WO2008139143A1

WO2008139143A1 - System and method for data acquisition and processing

Info

Publication number: WO2008139143A1
Application number: PCT/GB2008/001569
Authority: WO
Inventors: Philip Wesby
Original assignee: Philip Wesby
Priority date: 2007-05-15
Filing date: 2008-05-07
Publication date: 2008-11-20
Also published as: EP2156391A1; GB0709294D0

Abstract

A system and method for data acquisition and processing is described which can provide a way to optimise product advertising such as used on interior or outside advertising billboards and or electronic signage. Encoded datagram images are associated with the billboard advertisement and may be captured using a mobile phone or PDA or fixed line device. The datagram may comprise a complex black and white or colour pixellated image or a bar code or an image of a company logo. The datagram is then transmitted to a remote server where it is decoded. Each datagram may be unique or may comprise a unique coding such as a number or character string or billboard ID or it may be positioned on the billboard such that the captured datagram can be determined to be associated with a particular billboard and thereby identify the location of the billboard. Alternatively, the location of the device which captures the image such as a GPS-enabled mobile phone may be determined using geo-tracking such as via GPS or other suitable location technology and thereby determine the location of the billboard. Additional data such as time of day and date of the datagram acquisition may also be transmitted as well as the ID of the device capturing the datagram. The invention may be used to determine the type of billboards and or the location of billboards that generate the highest interest from consumers. The invention may be used to optimise advertising campaigns and provide conversion tracking capability to printed and or electronically displayed advertising media. The invention also has direct application to printed advertisements in magazines and newspapers and can provide a measure of conversion tracking for the purpose of optimising the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DATA ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING

DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The current invention relates to a system and method for data acquisition and processing which may be used for optimising product advertising such as displayed on interior or outside advertising billboards and or electronic signage wherein encoded datagrams may be associated with and or incorporated into the billboard or signage advertising display.

More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for capturing and or processing stored or received datagram images using a device such as a mobile phone or PDA or fixed line device. In the context of this document the word datagram can mean a complex pixellated image or a picture image comprising embedded patterns of polygons, or a bar code or a combination of characters and or lines and or polygons or any combination of these. The datagram may comprise a complex black and white or colour pixellated image and or a bar code and or an image of a company logo.

After capture, the datagram is then transmitted to a remote server where it is decoded. Each datagram may be unique or may comprise a unique coding such as a number or character string or billboard ID or it may be positioned on the billboard such that the captured datagram can be determined to be associated with a particular billboard and thereby identify the location of the billboard. Alternatively, the location of the device which captures the image such as a GPS- enabled mobile phone may be determined using geo-tracking such as via GPS or other suitable location technology and thereby determine the location of the billboard. Additional data such as time of day and date of the datagram acquisition may also be transmitted as well as the ID and or phone number and or IP address of the device capturing the datagram.

The invention may be used to determine the type of billboards and or signage and or the location of billboards and or signage which generate the highest interest from consumers. The invention may be used to optimise advertising campaigns and provide conversion tracking capability to printed and or electronically displayed advertising media. The invention also has direct application to printed advertisements in magazines and newspapers and can provide a measure of conversion tracking for such advertising campaigns also and be used to optimise their effectiveness by identifying those publications which generate the greatest response.

This patent application extends the invention of an earlier patent application United Kingdom Patent Application 0619761.0 by the same applicant entitled System and Method for Data Acquisition and Processing having priority date October 6^th 2006. In this patent application is taught the method of using datagrams and combining these with user profiles stored within the data capture device, such as a mobile phone or PDA, to create a range of differentiated services.

The current invention can be considered as key inventive extensions of this technology towards the use of the encoded datagram capturing or receiving device - the wireless or fixed line terminal - as a means to determine which advertising media and or which billboards or signage are best located and thereby generate the most interest from consumers.

