System and Method for Word-of-Mouth Advertising

Abstract

A system and method to facilitate word-of-mouth advertising and sales support associated with displayed media objects on distributed networks is described. The system provides one or more advocates to a network user accessing advertising of a brand, product, or service. One or more of the advocates may be socially related to the user. User interactions with the advocates are facilitated through a real-time communication network, follow-on commercial activity is tracked, and the value of word-of-mouth advocacy is captured and distributed.

1 . A method, comprising:
 accessing a content object to be perceived by a consumer;   determining a consumption target related to the content object;   identifying one or more advertisers related to one or more attributes of the consumer, the consumption target, and a perception context;   associating each advertiser in said one or more advertisers with an interface control;   conveying the one or more interface controls to the consumer in proximity to the content object; and   tracking user interactions with the one or more interface controls.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the interface control is a hypertext link. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the interface control comprises a perceivable image associated with the advertiser. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the identifying of a group of advertisers related to one or more attributes of the consumer, the consumption target, and a perception context further comprises:
 accessing a datastore of advertisers;   determining, for each available advertiser, a measure of marketing value related to the consumption target;   determining, for each available advertiser, a measure of social connection to the consumer;   combining, for each available advertiser, the measures of marketing value and social connection to form a social marketing benefit score;   sorting the combined social marketing benefit scores; and   identifying a subset of the highest scoring available advertisers as the group of advertisers.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the accessing a datastore of advertisers further comprises transmitting a request to a host system for identification of available advertisers. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the combining of the measures of marketing value and social connection to form a social marketing benefit score comprises multiplying the measure of marketing value by the measure of social connection. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the consumption target is further determined as one or more of a screen display theme, one or more consistently promoted media objects on the screen display, or one or more dynamically promoted media objects on the screen display. 
     
     
         8 . A method comprising:
 accessing a content object to be perceived by a consumer;   determining a consumption target related to the content object;   identifying one or more advertisers related to one or more attributes of the consumer, the consumption target, and a perception context;   associating each advertiser in said one or more advertisers with an interface control;   conveying the one or more interface controls to the consumer in proximity to the content object;   responding to a consumer action to engage one of the interface controls by facilitating a communication with the associated advertiser; and   replacing unavailable advertisers in said group of advertisers when required.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the interface control is a hypertext link. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the interface control comprises a perceivable image associated with the advertiser. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the identifying of a group of advertisers related to one or more attributes of the consumer, the consumption target, and a perception context further comprises:
 accessing a datastore of advertisers;   determining, for each available advertiser, a measure of marketing value related to the consumption target;   determining, for each available advertiser, a measure of social connection to the consumer;   combining, for each available advertiser, the measures of marketing value and social connection to form a social marketing benefit score;   sorting the combined social marketing benefit scores; and   identifying a subset of the highest scoring available advertisers as the group of advertisers.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein initiating a communication comprises initiating a telephone call, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call, a Short Message Service (SMS) message, an Instant Message (IM) message, a streaming audio/video conference, or an e-mail. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein replacing unavailable advertisers in said group of advertisers when required further comprises
 periodically polling a remote host to determine the status of a set of current advertisers;   identifying one or more unavailable advertisers in the set of current advertisers;   determining one or more attributes of each of the one or more unavailable advertisers; and   polling a remote host to determine a replacement advertiser for each unavailable advertiser with similar attributes.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein replacing unavailable advertisers in said group of advertisers when required comprises
 periodically polling an input interface to detect a consumer-initiated command;   determining if a consumer-initiated command is a refresh command or a replace command;   and, in response to a consumer-initiated refresh or replace command,
 polling a remote host to determine the status of a set of current advertisers; 
 identifying one or more unavailable advertisers in the set of current advertisers; 
 determining one or more attributes of each of the one or more unavailable advertisers; and 
 polling a remote host to determine a replacement advertiser with similar attributes. 
   
