System for direct placement of commercial advertising, public service announcements and other content on electronic billboard displays

Abstract

Commercial advertisers, such as consumer product companies and the advertising agents that represent them, directly access a network of thousands of large, high resolution electronic displays located in high traffic areas and directly send their own advertisements electronically to the network to be displayed at locations and times selected by the advertisers.

That which is claimed:  
     
         1 . A system permitting commercial advertisers to directly place video or still image advertisements at selected times and locations on a network of multiple electronic displays, said system comprising: 
 a network including a plurality of electronic displays located in high traffic areas such as areas of high vehicular traffic, indoor and outdoor areas with high pedestrian traffic, movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas and casinos;    at least one central information processing station including: 
 means permitting commercial advertising customers of the system to review a schedule of times and electronic display locations that are available for placement of advertisements and permitting customers to purchase available times at desired electronic display locations for placement of their advertising content;  
 means for receiving customer transmitted video or still image advertising content;  
 means for transmitting the advertising content received from the customer to the customer-selected electronic display location; and  
 means for driving each selected electronic display to display the customer's advertising content at the customer-selected time.  
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein at least a substantial number of electronic displays are LED displays.  
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2  wherein each electronic display has its own dedicated server that receives advertising content information from the central information processing station and drives its respective electronic display to display the customer's advertising content at the customer-selected time.  
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the mode of transmission for said means for transmitting the advertising content to the customer-selected electronic display is selected from the group consisting of high speed cable, satellite, dedicated phone, high speed line (e.g., ISDN), cellular, Internet, radio/radio pulse transmission and high speed optical fiber.  
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said central information processing system includes a customer interface web server permitting public Internet access to the system.  
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1  including means for permitting review of customer advertising content before the content is transmitted to the customer-selected electronic display.  
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1  including means for generating a bill for the advertising time.  
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1  including means for generating a report to be sent to the customer confirming that an advertisement has run as ordered.  
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8  wherein said means for generating a report serves to generate demographic or market analysis.  
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1  wherein at least a substantial number of said electronic displays have associated cameras.  
     
     
         11 . A system providing video or still image advertisements at selected times and locations on a network of multiple electronic displays, said system comprising: 
 a network including a plurality of electronic displays located in high traffic areas such as areas of high vehicular traffic, indoor and outdoor areas with high pedestrian traffic, movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas and casinos;    at least one central information processing station including: 
 means permitting advertising customers of the system to purchase time slots at selected electronic display locations for display of their advertising content;  
 means for transmitting customer advertising content to the selected electronic display locations; and  
   means for driving the electronic display at each selected location to display the customer's advertising content at the selected time.    
     
     
         12 . A method of providing video or still image advertisements at selected times and locations on a network of multiple electronic displays that are located in high traffic areas such as areas of high vehicular traffic, indoor and outdoor areas with high pedestrian traffic, movie theaters, restaurants, sports arenas and casinos; 
 permitting advertising customers of the system to purchase time slots at selected electronic display locations for display of their advertising content;    transmitting customer advertising content to the selected electronic display locations; and    driving the electronic display at each selected location to display the customer's advertising content at the selected time.