoring the content displayed on that household&#39;s television(s) and by identifying which household member(s) are present in the room when that content is displayed. An analogous technique is applied in the radio measurement context. 
     Gathering this audience measurement data has become more difficult as the diversity of broadcast systems has increased. For example, while it was once the case that television broadcasts were almost entirely radio frequency, terrestrial based, broadcast systems (i.e., traditional free television), cable and satellite broadcast systems have now become commonplace. Further, these cable and/or satellite based broadcast systems often require the use of a dedicated receiving device such as a set top box (STB) or an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) to tune, decode, and/or display broadcast programs. To complicate matters further, some of these receiving devices for alternative broadcast systems as well as other receiving devices such as local media playback devices (e.g., video cassette recorders, digital video recorders, and/or personal video recorders) have made time shifted viewing of broadcast and other programs possible. 
     This ability to record and playback programming (i.e., time-shifting) has raised concerns in the advertising industry that consumers employing such time shifting technology will skip or otherwise fast forward through commercials when viewing recorded programs, thereby undermining the effectiveness of the traditional interleaved advertising model. To address this issue, rather than, or in addition to, interleaving commercials with content, merchants and advertisers have recently begun paying content creators a fee to place their product(s) within the content itself. For example, as shown schematically in  FIG. 1 , a manufacturer of a product (e.g., sunglasses) might pay a content creator a fee to have their product appear in a broadcast program (e.g., to have their sunglasses worn by an actor in the program) and/or to have their product mentioned by name during the program. The presence of a product in a program is represented schematically in  FIG. 1  by the sunglasses icon  12  appearing in the display screen  10 . However, it will be appreciated that the sunglasses are merely illustrative and any other product of interest could be integrated into the programming in any desired fashion (e.g., if the product were a soft drink, having a cast member drink from a can displaying the logo of the soft drink). 
     Due to the placement of the sunglasses  12  in the program, the advertisement for the sunglasses  12  is embedded in the broadcast content, rather than in a commercial interleaved with the content. Consequently, it is not possible for an audience member to fast forward or skip past the embedded advertisement  12  without also fast forwarding or skipping past a portion of the program in which the advertisement is embedded. As a result, it is believed that audience members are less likely to skip the advertisement  12  and, conversely, that audience members are more likely to view the advertisement  12  than in the traditional interleaved content-commercial(s)-content-commercial(s) approach to broadcast advertising. 
     The advertising approach of embedding a product in content is referred to herein as “intentional product placement,” and products placed by intentional product placement are referred to herein as “intentionally placed products.” It will be appreciated that content may include intentionally placed products (i.e., products that are used as props in the content in exchange for a fee from an advertiser and/or merchant) and unintentionally place products. As used herein, “unintentionally placed products” are products that are used as props in content by choice of the content creator without payment from an advertiser or merchant. Thus, an unintentionally placed product used as a prop is effectively receiving free advertisement, but may have been included for the purpose of, for example, storytelling and not for the purpose of advertising. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic illustration of an example display illustrating an example product which was intentionally placed in example media content. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic illustration of the example display of  FIG. 1  shown after the example product has been selected by an audience member such that sales information associated with the product is displayed. 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic illustration of an example system for detecting products placed intentionally in media content and/or for monitoring audience interaction with such products. 
         FIG. 4  is a flowchart representative of example machine accessible instructions that may be executed to implement any or all of the example placement monitor sites of  FIG. 3 . 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart representative of example machine accessible instructions that may be executed to implement any or all of the example audience monitor sites of  FIG. 3 . 