Today, mobile network operators are seeking business solutions and technologies which exploit the untapped potential of the mobile phone or PDA or wireless laptop in order to render it as the intelligent device for desirable consumer and business oriented transaction services. The mobile phone is becoming the essential primary and central communications device which is capable of capturing images using camera technology as well as receiving emails. The increasing resolution of camera technology is also making the transmission of image data across the network more acceptable.

Nevertheless, many challenges are facing the mobile network operators as consumers seek data-rich and focussed information services and progressively view the mobile operators as managed high-capacity bit pipes offering multi- bearer (GSM, GPRS, 3G, WLAN, WIMAX et a I) access networks. Internet-based advertisements which are hosted on particular websites provide conversion tracking which provides the identification of the website from which the consumer requested product information. Such an equivalent capability for printed media has not been previously proposed and it is to this problem area that the current invention is directed.

Clearly, there is a need for a technology and business case which is capable of harnessing the interest of consumers in particular products and services, and in addition, is capable of determining the location of the consumers at the time of their interest and consequently has the capability to determine the effectiveness of particular advertising campaigns hosted on billboards and signage.

In particular companies who advertise products and services via billboards and electronic signage have no feedback capability to determine whether particular locations of billboard advertisements or electronic signage advertisements are effective or a way to determine the numbers of consumers who are interested in the advertised products or services at those locations. If this capability could be introduced, then companies would target advertisements at particular locations. In addition, no time of day or date information is currently available that shows when a particular billboard and or electronic signage is being viewed. This data, if possible to capture, could further enhance the effectiveness of any advertising campaign by enabling a company to select the most effective positions. Obviously, any feedback on different types of advertisements could also be investigated as well as the best time of day to place them or when to expect interest from consumers. A further factor could be the age of the consumer and any method to determine this could prove very valuable data to a company when seeking to design a particular campaign.

Today mobile phones, PDAs and multimedia computers comprise remarkable processing capability and these may also comprise self location capability such as GPS and network location determination capability such as cell-ID and E-OTD. This location capability may be additionally used to create a geo-trace or location of a device at a particular time or when the device is performing a particular task. Data about a device's location may be used for various marketing-related activities such as to determine where a subscriber or consumer registered a particular interest in a product or service.

Further to the limitations of existing methods used for improving and optimising advertising campaigns making use of billboard and or electronic signage, and so far as is known, no optimum system and method for data acquisition and processing is presently available which is directed towards the specific needs of this problem area as outlined.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved system and method for data acquisition and processing which serves to use a wireless or fixed line device to capture a printed or electronically displayed datagram and to combine this with other data about the device capturing the datagram and or the device's location and or the subscription associated with the device and transmit this together with the captured datagram to a remote server for decoding wherein the datagram is associated with a billboard or electronic signage advertisement and wherein the server is capable of building a dataset of all the captured data and thereby determine the number of persons and or locations where an interest in an advertisement was registered.

It is a further object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a system and method for data acquisition and processing wherein the datagram capturing device is linked by video channel to a remote server which processes the image remotely and determines the identification and or contents of the datagram and or that the image has been successfully transferred to the remote server.

It is a further object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a system and method for data acquisition and processing wherein captured datagrams and other data may be processed to determine the level of interest in particular advertisements shown on billboards and or electronic signage wherein this data can be processed to provide a direct measure of the effectiveness of an advertising campaign and thereby be used to determine which advertisement locations generated the most interest. In this way advertising locations of lower interest may be deselected and the locations of higher interest may be focussed upon to further enhance the effectiveness of a campaign through the determination of conversion tracking.

It is a further object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a system and method for data acquisition and processing which is suited to enhance advertising campaigns wherein advertisements comprising datagrams may be printed in magazines and books and wherein the number of captured datagrams transmitted to the server is capable of determining the measure of effectiveness of using a particular publication for a particular advertisement through conversion tracking of the frequency and number of captured datagrams received.

