Systems and methods for engaging an audience in a conversational advertisement

Abstract

A system and method are described for engaging an audience in a conversational advertisement. A conversational advertising system converses with an audience using spoken words. The conversational advertising system uses a speech recognition application to convert an audience's spoken input into text and a text-to-speech application to transform text of a response to speech that is to be played to the audience. The conversational adverting system follows an advertisement script to guide the audience in a conversation.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-readable storage device carrying instructions that, when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations for engaging an audience in an advertisement, the operations comprising:
 providing an indication to present an advertisement to a user;   receiving a first message of an identified interactive, audio-based advertisement;   providing audio data representing a verbal response by the user to the first message of the interactive, audio-based advertisement;   receiving a response to provide to the user,   performing an action based on the received response to provide to the user,
 wherein the action is related to the audio data representing the verbal response by the user to the first message. 
   
     
     
         2 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the response to provide to the user is determined based at least in part on spoken words identified from the audio data representing the verbal response by the user to the first message,   wherein the response to provide to the user is customized based at least in part on a purchase history associated with the user indicating that the user purchased an identified product,   wherein the purchase history associated with the user is identified based on a verbal discussion with the user that included a mention of the identified product prior to determining that the user already purchased the identified product, and   wherein the customizing is performed such that the response to provide to the user steers the verbal discussion with the user toward discussing accessories for that identified product by selecting an advertisement script or a portion of the advertisement script based on the identified product; and   
     
     
         3 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the first message of the identified interactive, audio-based advertisement is selected based at least in part on information associated with the user and an input of the user. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein the action based on the received response to provide to the user is identified based at least in part on an identified characteristic of the user. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 conveying to the user the response to provide the user, wherein the information associated with the user indicates an identified characteristic of the user, and wherein the response to provide the user includes audio data.   
     
     
         6 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the first message of the identified interactive, audio-based advertisement includes audio data;   wherein the response to provide to the user includes visual elements; and   wherein the first message is determined based at least in part on a calendar entry associated with the user.   
     
     
         7 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 1 , wherein providing the indication to present the advertisement to the user includes providing a user input, wherein the first message of the identified interactive, audio-based advertisement is determined based at least in part on the user input. 
     
     
         8 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 11 ,
 wherein the indication to present an advertisement to a user is based on:
 a noise level measured to be below a certain amplitude; 
 a device associated with the user is determined to be within a particular geographic area; or 
 the user being determined to be viewing a particular video. 
   
     
     
         9 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the response to provide to the user is customized based at least in part on a purchase history associated with the user indicating that the user purchased an identified product,   wherein the purchase history associated with the user is identified based on a verbal discussion with the user that included a mention of the identified product prior to determining that the user already purchased the identified product, and   wherein the verbal discussion with the user previously included a discussion of the identified product prior to determining that the user already purchased the identified product.   
     
     
         10 . The computer-readable storage device of  claim 1 ,
 wherein the performed action includes providing an auditory message identified in the selected advertisement script or a selected portion of the advertisement script.   
     
     
         11 . A method for engaging an audience in an advertisement, the method comprising:
 providing an indication to present an advertisement to a user;   receiving a first message of an identified interactive, audio-based advertisement;   providing audio data representing a verbal response by the user to the first message of the interactive, audio-based advertisement;   receiving a response to provide to the user,   performing an action based on the received response to provide to the user,
 wherein the action is related to the audio data representing the verbal response by the user to the first message. 
   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the response to provide to the user is determined based at least in part on spoken words identified from the audio data representing the verbal response by the user to the first message. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the response to provide to the user is customized based at least in part on a purchase history associated with the user indicating that the user purchased an identified product, and
 wherein the purchase history associated with the user is identified based on a verbal discussion with the user that included a mention of the identified product prior to determining that the user already purchased the identified product.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the customizing is performed such that the response to provide to the user steers the verbal discussion with the user toward discussing accessories for that identified product by selecting an advertisement script or a portion of the advertisement script based on the identified product. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the first message of the identified interactive, audio-based advertisement is selected based at least in part on information associated with the user and an input of the user. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 conveying to the user the response to provide the user, wherein the information associated with the user indicates an identified characteristic of the user, and wherein the response to provide the user includes audio data.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 11 ,
 wherein the first message of the identified interactive, audio-based advertisement includes audio data;   wherein the response to provide to the user includes visual elements; and   wherein the first message is determined based at least in part on a calendar entry associated with the user.   
     
     
         18 . A system for engaging an audience in a conversational advertisement, wherein the system includes a processor and a memory, the system comprising:
 a conversation module implemented by the processor and configured to:
 receive an indication to present a conversational advertisement to multiple members of an audience; 
 identify a conversational advertisement to present to the multiple members of the audience; 
 convey a first message of the conversational advertisement to the multiple members of the audience; 
 process words from audio data representing a verbal response to the first message from a first member of the multiple members of the audience; and 
 determine a response to convey to the first member of the audience that is based on the words processed from the audio data representing the verbal response; and 
   a speech recognition module implemented by the processor and configured to:
 receive audio data representing the verbal response of the first member of the audience to the first message of the conversational advertisement; and 
 identify the words from the audio data representing the verbal response to the first message from the first member of the audience. 
   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the conversational advertisement includes an advertisement script, wherein the advertisement script includes multiple possible responses based on different received verbal responses; and wherein the conversation module is further configured to:
 compare the words from the audio data to at least a portion of the advertisement script; and   identify, based on the comparison, a script response that is included in the advertisement script as the response to convey to the first member of the audience.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the conversation module is further configured to:
 determine an action to be performed based on the words from the audio data representing the verbal response to the first message from the first member of the audience.