Multi-stage content analysis system that profiles users and selects promotions
11615441 · 2023-03-28
Assignee
Inventors
- Michael PALMER (Los Angeles, CA, US)
- Steven TULK (Coto de Caza, CA, US)
- Thomas GALIDO (Los Angeles, CA, US)
Cpc classification
G06N7/01
PHYSICS
International classification
Abstract
A system that analyzes a user's communications to select a promotion that is presented to the user. The analysis may occur in two stages: a first stage analyzes a single communication from a user to determine whether the user is a potential target for a promotion; for potential targets, a second stage analyzes a history of communications from the user to generate a user profile. The system may then select a promotion based on the profile. The profile may include a set of profile tags that are considerably more detailed and granular than traditional demographic data; tags may for example indicate user affiliations with groups or ideas (such as religions or political parties), or user life cycle stages. Using these rich, detailed user profile tags, the system may achieve promotion response rates far above those from traditional advertising, which relies on cookies or simple demographic categories.
Claims
1. A multi-stage content analysis system that profiles users and selects promotions, comprising: a computer comprising a memory and instructions within said memory, wherein said computer is configured to execute said instructions to receive a communication created by a user; analyze said communication to determine whether said user is a potential target for one or more promotions, wherein said analyze said communication comprises access a database comprising promotion information that comprises information that indicates how to determine which promotion of said one or more promotions is an appropriate response to said communication, scan the communication and match said communication against said promotion information in said database using one or more of text analysis, natural language processing, keyword matching or artificial intelligence, wherein said determine whether said user is said potential target for said one or more promotions depends on a type of said one or more promotions, wherein when said communication matches said promotion information, a determination is made by said computer that said user is said potential target for said one or more promotions; based on and in response to said analyze said communication, when said computer determines that said user is said potential target for a promotion receive a communications history associated with said user, wherein said communications history comprises a plurality of communications created by said user; and, when said computer receives said communication history based on when said computer determines that said user is said potential target for said one or more promotions analyze said communications history to confirm or reject said determination that said user is said potential target for said one or more promotions, wherein said confirm or reject comprises assign one or more user profile tags to said user, wherein said analyze said communications history to assign said one or more user profile tags to said user comprises access said database of promotion information comprising key words and phrases associated with each tag of a set of one or more tags; calculate a frequency of each of said key words and phrases in said communications history; calculate a tag relevance score for each tag of said set of one or more tags based on said frequency of each of said key words and phrases, wherein said calculate said tag relevance score for each tag of said set of one or more tags comprises calculate a probability that said communications history is associated with each tag of said set of one or more tags using a naïve Bayes classifier, wherein said frequency of each of said key words and phrases in said communications history comprises a feature vector for said naïve Bayes classifier; and, receive said one or more user profile tags; based on and in response to said analyze said communications history and in response to said receive said one or more user profile tags, analyze said one or more user profile tags and said communication to determine whether any promotion of said one or more promotions should be provided to the user, wherein when the one or more user profile tags do not contain tags relevant to any promotions, no promotion is selected, or a random promotion is selected to assist with machine learning, wherein when the one or more user profile tags do contain tags relevant to said any promotions, select a specific promotion from said one or more promotions; and, transmit said specific promotion to said user.
2. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 1, wherein said one or more user profile tags comprise one or more affiliations of said user with an organization, group, cause, or belief.
3. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 2, wherein said organization, group, cause, or belief comprises a religion.
4. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 2, wherein said organization, group, cause, or belief comprises a political party, a political viewpoint, or a political candidate.
5. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 1, wherein said one or more user profile tags comprise one or more life cycle stages associated with said user.
6. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 5, wherein said one or more life cycle stages comprise one or more of teenager, prospective student, student, new graduate, early adult, expectant spouse, new spouse, expectant new parent, new parent, expectant empty nester, empty nester, senior, grandparent, expectant retiree, and retiree.
7. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 1, wherein said computer is further configured to: access an external database of user profile information; modify or extend said one or more user profile tags based on said external database.
8. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 1, further comprising: a machine learning engine configured to receive data describing one or more of whether said user responded to said specific promotion that was transmitted to said user; how said user responded to said specific promotion; purchases, subscriptions, or enrollments made by said user; and, execute a machine learning algorithm on said data.
9. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 8, wherein said machine learning algorithm is configured to modify said key words and phrases associated with one or more of said set of one or more tags.
