Abstract:
A method and system for generating and processing socially gamified offers. It comprised a software application for specifying the offer parameters such as discount, expiration date, gamification type, posting the offers to a network, and monitoring the gamification outcomes to unlock the offer. It further comprises a server and a software application for redistributing the offers and managing the gamified interactions. It further comprises of a gamification engine that allows the offers to be activated based on different types of interactions by the network users. The gamification can require reaching a threshold of social endorsements for the offer to activate. Various types of gamification algorithms are used to create different types of engagements with the network participants.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE OF RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This invention claims priority, under 35 U.S.C. §120, to the U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/984,409 to Kotorov, Akai and Kojima filed on Apr. 25, 2014, which is incorporated by reference herein. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 
       [0002]    The present invention relates generally to the technical fields of gamification, unlockable gaming, and digital commercial offers processing, and, more particularly, to using social gamification rules and incentives to indirectly drive more and faster consumer purchases. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    While shopping is an innate social experience, the current offer issue and processing systems fail to capitalize on the opportunity to drive more offer redemptions through computer-implemented socialization processes. Currently, all consumer offer incentives fall into two categories: (1) pure monetary incentives such as discount coupons found in circulars and magazines, and (2) monetary incentives combined with behavioral triggers such as a discounts or items available only within 10 minutes time interval. Offers containing pure monetary incentives have lost their appeal because consumers have learned to expect them, and, thus, they do not affect their purchasing behavior. Hence, retailers see them as a necessary evil that drives margins down without bringing more sales. The current behavioral based offers play on the negative anxieties of individual consumers by creating a perception of scarcity and a feeling of missing out on an opportunity. Neither scheme drives better consumer experience nor wider awareness of products and services. 
         [0004]    Social gamification offers an opportunity to create behavioral offers that leverage the positive feelings associated with the engagement of friends and peers in the purchasing decision. By making the final value of the offer contingent on the level of social engagement, the present social gamification method and system provides incentives to consumers to share the offers with their peers via social and communications networks to solicit opinions and advice. On the one hand, social persuasion helps individuals make faster and more gratifying purchasing decisions. Consumer research shows that the majority of shoppers experience the “pain-of-deciding” when making purchasing decisions. Instead of deliberating on the pros and cons of the item of interest, consumers tend to abandon shopping carts and walk-out. Social persuasion, i.e., the endorsement of the purchasing decision by one&#39;s friends and peers, drives conversion rates among the vast majority of undecided consumers who like to look and try but do not buy. On the other hand, social gemification drives awareness and willingness to try and buy by leveraging the group dynamics of the individuals who interact with the socially gamified offers. Individuals who endorse an offer are more likely to try the item on offer themselves. Retailers benefit too as they can connect with the individuals who have endorsed particular items by curating personalized gamified offers for them. The present invention provides a method and a system to fulfill these needs. 
         [0005]    The method and system for social gamification of digital offers is also fundamentally different from group purchasing methods and systems that aggregate buyers to lower the price. Group purchasing comes in various forms such as collective bargaining, purchasing clubs, and web based groupon/tipping point methods. Group purchasing methods are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,650,072 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,903,733. From an economic perspective the group purchasing methods fall in the category of pure monetary incentive offers but they also minimize the loss of margin by increasing the quantity of goods sold in a single order. Social gamification does neither guarantee a purchase nor requires a group purchasing order. Furthermore, social gamification nudges consumers to buy using soft incentives such as peer persuasion and does not aggregate individuals with explicit intent to buy. 
         [0006]    The gamification method in the present invention is also fundamentally different from the gamification methods disclosed in the prior art. Gamification is generally defined as process where game like incentives and dynamics are used to achieve desired individual or group behaviors. The gamification methods disclosed in various patent applications, such as US20140379914 A1, US20150012393 A1, US20140195272 A1, US20150056578 A1, US20140274413 A1 apply game dynamics to encourage learning, better driving, productivity enhancements, goal achievement, optimize consumer check out at retailers, optimize customer service consumption, etc. The particular gamification method in these disclosers is user actions tracking for status achievement. Users are given different status badges based on the levels they have achieve through their actions. They receive rewards, services, or other benefits based on their badge status. Status based gamification is only one of the many gamification methods discussed in game theory and behavioral economics but it cannot be applied to the gamification of commercial offers. Status based gamification is applicable for single player games. The social gamification of offers falls within the branch in game theory of multiplayer games as the actions of each player participating in the gamified offers affects the actions of other participants as is disclosed in the detailed description of the present invention. The present method falls within the cooperative or mixed games where many participants act together to achieve a common goal, e.g., they vote on offers to unlock them and to increase the value of the offer. The social gamification of offers also falls within the branch of unlockable gaming where some game content is not accessible until the user performs a certain action. The present invention provides a method and a system to make gamification applicable to commercial offers. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    In accordance with the embodiments described herein, a method and a system is disclosed for creating and processing of digital socially gamified interactive offers. This summary is not an extensive overview, and it is not intended to identify key/critical elements or delineate the scope thereof. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to more detailed description that is presented late. 