It is a further object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a system and method for data acquisition and processing which is suited to enhance advertising campaigns wherein captured datagrams and identification data, comprising data about the device and or subscription data and or location of the device and or the phone number or IP address of the device, may be processed using data mining techniques and a differential data archive may be built and wherein this archive may be used to provide detailed information of the effectiveness of a particular advertising campaign as a function of different data attributes such as location of the capturing device at time of capture and or age and or gender of the subscriber and or advertised service or product type and the like. It is a further object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a system and method for data acquisition and processing which is suited to enhance advertising campaigns wherein one or more data archives may be built comprising demographic datasets comprising the phone number or IP address of the capturing device and or the age and or the gender of the subscriber and or location of the capturing device at the time of capture and or advertised product or service and wherein a particular data archive corresponding to a particular campaign comprising phone numbers and or IP addresses may be used as a means to market a new product or service to those subscribers such as by MMS or SMS or other messaging technology.

It is a further object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a system and method for data acquisition and processing which is suited to enhance advertising campaigns wherein the captured datagrams and associated datasets identifying the subscribers and or their location and or their age and or the product type they registered an interest in and or the phone number and or IP address of the capturing device together provide a tool for a company to build differential datasets and thereby launch direct-to-subscriber product marketing campaigns based upon their registered interest from a previous campaign and or other data in the differential dataset and thereby reduce sales lead times and or sales acquisition times and provide smart lead generation and or provide highly effective conversion tracking and or differential campaign tracking and or geo- tracking and or time-of-day tracking and thereby reduce the cost per sale acquisition.

It is a further object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a system and method for data acquisition and processing which is suited to enhance advertising campaigns wherein the captured datagrams are processed by a server which may send back a software application such as a game or message comprising a coupon which emphasises the brand of the product being advertised and thereby create brand enforcement.

It is a further object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a system and method for data acquisition and processing which is suited to enhance advertising campaigns wherein the captured datagrams are processed by a server which may comprise image recognition software such as stenography software and or image processing software similar to vehicle number plate recognition software which has the capability to accommodate for the angles and or orientations at which datagrams may be captured and to read and or decode the captured datagrams successfully.

It is a further object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a system and method for data acquisition and processing which is suited to enhance advertising campaigns wherein the capturing device makes use of a video-link channel to view a datagram which enables a linked remote server to determine the quality of the datagram that the device is seeing and wherein the linked remote server may provide a signal to confirm that the video image has provided a datagram of suitable quality such as is possible to implement using 3G video platforms and or 3G Interactive Voice and Video Response platforms on wireless devices and or Video-over IP telephony and or video applications implemented using the capabilities of VoiceXML It is a further object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a system and method for data acquisition and processing which is suited to enhance advertising campaigns wherein the capturing device makes use of a video-link channel to view a datagram and wherein the consumer receives an audio and or software generated confirmation that the image has been captured successfully.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the description to follow when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Certain of the foregoing and related objects are readily-attained according to the present invention by the provision of a novel system and method for data acquisition and processing which makes use of capturing datagrams and which can form the basis for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and or electronic signage advertising campaigns. The invention is equally applicable to advertising campaigns run in newspapers and magazines and on TV and may be used to determine which publications generate the greatest interest from consumers through conversion tracking. In this way advertising campaigns can be optimised in cost and effectiveness by determining many factors from the data generated through the capture of datagrams such as the time of day and the location of the advertisement and the type of publication. Ongoing campaigns may be optimised by restricting advertisements for particular products to those locations which are identified from the invention to locations which generate the greater response.

Datagrams associated with particular advertisements are captured and transmitted to a remote server or a video link is set up between the device and a remote server and data from the datagram is transferred and processed by the said server. The server builds differential datasets which may be used for direct- to-consumer product marketing.

Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, which disclose several key embodiments of the invention. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed for the purpose of illustration only and that the particular applications are given by way of example only and do not limit the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic showing how a datagram associated with an advertisement can be captured using a device to download to a server or connect to the server via video-link according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic showing the sequence of steps involved in processing the received datagram and ID data to build a differential archive according to one embodiment of the invention. DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Reference will now be made in detail to some specific embodiments of the invention including the best modes contemplated by the inventor for carrying out the invention. Examples of these specific embodiments are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention is described in conjunction with these specific embodiments, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to the described embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as defined by the appended claims. The following description makes full reference to the detailed features as outlined in the objects of the invention.