10. A multi-stage content analysis system that profiles users and selects promotions, comprising: a computer comprising a memory and instructions within said memory, wherein said computer is configured to execute said instructions to receive a communication created by a user; analyze said communication to determine whether said user is a potential target for one or more promotions, wherein said analyze said communication comprises access a database comprising promotion information that comprises information that indicates how to determine which promotion of said one or more promotions is an appropriate response to said communication, scan the communication and match said communication against said promotion information in said database using one or more of text analysis, natural language processing, keyword matching or artificial intelligence, wherein said determine whether said user is said potential target for said one or more promotions depends on a type of said one or more promotions, wherein when said communication matches said promotion information, a determination is made by said computer that said user is said potential target for said one or more promotions; based on and in response to said analyze said communication, when said computer determines that said user is said potential target for a promotion receive a communications history associated with said user, wherein said communications history comprises a plurality of communications created by said user; and, when said computer receives said communication history based on when said computer determines that said user is said potential target for said one or more promotions analyze said communications history to confirm or reject said determination that said user is said potential target for said one or more promotions, wherein said confirm or reject comprises generate one or more user profile tags that describe characteristics of the user, wherein said one or more user profile tags are organized in a hierarchy of groupings, assign said one or more user profile tags to said user, wherein said analyze said communications history to assign said one or more user profile tags to said user comprises access said database of promotion information comprising key words and phrases associated with each tag of a set of one or more tags; calculate a frequency of each of said key words and phrases in said calculate a tag relevance score for each tag of said set of one or more tags based on said frequency of each of said key words and phrases, wherein said calculate said tag relevance score for each tag of said set of one or more tags comprises calculate a probability that said communications history is associated with each tag of said set of one or more tags using a naïve Bayes classifier, wherein said frequency of each of said key words and phrases in said communications history comprises a feature vector for said naïve Bayes classifier; and, receive said one or more user profile tags; based on and in response to said analyze said communications history and in response to said receive said one or more user profile tags, analyze said one or more user profile tags and said communication to determine whether any promotion of said one or more promotions should be provided to the user, wherein when the one or more user profile tags do not contain tags relevant to any promotions, no promotion is selected, or a random promotion is selected to assist with machine learning, wherein when the one or more user profile tags do contain tags relevant to said any promotions, select a specific promotion from said one or more promotions; and, transmit said specific promotion to said user.
11. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 10, wherein said one or more user profile tags comprise one or more affiliations of said user with an organization, group, cause, or belief.
12. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 11, wherein said organization, group, cause, or belief comprises a religion.
13. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 11, wherein said organization, group, cause, or belief comprises a political party, a political viewpoint, or a political candidate.
14. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 10, wherein said one or more user profile tags comprise one or more life cycle stages associated with said user.
15. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 14, wherein said one or more life cycle stages comprise one or more of teenager, prospective student, student, new graduate, early adult, expectant spouse, new spouse, expectant new parent, new parent, expectant empty nester, empty nester, senior, grandparent, expectant retiree, and retiree.
16. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 10, wherein said computer is further configured to: access an external database of user profile information; modify or extend said one or more user profile tags based on said external database.
17. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 10, further comprising: a machine learning engine configured to receive data describing one or more of whether said user responded to said specific promotion that was transmitted to said user; how said user responded to said specific promotion; purchases, subscriptions, or enrollments made by said user; and, execute a machine learning algorithm on said data.
18. The multi-stage content analysis system of claim 17, wherein said machine learning algorithm is configured to modify said key words and phrases associated with one or more of said set of one or more tags.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the invention will be more apparent from the following more particular description thereof, presented in conjunction with the following drawings wherein:
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
(9) A multi-stage content analysis system that profiles users and selects promotions will now be described. In the following exemplary description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to an artisan of ordinary skill that the present invention may be practiced without incorporating all aspects of the specific details described herein. In other instances, specific features, quantities, or measurements well known to those of ordinary skill in the art have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the invention. Readers should note that although examples of the invention are set forth herein, the claims, and the full scope of any equivalents, are what define the metes and bounds of the invention.