         [0008]    The method and system for creating and processing of socially gamified offers allows both businesses and consumers to create such offers. It provides means for business users, store assistants for example, to create socially gamified offers on computers, tablets and smart mobile phones by specifying an item picture, offer conditions, price and other attributes, and most importantly the type of social gamification and the required user votes for unlocking each offer. Next, the offer is posted to a particular individual or to groups of individuals via social networks, such as Facebook®, Twitter®, etc., via email, such as GMail®, Hotmail®, etc., or via text messaging such as SMS, WhatsApp®, etc. Next, consumers accept to participate in the gamified offer either by voting or by sharing it with other users to collect votes. Next, a vote counter for each offer is initiated to collect and count votes across all channels to which the offer was posted and shared. Each offer allows for additional interactions such as commenting for example. Next, an application server collects and stores in real time all votes, comments, and other interactions with the offer from all networks. Next, the method and system tabulates the votes and sends real-time updates and notifications to all participants. Next, if the voting requirements are met, the application server unlocks the offer, notifies the participants, and issues purchasing instructions. Finally, the application server manages the closing of the offer and the reporting of the offer engagement to the offer issuer. 
         [0009]    The method and system further provides means to create and process a publicly unlockable competitively gamified interactive offer and post it to all members of a social network, an email group, or a sms group. Any person can vote on the offer and re-share it to solicit more votes from other people. Every person who votes on the offer accepts to participate in it, can view the voting results in real time, and receives notifications when the offer is unlocked. The item on offer has a limited supply, and, thus, after the offer is unlocked any of the participants can purchase the item on a first come, first served basis until supplies last. 
         [0010]    The method and system further provides means to create and process a cooperative publicly unlockable offer where every user votes to unlock the offer and every user can purchase the item on offer until the offer expires. 
         [0011]    The method and system further provides means to create and process an individual non-sharable offer. This offer can only be initiated for the particular recipient and can be shared only for vote collection. 
         [0012]    The method and system further provides means to create and process an individual sharable gamified offer where each individual can initiate the offer and also re-post it to other individuals who can initiate it for themselves. 
         [0013]    The method and system provides means for consumers to post a notification to retailers of their purchase intent, who in turn can append a gamified offer the consumer&#39;s post. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0014]      FIG. 1A  shows a publically unlockable socially gamified offer on an internet connected consumer device; 
           [0015]      FIG. 1B  shows the accepted publically unlockable socially gamified offer on an internet connected consumer device; 
           [0016]      FIG. 2A  illustrates an unlocked socially gamified offer on an internet connected device; 
           [0017]      FIG. 2B  illustrates a closed socially gamified offer on an internet connected device; 
           [0018]      FIG. 3  illustrates an individual non-sharable socially gamified offer; 
           [0019]      FIG. 4  shows a re-posted for voting individual non-sharable socially gamified offer; 
           [0020]      FIG. 5A  shows an individually unlockable sharable socially gamified offer; 
           [0021]      FIG. 5B  illustrates the display of the incoming voting results and comments for the individually unlockable sharable socially gamified offer; 
           [0022]      FIG. 5C  shows the individually unlocked sharable gamified offer; 
           [0023]      FIG. 6A  illustrates a re-posted for voting offer as it is displayed on a friend&#39;s device; 
           [0024]      FIG. 6B  shows the votes tabulation on the friend&#39;s device after voting on the offer; 
           [0025]      FIG. 7  is a high level diagram of a system and process flows for retailer initiated social gamification; 
           [0026]      FIG. 8  is a high level diagram of a system and process flows for consumer initiated social gamification; 
           [0027]      FIG. 9A  illustrates the top part of a scrollable interface for creating socially gamified offers by business users on internet connected devices; 
           [0028]      FIG. 9B  illustrates the bottom part of the scrollable interface for creating socially gamified offers by business users; 
           [0029]      FIG. 10  illustrates the consumer interface for initiation of social gamification; 
           [0030]      FIG. 11  illustrates the display of the consumer initiated socially gamified post on other consumers&#39; devices. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0031]    Various embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with the reference to the drawings, where like reference numerals represent like parts and assemblies throughout the several views. References to various embodiments do not limit the scope of the invention, which is limited only by the scope of the claims attached hereto. Additionally, any examples set forth in this specification are not intended to be limiting and merely set forth some of the many possible embodiments for the claimed invention. Among other things, the present invention may be embodied as methods or devices. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, and entirely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense. 
