System and method for delivering customized advertisements within interactive communication systems

Abstract

The present invention is a system and method for delivering customized electronic advertisements in an interactive communication system. The customized advertisements are selected based on consumer profiles and are then integrated with offerings maintained by different content providers. The preferred interactive communication system interconnects multiple consumer computers, multiple content provider computers and multiple Internet provider computers with an advertisement provider computer. Whenever a consumer directs one of the consumer computers to access an offering existing in one of the content provider computers, an advertising request is sent to the advertisement provider computer. Upon receiving the advertising request, the advertising provider computer generates a custom advertisement based on the consumer's profile. The custom advertisement is then combined with the offering from the content provider computer and displayed to the consumer. The advertisement provider computer also credits a consumer account, a content provider account and an internet provider account each time a consumer views a custom advertisement. Furthermore, the advertisement provider computer tracks consumer responses to the customized advertisements.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method for a content provider computing device to provide content and an advertisement to a consumer computing device, comprising:
 determining, based on information stored on the consumer computing device, consumer identifier information associated with a request for content from the consumer computing device;   responsive to the request for content, sending a request for an advertisement from the content provider computing device to an advertisement computing device;   sending, by the content provider computing device to the consumer computing device for display on the consumer computing device, the requested content and the advertisement received from the advertisement computing device in response to the request for the advertisement, the advertisement being selected by the advertisement computing device based on a consumer profile associated with the consumer identifier information, and   requesting, by the content provider computing device, a credit for the advertisement sent by the content provider computing device to the consumer computing device.   
     
     
         2 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , comprising determining the consumer identification information from a cookie stored on the consumer computing device. 
     
     
         3 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the request for the advertisement is sent over a communications network. 
     
     
         4 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the request for the advertisement comprises a content provider identifier. 
     
     
         5 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , comprising embedding the advertisement with the requested content prior to sending to the consumer computing device. 
     
     
         6 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , comprising sending the requested content in at least one HTML page. 
     
     
         7 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , comprising registering a content provider associated with the content provider computing device with the advertisement computing device. 
     
     
         8 . A computing device, comprising:
 a memory having stored thereon instructions that upon execution on the computing device cause the computing device to at least:   determine consumer identifier information associated with a request for content from a consumer computing device;   send a request for an advertisement to an advertisement computing device based on the request for content and the consumer identifier information;   process an advertisement selected by the advertisement computing device based on a consumer profile associated with the consumer identifier information;   send to the consumer computing device the requested content along with the processed advertisement for display on the consumer computing device, and request a credit for the advertisement sent to the consumer computing device.   
     
     
         9 . The device as recited in  claim 8 , the memory having stored thereon instructions that upon execution cause the computing device to at least determine the consumer identification information based on information stored on the consumer computing device. 
     
     
         10 . The device as recited in  claim 8 , the memory having stored thereon instructions that upon execution cause the computing device to at least insert the advertisement into an electronic page containing the requested content. 
     
     
         11 . The device as recited in  claim 10 , wherein the electronic page comprises HTML. 
     
     
         12 . The device as recited in  claim 8 , wherein the request for the advertisement comprises a content provider identifier. 
     
     
         13 . The device as recited in  claim 8 , the memory having stored thereon instructions that upon execution cause the computing device to at least register with the advertisement computing device a content provider associated with the computing device. 
     
     
         14 . A computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon computer-readable instructions that upon execution on a first computing device at least cause:
 determining consumer identifier information associated with a request for content from a second computing device associated with a consumer;   requesting an advertisement from a third computing device associated with an advertiser, the request for the advertisement based on the request for content and the consumer identifier information;   sending from the first computing device to the second computing device an electronic page comprising the requested content along with the advertisement received from the third computing device; and   sending a request for a credit for the advertisement sent by the first computing device to the second computing device.   
     
     
         15 . The computer-readable storage medium as recited in  claim 14 , further having stored thereon computer-readable instructions that upon execution on the first computing device at least cause determining the consumer identification information from information stored on the second computing device. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-readable storage medium as recited in  claim 15 , further having stored thereon computer-readable instructions that upon execution on the first computing device at least cause determining the consumer identification information from information stored in a cookie that is received from the second computing device. 
     
     
         17 . The computer-readable storage medium as recited in  claim 14 , further having stored thereon computer-readable instructions that upon execution on the first computing device at least cause insertion of the advertisement into the electronic page containing the requested content. 
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable medium as recited in  claim 14 , wherein the electronic page comprises HTML. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable medium as recited in  claim 14 , wherein the request for an advertisement comprises a content provider identifier. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable storage medium as recited in  claim 14 , further having stored thereon computer-readable instructions that upon execution on the first computing device at least cause registering a content provider associated with the first computing device with the third computing device.