Referring now in detail to the drawings and in particular FIG.l thereof, therein illustrated is a schematic of one example showing how a datagram is captured and transmitted to a remote server for processing according to one embodiment of the current invention.

An advert (101) is shown comprising some text and an associated datagram (102). The datagram may comprise image information and or a barcode and or a company logo. The capturing process may be completed by the capturing device

(103) or it may set up a video data-link with a remote server so that there is a feedback that the capturing process is successful.

This may be important under different lighting conditions and or when the device is attempting to capture a datagram image when oriented at different angles to the image.

The device (103) may comprise an application which can verify the image quality of the datagram, such as being able to read a particular feature of the datagram, and or the transmission results in a message being received from the remote server confirming that the capture was successful and or a continuous video link processes the image and the application or the remote server may close the video link when the capture process is completed.

The datagram and additional identification data is sent over a wireless network

(104) although it is equally possible that the device may be a fixed line device.

The datagram and identification data are received by a remote data processing server (105) which comprises image processing capability such as stenography image processing capability and or image processing capability such as that used for recognising vehicle licence plate numbers within a visual field where the images may be at different angles and at different sizes and in different places within the visual field.

After the datagram has been successfully decoded, a message may be sent back to the capturing device to confirm that the datagram has been received and or a software application may be sent to the device and or a data message comprising a product token such as a special offer may be transmitted to the capturing device or to an email address associated with the subscription of the device.

Identification data transmitted with the datagram is stored in a data archive (106). This identification data may comprise one or more of the following data types: advertising type, advertising campaign identity, product identity, billboard location or publication identity, subscriber identity, subscriber gender, subscriber age, device location (such as via GPS or via cell-ID or E-OTD), time of day, date, and device make and model, and the like. The data archive may index different attributes of the data to create a differential data archive such that ongoing and future advertising campaigns may target consumers for a direct-to-consumer marketing campaign based upon data mining one or more of these stored data attributes. For example, participation in a datagram advertising promotion will comprise an ^xopt-in' clause such that consumers will have given permission for their details to be stored to allow them to be contacted for other offers.

Knowing the location of the capturing device such as via GPS and or the location of a particular billboard and or the identity of a publication via unique identification data stored within the datagram makes possible a key advantage of the current invention, namely the determination of those advertising locations or publications which generate the highest conversion tracking or registrations of consumer interest.

The remote server also stores information about conversion tracking which can subsequently be used to design more effective advertising campaigns at lower cost by restricting the placement of advertisements to the most effective locations and publications.

Now with reference to FIG.2 is shown the sequence of steps involved in processing the received datagram and ID data to build a differential archive according to one embodiment of the invention.

In a first step, the captured datagram is transmitted over a video link and or transmitted as a data file to be processed by a server (201). One can envisage that this is done either using a separate application running on the capturing device and sending an MMS message or by video-linking to a real-time processing application which verifies that the image can be successfully read.

Following successful receipt (202) and decoding, an acknowledgement signal is sent back to the capturing device. Any real-time image processing may be performed using software similar to vehicle licence plate recognition software in order to compensate for differing angles of the image and any changes or distortion of the image due to the orientation of the capturing device.

Details of the datagram itself and the advertisement to which it is associated are stored together with identification data of the consumer/subscriber associated with the subscription of the capturing device (204). This data may include time of capture, phone number and or IP address of device, gender, age, location, and advertising campaign identity, billboard location and or publication identity, and the like.

A differential archive is then built which can be used for marketing products and services to consumers according to particular data attributes of their identity and the original product that they registered an interest in.