         [0032]      FIG. 1A  is an illustration of the display of a publically unlockable socially gamified offer on a consumer mobile device  101 . For those skillful in the art it will be obvious that such offers can be displayed on any internet connected device. A parameter  102  displays the required votes to unlock the offer as set by the offer issuer. A parameter  103  displays the type of unlocking required for this particular offer as set by the offer issuer. In this particular illustration the parameter  103  displays a message indicating that the offer can be unlocked by the general public, e.g., any person who has received or has came across the offer on a social network, via email, or via text massage can vote to unlock the offer and take advantage of it subject to the offer conditions and limitations. An image container  104  displays a picture  105  of the item on offer. Label  106  describes the text box  107  which displays the conditions of the offer as set by the offer issuer. Buttons  108  and  109  allow users to accept or decline to participate in the socially gamified offer. A click or a tap on button  108  is processed by the system as a “Yes” vote and when the offer is unlocked the consumer receives a purchase authorization as shown later on in this specification. A click or a tap on button  109  is processed by the system as a “No” vote and the user does not get any notification when the socially gamified offer is unlocked. Those skillful in the art will immediately understand that alternative layout designs are possible, as well as that additional parameters can be appended to the socially gamified offer. 
         [0033]      FIG. 1B  illustrates the new state of the socially gamified offer application after the consumer has clicked on either button  108  or button  109  in  FIG. 1A . The gamified offer application displays the offer attributes from the prior display on FIG.  1 A—parameter  102  displaying the required votes to unlock the offer, parameter  103  displaying the type of unlocking required, the image container  104  and the item picture  105 , and the label  106  for the text box  107  displaying the offer conditions. In addition, the new state displays a bar chart component  110  showing the vote counts in three sections. Section  110 A shows the “No” votes, section  110 B shows the “Yes” votes and section  110 C shows the remaining votes to unlock the socially gamified offer. A text input control  111  allows consumers to post comments about the offer. Finally, consumers can spread the word and solicit more votes by sharing the socially gamified offer via social networks such as  112 A “Do I Get It?” network,  112 B Facebook,  112 C Twitter, or email  112 D. Those skillful in the art will immediately understand that sharing can be done via any social network, email network, sms or other texting application. 
         [0034]      FIG. 2A  illustrates the unlocked socially gamified offer on a consumer mobile device  201 . Parameter  202 A shows the total number of votes collected for unlocking the offer. The total votes can exceed the number of votes required for unlocking the offer because users can continue to vote after the offer is unlocked in order to obtain a purchase authorization. Voting after unlocking can continue until supplies last, until the offer expires, or until some other condition specified by the offer issuer occurs. Parameter  203 A automatically displays a message that the offer is unlocked. Parameter  204 A indicates the remaining items in stock for a limited quantity offer. The limited quantity socially gamified offers are competitive in nature as consumers take advantage of the offer on a ‘first come, first served’ basis while supplies last.  205  is a picture of the item on offer and  206  is a text box with the conditions of the offer.  207  is a bar chart component showing the positive and negative votes in sections  207 A and  207 B respectively.  208  is a buy button that allows the consumer to connect to a web site and purchase the item at the offer price. Those skillful in the art will immediately understand that purchase authorization and purchasing can be implemented in a variety of ways. 
         [0035]      FIG. 2B  shows the change of the state of the socially gamified offer application when the supplies have finished and the offer has closed. Parameter  204 B shows that there are no available items. Parameter  203 B automatically displays a message that the offer is closed. The count in parameter  202 B has increased compared to the count in parameter  202 A on  FIG. 1A  to illustrate that the voting has continued until the offer was closed. The counts in sections  207 C and  207 D of the bar chart component  207  have also changed compared to the counts on  FIG. 1A  to illustrate that the voting has continued until the offer was closed. The buy button  208 B is automatically grayed-out when the supplies are finished in order to disable the access to the purchasing web page for the offer. However, the offer issuer can specify another button or method to redirect consumers to a web page where the item is available at a regular price. 
