Targeting Online Ads Based on Political Demographics

Abstract

Systems and methods for facilitating and targeting of online ads to voters within a selected political demographic are presented. Audience targeting may be accomplished in several ways including: geo-targeting; contextual targeting; behavioral targeting; site placement; and targeted household television ads. This segment or neighborhood level targeting allows more granularity based upon, for example, hot topics and people interested in those topics based upon where populations of people live (i.e., the location of the household) and voter registration. In this manner, a candidate may delivery an ad in order to influence a select group of people in a particular location. In some embodiments, the ad is delivered by dropping and later reading a tracking cookie that associates the voter's browser with political demographic information.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A non-volatile computer readable medium having stored therein a plurality of instructions for targeting a message to selected potential voters comprising and for causing one or more processors on a network device to execute the steps of
 providing an electronic map interface configured to allow a user to select political demographic criteria to define a target group of voters;   transmitting instructions to a data mining provider computer system to determine a subset of registered voters in a database, the subset of registered voters defining a part of the target group; selecting a message to display to the subset of voters; and   transmitting instructions to a digital service provider computer system to automatically request electronic display of the message to users of a group of electronic devices who have a likely identity of one of the voters in the subset of voters.   
     
     
         2 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the step of transmitting instructions to the digital service provider computer system to automatically request electronic display of a message comprises requesting display of an advertisement to a subset of cable, IPTV, mobile or satellite TV subscribers whose household includes at least one member that is in the subset of voters. 
     
     
         3 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the step of transmitting instructions to the digital service provider computer system to automatically request electronic display of the message comprises bidding on ad impressions to be displayed on an electronic device associated with at least one member that is in the subset of voters. 
     
     
         4 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the step transmitting instructions to the digital service provider computer system to automatically request electronic display of the message comprises requesting display of the message as an ad impression on an electronic device, which is coupled to a cable, satellite or mobile network and associated with at least one member that is in the subset of voters. 
     
     
         5 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein a user of a browser on one of the group of electronic devices is identified as matching-selected demographic criteria based on at least one tracking cookie placed on the browser. 
     
     
         6 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the electronic map interface allows a user to select the political party affiliation of voters to target with the message. 
     
     
         7 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the electronic map interface allows a user to select at least one electoral criterion, voting geography and associated media network geographies. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first target set of political demographic information includes at least one political district. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first user set of political demographic information includes at least at a political party associated with the likely identity of the first user. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising the digital service provider computer system automatically generating, using the processor, a bid for the right to display the first ad impression, and sending the bid to an advertisement exchange. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the first target set of political demographic information includes at least one political district. 
     
     
         12 . An advertising system for determining a network location associated with a physical location comprising:
 (a) an advertiser module having a first communication interface, for accepting an advertisement identifier and a targeting criterion associated with an advertisement, computing a plurality of restricted identifiers satisfying the targeting criterion, and storing the advertisement identifier, the targeting criterion and the plurality of restricted identifiers in a first computer database, wherein the advertisement identifier identifies the advertisement;   (b) an intermediate module having a second communication interface, for receiving the advertisement identifier and the plurality of restricted identifiers from the advertiser module, storing the advertisement identifier and the plurality of restricted identifiers in a second computer database, communicating the plurality of restricted identifiers to at least one service provider, receiving an indication of a plurality of non-restricted identifiers associated with the plurality of restricted identifiers, and associating the advertisement identifier with the plurality of non-restricted identifiers; and   (c) an association module operated by the at least one service provider having a third communication interface, the association module for receiving the plurality of restricted identifiers, associating the plurality of restricted identifiers with the plurality of non-restricted identifiers stored in a third computer database, and communicating the indication of the plurality of non-restricted identifiers to the intermediate module.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the targeting criterion comprises personally identifying information about a subscriber of the at least one service provider. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the targeting criterion is data that is correlatable with postal addresses. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the targeting criterion is selected from the group consisting of: names, postal addresses, postal codes, e-mail addresses, network equipment identifiers, government-issued alphanumeric identification strings, privately-issued alphanumeric identification strings, behavioral profiles, website content profiles, administrative divisions, municipal districts, school districts, electoral districts, demographic market areas, neighborhood trading areas, geographic identifiers, and geographic area identifiers. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the geographic area identifiers comprise at least one geographic center point, at least one inner radius defining an inner circular border and at least one outer radius defining an outer circular border of a geographical area that is between the inner circular border and the outer circular border when both the inner circular border and the outer circular border are centered on the at least one geographic center point.