     
     
         15 . An apparatus comprising a memory, a processor, and one or more input/output interfaces, said memory containing s sequence of processor instructions, and said sequence of processor instructions operable to cause the processor to:
 access a content object to be perceived by a consumer;   determine a consumption target related to the content object;   identify one or more advertisers related to one or more attributes of the consumer, the consumption target, and a perception context;   associate each advertiser in said one or more advertisers with an interface control;   convey the one or more interface controls to the consumer in proximity to the content object; and track user interactions with the one or more interface controls.   
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the identification of a group of advertisers related to one or more attributes of the consumer, the consumption target, and a perception context further comprises:
 accessing a datastore of advertisers;   determining, for each available advertiser, a measure of marketing value related to the consumption target;   determining, for each available advertiser, a measure of social connection to the consumer;   combining, for each available advertiser, the measures of marketing value and social connection to form a social marketing benefit score;   sorting the combined social marketing benefit scores; and   identifying a subset of the highest scoring available advertisers as the group of advertisers.   
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , wherein the accessing a datastore of advertisers further comprises transmitting a request to a host system for identification of available advertisers. 
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , wherein the combining of the measures of marketing value and social connection to form a social marketing benefit score comprises multiplying the measure of marketing value by the measure of social connection. 
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the consumption target is further determined as one or more of a screen display theme, one or more consistently promoted media objects on the screen display, or one or more dynamically promoted media objects on the screen display. 
     
     
         20 . An apparatus comprising a memory, a processor, and one or more input/output interfaces, said memory containing s sequence of processor instructions, and said sequence of processor instructions operable to cause the processor to:
 access a content object to be perceived by a consumer;   determine a consumption target related to the content object;   identify a group of one or more advertisers related to one or more attributes of the consumer, the consumption target, and a perception context;   associate each advertiser in said group of advertisers with an interface control;   convey the one or more interface controls to the consumer in proximity to the content object;   respond to a consumer action to engage one of the interface controls by facilitating a communication with the associated advertiser; and   replace unavailable advertisers in said group of advertisers when required.   
     
     
         21 . The apparatus of  claim 20 , wherein identification of a group of advertisers related to one or more attributes of the consumer, the consumption target, and a perception context further comprises:
 accessing a datastore of advertisers;   determining, for each available advertiser, a measure of marketing value related to the consumption target;   determining, for each available advertiser, a measure of social connection to the consumer;   combining, for each available advertiser, the measures of marketing value and social connection to form a social marketing benefit score;   sorting the combined social marketing benefit scores; and   identifying a subset of the highest scoring available advertisers as the group of advertisers.   
     
     
         22 . The apparatus of  claim 20 , wherein initiation of a communication comprises initiation of a telephone call, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call, a Short Message Service (SMS) message, an Instant Message (IM) message, a streaming audio/video conference, or an e-mail. 
     
     
         23 . The apparatus of  claim 20 , wherein replacing unavailable advertisers in said group of advertisers when required further comprises
 periodically polling a remote host to determine the status of a set of current advertisers;   identifying one or more unavailable advertisers in the set of current advertisers;   determining one or more attributes of each of the one or more unavailable advertisers; and   polling a remote host to determine a replacement advertiser with similar attributes.   
     
     
         24 . The apparatus of  claim 20 , wherein replacing unavailable advertisers in said group of advertisers when required comprises
 periodically polling an input interface to detect a consumer-initiated command;   determining if a consumer-initiated command is a refresh command; and   in response to a consumer-initiated refresh command, polling a remote host to determine the status of a set of current advertisers;
 identifying one or more unavailable advertisers in the set of current advertisers; 
 determining one or more attributes of each of the one or more unavailable advertisers; and 
 polling a remote host to determine a replacement advertiser with similar attributes. 
   
     
     
         25 . A graphical user interface comprising
 a visual display driver, a navigational means, an indicator of a selection alternative, and a selection means;   wherein the visual display driver is operative to
 display one or more media objects promoting consumption of a target consisting of a product, service, brand or website, and 
 display a set of one or more advertisers in proximity to each of the one or more promotional media objects, wherein each of said advertisers is related to the consumption target, the consumer, and the display context; 
   wherein the navigational means permits the consumer to traverse the visual display;   wherein the indicator of a selection alternative at any time highlights at most one image in the set of images of advertisers; and   wherein the selection means, when activated with a highlighted image of an advertiser in the set of advertisers, facilitates live communication between the consumer and the corresponding advertiser.   
     
     
         26 . The graphical user interface of  claim 25 , wherein the selection means is activated by pushing a computer mouse button or a keyboard selection button. 
     
     
         27 . The graphical user interface of  claim 25 , wherein the selection means comprises a touch-sensitive screen display. 
     
     
         28 . The graphical user interface of  claim 25 , wherein the navigational means comprise a consumer movable cursor location. 
     
     
         29 . The graphical user interface of  claim 25 , wherein facilitating live communication comprises initiating a telephone call, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call, a Short Message Service (SMS) message, an Instant Message (IM) message, or a streaming audio/video conference.