         FIG. 6  is a schematic illustration of an example processor platform that may be used and/or programmed to execute any or all of the example machine accessible instructions of  FIGS. 4 and/or 5  to implement any or all of the example placement monitor sites, the example audience monitor sites, and/or the example systems and/or methods described herein. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     With the advent of newer media content delivery technologies (e.g., digital broadcasting, cable broadcasting, satellite broadcasting, Internet broadcasting, video-on-demand services, etc), it has become possible to make content more interactive. Advertisers have been seeking ways to adapt this increased interactivity functionality to improve the effectiveness of intentional product placement advertisements. To this end, advertisers are contemplating co-broadcasting product information or other advertising information (collectively “sales information”) with intentionally placed products. This sales information may be broadcast in any manner. For example, it may be included as metadata carried in the data stream of a digital television broadcast. The sales information is carried with the broadcasting content, but may not be displayed or otherwise presented to the audience unless the audience takes some action. 
     For example, as a vehicle to enable the audience to access the sales information, the intentionally placed product (e.g., the sunglasses  12  of  FIG. 1 ) may be selectable on the audience&#39;s display device via a point and click device (or any other input device). For instance, using a remote control with point and click capability, a mouse, or any other input device, an audience member may be able to move a pointer onto the intentionally placed product (e.g., onto the sunglasses  12  on the actor&#39;s face), and to press an input button (e.g., “click”) to select the intentionally placed product. Alternatively, the remote control or other input device may not be a point and click type device and, thus, may not facilitate on screen selection. Instead, the input device (e.g., the remote control) may be provided with an input button which may be depressed to request sales information (e.g., off-screen selection) for an intentionally placed product (e.g., a currently presented product or one that was presented within some time frame (e.g., within the last X minutes). 
     Upon detecting the on-screen or off-screen selection of the intentionally placed product, a controller (e.g., the processor of a STB presenting the content) accesses and presents the sales information to the audience at that presentation site. For example, as shown in  FIG. 2 , the STB may generate a pop-up graphic displaying the co-broadcasted sales information. In the example of  FIG. 2 , the displayed sales information includes the name of the intentionally placed product (e.g., Imaginary Brand Sunglasses), a point of sale for the product (e.g., Neverland Retailer), a price for the product (e.g., $25), and a universal resource locator (URL) at which additional information is available (e.g., www.neverlandretailer.com). The URL may be clickable via a point-and-click device or otherwise activatable (e.g., via a “activate displayed link” button on a remote control) to enable the audience to access a web page via the Internet. The webpage may include additional advertising information and/or provide an interface for purchasing the intentionally placed product (e.g., for home delivery). 
       FIG. 3  illustrates an example system  20  for detecting products placed intentionally in media content and/or for monitoring audience interaction with such intentionally placed products. The example system  20  includes one or more placement monitor sites  22  for automatically detecting and recording the presence of intentionally placed products in broadcast media. In the illustrated example, each of the placement monitor sites  22  is structured to monitor one or more content sources (e.g., one or more broadcast channels from any type of broadcaster  23  (e.g., television, radio, Internet, cable, satellite, RF, etc.) for the presence of intentionally placed products. When an intentionally placed product is detected, the sales information broadcast with the intentionally placed product is logged together with the time of broadcast/time of detection of the same, the identity of the source of the monitored content (e.g., the channel), and/or the name of the monitored content (e.g., the program name). The information collected by a placement monitor site  22  is referred to herein as “product placement information.” Periodically or aperiodically (e.g., at certain times, when a certain amount of data is collected, continuously, etc.), the collected product placement information is sent to a collection facility  24  via a communication medium  26 . 
     The collection facility  24  processes the product placement information from one or more placement monitor sites  22  to develop reports that may be, for example, sold or otherwise provided to merchants and/or advertisers. The reports may provide verification that the intentionally placed products were in fact placed and broadcast in accordance with the contractual arrangements between the content provider, advertiser, and/or broadcaster. It may also provide a vehicle for triggering payment obligations by the advertiser or merchant (e.g., on a pay-per-broadcast or pay-per person view type of arrangement). Additionally or alternatively, it may provide advertisers and/or merchants with information about the advertisement strategies of competitors. 
     Although the communication medium  26  is illustrated in  FIG. 3  as the Internet, any other communication medium (e.g., the public switched telephone network (PSTN), a private network, a virtual private network, etc.) may alternatively be employed. Similarly, although multiple placement monitor sites  22  are shown in  FIG. 3 , any number of sites  22  (including one placement monitor site  22 ) may be employed. To monitor a plurality of broadcast markets in different geographic regions, it may be appropriate to place one or more placement monitor site  22  in each such market/geographic region. 
