CN1254467A - Method relating to telephone communications that include transmission of advertising messages - Google Patents

Abstract

A method in a telecommunication system wherein a call connection between two subscribers is billed to a third subscriber. The first subscriber dials a subscriber number, preferably preceded by a prefix, that leads to said third subscriber and dials a subscriber number that leads to the second subscriber. An advertisement is sent on the call connection established between first and second subscriber. In conjunction with the advertising message, the first and/or second subscriber is asked whether or not they wish to establish further contact with the advertiser.

Description

A method of telephone communication including advertisement message transmission

The present invention relates to a method related to a telecommunication system, which establishes a call connection between two users, at the expense of the first user, and sends advertisements during the call.

Swedish Patents No. 9403793-4 and No. 9700334-4 propose a method for the forwarding and billing of telephone calls in which the telephone of a first subscriber is connected to a second subscriber via a standard telephone network. The standard telephone network can be a fixed network or a mobile telephone network.

According to the specifications of these patents, the first user dials a certain subscriber number, such as a certain prefix, and then dials the subscriber number leading to the third subscriber, and then dials the subscriber number leading to the second subscriber, according to which Establish a call connection. As a result of this process, a connection is established between the first and second user, while the third user pays for the call between said first and second user.

This prefix, or corresponding code, causes the telephone network to route the call through the telephone network to a network-connected computer unit associated with the third subscriber. The prefix also causes the computer unit to route the call through said computer unit to the second subscriber in order to connect the first subscriber with the second subscriber. According to the specification of the aforementioned patent, the computer unit is used to send advertisements at given time intervals during the period of establishing the call connection between the first and the second user.

For example, a hamburger chain or a gas station chain could advertise sale prices and ongoing sales during the call connection process.

The computer unit is used to collect advertisement data from the database and to send these advertisements to the ongoing call connection in accordance with preset instructions. Since information about the corresponding telephone numbers of the first and second users can be found in the database, the computer unit is able to extract local advertisements for the respective regions or areas of the two users. It is also possible to store the subscriber categories in another database, or in the same database, where a summary of the agreements signed by each calling subscriber with a third subscriber is stored, as described in Swedish Patent Specification No. 9700096-2. The computer unit can also be used to collect advertisements appropriate to the relevant user profile and to deliver these advertisements to said users.

In this case, the first user does not need to pay to call the second user, because according to the agreement, a certain company or organization can advertise its activities to the first and second users.

It is an object of the present invention to enable advertisers to achieve enhanced dissemination of advertisements to users who are believed to be interested in the goods or services mentioned in the advertisement.

The present invention achieves this purpose.

The invention thus relates to a method concerning telecommunications, wherein a call connection is established between two users, the call being paid for by a third user, the telephone of the first user being connected to the second user via a standard telephone network. On two subscribers' phones, the first subscriber dials one subscriber's number, preferably preceded by a prefix leading to the third subscriber, and then dials the subscriber's number leading to the second subscriber, causing the telephone network to connect the call To a telephone network connected to the computer unit, this telephone network forwards the call to said second user in order to connect said first user to said second user, the first to the second A call between users is paid for by a third user, and, when the call between the first and second user is connected, an advertisement is sent, said advertisement belonging to a company wishing to market its services or products, hereinafter referred to as Advertiser, the present invention is characterized in that, along with the advertising message sent to the first and/or second user, at least one question is asked whether the relevant user is interested in establishing further contact with the advertiser, so that the computer reads Any code the relevant user may have entered in answering that question; and, at least when reading the code indicating a desire for further contact, cause the computer unit to store at least the relevant user's telephone number, or some other identifying information for the user.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to a preferred exemplary embodiment of the invention and with partial reference to the accompanying drawings, where Figure 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating the arrangement of apparatus for implementing the invention.

Figure 1 depicts an inventive arrangement for the forwarding and billing of a telephone call, where the telephone 1 of the first subscriber is forwarded to the telephone 1 of the second subscriber via a standard telephone network generally marked with 3 Phone 2.

The arrangement includes a third user with a computer unit 4 connected to the telephone network 3 . The computer unit 4 is adapted to read a prefix dialed by the first customer and the subsequent subscriber number leading to the third customer. This third subscriber may have a local telephone exchange 5 to which the computer unit 4 is connected. The telephone exchange 5 can be programmed to connect the incoming call to the computer unit when the prefix is read. When this prefix is read, the role of the computer unit 4 is to forward the call, via the telephone network, to the subscriber which the first subscriber has dialed to the second subscriber after dialing said first-mentioned subscriber number number in order to establish a call connection from the first user to said second user.

The telephone network 3 is also adapted to charge the call between the first and second subscriber to the subscription of the third subscriber when said prefix is read. In this case, either the full cost of the call is paid by the third party, or part of the cost is paid by the third party and the remaining part is paid by the calling party. Ideally, in the telephone exchange, a subscriber set 6 belonging to the telephone network is used to read the prefix for billing.