(10)
(11) Message Analyzer 111 may make a determination 112 as to whether the user 101 appears to be a potential target for a promotion, based on the first stage of analysis. If the user does appear to be a potential target, in one or more embodiments a second analysis stage 121 may then be performed in more detail to generate a profile of the user. A second analysis stage may also confirm or reject the initial hypothesis that the user is a viable promotion target. The second analysis stage may for example be a Communications History Analyzer 121, which may obtain and analyze a communications history 122 that the user has generated over time. Like the initial communication 102, in one or more embodiments the communications history 122 may include any type or types of communications, including for example, without limitation, text messages, tweets, email messages, voice messages, chat messages, faxes, an Instagrams™, images, videos, postings on social media sites or any other sites, blog entries, comments, responses to or comments on other messages or postings, forwarding of other communications, or data entry into forms or fields.
(12) Communications History Analyzer 121 for example a computer or computer that is specifically programmed to process information analyzes communications history 122 and generates one or more user profile tags 123 that describe characteristics of the user and the user's communications. This analysis may also use information 141 about promotions. User profile tags may include any qualitative or quantitative data describing the user or the user's communications. Tags may be organized in any desired manner, such as for example in a hierarchy of groupings. In one or more embodiments, data may be associated with the profile tags, such as for example a probability that a specific tag applies to the user. Communications History Analyzer 121 may use any desired method or methods to derive tags 123 from the communications history 122. For example, without limitation, certain tags may be associated with specific key words or phrases, and the analysis may include searching for these key words and phrases in the communications history 122.
(13) User profile tags 123 may then be input into a Promotion Selector 131 that selects a specific promotion from the available promotions in database 141. The Promotion Selector may also further analyze the user's current communication 102. In one or more embodiments, the Promotion Selector may also make a determination as to whether any promotion should be provided to the user. For example, if the user profile tags do not contain tags relevant to any promotions, no promotion may be selected, or a random promotion may be selected (for example to assist with machine learning, as described below). In one or more embodiments, the Promotion Selector 131 may select multiple promotions for a user, and may present these promotions to the user sequentially, in parallel, or randomly. The Promotion Selector may use the profile tags 123 to determine which promotion or promotions are most appropriate or valuable for the user, or are most likely to generate a desired response. This determination may for example be based on the user's apparent interests or demographics, or on the style of communication the user has used in communications history analyzer 121. In the example illustrated in
(14) User profile tags generated by the Communications History Analyzer 121 may include highly detailed information about the user that far exceeds traditional demographic user data. Generating this detailed information is possible because the user's communications history is analyzed directly; the system does not need to rely on traditional data sources such as user registration data.
(15) Enriched profile tags 203 may also include tags that describe aspects of the user's life cycle stage. These life cycle stage tags may be more granular and descriptive than simple age categories. For example, they may indicate certain key life events that are imminent for the user, that have recently occurred, or that are currently occurring. These events might include for example, without limitation, graduation, beginning or ending work or a job, parenthood, marriage, grandparenthood, or retirement. Life cycle stage tags may for example include, without limitation, tags such as teenager, prospective student, student, new graduate, early adult, expectant spouse, new spouse, expectant new parent, new parent, expectant empty nester, empty nester, senior, grandparent, expectant retiree, and retiree.
(16) Enriched profile tags 203 may also characterize the user's language, which may include the language or languages spoken or understood by the user and the particular communication style or level the user prefers. These tags may assist in selecting promotions that match the user's preferred or comfortable communication style. Tags may also describe the user's activities and interests, and the types of products and services the user may be interested in. These examples of tags are not limiting; one or more embodiments may generate any type of tags to describe any aspects of the user or of the user's communications, such as for example activities, preferences, ideas, relationships, knowledge, background, education, status, purchases, searches, inquiries, positions, styles, location, or origin.
(17) Profile tags may be generated using any desired method or methods.
(18) In one or more embodiments, the naïve Bayes classification calculation 313 may also include a priori probabilities for the individual categories; these a priori probabilities may be obtained from various sources such as a corpus of documents, external databases, or expert opinions. In one or more embodiments, the probability calculations may be performed as logarithms, which is equivalent to taking a weighted sum of the log-probabilities of the words in each category.
(19) The naïve Bayes classifier shown in
(20) One or more embodiments may incorporate additional stages or features into the architecture illustrated in
(21)
(22) One or more embodiments may use any desired machine learning techniques to learn from a training dataset, including for example, without limitation, supervised or unsupervised learning, regression, logistic regression, classifiers, neural networks, clustering, dimension reduction, or support vector machines.
(23) All stages are performed using a computer having memory and specific instructions to perform each stage of the processing in one or more embodiments of the invention.
(24) While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means of specific embodiments and applications thereof, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention set forth in the claims.