For example, an advertising campaign may be linked to a promotion with another commercial partner such that after participating in a campaign by capturing a datagram, a consumer may be sent a token to be used with the other commercial partner such as 20% off the price of a product or service. Alternatively, geo- tracing data such as cell-ID or E-OTD may be used to determine when an "opted- in' consumer is near to a particular store or restaurant and then send a token at that moment to the consumer for use in that store or restaurant. While the present invention has been described herein with reference to particular embodiments thereof, a latitude of modification, various changes, and substitutions are intended in the present invention. In some instances, features of the invention can be employed without a corresponding use of other features, without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth. Therefore, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular configuration or method disclosed, without departing from the essential scope and spirit of the present invention. It is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but that the invention will include all embodiments and equivalents falling within the scope of the claims.

Claims

Claims:

1. A system for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns wherein said advertising campaigns running in newspapers and/or magazines and/or on TV, and said system further comprising a plurality of wireless or fixed line devices (103) each of said plurality of wireless or fixed line devices (103) for capturing a printed or electronically displayed encoded datagram (102), and means for combining said captured encoded datagram (102) with data about each of said wireless or fixed line devices (103) capturing said encoded datagram (102) and/or each of said wireless or fixed line device's (103) location and/or the subscription associated with each of said wireless or fixed line device (103), and means for further transmitting said combined data together with said captured encoded datagram (102) to a remote server (105), characterised in that: said remote server (105) comprising means for decoding said transmitted data and for building a dataset of all of said transmitted data, and means for determining the number of persons and/or locations where an interest in said advertising campaigns was registered, and means for further determining which publications generating the greatest interest from consumers through conversion tracking.

2. A system for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns as disclosed in claim 1 wherein the participation in a datagram advertising promotion further comprising an Λopt-in' clause for allowing consumers to give permission for their details to be stored and to allow them to be contacted for other offers.

3. A system for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns as disclosed in claim 1 wherein each of said plurality of wireless or fixed line devices (103) capture of encoded datagram (102) being either completed by each of said plurality of wireless or fixed line capturing devices (103) further comprising means for verifying the image quality of said encoded datagram (103), or by setting up a continuous video data-link with a remote server (105) wherein said remote server (105) sending a feedback to each of said plurality of wireless or fixed line devices (103) when said capture being completed.

4. A system for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns as disclosed in claim 3 wherein said remote data processing server (105) further comprising means for processing images wherein said means for processing images being stenography image processing means or means for recognising vehicle licence plate numbers within a visual field where said images being at different angles and having different sizes and being in different places within the visual field.

5. A system for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns as disclosed in claim 4 wherein said remote server (105) further comprising means for sending a software application to said capturing wireless or fixed line device (103), and/or means for transmitting a data message comprising a product token being a special offer to said capturing wireless or fixed line device (103) and/or to an email address associated with said subscription associated with said wireless or fixed line device (103).

6. A system for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns as disclosed in claim 1 wherein an advert (101) comprising text and said associated encoded datagram (102) wherein said encoded datagram (102) further comprising image information and/or a barcode and/or a company logo.

7. A system for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns as disclosed in claim 1 wherein said remote server (103) further comprising means for storing identification data transmitted with said encoded datagram (102) in a data archive (106).

8. A system for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns as disclosed in claim 7 wherein said identification data comprising; advertising data and/or advertising campaign identity and/or product identity and/or billboard location and/or publication identity and/or subscriber identity and/or subscriber gender and/or subscriber age and/or device location and/or time of day and/or date and/or device make and model and/or phone number and/or IP address of device.

9. A system for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns as disclosed in claim 8 wherein said data archive (106) further comprising means for indexing different attributes of said identification data in order to create a differential data archive (106) for targeting a direct-tσ-consumer marketing campaign based upon data mining one or a plurality of said stored data attributes in ongoing and future advertising campaigns.