         [0036]      FIG. 3  illustrates a non-sharable socially gamified offer issued to a particular individual and displayed on her mobile device  301 . Only the consumer to whom the offer is issued can take advantage of the non-sharable socially gamified offer. The consumer can post her offer to her friends to collect the required votes to unlock the offer for herself. Parameter  302  displays the number of friends&#39; votes required by the issuer to unlock the offer. Parameter  303  displays an auto-generated message with the requirements to unlock the offer, e.g., collect 50 votes from friends using social media, email, or sms.  304  is a picture of the item on offer and text box  305  shows the conditions of the offer. Buttons  306  and  307  allow the individual to decline or to accept to participate in the gamified offer. If the consumers clicks button  307 , the issuer is notified that the consumer has declined to participate in the offer. If the consumer clicks button  306 , the offer is initiated for vote tracking and the consumer can re-post it via social networks, email, and SMS to collect votes. When the offer is unlocked the consumer is presented either a buy button or a purchase authorization code as shown on other drawings in this specification. 
         [0037]      FIG. 4  shows the re-posted for voting non-sharable socially gamified offer from  FIG. 3  as it is displayed on a friend&#39;s mobile device  401 . Parameter  402  shoes the votes that are required to unlock the offer. Parameter  403  shows an auto-generated post message that the individual is collecting votes to unlock an offer.  404  is a picture of the item on offer and text box  405  shows the conditions of the offer. Voting buttons  406  and  407  allow the offer recipient&#39;s friends to cast their votes. The offer issuer can specify whether the offer allows voting only or also commenting and other interactions. 
         [0038]      FIG. 5A  shows an individually unlockable sharable socially gamified interactive offer. This offer can be shared with anyone, but everyone who chooses to participate has to collect votes from his friends to unlock the offer for himself. Parameter  501  displays the required friends&#39; votes to unlock the offer. Parameter  502  displays the conditions to unlock the offer.  503  is a picture of the item on offer. Text box  504  shows the offer conditions, e.g., expiration, discount rate, etc.  505  is button to accept to participate in the offer. Clicking or tapping on button  505  activates the offer in the system and initiates a separate vote counter just for this individual to collect votes from his friends. Button  506 A allows the individual to share the offer with his friends who can activate it for themselves. The offer is shared via the posting methods for social networks  507 A,  507 B,  507 C, and for email system  507 C. 
         [0039]      FIG. 5B  show how the individual can monitor the voting process within the application. Parameter  508  displays the remaining votes required for the unlocking of the offer. Bar chart component  509  displays the counts of the “Yes” and “No” votes in sections  509 A and  509 B respectively. Text box  511  displays friends&#39; comments on the offer.  510  is the avatar of the person posting the comment. Button  506 B enables the sharing of the offer both for collecting votes to unlock it and for other users to initiate it for themselves. Button  506 B has been repositioned compared to  FIG. 5A  because the application screen layout changes dynamically based on the status and stage of the application. 
         [0040]      FIG. 5C  shows the individually unlocked offer. Parameter  512  displays an auto-generated message that the required votes have been collected and that the offer is unlocked. The counts in sections  509 C and  509 D of the bar chart component  509  from  FIG. 5B  are updated to reflect the real-time vote counts. Label  513  shows the dynamically generated purchase authorization code  514  which can be presented at stores or entered on web sites to get the offer price or the discount. Label  515  indicates that sharing is still allowed so that the offer can be distributed to other users who may be interested in it. Sharing is enabled until the offer expires or until another condition set by the offer issuer occurs. 
         [0041]      FIG. 6A  shows the re-posted for voting offer as it appears on a friend&#39;s device. Parameter  601  displays the required votes. Parameter  602  is an auto-generated post indicating the reasons for making the post.  603  is a picture of the item on offer. Text box  604  shows the conditions of the offer. Voting buttons  605  and  606  allow the friends with whom the post is shared to cast their votes which are collected and tabulated by the system in real time. 
         [0042]      FIG. 6B  shows the change in the application status after a vote is cast. The voting buttons  605  and  606  from  FIG. 6A  have been removed to display the tabulated voting results and sharing options. A bar chart component  607  displays the “Yes” and “No” votes in sections  607 A and  607 B respectively. Button  608  enables the user to initiate the offer for herself. Button  609  allows the user to share the offer with other individuals without initiating it for herself. 
