Patent ID: 7356477

Claim:
A method for displaying advertisements (â€œadsâ€) at a point-of-sale (POS) location, the method comprising: dividing a consumer transaction at a POS location into multiple time frames, a total duration of the time frames equaling a total duration of the transaction; calculating a busyness metric indicative of a busyness of the POS location; determining an advertisement (ad) from a set of available ads for display in one of the time frames as a function of (i) the busyness metric, wherein if the busyness metric exceeds a busyness threshold value the ad is selected from a portion of the available ads having a duration that is less than a predetermined duration, (ii) a priority level of the ad, wherein the priority level is manually adjustable at any time during the transaction, and (iii) an ad campaign including a plurality of ads, at least one of which is a sponsor ad, wherein a determination is made as to whether a conflict exists between the determined ad and the sponsor ad; prior to displaying the ad, setting a minimum duration for the ad, wherein the minimum duration is independent of a predetermined duration of the ad; displaying the ad in the one of the time frames; and during the displaying, recalculating the busyness metric, wherein if the recalculated busyness metric exceeds the threshold value, the predetermined duration of the ad is reduced.