Advertising futures marketplace methods and systems

Abstract

Methods and systems provide information products relating to past, present and future advertising transactions (i.e., contracts to place advertisements in various media) to enable a marketplace in advertising products. Information regarding a plurality of advertising transactions are gathered. Data is analyzed to determine its attributes. Some attribute values are transformed and the attribute values are stored in a database. Attributes are organized or indexed according to a taxonomy of attributes to provide indexes to advertising transaction records. Indexes and benchmarks for various selected types of advertising transactions can be generated by selecting certain records from the database and aggregating the data or otherwise synthesizing information products, such as benchmarks and market entities for the selected types of advertising transactions. Information products may be published and syndicated as market indexes and benchmarks.

1 . A computer system, comprising:
 a programmable processor;   a network interface coupled to the programmable processor and configured to enable the programmable processor to communicate via a network; and   a memory coupled to the programmable processor,   wherein the programmable processor is configured with executable instructions to perform steps comprising:
 receiving answers to survey questions from market participants in advertising markets wherein the survey questions are configured to solicit information about advertising activity levels in the advertising markets; 
 transforming the received survey answers into at least one advertising activity level score; and 
 indexing the advertising activity level score to establish an advertising activity level benchmark for a type of advertising activity, wherein the advertising activity levels are selected from the group consisting of purchasing activity levels, selling activity levels, viewing activity levels, marketing activity levels, inquiry activity levels, hiring activity levels, account visit activity levels, and request for proposal activity levels. 
   
     
     
         2 . The computer system of  claim 1 , wherein the programmable processor is further configured with executable instructions to perform further steps comprising:
 publishing the indexed advertising activity level score as an advertising activity index;   syndicating the indexed advertising activity level score; and   archiving the indexed advertising activity level score.   
     
     
         3 . A computer system, comprising:
 a programmable processor;   a network interface coupled to the programmable processor and configured to enable the programmable processor to communicate via a network; and   a memory coupled to the programmable processor,   wherein the programmable processor is configured with executable instructions to perform steps comprising:
 receiving answers to survey questions from market participants in advertising markets wherein the survey questions are configured to solicit information about future or proposed advertising activity levels in the advertising markets for a predetermined future time period; 
 transforming survey answers into at least one future advertising activity level score; and 
 indexing the future advertising activity level score to establish a future advertising activity level benchmark for a type of advertising activity, wherein the advertising activity levels are selected from the group consisting of purchasing activity levels, selling activity levels, viewing activity levels, marketing activity levels, inquiry activity levels, hiring activity levels, account visit activity levels, and request for proposal activity levels. 
   
     
     
         4 . The computer system of  claim 3 , wherein the programmable processor is further configured with executable instructions to perform further steps comprising:
 publishing the indexed future advertising activity level score as a future advertising activity index;   syndicating the indexed future advertising activity level score; and   archiving the indexed future advertising activity level score.   
     
     
         5 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions configured to cause a computer to perform operations comprising:
 receiving answers to survey questions from market participants in advertising markets wherein the survey questions are configured to solicit information about future or proposed advertising activity levels in the advertising markets for a predetermined future time period;   transforming survey answers into at least one future advertising activity level score; and   indexing the future advertising activity level score to establish a future advertising activity level benchmark for a type of advertising activity, wherein the advertising activity levels are selected from the group consisting of purchasing activity levels, selling activity levels, viewing activity levels, marketing activity levels, inquiry activity levels, hiring activity levels, account visit activity levels, and request for proposal activity levels.   
     
     
         6 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 5 , wherein the stored programmable computer-executable instructions are configured to cause a computer to perform operations further comprising:
 publishing the indexed advertising activity level score as an advertising activity index;   syndicating the indexed advertising activity level score; and   archiving the indexed advertising activity level score.