Various advertising schemes have been developed over the years. For example, an early advertising scheme still used today involves printing advertisements and recording information about the “impressions.” Impression information tends to reflect the subject matter of the advertisement, the general audience targeted, the location where printed, etc. Another common advertising scheme involves inserting commercials into television programming. Again, “impressions” about the advertisement are recorded. An advertising technique that has gained prominence in the Internet age has been banner and pop-up type advertisements. Impressions may be recorded, e.g., in the form of cookies or the like, and sometimes may be reported back to a local server. Based on these and/or other information, including demographic, taste, shopping habit, and/or other comparisons, it has sometimes been possible to attempt to more precisely target advertisements to users.
Unfortunately, such advertising techniques suffer several disadvantages. For example, it often is difficult to accurately record impression information for printed advertisements and television commercials. Although it is possible to get an idea about the broad area and/or audience covered, the time of day a spot was run, and general demographic information about neighborhoods and/or television viewers, it is difficult to capture more detailed and/or more precise impression information. Banner and pop-up ads are able to gather more information about a user and/or a user's computer. However, the information still may be limited based on privacy settings set by the user and/or technical challenges related to the network-based connections. Moreover, such advertisements typically are limited to exposure on a personal computer.
There are also problems associated with the effect of advertisements on users. Oftentimes, printed advertisements are simply discarded. Television commercials increasingly are being ignored or completely skipped (e.g., through the proliferation of digital video recorders and “TV on DVD” style offerings). More recently, banner and pop-up ads tend to be viewed as intrusive and a violation of privacy. Accordingly, numerous attempts have been made to try to filter or reduce the appearance of banner and pop-up ads on computers. Unsolicited email messages have been labeled “spam,” are subject to email client filters, and even have been the subject of several bills sponsored in both houses of the U.S. Congress.
In view of the above, a further problem exists in that although digital advertisement distribution techniques present a better chance of reaching potential customers in new and engaging ways while also allowing advertisers to gather more detailed impression information, they tend to be subject to more criticism and to technology-based filtering.
Therefore, it will be appreciated that there is a need in the art for improved digital advertisement distribution techniques. It also will be appreciated that there is a need in the art for systems and/or methods for distributing advertisements from a central advertisement network to one or more peripheral devices at a location via a local advertisement server.
One aspect of certain exemplary embodiments disclosed herein relates to a local advertisement server located in an out-of-home (OOH) location and connected to a central advertising network being configured to cause advertisements to be displayed on a peripheral device.
Another aspect of certain exemplary embodiments relates to a peripheral device for use in an out-of-home location configured to display ads from a local advertisement server connected to a central advertising network.
Still another aspect of certain exemplary embodiments relates to a method of displaying advertisements on a peripheral device connected to a local server in an out-of-home location.
Yet another aspect of certain exemplary embodiments relates to an advertising system including a local advertisement server, the local advertisement server being located in an out-of-home location and being connected to a central advertising network such that it is configured to cause advertisements to be displayed on a peripheral device.
In certain exemplary embodiments, a local advertisement server is provided. A network connection to a central advertising network located remote from the local advertisement server is provided. A storage location is configured to store an advertisement database, with the advertisement database including advertisements received from the central advertising network via the network connection along with content control data associated with each said advertisement. A local connection to one or more peripheral devices located in the same location as the local advertisement server is provided. A display controller is configured to cause the one or more peripheral devices connected to the local advertisement server via the local connection to display at least some of the advertisements received from the central advertising network in dependence on the content control data associated with the advertisements.
In certain exemplary embodiments, an advertisement system or network comprising a plurality of such local advertisement servers is provided, with each said local advertisement server being located at a different location.
In certain exemplary embodiments, an advertising method for providing a plurality of electronic advertisements to peripheral display devices distributed across a plurality of locations is provided. A plurality of local advertisement servers are provided, with each said local advertisement server being located at a different location. A central advertising network located remote from the local advertisement servers is provided. At least some electronic advertisements are distributed from the central advertising network to the local advertisement servers via network connections provided to the respective local advertisement servers. Advertisement databases are stored via storage locations provided to the respective local advertisement servers, with the advertisement databases including electronic advertisements received from the central advertising network via the respective network connection along with content control data associated with each said electronic advertisement. At each said local advertisement server, at least one advertisement queue is maintained. Each said local server further comprises a display controller configured to cause any peripheral display devices connected thereto to display at least some of the electronic advertisements received from the central advertising network in dependence on the content control data associated with the electronic advertisements and the respective at least one advertisement queue. Each said electronic advertisement is one of a leader board, banner, or media clip. The content control data for each electronic advertisement comprises indications of how and when the associated electronic advertisement should be displayed.
These aspects and exemplary embodiments may be used separately and/or applied in various combinations to achieve yet further embodiments of this invention. Additionally, the exemplary embodiments described herein may be implemented as any suitable combination of programmed logic circuitry (e.g., as any suitable combination of hardware, software, firmware, and/or the like). In certain exemplary embodiments, computer readable storage mediums also may be provided.
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