     An example placement monitor site  22  is illustrated in detail in  FIG. 3 . The placement monitor sites  22  may be substantially similar or identical. In the example of  FIG. 3 , the placement monitor site includes a STB  30  to receive and process broadcast signals. Although shown as a STB, the STB  30  could be implemented as any type of receiving device such as an IRD, a personal computer (PC), a personal video recorder, a cable converter, a tuner, etc. adapted to receive any type of media content (e.g., television, radio, etc.) via any type of medium (e.g., RF, Internet, cable, satellite, etc.). In the illustrated example, sales information is broadcast for each intentionally placed product  12 . The sales information is broadcast before, with, or after, the portion of the media content containing the intentionally placed product. Although the sales information can be broadcast in any desired fashion, in the illustrated example, the sales information is metadata carried, for example, in the data stream of a digital broadcast (e.g., digital television). 
     In order to detect the presence of an intentionally placed product, the placement monitor site  22  of the illustrated example is provided with a metadata processor  32 . The metadata processor  32  of the illustrated example is structured to monitor the received content for sales information. For example, the metadata processor  32  can monitor the data stream accompanying a digital television broadcast for metadata and can extract any sales information contained in any detected metadata. Preferably, the metadata processor is structured to capture all available metric for the product placement including, by way of examples, not limitations, the size of the intentional product placement (e.g., the percentage of the screen of the display occupied by the intentionally placed product), the duration for which the intentionally placed product was displayed (e.g., number of frames), etc. This data can be processed by the collection facility  20  to verify that the placement for the intentionally placed product satisfied the contract between the advertiser paying for the placement and the entity responsible for placing the product in the content. 
     For the purpose of collecting product placement information, the example placement monitor site  22  of  FIG. 1  is provided with a data logging device  34 . The data logging device can be implemented by any type of memory device (e.g., a hard disk drive, an optical disk drive, flash memory, etc.). In the illustrated example, the data logging device  34  stores the product placement information as time stamped product placement records. 
     In order to identify the program in which an intentionally placed product is located, the example placement monitor site  22  of  FIG. 1  is provided with a program identifier  36 . The program identifier  36  can be structured to monitor and identify the tuned program using any desired methodology. For example, the program identifier  36  can identify the program by determining a tuned channel (e.g., automatically or via a manual input) and comparing the tuned channel to a program schedule. Alternatively or additionally, the program identifier  36  can be structured to monitor the tuned program signal and/or an output of a presentation device caused by playing the tuned program (e.g., an audio or video output) for one or more identification codes. The identification codes can be an audience measurement code inserted into a portion of the program signal (e.g., the audio) for the express purpose of identifying the tuned program, or they can be codes present in the signal for another purpose (e.g., program identification headers (PIDs) used for selecting packets from a multiplexed stream of packets in a digital media stream including multiple programs, metadata, closed captioning information, etc.). Alternatively, the program identifier  36  can be structured to create a signature of one or more aspects of the program signal. A signature can be a sample of the signal and/or a representation of any aspect(s) of the signal. 
     Irrespective of the precise methodology the program identifier  36  employs to determine the identity of the tuned program, the program identifier  36  provides the collected program identification information (e.g., program name, source, channel number or other identifier, etc.) to the data logging device  34  for inclusion in the time stamped event record created for the detected intentional product placement. As a result, the data logging device  34  stores an event record for each detected intentional product placement which identifies the product, the sales information associated with the product, the time at which such product was detected and the program identification information collected by the program identifier  36 . The data logging device  34  periodically or aperiodically exports the collected product placement information to the collection facility  24  via the network  26 . To this end, the placement monitor site includes a communication device (e.g., a modem). 