10. A system for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns as disclosed in claim 9 wherein said differential data archive (106) further comprising means for determining advertising locations or publications generating the highest conversion tracking or registrations of consumer interest, and means for designing effective advertising campaigns at lower cost by restricting the placement of advertisements to the most effective locations and publications.

11. A method for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns wherein said advertising campaigns running in newspapers and/or magazines and/or on TV, and said system further comprising a plurality of wireless or fixed line devices (103) each of said plurality of wireless or fixed line devices (103) capturing a printed or electronically displayed encoded datagram (102), and combining said captured encoded datagram (102) with data about each of said wireless or fixed line devices (103) capturing said encoded datagram (102) and/or each of said wireless or fixed line device's (103) location and/or the subscription associated with each of said wireless or fixed line device (103), and further transmitting said combined data together with said captured encoded datagram (102) to a remote server (105), said method being characterised by the steps of: decoding said transmitted data and building a dataset of all of said transmitted data by said remote server (105), and further determining the number of persons and/or locations where an interest in said advertising campaigns was registered, and determining which publications generating the greatest interest from consumers through conversion tracking.

12. A method for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns according to claim 11 wherein the participation in a datagram advertising promotion further comprising an Opt-in' clause for allowing consumers to give permission for their details to be stored and for allowing said consumers to be contacted for other offers.

13. A method for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns according to claim 11 wherein said step of capturing an encoded datagram (102) by each of said plurality of wireless or fixed line devices (103)(201), further comprising the step of either completing said encoded datagram (102) capture and verifying the image quality of said encoded datagram (102) by each of said plurality of wireless or fixed line capturing devices (103) or by sending an MMS message to a real-time processing application further verifying that said image can be successfully read, or setting up a continuous video data-link with said remote server (105) sending a feedback to each of said plurality of wireless or fixed line devices (103) when said capture being completed by said remote server (105).

14. A method for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns according to claim 11 wherein said remote data processing server (105) further comprising means for processing images wherein said means for processing images being stenography image processing means or means for recognising vehicle licence plate numbers within a visual field where said images being at different angles and having different sizes and being in different places within the visual field.

15. A method for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns according to claim 11 wherein said step of decoding said transmitted data (202) being followed by the steps of; sending back an acknowledgement signal to each of said wireless or fixed line capturing devices (103) and/or sending a software application to said capturing wireless or fixed line device (103), and/or transmitting a data message comprising a product token being a special offer to each of said capturing wireless or fixed line devices (103) and/or to an email address associated with said subscription associated with each of said wireless or fixed line devices (103).

16. A method for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns according to claim 14 further comprising the steps of; storing identification data transmitted with said encoded datagram (102) in a data archive (106) at said remote server (103), and indexing different attributes of said identification data for creating a differential data archive (106) for further targeting a direct-to-consumer marketing campaign based upon data mining one or a plurality of said stored data attributes in ongoing and future advertising campaigns (203,204).

17. A method for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns according to claim 15 wherein said identification data comprising; advertising data and/or advertising campaign identity and/or product identity and/or billboard location and/or publication identity and/or subscriber identity and/or subscriber gender and/or subscriber age and/or device location and/or time of day and/or date and/or device make and model and/or phone number and/or IP address of device.

18. A method for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns according to claim 15 further comprising the steps of; determining advertising locations or publications generating the highest conversion tracking or registrations of consumer interest, and designing effective advertising campaigns at lower cost by restricting the placement of advertisements to the most effective locations and publications.

19. A method for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns according to claim 18 further comprising the steps of; linking an advertising campaign to a promotion with another commercial partner, and/or sending a token to a consumer to be used with the other commercial partner wherein said token being a 20% off the price of a product or service.

20. A method for data acquisition and processing for optimising the effectiveness of billboard and/or electronic signage advertising campaigns according to claim 18 further comprising the steps of; using geo-tracing data wherein said geo-tracing data being cell-ID or E-OTD for determining when an ^Λopted-in' consumer being near to a particular store or restaurant for sending a token at that moment to said consumer for use in that store or restaurant.