         [0043]      FIG. 7  is a high level diagram showing the issuing of a socially gamified offer by a retailer or other business user, and its operationalization and processing by the system. There are four digital process flows in the system. The first process flow is defined by path segments  704 A,  704 B and  704 C showing the creation, distribution, and access of the offer. Store associate  701  creates a socially gamified offer  702  on an internet connected device, selects a posting method  703 A in the application posting interface which posts the offer  702  to an application server  700  and to the specified social networks and communication channels. The post is received directly or becomes viable within a social network post feed by a consumer  705 . The second process flow is defined by path segments  706 A,  706 B, and  706 C showing the sharing of the post with other individuals either for vote collection or as an offer recommendation. Consumer  705  selects a posting method  703 B in the application posting interface which posts the offer  702  to the application server  700  and to the specified social networks and communication channels where it becomes accessible to individuals  707 . The third process flow is defined by path  708 . The individuals  707  can post votes or re-share the offers via the posting method  703 A in the application posting interface. The votes and the re-sharing are processed by the application server  700  in real time. The forth process flow is defined by path segments  709 A,  709 B,  709 C, and  709 D which show the tabulation of votes, offer unlocking, offer fulfilment, and offer closing by the application server  700 . The application server  700  tabulates the votes of individuals  707 , determines when the conditions of the offer are met, and issues unlock key  710  to consumer  705  with purchase instructions or a link to a web page  711 . The application server  700  tracks offer closing conditions, such as quantities sold, expiration date, etc., closes the offer and notifies the offer issuer as indicated by path segment  709 D. 
         [0044]      FIG. 8  illustrates how the system processes a consumer initiated gamification. Consumer  801  creates a post in which he specifies under what conditions he is willing to buy an item and posts it to the system. The system delivers the post via process flow defined by segments  802 A,  802 B,  802 C,  802 D, and  802 D to both the consumer&#39;s friends  803  and to a store assistant  805  from where the consumer wants to purchase the item. The consumer can notify multiple stores of his purchase intent. Process flow  804  collects votes and comments from the friends of the consumer and tabulates them on the application server  800 . Process flow defined by segments  806 A and  806 B shows how the store assistant  805  can append gamification rules to the consumer&#39;s post  801 . Process flow defined by segments  807 A,  807 B,  807 C and  807 D shows the processing of the offer conditions, the issuing of the unlock key and the purchasing authorization, and the offer fulfilment and closing. 
         [0045]      FIG. 9A  illustrates the creation of a socially gamified offer by a business user on a mobile device  900 .  901  is a screen label for the offer creation module of the application.  902  is tap bar component for selecting the offer type that the user wants to create. For desktops, laptops and other internet connected devices the tap bar is replaced with a toolbar component or another native component for user selections.  903  is an input component for the business user to select or type in the required votes for unlocking the offer.  904  is an image insertion component.  905  is an icon to indicate to the business user the required action to insert an image.  906  is an input control for the original price of the item.  907  is an input control for the discount rate.  909  is an input control for the final price. Label  908  indicates that input controls  907  and  909  are mutually exclusive, e.g., the business user can enter either a discount rate or an exact price amount. 
         [0046]      FIG. 9B  shows the scrolled down portion  910  of the application interface shown on  FIG. 9A. 911  is an optional input control to specify quantity limits.  912  is a calendar input control to specify the expiration date of the offer.  913  is an input control to enter a purchase authorization code for this particular offer. Purchase authorization codes can be generated manually or programmatically.  914  is an input control for the offer URL used to automatically generate the buy button described earlier in this specification.  916  is an input control to specify that the offer is redeemable only in stores. When  916  is selected the automatic generation of the buy button is disabled. Label  915  indicates that the URL and the purchase authorization code can be made mutually exclusive if the offer issuer wants to make purchasing available through only one channel.  917  is a text input control for defining the offer conditions.  918  is a label indicating the available posting options for social and communications networks. Those skillful in the art will immediately understand that alternative layout designs are possible and additional parameters can be appended to the offer, as well as that many of the parameters can be automatically retrieved and populated in the application from existing CRM systems. 
         [0047]      FIG. 10  shows a consumer-to-business gamification post creation on a consumer mobile device  1001 .  1002  is a picture of the desired item by the consumer.  1003  is an input control for the consumer to enter the price that she is willing to pay for the item shown in  1002 .  1004  is an input text box for the consumer to describe the item shown in  1002 .  1005  is a label that indicates the posting options for social and communications networks which the consumer can use to notify the retailer directly of her willingness to purchase. The system can also generate automatic notifications from the consumers&#39; posts to retailers and other businesses based on hash tags and other standard web methods. 
         [0048]      FIG. 11  shows the consumer-to-business gamification post as seen by the friends of the consumer on their mobile devices  1101 .  1102  is the avatar of the consumer making the post.  1103  is the automatically generated post message.  1104  is an image of the desired item.  1105  is the desired item description as posted by the consumer.  1106  is a text container for retailers to append offers and purchasing conditions relevant to the consumer&#39;s post.  1107  and  1108  are buttons for the friends of the consumer to vote on the desired item and on the appended offers.  1109  is a text input box for the consumers&#39; friends to provide comments.