     Although shown as separate from the STB  30  in the example of  FIG. 3 , any/or all of the example metadata processor  32 , the data logging device  34  and/or the program identifier  36  may be implemented within the STB  30 . For example, some or all of any of the example metadata processor  32 , the data logging device  34  and/or the program identifier  36  may be implemented by software and/or firmware executing on the processor of the STB  30  and/or the data logging device  34  may be implemented by the memory resources of the STB  30 . 
     A flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions for implementing any or all of the placement monitor sites  22  of  FIG. 3  is shown in  FIG. 4 . For example, the example machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 4  may be embodied in coded instructions stored on a tangible medium such as a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM) and/or random-access memory (RAM) associated with a processor (e.g., the example processor  600  discussed below in connection with  FIG. 6 . Alternatively, some or all of the example machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 4  may be implemented using any combination(s) of application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)), field programmable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)), discrete logic, hardware, software, and/or firmware. Also, some or all of the example machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 4  may be implemented manually or as any combination of any of the foregoing techniques. For example, any or all of the metadata processor  32 , the data logging device  34 , and/or the program identifier  36  may be implemented as any combination of firmware, software, discrete logic and/or hardware. Thus, for example, any of the example metadata processor  32 , the example data logging device  34 , and/or the example program identifier  36  could be implemented by one or more circuit(s), programmable processsor(s), application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or field programmable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)), etc. When any of the appended claims are read to cover a purely software implementation, at least one of the example metadata processor  32 , the example data logging device  34 , and/or the example program identifier  36  recited in that claim are hereby expressly defined to include a tangible medium such as a memory, DVD, CD, etc. Further, although the example machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 4  are described with reference to the flowcharts of  FIG. 4 , many other methods of implementing the machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 4  may be employed. For example, the order of execution of the blocks may be changed, and/or one or more of the blocks described may be changed, eliminated, sub-divided, or combined. Additionally, any or all of the example machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 4  may be carried out sequentially and/or carried out in parallel by, for example, separate processing threads, processors, devices, discrete logic, circuits, etc. 
     The program of  FIG. 4  begins at block  50  where the metadata processor spawns a first thread to collect and store any metadata present in a monitored program stream. The metadata is written to a local memory which serves as a temporary store to enable analysis of the metadata to determine if it is indicative of the presence of an intentionally placed product. The first thread continues to operate as long as monitoring is desired, which in some examples will be continuously. 
     At block  52 , the metadata processor  32  spawns a second thread to process the metadata collected by the first thread. In particular, the second thread searches the metadata in the temporary storage for any sales information that can be triggered by selecting a product placed in the content (block  52 ). If such metadata is present (block  52 ), the metadata processor  32  concludes that an intentionally placed product is present (block  54 ). If an intentionally placed product is present (block  54 ), control proceeds to block  56 . If an intentionally placed product is not detected (block  54 ), control returns to block  52  to continue searching the metadata. 
     Assuming, for purposes of discussion, that an intentionally placed product is detected (block  54 ), control proceeds to block  56 . At block  56 , the metadata processor  32  creates a time stamped product placement record in the data logging device  34  (block  56 ). The metadata processor  32  then examines the sales information contained in the metadata for the presence of a universal resource locator (URL) (block  58 ). If no URL is present, (block  58 ), control returns to block  52  to continue searching the metadata. 
     Assuming for purposes of discussion that a URL was detected in the metadata (block  58 ), control proceeds to block  60 . At block  60 , the metadata processor  32  activates the URL to thereby send a request for the webpage referenced by the URL over the Internet. When the webpage is downloaded, the metadata processor parses the downloaded webpage (e.g., reviews the HTML instructions) for any additional product information (block  62 ). If no additional information can be parsed from the webpage (block  62 ), control proceeds to block  64  where the metadata processor writes the URL to the time stamped product placement record for the product in question in the data logging device  34  (block  64 ). Storing the URL in this fashion enables a human operator or other automatic device at the collection facility  24  to access the webpage at a later date to attempt to obtain additional useful information. Control then returns to block  52  to continue searching the metadata. 
