Patent Publication Number: US-2016232585-A1

Title: Distributing content

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present invention relates to distributing content. More particularly, but not exclusively, to distributing content via an offer terminal. In one example, advertisements may be distributed via an offer terminal. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Retailers, restaurants, and other service providers (hereinafter referred to as “merchants”) advertise in a variety of ways in order to reach consumers. Advertisements may include offers provided by merchants, non-limiting examples of offers including discount codes and coupons. Commonly used platforms for advertisements that comprise offers include newspapers, magazines, flyers and the Internet (e.g. email marketing and mobile applications). 
     Typically, email marketing and mobile applications require a lengthy registration process and the consumers are regularly issued offers. Further, offers that are issued may not be relevant to the consumer, reducing the effectiveness of the advertising platform. Alternatively, a consumer may be interested in an offer but forget about the offer during the interval between receiving the offer and arriving in the vicinity of the merchant supplying the offer. 
     Offers may be targeted to users based on based on a user profile, as discussed in US2013/0124283 incorporated herein by reference. For example, a specific offer may be issued to a user based on the user profile which includes the user&#39;s preference for types of offers and/or the user&#39;s location. 
     The present invention aims to provide consumers relevant offers in a timely manner that overcomes one or more of the problems described above. 
     STATEMENTS OF INVENTION 
     According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of distributing an offer to a user, the method being implemented on a processor, and the method comprising: receiving information associated with a plurality of offers, wherein the information associated with each offer comprises an offer identifier; providing the information associated with the plurality of offers to the user; receiving an offer selection from the user; receiving confirmation of a payment in exchange for a service; and providing the offer identifier associated with the selected offer to the user. 
     Optionally, providing the information associated with the plurality of offers to the user comprises displaying the information associated with the offers. 
     Optionally, providing the information associated with the plurality of offers to the user comprises audibly playing the information associated with the offers. 
     Optionally, providing the information associated with the plurality of offers to the user comprises printing the information associated with the offers. 
     Optionally, providing the offer identifier comprises printing a ticket comprising the offer identifier. Optionally, the offer identifier is printed in the form of at least one from a group comprising: an alphanumeric string; a barcode; and a quick response code. 
     Optionally, if the user comprises a mobile device, providing the offer identifier comprises sending an electronic communication to the mobile device, wherein the electronic communication is at least one from a group including: an email; an SMS; a near field communication instruction; a Bluetooth message; a communication over a Wi-Fi network; and an instant message. 
     Optionally, the user comprises a payment transaction device, and providing the offer identifier comprises associating an account of the payment transaction device with the offer identifier. 
     Optionally, the method comprises determining a set of offers from the plurality of offers and wherein providing the information associated with the offers to the user comprises providing the set to the user. 
     Optionally, the method comprises sending the selected offer to a remote server. 
     Optionally, the information associated with the offer comprises one or more from a group comprising: an offer number; an offer type; an offer description; terms and conditions of validity; a location where the offer is redeemable; a name of a merchant providing the offer; and a category. 
     Optionally, the payment is in exchange for parking services. 
     Optionally, the method comprises providing a receipt for the payment to the user. 
     A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may store executable computer program instructions for implementing on a computing device the method described above. 
     According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an offer terminal for distributing an offer to a user arranged to: receive information associated with a plurality of offers, wherein the information associated with each offer comprises an offer identifier; provide the information associated with the plurality of offers to the user; receive an offer selection from the user; receive confirmation of a payment in exchange for a service; and provide the offer identifier associated with the selected offer to the user. 
     It will be appreciated that preferred and/or optional features of the first aspect of the invention may be provided in the second aspect of the invention also, either alone or in appropriate combinations. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       In order that the invention may be more readily understood, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  shows an example environment according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  shows a schematic view of an offer terminal of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  shows a schematic view of a terminal server of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  shows a schematic view of a terminal database of  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 5  shows a schematic view of an offer server of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 6  shows a schematic view of an offer database of  FIG. 5 ; 
         FIG. 7  shows a schematic view of a user profile database of  FIG. 5 ; and 
         FIG. 8  shows a flowchart according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS 
       FIG. 1  shows an example environment  100  according to an embodiment of the present invention. An offer server  102  is connected to a network  104 . The network  104  may be a wide area network, local area network, the Internet or other suitable data communications networks. A terminal server  106  is also connected to the network  104  such that it can communicate with the offer server  102 . 
