Abstract: A method for authentication of coupons using a blockchain includes: storing transaction data for a payment transaction, wherein the transaction data includes at least a transaction amount; receiving an identification value; receiving a block included in a blockchain, wherein the block includes at least a block header and a plurality of transaction values, each transaction value including at least a coupon identifier and coupon data; executing a query on the received block to identify a specific transaction value of the plurality of transaction values where the included coupon identifier corresponds to the received identification value; and executing a query on the memory to update at least the transaction amount included in the stored transaction data based on the coupon data included in the identified specific transaction value.

Abstract: In an approach to automated merchandising, one or more computer processors detect access to an electronic store by a user. The one or more computer processors determine a location of the user. The one or more computer processors retrieve a plurality of social media communications associated with the location of the user, where social media communications include one or more publically available entries made by one or more users of one or more social media applications. The one or more computer processors determine whether the retrieved social media communications are associated with one or more merchandise associated with the electronic store. In response to determining the retrieved social media communications are associated with the one or more merchandise associated with the electronic store, the one or more computer processors determine a position of the one or more merchandise in one or more communication channels.

Abstract: Methods, systems and apparatus for identifying illegitimate selections of content items. In some implementations, one or more servers can receive display data specifying a display state of a web page in a viewport. The web page includes a content item. Display instances are identified. A display instance is a display of at least a portion of the content item in the viewport. Selection instances of the content item are identified. A selection instance is a selection of the content item. The server(s) determines whether a selection of the content item occurred during a display of at least a portion of the content item in the viewport based on the display instances and the selection instances. A selection of the content is defined as an illegitimate selection if the selection did not occur during a display of at least a portion of the content item in the viewport.

Abstract: A method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code includes receiving advertising criteria, collecting advertisement cost data, and detecting virtual universe (VU) data. Additionally, the method includes determining optimal advertisement parameters based on the advertising criteria, the advertisement cost data and the VU data, and at least one of displaying the optimal advertisement parameters and invoking an advertisement in the VU in accordance with the optimal advertisement parameters.

Abstract: The present disclosure is related to discounting a price of commodities to a consumer based on purchases made by the consumer with a financial card. A consumer registers with a reward program by providing information associated with a financial card to a reward program provider. The reward program provider may validate the financial card with a financial card provider (e.g., a card association), and, in response to a successful validation of the financial card, may receive, from the financial card provider, a token that may be used to identify purchases made by the consumer using the financial card, and the reward program provider may delete the financial information provided by the consumer during the registration process. The reward program provider may receive information that includes the token and indicates purchases made by the consumer and is used to determine rewards earned by the consumer.

Abstract: Discovering relevant concepts and context for content nodes to determine a user's intent includes identifying one or more concept candidates in a content node based at least in part on one or more statistical measures, and matching concepts in a concept association map against text in the content node. The concept association map represents concepts, concept metadata, and relationships between the concepts. The one or more concept candidates are ranked to create a ranked one or more concept candidates based at least in part on a measure of relevance. The ranked one or more concept candidates is expanded according to one or more cost functions. The expanded set of concepts is stored in association with the content node.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that performs inference detection based on Internet advertisements. In doing so, this system first receives a set of topic words, performs a search query on each topic word using a search engine, and gathers a set of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) associated with sponsored advertisement from the search results corresponding to each search query. Then, the system determines a correlation between two topic words based on their corresponding URLs associated with sponsored advertisement, and produces a result which indicates groups of correlated topic words.

Abstract: A system and method for verified monetization. A definition of a commercial campaign is received wherein the definition comprises an identification of an advertiser and an advertisement, at least one trigger condition, at least one monetization condition, at least one verification policy, and at least one monetization action, wherein trigger conditions relate to the occurrence of trigger events, the monetization conditions relate to location data relating to at least one person, verification policies relates to the reliability of the location data, and the monetization actions relates to payments to payees. When an indication of an association between a user and the advertisement is received, the user is associated with the commercial campaign. When the occurrence of trigger events is detected, if the campaigns monetization conditions and verification policies have been satisfied, payees are paid according to the campaign's monetization actions.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for presenting advertisements is disclosed. An apparatus that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a system having an inspection element that monitors packet traffic associated with an end user, and determines a behavioral profile of the end user from the monitored packet traffic, a publisher element that detects an end user visiting a website managed thereby, and generates an advertisement request associated with the website, and advertisement element that selects one or more advertisements according to the behavioral profile of the end user, and submits said one or more advertisements to the publisher element for presentation thereof to the end user. Additional embodiments are disclosed.

Abstract: A targeted method for providing coupons and samples to consumers, that provides extensive feedback to manufacturers, identifies consumers that represent a desired demographic profile, enables a convenient consumer couponing experience, controls and contains fraud through the use of expiration methods and location data.