     If additional information can be parsed from the webpage (block  62 ), control proceeds to block  66  where the metadata processor writes the URL and the additional information collected from the website to the time stamped product placement record associated with the product in question in the data logging device  34  (block  66 ). Control then returns to block  52  to continue searching the metadata. 
     In order to efficiently search the metadata, it may be appropriate to spawn multiple instances of the second thread to operate in parallel. 
     Further, to control the export of the product placement records from the data logging device  34  to the collection facility  24 , the metadata processor  32  spawns a third thread at block  68 . The third thread monitors for an export event. An export event can be the expiration of a timer, the occurrence of a certain time of day, a state of the data logging device  34  (e.g., 90 percent full), availability of an Internet connection, or any other event. When an export event occurs (block  69 ), control advances to block  70  where the communication device of the placement monitor  22  is activated to export the product placement records (i.e., the product placement information) from the data logging device  34  to the collection facility  24  via the network  26 . 
     Returning to  FIG. 3 , in addition to detecting intentionally placed products in media content, the example system  20  is capable of monitoring audience interaction with intentionally placed products. To this end, the example system  20  is provided with a plurality of audience monitor sites  80 . The audience measurement sites  80  of the illustrated example are implemented at locations (e.g., households, restaurants, bars, etc.) that have agreed to participant in audience measurement research. In the illustrated example, the locations and/or the audience members associated with the locations of the illustrated example are selected by an audience measurement company to be statistically representative of a larger population or population segment(s) (e.g., one or more demographic group(s)) of interest. 
     In the illustrated example, each audience monitor site  80  detects the presence of intentionally placed products in media content tuned by the monitored audience. As with the placement monitor sites  22  discussed above, the audience monitor sites  80  create event records reflecting the detection of each intentionally placed product, the time at which the intentionally placed product was detected, and the identity of the program in which the product was presented. In addition, the audience monitor sites  80  log the identit(ies) of the audience members exposed to the intentionally placed product(s) and collect data concerning the audience&#39;s interaction with the intentionally place product, if any. 
     An example audience monitor site  80  is shown in greater detail in  FIG. 3 . The example audience monitor site  80  of  FIG. 3  includes many of the same structures as the example placement monitor site  22  discussed in detail above. In the interest of brevity, the description of the parts in common between the example audience monitor site  80  and the example placement monitor site  22  will not be repeated. Instead, the following discussion will focus on the differences between the corresponding structures of the monitors  22 ,  88 . In areas where the following discussion is silent, the above description of the structures in the placement monitor site  22  is applicable and, thus, the interested reader is referred to the above discussion of the placement monitor site  22  for a complete description of those areas and/or structures. To facilitate this process, like parts are numbered with like numbers increased by 100 in the example audience monitor site  80  relative to the example placement monitor site  22 . 
     In the example of  FIG. 3 , the example audience monitor site  80  includes an STB  130 , a metadata processor  132 , a data logging device  134  and a program identifier  136 . As in the placement monitor site  22 , the STB  130  is a receiving device (in this case owned or leased by the audience member) to tune broadcast programs of interest. The metadata processor  132  of the example audience monitor site  80  monitors the content tuned by the STB  130  to detect the presence of intentionally placed products in the tuned content. As in the placement monitor site  22 , the metadata processor  132  of the example audience monitor site  80  may determine the presence of an intentionally placed product by detecting sales information in the metadata associated with the tuned program. The example metadata processor  132  of the example audience monitor site  80  is more sophisticated than the metadata processor  32  of the example placement monitor site  22  in that the example metadata processor  132  of the example audience monitor site  80  monitors user interaction with the intentionally placed product. For example, the example metadata processor  132  of the example audience monitor site  80  monitors and logs whether an audience member selects an intentionally placed product to access the sales information, how long the audience is exposed to the sales information, whether a URL associated with the intentionally placed product is selected, how long a webpage associated with the URL is displayed, and/or other useful user interaction information. The user interaction(s) can be collected in any desired fashion, for example, by monitoring operating system events within the STB  130  and/or by intercepting infrared (or other) commands from a remote control to the STB  130 . 