Advertisements are sent simultaneously to the first and second user at different time intervals when the user call is connected.

In this case, the computer unit 4 is connected to a database 7 containing advertising messages.

The database 7, or another database, contains a number of advertising messages recorded on the data medium. Ideally, these advertising messages should be sorted in proper order. For example, these messages can be categorized by age, gender, income and residential area of each user.

According to the invention, in advertising messages at least a question is sent to the first and/or second user asking whether the relevant user wishes to have further contact with the advertiser, ie the company whose product or service is being advertised. When the relevant user or users enter a code or the like to answer the question, at least when the computer unit reads a code indicating a desire to make further contact, cause the unit to store at least the relevant user's telephone number, or some user identification information .

According to one embodiment, the code is a code typed by the user at the keyboard. For example, the user presses 1 on his keyboard when the answer to the question is Yes and 2 when the answer is No.

According to another method, the code is a voice message given by the user, a so-called voice answer. For example, the user answers Yes or No to the aforementioned question. In this case, the computer unit is programmed to analyze the voice message and convert it into a digitized signal.

Therefore, at the same time as the advertisement is sent, two users are in a dialogue, and the advertiser can ask the relevant user if they wish to establish further contact with the advertiser, for example, by the advertiser by telephone or by mailing information materials to the user, with the user. connect.

For example, when the advertiser is a travel agency, sending an ad for cheap vacations on the Mediterranean coast, the actual ad could end with the following message: If you want our catalog, press 1 on your phone keypad. If you would like us to contact you by phone, please press 2 on your telephone keypad.

Naturally, the advertising messages sent to the two users in the conversation can be different. Furthermore, the advertising messages can be adapted to the relevant users, as indicated in Swedish Patent Specification No. 9700096-2, the computer unit being connected to a database containing information about the different users.

After reading out the code and the telephone number of the associated user, at least the computer unit is made to disclose this telephone number to the advertiser. This is done by sending out, through the telephone network, those phone numbers expressing interest in further contact with the advertiser.

However, the computer unit can also send out more information than just the phone number, for example. When the database contains user information, this information can be sent to advertisers. When the computer unit's database includes address information for various users, the computer unit can generate a list of names and addresses and send this list to the advertiser.

The aforementioned further contact with the advertiser may include, for example, the advertiser sending advertising material to the relevant user, or a private invitation issued by a representative of the advertising company. The latter approach can be used, for example, in insurance company advertisements for insurance policies.

It may also be the case that the concerned user is willing to be contacted by phone. At this point, the advertiser can call the users after being notified by the computer unit to know which users want to be contacted by phone.

According to a preferred embodiment, the computer unit is capable of establishing a call connection between the advertiser and the user at the end of the ongoing call in case a user wishes to make a telephone contact.

As should be apparent from the foregoing, the present invention achieves the objects of the present invention.

The aforementioned prefix, could be the subscriber number of the third subscriber, or some other number, or some code, including a star or a rectangle. Both the subscriber number and the prefix can be numeric or alphanumeric or alphabetic only.

Accordingly, the invention is not to be considered limited to the various exemplary embodiments of the invention described above, since various changes are possible within the scope of the following claims.

Claims (5)

1. A method involving telecommunications in which a call connection is established between two users, the call is billed to a third user, the first user's phone is connected to the second user's phone via the standard telephone network , the first user dials a subscriber number, preferably preceded by a prefix, that leads to said third subscriber, and then dials the subscriber number that leads to the second subscriber, causing the telephone network to connect the call to a computer unit (4), the computer unit is connected to the telephone network and forwards the call to said second user in order to connect said first user to said second user, the first and second user The call between the third user is paid for, and, on the established call between the first and second user, some kind of advertisement is sent, moreover, some company wishing to promote its product or service is an advertisement Main, characterized in that, along with the advertising message sent to the first and/or second user, at least one question is asked whether the relevant user is willing to establish further contact with the advertiser, wherein, if the relevant user enters a certain code and the like to answer this question, then make the computer unit read out the code; and, at least when reading out the code that the relevant user expresses that he wishes to further contact the advertiser, the computer unit at least stores the telephone number of the relevant user, or some information of the user. other identifying information. 2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the computer unit (4) is caused to send at least the telephone number to the advertiser after reading said code and telephone number of the relevant user. 3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said code is a code entered on the user's telephone keypad. 4. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the code is a message spoken by the user, ie a so-called voice response. 5. according to the method for claim 1,2,3 or 4, it is characterized in that, when said code represents that relevant user wishes to contact with advertiser by phone, can make computer unit when carrying out calling end, establishes this user and Call connections between advertisers.

Images