Patent ID: 7546249

Claim:
A computer system for managing allocation levels of advertising inventory, comprising: a computer; instructions executable by the computer to identify a plurality of categories of ad impressions; and instructions executable by the computer to implement a plurality of restrictions designed to limit said allocation levels of said advertising inventory; wherein one or more of said plurality of restrictions are applied to one or more of said categories of advertisements so as to limit the availability of said one or more of said categories of ad impressions; wherein said one or more of said plurality of restrictions applied to said one or more of said plurality of categories of ad impressions are adjusted in response to demand for said one or more of said plurality of categories of ad impressions, said demand for one of said plurality of categories of ad impressions being calculated using a method comprising: (a) generating with a computer a matrix having a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, wherein a row and a column define a cell, each of said plurality of rows represents a specific day of delivery, each of said plurality of columns represents number of days before delivery, and value of a cell represents number of ad impressions to be delivered; (b) populating cells of said matrix with data; (c) plotting a graph having a y-axis and an x-axis, said y-axis representing day of delivery and said x-axis representing days before delivery, wherein data points on said graph correspond to said cells of said matrix; (d) identifying a data line from said graph based on a selected date; and (e) extrapolating a requested data point using said data line.