     As with the example data logging device  34  of the example placement monitor site  22  discussed above, the example data logging device  134  of the example audience monitor site  80  stores time stamped records (referred to herein as event records) each of which reflects the detection of an intentionally placed product, the time at which such product was detected, the channel on which the media content containing the intentionally placed product was broadcast, and/or the program in which the intentionally placed product was embedded. To this end, the example audience monitor site  80  also includes a program identifier  136  that operates similarly to the program identifier  36  to identify the channel tuned by the audience at the time the intentionally placed product is detected and/or to detect identifying information (e.g., the program name, code(s), signature(s), etc.) for the program carrying the product. Any desired mechanism may be employed to identify the tuned program. The task of the program identifier  136  may be more difficult than the task of the program identifier  36  in that the channel tuned in the audience monitor site  80  is subject to (possibly rapid) change, whereas the channel tuned in the placement monitor site  22  may be fixed and/or changed in a known fashion to scan multiple channels. 
     In addition to the data noted above, the event records stored in the example data logging device  134  of the example audience monitor site  80  also include audience interaction information concerning the interaction of the audience with the intentionally placed product. For example, each event record may store data indicating whether an audience member selected the corresponding intentionally placed product to access the sales information, how long the audience was exposed to the sales information, whether a URL associated with the intentionally placed product was selected by the audience, how long a webpage associated with the URL was displayed, and/or other useful user interaction information. 
     Furthermore, each event record stores the identit(ies) of the persons present in the audience when an intentionally placed product is detected in tuned media content. To enable the collection of such audience composition information, the example audience monitor site  80  includes any type of people meter  137 . The people meter  137  can be an active people meter that requires the audience members to self identify (e.g., by selecting inputs provided by the people meter  137  when they enter or exit the audience). Alternatively, the people meter  137  may be a passive people meter that attempts to automatically identify members of the audience. As still another alternative, the people meter  137  may be implemented as a hybrid people meter which attempts to count the number of persons in the audience without specifically identifying audience members, and only prompts the audience members to identify themselves when the count of people changes. Irrespective of the precise methodology employed by the people meter  137 , the people meter  137  of the illustrated example is in communication with the data logging device  134  to enable writing of the audience member composition into the event records. 
     The example audience monitor sites  80  of the example of  FIG. 3  may be substantially similar or identical. Alternatively, the audience monitor sites may vary to suit the reception equipment employed in the monitored site. This variation may primarily effect the program identifier  136  as it is adapted to identify tuned content based on the type of reception equipment employed at the audience site. 
     Although shown as separate from the STB  130  in the example of  FIG. 3 , any or all of the example metadata processor  132 , the data logging device  134 , the program identifier  136  and/or the people meter  137  may be implemented within the STB  130 . For example, some or all of any of the example metadata processor  132 , the data logging device  134 , the program identifier  136  and/or the people meter  137  may be implemented by software and/or firmware executing on the processor of the STB  130  and/or the data logging device  134  may be implemented by the memory resources of the STB  130 . 