Abstract: Implementations relate to systems and methods for generating a user profile based on periodic location fixes. A cellular telephone or other mobile device captures location information via GPS or other capability. A location history can be generated from accumulated location fixes. The location history is then analyzed to detect the user's travel and dwell patterns. That information can be combined with business classification (e.g., SIC, etc.) or Point of Interest (POI) databases to identify a user's likely home, work, or other locations based on dwell-times, time of day, and other parameters. The user's age and gender can potentially be inferred based on types of locations visited, such as school locations. The user profile can be correlated with market segmentation databases to generate a marketing rating, such as a Nielsen or Claritas rating. Advertising, media, or other content can then be tailored to the user's individual location and demographic profiles.

Abstract: Methods and systems for establishing a reserve price for a publisher's ad space inventory offered via a real-time bidding market are disclosed. In some embodiments, a certain percentage of traffic (e.g., ad requests) received at an ad market server are redirected to one or more external networks, such as ad networks, for processing. The performance of the redirected ad requests is analyzed to determine an expected clearing price for the ad requests. The expected clearing price of a particular ad request corresponding to a particular ad space, if greater than a publisher-established reserve price, is used as a market reserve price when presenting the ad requests in a real-time bidding market.

Abstract: The invention generally relates to systems and methods for advertising, and, more particularly, to systems and methods for providing immersive advertising in a virtual universe. In one aspect of the invention, there is a method for presenting a virtual universe advertisement (VU-ad) in a virtual universe (VU), receiving input from a user associated with a user avatar of the VU, and altering the VU-ad in response to the input.

Abstract: Aspects of this invention are directed toward determining the effectiveness of advertising in a virtual universe. Specifically, under the present invention, a visit by an avatar to a region of the VU that includes targeted advertising content is registered. Then, the following avatar attributes are determined: a proximity to the target advertising content by the avatar; an avatar directionality of the avatar with respect to the target advertising content; a camera directionality of a camera object associated with the avatar; and a time with respect to which the avatar may be exposed to the target advertising content in the region. Thereafter, at least one score is assigned to the visit, the proximity, the directionality, and the time. An effectiveness score is then calculated based on the at least one score. The overall effectiveness of the target advertising content is then calculated based on the at least one score.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing an advertising offer that is configured to relocate an avatar within the virtual environment. The system is configured to ascertain one or more advertisements for display based on at least one of: an inventory analysis of an avatar, a historical teleportation analysis of the avatar, a motion analysis of the avatar, a social network analysis of the avatar, and a ratings analysis of the one or more advertisements within a virtual universe. The system also includes an advertisement display system structured to display the one or more advertisements to the avatar.

Abstract: In one embodiment, branded 3D digital assets are displayed on a client machine. The client machine is configured to determine a proportion of a branded 3D digital asset displayed on screen of a graphical user interface and obtain a percentage of the screen of the graphical user interface that the branded 3D digital asset is covering using a screen bounding function of a 3D engine of the online environment. A computer server is configured to receive an objective related to a placement of the branded 3D digital asset, the objective determining when to display the branded 3D digital asset. The server then determines whether the objective has been achieved, and if so, prevents display of the branded 3D digital asset for a predetermined period of time.

Abstract: A system and method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code, includes receiving one or more bids for at least one of an enhanced rendering quality and an enhanced rendering order of an object in a virtual universe (VU) and performing a bid resolution for the received one or more bids. Additionally, the method includes rendering one or more objects in the VU with the at least one of the enhanced rendering quality and the enhanced rendering order based on the bid resolution.

Abstract: Using various embodiment, methods and systems to implement an objective based advertisement placement platform are described. In one embodiment, a method and system to display advertisements in three dimensional (3D) online environment based on an objective of an advertiser is disclosed. A computing device receives the objective of the advertiser. In one embodiment, the advertiser objective includes determining when to stop displaying a branded smart object (BSO) to a user in the 3D online environment, the objective including an engagement rule. The computing device can further determine whether the advertiser's objective has been achieved by a user, the determining including evaluating a user engagement score (UES) and comparing the UES with an advertiser's engagement rule. If the advertiser's objective is achieved (or met) by the user, the BSO is not displayed to the user for a predetermined period of time.

Abstract: The present invention provides an approach to invoke advertisement(s) in a VU. Specifically, an advertisement is virtually associated with a user of the virtual space. The advertisement will then be visually referenced in the VU, and optionally distinguished/highlighted (e.g., using visual effects such as colors, icons, flashing icons, etc.). The advertisement will be invoked in response to a trigger occurring in the VU user in the). Once invoked, an action associated with the advertisement will be executed. The present invention can also allow for advertising user to be compensated for allowing their asset(s) to be associated with advertisement(s). Such compensation can be in the form of credits associated with the VU being provided to the advertising user and/or compensation to be provided to the user outside of the VU (e.g., in the real world in the form of money, gift certificates, goods and/or services, etc.).

Abstract: A method is provided. The method includes receiving a request for one or more ads, the request including a first identifier for a first content source, wherein a first set of content is available from the first content source, responsive to the request, determining whether a second set of content is available from a second content source, wherein the second set of content is a structured content version of the first set of content, converting the first identifier for the first content source to a second identifier for the second content source if the second set of content is available from the second content source, receiving the second set of content from the second content source using the second identifier, and selecting the one or more ads using at least some content from the second set of content from the second content source.