     Four terminals  108  are each connected to the terminal server  106 . In other embodiments, each terminal  108  is connected to the network  104  and the terminal server  106  can communicate with each terminal  108  via the network  104 . 
     The offer server  102  manages information associated with offers that merchants have made available. The terminal server  106  controls data requests to and from each terminal  108 . 
     In this embodiment, the terminals  108  are parking payment terminal each installed at a fixed location. Merchants are generally located on shopping streets where parking vehicles on the shopping street, adjacent streets or in nearby car parks, is regulated using pay and display as is known in the art, wherein a motorist purchases a ticket from one of the plurality of parking payment terminals and displays the ticket on the dashboard or windscreen of their vehicle. Accordingly, the plurality of parking payment terminals are located on the shopping street, adjacent streets or in nearby car parks, and are configured to vend tickets for “pay and display”. 
       FIG. 2  shows the terminal  108  in greater detail. Each terminal  108  comprises a terminal processor  150 , a server communications module  152 , a memory  154 , a display  156  (i.e. a screen), a plurality of user input buttons  158 , a printer  160 , a clock  162 , a payment acceptance device  164  and a wireless communications module  166 . The server communications module  152 , the memory  154 , the display  156 , the plurality of user input buttons  158 , the printer  160 , the clock  162 , the payment acceptance device  164  and the wireless communications module  166  are each connected to the terminal processor  150 . 
     The server communications module  152  is arranged to communicate data to and from the terminal server  106 . The memory  154  is arranged to store data, including information associated with an offer (i.e. offer details), as well as an terminal identity number. 
     The display  156  and user input buttons  158  provide an interface for a user to interact with the terminal. In other embodiments the display and input buttons are combined in one device, such as a touchscreen. 
     The printer  160  is arranged to output a ticket for the user as a receipt for payment of parking. The printer  160  in this embodiment is a thermal printer. The clock  162  measures time. 
     The payment acceptance device  164  is arranged to accept cash and contact/contactless integrated circuit cards to enable users to pay for parking at the terminal  108 . 
     The wireless communications module  166  may comprise 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® or near field communication (NFC) technology for communicating with a mobile device of a user. 
       FIG. 3  shows the terminal server  106  in greater detail. The terminal server  106  comprises a server processor  180 , a terminal communications module  182 , a network communications module  184  and a terminal database  186 . The terminal communications module  182 , the network communications module  184  and the terminal database  186  are each connected to the server processor  180 . 
     The terminal communications module  182  is configured to communicate with each of the terminals  108 . The network communications module  184  is configured to communicate data to and from the network  104 . 
     The terminal database  186  comprises data associated with each of the terminals  108 . 
       FIG. 4  shows the terminal database  186  in greater detail. The terminal database  186  comprises a location  190  and capabilities  192  of each terminal  108  associated with a terminal identity number  194 . The location  190  may be an address, latitude and longitude coordinates or a grid reference. The capabilities  192  may be related to the type of payment acceptance device  164  that each terminal  108  comprises, for example, coin acceptance, bank note acceptance, credit card acceptance or contactless card acceptance. 
       FIG. 5  shows the offer server  102  in greater detail. The offer server  102  comprises an offer processor  200 , a network communications module  202 , an offer selector module  204 , an offer database  206  and a user profile database  208 . The network communications module  202 , the offer selector module  204 , the offer database  206  and the user profile database  208  are each connected to the offer processor  200 . 
     The network communications module  202  is configured to communicate data to and from the network  104 . The offer database  206  comprises information associated with offers. The user profile database  208  comprises information associated with both the terminals  108  and the users of the terminals. 
     The offer selector module  204  is arranged to determine offers to be sent to the terminals  108  based on the information associated with the offers from the offer database  206  and data from the user profile database  208 . 
       FIG. 6  shows the offer database  206  in greater detail. The offer database  206  comprises, for each offer, an offer number  250 , an offer type  252 , an offer description  254 , terms and conditions of validity  256 , a location  258  where the offer is redeemable, a merchant name  260 , a category  262  and an offer identifier  264 . 