     A flowchart representative of example machine readable instructions for implementing any or all of the example audience monitor sites  80  of  FIG. 3  is shown in  FIG. 5 . For example, the example machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 5  may be embodied in coded instructions stored on a tangible medium such as a flash memory, a read-only memory (ROM) and/or random-access memory (RAM) associated with a processor (e.g., the example processor  600  discussed below in connection with  FIG. 6 . Alternatively, some or all of the example machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 5  may be implemented using any combination(s) of application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)), field programmable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)), discrete logic, hardware, software, and/or firmware. Also, some or all of the example machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 5  may be implemented manually or as any combination of any of the foregoing techniques. For example, any or all of the metadata processor  132 , the data logging device  134 , the program identifier  136  and/or the people meter  137  may be implemented as any combination of firmware, software, discrete logic and/or hardware. Thus, for example, any of the example metadata processor  132 , the example data logging device  134 , the example program identifier  136  and/or the example people meter  137  could be implemented by one or more circuit(s), programmable processsor(s), application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)), programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or field programmable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)), etc. When any of the appended claims are read to cover a purely software implementation, at least one of the example metadata processor  132 , the example data logging device  134 , the example program identifier  136  and/or the example people meter  137  recited in that claim are hereby expressly defined to include a tangible medium such as a memory, DVD, CD, etc. Further, although the example machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 5  are described with reference to the flowcharts of  FIG. 5 , many other methods of implementing the machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 5  may be employed. For example, the order of execution of the blocks may be changed, and/or one or more of the blocks described may be changed, eliminated, sub-divided, or combined. Additionally, any or all of the example machine accessible instructions of  FIG. 5  may be carried out sequentially and/or carried out in parallel by, for example, separate processing threads, processors, devices, discrete logic, circuits, etc. 
     The program of  FIG. 5  begins at block  200  where the metadata processor  132  attempts to detect intentionally placed products in the media content tuned by the audience. The process of attempting to detect intentionally placed products employed at block  200  of  FIG. 5  may be substantially similar or identical to the process described above in connection with blocks  50 ,  52  and  54  of  FIG. 4 . Thus, for example, the metadata processor  132  may spawn a first thread to collect and store all metadata detected in the tuned media content and may spawn one or more instances of a second thread to process the metadata collected by the first thread. 
     Control remains at block  200  searching for an intentionally placed product until such a product is detected. Upon detection of an intentionally placed product (block  200 ), the metadata processor  132  creates an event record in the data logging device  134  for the detected product (block  202 ). In creating the record, the metadata processor  132  causes the program identifier  136  and/or the people meter  137  to write their current data (e.g., the program identification information and the audience composition information) in the event record of the data logging device  134 . 
     The metadata processor  132  then waits a predetermined time to see whether an audience member selects the intentionally place product (e.g., via a point-and-click device)(block  204 ). If selection of the intentionally placed product does not occur within a given time of the detection of the product (block  204 ), the metadata processor  132  updates the event record to reflect that the intentionally placed product was not selected by the audience (block  206 ). Control then return to block  200 . 
     If selection of the intentionally placed product does occur within the given time period commencing with the detection of the product (block  204 ), the metadata processor  132  starts a first timer to time the duration of the audience interaction with the sales information for the intentionally placed product (block  208 ). When the sales information is closed (block  210 ), the metadata processor  132  stops the first timer (block  212 ) and records the duration of the audience interaction with the sales information for the intentionally placed product in the corresponding event record (block  214 ). Control then return to block  200 . 
     If the sales information has not yet been closed (block  210 ), the metadata processor  132  determines whether a URL associated with the sales information has been selected (block  216 ). If the URL has not been selected, control returns to block  210 . Control continues to loop through blocks  210  and  216  until the product information window is closed (block  210 ) and/or the URL associated with the sales information is selected (block  216 ). 
     Assuming for purposes of discussion that the URL is selected (block  216 ), control advances to block  218 . At block  218 , the metadata processor  132  starts a second timer to time the duration of the audience interaction with the webpage retrieved via the URL (block  218 ). The metadata processor  132  then records the selection of the URL in the event record for the corresponding intentionally placed product (block  220 ). 
     When the webpage (or the window in which the webpage) is closed (block  222 ), the metadata processor  132  stops the second timer (block  224 ) and records the duration of the audience interaction with the webpage for the intentionally placed product in the corresponding event record (block  2226 ). Control then return to block  210 . Control remains at blocks  222  until the webpage is closed (block  222 ). Closing of the webpage can be detected by, for example, monitoring operating system events (e.g., for an event requesting the invalidation of the window in which the webpage is displayed). Although not shown in  FIG. 5 , one or more additional timers can be initiated for each link followed from the webpage. In other words, if selecting the product placement leads the audience member to visit a series of web pages, the time spent on each such webpage and the URL associated with the same is logged. 