     Merchants place details of offers into the offer database  206  which is administered by an offer administrator that controls the offer server  102 . The type  252  of an offer may be the purchase of goods or services, an advertisement for a product or service, or an offer for purchasing the goods or services at a discount (e.g. a coupon). 
     The offer description  254  may comprise marketing copy that explains the offer, and may include images. 
     The terms and conditions  256  of an offer may include time-sensitivity, such as a bakery offering its goods at a discount until closing time in an effort to sell inventory it would otherwise dispose of, for instance. Further, terms and conditions  256  may also be restricted to a specific number of redemptions, such as an offer for a discount or a free item for the first one hundred people to arrive at the store. 
     Offers may also be associated with a particular merchant, stored in the offer database  206  as the merchant name  260  of the offer. The location  258  of the offer may comprise, for example, addresses of a plurality of shops of the merchant at which the offer is redeemable. 
     The category  262  of an offer is the category of goods or services that the offer relates to (e.g. fast-food, grocery store, parking, clothing etc.). 
     The offer identifier  264  may be an alphanumeric code, barcode, quick response (QR) code or other an optical machine-readable representation of data that may be used to redeem the offer with the merchant providing the offer. 
       FIG. 7  shows the user profile database  208  in greater detail. The user profile database  208  comprises a user identity  280  for each user. Offers accepted  282 , offers redeemed  284  and offer preferences  286  for each user are stored in the user profile database  208 . The offers accepted  282  are the offers (stored with reference to the offer numbers  250 ) that each user has selected as of interest to them. The offers redeemed  284  are the offers (stored with reference to the offer numbers  250 ) that each user has redeemed at the merchant using the offer identifier  264 . 
     The offer preferences  286  relate to the type  252  and category  262  of offers that are selected by a user. Offer preference  286  may also comprise a geographical area in which a user is likely to redeem offers in. 
     The offer preferences  286  can be defined manually by a user or determined by the offer processor  200  based on the predominant type  252  and category  262  of offers accepted by a user, and typical locations where offers are redeemed. 
     According to an embodiment of the present invention, in addition to vending tickets for pay and display, the parking payment terminal  108  is configured to dispense offers. The parking payment terminal may be used by motorist as well as other pedestrians to request offers. 
       FIG. 8  shows a flowchart providing an overview of a process  300  according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     When a user arrives at Step  302  at a terminal  108 , the terminal initially displays at Step  304  two options to a user via the screen  156 : a first option to pay for parking and a second option to request an offer. If the user opts to pay for parking, the user indicates the desired duration of the parking session and the parking payment terminal  108  charges the user for the parking session. The user pays at Step  306  for the parking session using the payment acceptance device  164 . In other embodiments, Step  306  occurs immediately after the user arrives at the parking payment terminal  108 , (in other words, the user is not initially presented with the first option to pay for parking or the second option to request an offer). 
     Once the user has completed payment for the parking session, or if the user selected the offer request option, the parking payment terminal retrieves at Step  308  offer details from the offer server  102 . The process of retrieving offer details is discussed below in more detail. The retrieved offers are presented at Step  310  to the user via the screen  156 . This may be in the form of a list of offers or the offers may be divided into menus according to categories and/or merchants. The clock  162  of the parking payment terminal  108  is used to determine the time and offers appropriate for the time of day are given more prominence on the screen  156  (e.g. offers from restaurants and cafes at lunch time, shops in the afternoon and clubs and cinemas in the evening). 
     The user selects at Step  312  any desired offers from the retrieved offers. Following this, the parking payment terminal prints at Step  314  the ticket and/or the offer identifier  264  along with other details of any selected offers using the printer  160 . In other embodiments, the parking payment terminal  108  provides the details of any selected offers to a mobile device of the user using the wireless communications module  166 . 
     In other embodiments, one offer is automatically retrieved and printed at Step  314  in conjunction with the parking ticket once the user has completed payment for the parking session. 
     If an offer is selected, the parking payment terminal  108  records in the memory  154  that the offer has been selected. The recorded information may be communicated at Step  316  to the offer server periodically or immediately after an offer is selected. 
     As users of the terminal  108  are not required to register with the offer server, the terminal  108  is a user with respect to the user profile database  208 . The record of the offers that have been selected is used to determine preferred offers for each parking payment terminal, for example, if several users of the terminal  108  all select an offer provided by a particular merchant, other offers from that particular merchant may be given prominence when the offers are displayed to future users of that parking payment terminal  108 . 
     In other embodiments, a user comprises a payment transaction device (such as a credit card) that is associated with a user identity  280  in the user profile database  208 . Accordingly, if a user accepts an offer, the offer identifier  264  is associated with an account of the transaction device. The user can then purchase the goods or services on offer at the merchant using the transaction device with which the offer is associated such that the offer is applied to the transaction. 
     Examples of different ways in which the offers are retrieved by the terminal  108  are described below, however, it is to be understood that embodiments of the invention may comprise one or more of the examples simultaneously. 
     In a first example, the parking payment terminal  108  periodically receives updated offer details from the offer database  206  via the offer server  102  and the terminal server  106 , and stores them in the memory  154 . The offer details supplied to the parking payment terminal  108  may be restricted to offers from merchants within a predetermined range (e.g. within a 2 kilometre radius) of the parking payment terminal  108 , reducing the bandwidth required to communicate the offer details when compared to supplying all offer details. In this example, the process of retrieving offers comprises the parking payment terminal  108  accessing the memory  154  to find offers and the clock  162  of the parking payment terminal  108  being used to determine the time to find offers that are appropriate for the time of the day. A benefit of this example is that relevant offer details of nearby merchants can be quickly accessed by the parking payment terminal when required as the offer details are stored locally. 
     In a second example, the parking payment terminal  108  retrieves offer details from the offers database  206  on demand. The parking payment terminal  108  sends a communication to request offer details to the offer server  102  comprising the location and the identity number of the parking payment terminal  108  and the time of day. The offer selector module  204  of the offer server  102  queries the offer database  206  and user profile database  208  for offer details that are suitable for the time of day and are within a predetermined range (e.g. within a 2 kilometre radius) of the parking payment terminal  108 . The resulting offer details that match the query are returned to the parking payment terminal  108  for display to the user. A benefit of this example is that relevant offer details are returned to the parking payment terminal, reducing the bandwidth required to communicate the offer details. Further, this reduces the storage required on the parking payment terminal  108 , compared to the first example. 
     In other embodiments of the second example, the offer server  102  uses the identity number of the parking payment terminal to identify the offers that have been selected by previous users of the parking payment terminal (i.e. with reference to the user profile database  208 ). The offer server  102  then determines a set of offers that are likely to be accepted by the user and returns the offer details corresponding to the group of offers to the parking payment terminal  108  for display to the user. 
     In a third example, the user pays for the desired duration of parking with an integrated circuit chip card where a unique number is assigned to the card by an issuer of the card. The parking payment terminal  108  sends a communication to request offer details to the offer server  102  comprising the location of the parking payment terminal, the time of day and the unique number of the card. The offer server  102  queries the offer database  206  for offer details that are suitable for the time of day and are within a predetermined range (e.g. within a 2 kilometre radius) of the parking payment terminal  108 . Further, the offer selector module  204  uses the unique number to identify the offers that have previously been selected by a cardholder of the card with reference to the user profile database  208 . The offer selector module  204  then determines a set of offers that are likely to be accepted by the cardholder and returns the offer details corresponding to the group of offers to the parking payment terminal for display to the cardholder. 
     In other embodiments of the third example, the integrated circuit chip card is a contactless card (e.g. using near field communications standards). Once the cardholder has selected their desired offers, the offer identifiers  264  are communicated to the contactless card allowing the cardholder to redeem the offer without a printed code. 
     In other embodiments of the third example, the user has an online profile associated with the unique number of the card and the server uses the online profile to select personalised offers (e.g. based on offers previously accepted by the user and/or personal preferences indicated by the user on the online profile). The online profile may comprise information from social media. The offer server  102  then sends the relevant personalised offers to the parking payment terminal  108  for display to the user. 
     Many modifications may be made to the above examples without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined in the accompanying claims. 
     For example, in the process  300 , following payment by the user for the parking session in Step  308 , the terminal  108  may provide all available offers (including offer details and offer identifiers) to a mobile device of the user via the wireless communications module  166 . The user can then select the desired offers at their leisure directly from the mobile device, and receive the offer identifier.