     An example processor platform  600  that may execute any or all of the machine readable instructions of  FIGS. 4 and/or 5  to implement any or all of the example placement monitor sites  22  and/or the example audience monitor sites  80  is shown in  FIG. 6 . The processor platform  600  of the example of  FIG. 6  includes at least one general purpose programmable processor  605 . The processor  605  executes coded instructions  610  present in main memory of the processor  605  (e.g., within a RAM  615  and/or a ROM  620 ). The processor  605  may be any type of processing unit, such as a processor core, a multi or single core processor and/or a microcontroller. The processor  605  may execute, among other things, the example machine accessible instructions of  FIGS. 4 and/or 5  to implement any or all of the example metadata processors  32 ,  132 , the example data logging devices  34 ,  134 , and/or the example product identifiers  36 ,  136  described herein. The processor  605  is in communication with the main memory (including a ROM  620  and/or the RAM  615 ) via a bus  625 . The RAM  615  may be implemented by DRAM, SDRAM, and/or any other type of RAM device, and ROM may be implemented by flash memory and/or any other desired type of memory device. Access to the memory  615  and  620  may be controlled by a memory controller (not shown). The RAM  615  may be used to store and/or implement, for example, any or all of the example data logging devices  34 ,  134  of  FIG. 3 . 
     The processor platform  600  also includes an interface circuit  630 . The interface circuit  630  may be implemented by any type of interface standard, such as a USB interface, a Bluetooth interface, an external memory interface, serial port, general purpose input/output, etc. One or more input devices  635  and one or more output devices  640  are connected to the interface circuit  630 . The example interface  630  may be used, for example, to export the placement monitoring information to the collection facility  24 . 
     In many examples, the metadata processor(s)  32  of the placement monitor site(s) will have better access to the bit streams tuned by the corresponding STB than will the metadata processor(s)  132  at the audience monitor site(s)  80  because the equipment monitored at the audience monitor site  80  will not be owned by the measurement company and the measurement company will, thus, be able to take greater liberties with the equipment at the placement monitor site(s)  22 . As a result, more detailed product placement information may be gathered at the placement monitor site(s)  22  then at the audience monitor site(s)  80 . To overcome this issue, the collection facility  20  can correlate data collected at the placement monitor site(s)  22  with the data collected at the audience measurement site(s)  80  to create a more complete and robust picture of intentional product placements and audience response(s) thereto, 
     The above described example methods and apparatus can be commercially exploited in many different ways. For example, the collected placement information may be compared to a database of contractual requirements to develop one or more saleable reports concerning compliance of the detected placement(s) with the underlying contract(s) driving the placement(s). Thus, for example, advertisers may pay the operator of the system  20  for a report(s) identifying whether the placement(s) they purchased occurred and if the characteristics of the placement(s) met the terms of the purchase agreement (e.g., the display size of the product was sufficiently large, the product was displayed sufficiently long, the product was displayed in at least an agreed number of occasions (e.g., scenes, programs, etc). 
     As another example, the data collected at the placement monitor site (e.g., placement identification information (e.g., product size, display duration, product type, product name, etc), program identification information, and timestamps) can be correlated with the audience measurement information (e.g., user interaction information, program identification information, timestamps and user demographics) collected at the audience monitor sites  80  to develop product placement exposure metrics. For example, with the data collected by the system  20 , the collection facility can determine how many Caucasian households with an annual income between $40,000 and $60,000 interacted with the Imaginary Brand Sunglasses product placement  12  during the Monday Evening News on Channel X in Cincinnati. These metrics can be combined with audience measurement ratings for programs to provide a guide to the effectiveness of the product placement for a targeted audience either nationally or in particular geographic markets of interest. Additionally or alternatively, the product placements themselves can be afforded ratings and/or programs can be assigned “product placement ratings” based on their past effectiveness at reaching targeted audiences to enable advertisers and broadcasters to arrive at fair transaction process for placing intentionally placed products in advertisements. 
     Although certain example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture have been described herein, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within the scope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents.