WO2003061305A1

WO2003061305A1 - Method for implementing selective mass broadcast of an announcement in a telecommunication network

Info

Publication number: WO2003061305A1
Application number: PCT/FR2002/000006
Authority: WO
Inventors: Laurent Pretet
Original assignee: Qualimucho Media
Priority date: 2002-01-02
Filing date: 2002-01-02
Publication date: 2003-07-24
Also published as: AU2002228134A1

Abstract

The invention concerns a method for selective mass broadcasting of an announcement addressed to users having terminals in a telecommunication network, the network enabling a so-called mass transmission, and a so-called point-to-point transmission. The invention is characterized in that it consists in determining in the announcement at least a common part to be broadcast to a plurality of users in the form of a set of common data to be processed; transmitting the common part by at least a mass message comprising at least an announcement identifier to be processed and the set of common data to be processed; additionally transmitting through at least a point-to-point message at least an announcement identifier to be processed; providing in the terminal at least a means for storing the announcement identifier to be processed; further providing in the terminal at least a means for processing the data of the messages; the processing of the data of a message taking place only when the announcement identifier of the common part corresponds to the stored announcement identifier.

Description

METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING SELECTIVE MASS BROADCASTING OF AN ANNOUNCEMENT IN A TELECOMMUNICATION NETWORK

The present invention relates to a method of selective mass distribution of an advertisement to users having terminals in a telecommunications network as well as a terminal for implementation. The object of the invention is to set up an announcement service on a radiocommunication terminal allowing the dissemination, exploitation, and possibly measurement of the impact of the announcements on the users. The invention is particularly suitable for broadcasting advertisements on radio telecommunications equipment, but it can also

10 be used for messages whose purpose is not advertising and, for example, informative, aesthetic, alerts.

The methods of distributing information in telecommunication networks to a particular user are conventionally known and generally use methods of

15 "point to point" message transmission, ie from a specific transmission point to a specific terminal. The specificity of the transmission can be obtained in many ways and depends on the type of network used. For example, in a wired network a specific physical line is allocated to a user

20 specific, in an analog radio system a specific frequency is allocated to a specific user, in a GSM network each terminal has a unique identifier and a "point to point" SMS type message transmission can be implemented ...

Methods of distributing information to be received by a set of users over telecommunication networks are also known and generally implement methods of mass message transmission. For example, in an RDS radio system information is

30 transmitted to all ^'receptors in which they appear, in a GSM network a message transmission SMS-CB type allows to transmit information to a plurality of terminals ...

In these systems, the information transmitted by point-to-point or mass messages is used in time

35 real at the terminal or, in the case where this exploitation is not done immediately and where the information can be stored in the terminal, operation is dependent on direct action by the user. There is no method enabling mobile telecommunication equipment to use an advertisement in a deferred manner, whatever its content, in a terminal without user action and, moreover, in a deferred manner and at a convenient time which can be predefined. In the context of the invention, the term exploitation or restitution means any action or operation that a terminal can perform on information originating from the network and, for example, reception, display on a screen, activation of a request for the user to be able to enter data ... The current state of existing technologies and standards therefore only makes it possible to automatically display an announcement as soon as it is received by the terminal or to display an announcement delayed compared to its reception but following an action by the user requesting the display of the advertisement.

In this context, it appears desirable to have a method of broadcasting advertisements in which advertisements intended for a set of users are broadcast to the terminals without the exploitation of the advertisement at the terminal level being necessarily immediate. or then necessarily under the direct dependence of the user.

On the other hand, it is also desirable that the advertisement, although intended for a set of users, can be adapted to each user and / or terminal. Such an adaptation may, for example, be necessary in the case where a set of technically non-uniform terminals is implemented, for example certain terminals having color screens, WAP functionalities, etc. This adaptation can also be useful in the case where you want to display an ad only on terminals and / or users with certain characteristics and, for example, operating status, geographic location or according to socio-economic criteria that may be known to the operator . Such adaptation is only possible in systems existing only by implementing a "point by point" transmission which gives access to a terminal and its particular user. As a result in these systems, the dissemination of suitable announcements results in a very significant consumption of network resources.

Finally, in the more specific case of bidirectional networks, that is to say in which information can flow from the terminal to the network and its operator, GSM telephone network for example, it may be useful to be able to follow the impact of the advertisement on the user by providing statistics on the exploitation (reception and / or perception) of the advertisement. The objective is then to measure the success of a broadcasting campaign and to quantify the behavior of users in the face of exploited ads. The invention therefore relates to a method of selective mass distribution of an advertisement to users having terminals in a telecommunications network managed by an operator, each of the users being identified by user characteristics, each terminal being identified by terminal characteristics including at least its address,

- the network allowing a so-called "mass" transmission of a mass message from the operator to a set of terminals,

- the network allowing a so-called "point to point" transmission of a "point to point" message from the operator to a particular terminal identified by its address. According to the invention, - the advertisement determines at least one common part intended to be broadcast to a set of users, the common part of the advertisement being in the form of a set of common data to be used;

- the common part is transmitted by at least one mass message, the mass message comprising at least one announcement identifier and the set of common data to be used;

- in addition, at least one "point to point" message is transmitted at least one ad identifier to be used; - At least one means is available in the terminal for storing the advertisement identifier to be used, transmitted by "point to point"message;

- There is also available in the terminal at least one means for processing the message data; the exploitation of the data of a message taking place only when the advertisement identifier of the common part transmitted by mass message corresponds to the advertisement identifier to be exploited stored in said terminal. In various embodiments of the invention, the following means, used alone or in all their technically possible combinations, are also used:

- In addition, at least one specific part intended to be broadcast to a specific user is determined in the advertisement, the specific part of the advertisement being in the form of a set of specific data to be used and in that one transmits by at least one "point to point" message said specific part, said "point to point" message then comprising at least: an advertisement identifier to be used; the specific data set to be used and its ad identifier; and in that there is also available in the terminal at least one means for associating the common part and the specific part of the same advertisement, their identifiers being identical,

- a list of terminal characterization criteria is also transmitted by "point to point" message;

- there is at least one means available in the terminal for storing said list of characterization criteria;

- a selection list is also transmitted by mass message; - there is also at least one means available in the terminal for logically comparing the list of stored characterization criteria with the selection list, the processing of the data of an advertisement taking place only when the advertisement identifier of the common part transmitted by mass message corresponds to the ad identifier to be used stored in said terminal and the comparison from the list of characterization criteria and with the selection list is positive,

- mass messages and point-to-point messages are transmitted asynchronously and in that there is a means available in the terminal for storing mass messages,

in the messages, the data to be used are associated with instructions for using said data, said instructions being chosen from at least one or more of the following actions: start of a timer; data storage in the terminal; erasure of data in the terminal; updating of data in the terminal; storage of instructions in the terminal; deletion of instructions in the terminal; update instructions in the terminal; storage of data and associated instructions in the terminal; erasure of data and associated instructions in the terminal; display of data on the terminal; audio broadcasting of data on the terminal; start of statistical monitoring of a type of action carried out by the user on the terminal; transmission to the operator of statistical monitoring; presentation of a request to the user on the terminal, storage of the user's response to a request in the form of a certificate, transmission to the operator of a certificate; repetition of one or more actions, - the data processing instructions are conditionally activated, the conditions being chosen from one or more of the following criteria: message identifier having a particular value; terminal with a particular characteristic; user with a particular characteristic; terminal in a particular state; terminal passing to a particular state; specific action by the user on his terminal; particular schedule reached or exceeded; result of specific statistical monitoring; start of a timer; end of a timer,

- the conditions of the operating instructions are combined with at least one or more of the following logical relationships: AND, OR, OR EXCLUSIVE, NO,

- a database is used associating a user and his user characteristics with at least one terminal and his terminal characteristics, the user characteristics being chosen from: the usual place of residence; standard of living; consumption habits; personal interests; the results of surveys; the results of surveys,

- a network chosen from GSM, CDMA, IS95, GPRS, UMTS, DECT, is used,

- A GSM type network is implemented and the "point to point" and "mass" message transmissions are respectively SMS and SMS-CB transmissions.

The invention also relates to a terminal for a telecommunications network for implementing the method according to one or more of the preceding characteristics.

The invention therefore applies to the transmission of an advertisement to a set of recipients or users defined by a set of addresses and / or by a crossing of criteria. The proposed method makes it possible to optimize the use of the resources of the network by distributing the broadcasting of the advertisement according to a first global mode of transmission, known as mass, and a second individual mode of transmission known as "point to point" while allowing the selection of the terminals and / or users benefiting from the announcement and adaptation of the announcement to each terminal and / or user by associating with the announcement data a list of selection criteria and / or instructions d 'exploitation of the data, the latter being preferably but not necessarily, conditional.

A characteristic of the advertisement treated by the invention is to have a common part which is to be distributed to all the recipients. The advertisement can be, but is not necessarily, strictly identical from one recipient to another. It can contain data specific to each recipient, but it contains a significant portion of data which is common to all recipients.

The minimum characteristic of a network for implementing the method is therefore to be able to transmit information by at least two distinct channels: a first allowing information to be transmitted to a particular user identified by his terminal address (point-to-point transmission "), and a second for transmitting information to a set of terminals (mass transmission).

The method can be implemented in mono or bidirectional networks. In a mono-directional network, communications are made only to the terminals and there is no upward communication unlike a bi-directional network where the terminal can also communicate in return. By way of examples of mono-directional networks, mention may be made of those using alphanumeric mini-receivers still known by their English name of "pagers", digital television networks, digital radio broadcasting networks, etc.

In order to allow the reproduction of the announcements, means making it possible to exploit the data of the announcements as well as means of storage and use of the "point to point" messages for activation of a particular announcement referenced by its announcement identifier, are incorporated into the terminal. These means are included in a computer program which is a software layer added to the terminal management system. The computer program can be pre-programmed (read-only memory, reprogrammable or not) with the terminal itself, or in a card called "chip" implemented with the terminal. The computer program can also be transmitted by the network to the terminals, thus enabling remote programming and / or reprogramming.

Means for storing announcements are also implemented in the form of memory areas. In an advanced mode of implementation, the common parts (data and possible associated operating instructions) and the specific parts (data and possible associated operating instructions) of the advertisements are stored in the terminal. In the least advanced mode, only the identifiers of advertisements to be exploited which have been transmitted by "point to point" message are stored as well as, possibly, the list of criteria for characterizing the terminal.

In a particular mode of implementation, data processing instructions are associated with the data to be processed. These instructions correspond to actions to be carried out, for example restitution, display, storage, request ... which may be conditional, that is to say that the actions will only be carried out if certain conditions, for example linked to the characteristics of the terminal, a user action, overtime, etc., are fulfilled. The conditioning of actions allows, for example, the playback of messages on only a subset of the network terminals (e.g. display if the terminal has WAP functionality) and / or at a particular opportune moment linked to relative time (e.g. after a certain time) or absolute (e.g. at a certain time or date), and / or linked to a user action (e.g. display of a specific announcement if the user performs a certain action on their terminal ) and / or linked to statistics concerning the implementation of the terminal for telecommunications and / or announcements (ex: number of calls from a certain type of numbers, number of times an ad is displayed). The existence of operating conditions thus makes it possible, on the one hand, to adapt the rendering of the announcement (e.g. choice of a subset of terminals, users ... for the rendering of a particular announcement) and, on the other hand, to carry out the restitution at times considered appropriate. In the context of the invention, the term opportune moment refers to a time variable (eg a specific time of execution), or not. In the latter case, the opportune moment may correspond to a context (or change of context) in which the terminal is located (e.g. standby state), or, even to a particular action by the user (e.g. support on the terminal validation key).

In the context of the present invention, an advertisement corresponds to any type of text, for example advertising slogan, and / or graphic forms, for example logo, and / or graphic animations, for example animated acronym, and / or video animation, for example advertising spot, and / or sound animation and / or sign conveying any type of information having a meaning or not. The rendering or exploitation of an advertisement in the terminal therefore consists in presenting the advertisement to the user via any operational interface and, for example screens, loudspeakers, microphones, vibrators, lights and other components of equipment. radio communication.

Still within the framework of the invention, a telecommunications network is a system which makes it possible to communicate with the radiocommunication terminal. It can be networks for mobile terminals, wireless or fixed, composed of radio transmission / reception infrastructure, computer or Internet servers, message centers, gateways or SMS servers. These include the following networks: GSM mobile cellular standardized by ETSI, CDMA, networks (NTT), IS95, GPRS or UMTS, DECT wireless, or the Internet network including radio transmission / reception relays as well as the computer network, and other technologies to come, without particular limitations. The network is operated by an operator who is generally a legal person.

The telecommunications terminal includes any type of electronic terminal connected to the network used, mobile or not, in particular mobile phones, "smartphones", laptops, Personal Assistants (PDAs, tablets) with wireless transmission capacities, as well as the communicating modules added to an electronic equipment equipped with screens and for example televisions, refrigerator, mini-computers on board by car ... The user is the person who uses the terminal.

Figures 1 and 2 schematically represent the functional structure of the method of the invention according to a particular embodiment described below. The example of implementation relates more particularly to a radio telephone network. It can be a GSM network in which point-to-point and mass message transmissions are implemented respectively via the SMS and SMS-CB functionalities. The invention implements a set of procedures for broadcasting announcements from a computer server, then for storing, managing and rendering on a radiocommunication terminal.

The methods use a computer server connected or not to an Internet network and accessible by a limited number or not of users including advertisers. This server initiates the broadcasting of announcements by supplying the radio communication network with announcements and the information necessary for sending them. This information allows the telecommunications network to identify the recipients and to define the common part and the specific parts of the announcement which condition the means of transmission used (respectively "mass" and "point to point" transmissions), the moment chosen, the frequency planned, for the broadcasting of each of these announcements. The ordering party determines the terminals or users recipients according to terminology adapted to the network, the time for transmissions, possibly the frequency of these transmissions, the type of transport resulting in a choice of appropriate gateway for the message, depending on the size of the message, its urgency, the number recipients, etc.

The mass transmission 1 12 allows an announcement 700 to be sent to any terminal 200, 300, 400, etc. of the network or of a sub-network. A sub-network can be a certain geographic area of coverage, a subset of addresses, a local network linked to the global network. As an example of a zone, let us quote the coverage area of a radio transmitter (FM cell of a GSM or other radiocommunication network, digital radio, digital television), the satellite coverage areas (television, "pagers", etc.) and the logical zones that there may be in a network. These logical zones correspond to a set of cells for example: “Location Area” in GSM technology for example, subscription areas for “pagers”: North, South, East, West of a country for example. By way of example of a subset of addresses, let us quote the sub IP addresses on a computer network of TCP / IP type. Another example, knowing the first digits of a telephone number can represent a group of users (a company for example). As an example of a local network, let us cite the corporate computer networks which connect a set of machines, this set is itself connected to the “Internet” network by gateways. GSM technology allows mass transmissions through SMS-CB in which any terminal is configured to receive the corresponding messages broadcast by the cell where it is located, without its own identity 210 being specified in the header of the message 600 or the body of message 700. It should be noted that the selection of recipients or users by their address is not possible with this means of transmission. Any terminal which wishes it or which is configured for, will receive the same information 603 without discrimination on the address 210. The "point to point" transmission implements the transmission of an announcement 720 by specifying a particular recipient 200 identified by its address 210. Only this recipient receives the data. The message is sent by "a point" and received by one and only one other "point". By way of illustration, in current networks, we can cite SMS or USSD in GSM technology. For a "pager", the messages that an individual sends to another individual are "point to point" messages. It should therefore be noted that only targeting by address (210, 310, 410 ...) is possible in this model. This mode of transmission 11 is not suitable for direct addressing by criteria. If this is required, the selection by criteria must be transformed into a set of addresses by means of the database 101 that the transmitter 100 keeps at its disposal. It is also necessary for this base 101 to contain all the values, if possible up to date, relating to the terminals 200, 300, 400 on which the selection criteria are built.

The transmission method of the invention consists in dissociating the advertisement into two portions 702 and 700 in order to exploit each of the transmission methods 1 11 and 1 12 to convey each of the data portions by the most suitable method.

The invention consists in using the “point-to-point” mode of transmission 1 11 to route the portion of the advertisement 702 specific to the recipient, and in using the “mass” mode of transmission 1 12 for the common part of data 700 to route to all recipients.

The method according to the invention consists in transmitting by mass transmission: 603: the common part of the announcement 700, with an announcement identifier 601 characteristic of the data conveyed in 603, and optionally a list of criteria 602 identifying the recipients.

The identifier 601 can be digital, binary or alpha numeric, but remains conceptually an element which makes it possible to unambiguously reference the content of the mass transmission. The preferential implementation expresses the list of criteria using a logical expression involving logical operators "and", "or", "or exclusive".

The criteria can be expressed in a very variable way: a succession of computer bits each having a meaning, a character string of variable length including the elements to be considered with or without their logical coordination, are two trivial nonlimiting examples.

The use of the “point-to-point” means of transport 11 1 makes it possible to convey to the terminal 200 three types of information, in one message or in several:

523: the fraction of the individualized advertisement 702 dissociated from the common part of the advertisement, if any, the values 521 of the identifiers 601 of the advertisement to be processed, the list of criteria 522 that the terminal must consider as its own.

The format of the "point to point" transmission is not limiting. The implementation may favor issuing a whole series of identifiers 521 in one transmission, and sending an update of a series of criteria 522 separately in another transmission. In other words, the elements 521, 522 and 523 can be the subject of groupings (521, 522, 523 constitute lists) and of various elementary transmissions.

The implementation can otherwise mix these three pieces of information 521, 522, 523 at will, the claim relates only to the exploitation of this mode of transmission for this information.

By way of illustration, the criteria 322 that this type of transmission 522 can update in a terminal are: its location, data relating to the user (sex, age, etc.), a level of subscription to a service giving right to the reception of certain data, etc.

If the terminal has sufficient storage capacity to store previous “mass” messages, “point-to-point” transmission 520 can take place after broadcast 600. Depending on the type of application, it is likely that the storage capacity required for fractions 702, 703, 704 is less than the complete storage of broadcast messages.

All the terminals to which a mass transmission of a common part of future announcement 600 is addressed are previously subject to a “point-to-point” transmission 520, 540 to indicate to them the identifiers 601 of the data in broadcast. to return.

The opposite case, less likely, is not however excluded from the invention. This involves memorizing all mass messages 600, 610, 620, 630, 640, etc. and processing them on receipt of point-to-point messages 520.

The implementation can also have a finite amount of memory intended for messages 600, 610, 620, managed at best (usual cache management methods, “first in first out” among others) which can be useful if the messages are broadcast are broadcast several times. In this case, the decision method 260 is applied to each message in the cache following a reception of partial data 523 or a change in the criteria 230. Multiple transmissions can be envisaged for:

- ensure that the message 600 is received by a sufficient statistical rate of recipients, in the event that the means of dissemination 1 12 does not acknowledge broadcasts 600,

- provide data 700, possibly updated between transmissions.

The preferential implementation for transmitting a specific datum provides for the following dynamic.

A terminal 200 receives a "point to point" of the data identifiers 521 to be processed. It stores these identifiers in a list 220 which it will consult on reception of a mass transmission 600.

Optionally, a terminal also receives “point to point” updates to the list of parameters 522 and, possibly, new parameters, which it replaces or adds to the old values in its memory 232. This set of parameters refreshed at distance, joins the set of fixed parameters 233 of the terminal and the parameters that the terminal manages itself 231.

Asynchronously, the terminal is attentive to mass messages 600 610, 620, 630, 640, etc. Each time a mass message is received, it applies a decision method 260.

As regards the condition of the rendering or exploitation of the advertisement, logical relationships can be implemented between the criteria and, possibly, the conditional instructions for exploitation of the data. These relationships are for example a "or logical":

If the identifier 601 is part of its list that the terminal maintains in memory 220, it processes the advertisement 603.

Failing this, it examines whether the proper parameters which it maintains in memory 230 correspond to the criteria 602 appended to the advertisement, in which case it also processes the advertisement 603.

Another alternative gives priority to the value of criteria 602:

- if the proper parameters that the terminal maintains in memory 230 correspond to the criteria 602 attached to the advertisement, it processes the advertisement,

- failing this, if the announcement identifier 601 is part of the list of announcement identifiers to be exploited which it maintains in memory 220, it processes the announcement 603.

Another alternative requires the "and logical": - if the announcement identifier 601 is part of the list of announcement identifiers to be used that the terminal maintains in memory 220, and

- if the proper parameters that the terminal maintains in memory 230 correspond to the criteria 602 attached to the advertisement in the list of criteria, it processes the advertisement 603. Recall that the expression of the criteria 602 can be quite rudimentary, such as verification of a series of computer bits. The criteria can be in the form of a binary mask whose application on a series of bits resulting from the values 230 and with a logical operator "and", "or" or else "or exclusive" must provide a given result. Simple implementation in this way will accommodate a pre-established logic such as the three mentioned above.

However, the preferential implementation plans to express the criteria 602 in the form of a more complex logical expression. In this case, the importance of the identifier 701 can be expressed within the logical expression 602. As examples of criterion 602, we can imagine:

- "Any terminal" obviously, which can be by default when nothing is specified in 602, - "220 contains 601", which can also be chosen as default logic when nothing is specified in 602,

- "(220 contains 601) AND (Parameter A equals X)",

- "(220 contains 601) OR (Parameter A equals X)",

- "(Parameter B equals Y) AND (220 contains 601) OR (Parameter A equals X) OR EXCLUSIVE (Parameter C is less than Z)" to give an example of a more complicated logical criterion. It should be noted here that the fixed priority rules corresponding to the three nonlimiting examples explained above are no longer applicable. Only the criteria 602 have effect, these possibly incorporate the comparison of the identifier 601 to the list 220.

When an announcement 603 has to be processed, the terminal 200 first completes the common part with the possible individualized fraction 702 that it has received by "point to point" (or expects to receive if necessary). Once the advertisement 720 has been completed, the common and specific parts being gathered logically and, possibly physically, or if there is no individualized fraction 702, the application implemented in the terminal transfers the data to be used and according to the any operating instructions (possibly conditional) of this data to the final application 250: display module, script execution, storage or execution of the executable, transmission to a connected device, etc.

The impact of ad processing on the list of 220 ad identifiers to be used can be: - either to delete the identifier 601 from the list 220 as soon as the advertisement 603 has been processed,

- or leave the identifier 601 in the list.

In the case where the nature of the information 700 justifies a transmission, it is desirable to implement the automatic erasure of the list of identifiers. But it may be wise to keep the identifier 603 in the list 220 if it is information transmitted periodically and where it can be considered that the user is "subscribed" to the data 700. The existence of instructions can be useful for this purpose.

The preferential implementation consists in leaving the alteration of the list 200 to be borne by the final application 250. Other examples of application of the invention are now described. Selection criteria 602 can take simple forms (a single value, a list of values) or complex forms (a list of values and logical conjunctions, a logical expression made up of arbitrary tests and their logical conjunctions). • Application without attached criteria 602

This mode of dissemination implements only the appropriate joint use of the two modes of transmission and corresponds to the essence of the invention in its simplest mode. The logic for rendering the advertisement is reduced to the comparison of the identifier 601 to the list 220.

As long as the announcement to be transmitted to terminals 200, 300 and 400 is strictly identical for all, no specific part is transmitted and the point-to-point message contains only at least one announcement identifier to be used. This broadcasting method makes it possible for example to update a regional meteorological composite in terminals according to a geographic parameter available in the database 101 (usual place of residence of the subscriber or his current location if this information is available). It also allows the dissemination of thematic information journals, according to selected themes for example.

To follow up on the discussion started concerning the reshuffle of the list 220 following the reception of the message of identifier 601 and the role of the application 250, let us take an example of daily soap where this task is relayed to the final application 250 The identifier 601 remains in the list 220 by default. The daily soap is repeated several times a day to ensure a high statistical reception rate (the means of "dissemination" 1 12 used in the example does not provide an acknowledgment of receipt of broadcasts). The decision method 260 transmits each repetition to the application 250 to which the detection of the possible redundancy which results from retransmissions is delegated. With or after the transmission of the last soap opera of the season, an instruction intended for the application 250 makes it erase the identifier 601 from the list 220. • Diffusion of the same data in multiple formats

The addition of criteria 602 makes it possible to target a subset of the terminals of the network 1 10 to which the identifier of the advertisement 601 has been assigned (in memory 220).

Take the example of an ad to display on screens. If the transmitter 100 wishes to transmit this announcement to all the equipment on the network 1 10 having a screen of size X, it suffices to express only this criterion in the element 602 appended to the data 603, to the exclusion of criteria bearing on the identifier 601. Any terminal of the network 1 10 having the screen size X will process the advertisement, without the need to address an identifier 521 in "point to point" to each terminal.

If the transmitter wishes to transmit this announcement to a finite list of recipients, it will configure the list 220 of their respective terminals with the identifier 601 of the announcement before broadcasting it.

If the transmitter wishes to transmit this announcement to all the equipment having a screen of size X from a finite list of recipients, it will configure the terminals with the identifier, and will broadcast the message with the criterion "(220 contains 601) AND (screen of size X)".

The method according to the invention thus makes it possible to dissociate the selection of recipients and the appropriate format for each of them.

If an issuer wishes to transmit an announcement to a list of non-homogeneous terminals, it can customize the format later.

More explicitly, the trivial solution would be to assign as many identifiers 601], 601 _j , 601 _k ... as there are types of terminals i, j, k, and provide the terminals with the correct identifiers to be processed.

But basically, the plurality of identifiers for an ad with an identical common part can be confusing and generates complexity. The solution according to the invention consists in sending the unique identifier 601 by "point to point" 521 to all the terminals of the list without distinction of capacity of the terminal. An identifier 601 therefore corresponds to a fundamental announcement. The transmitter then broadcasts the different formats of the announcement with the same identifier 601 but with additional logical criteria. In our example of a message to display, it would broadcast the message 600 for a screen of size X (criteria 602), the message 610 for a screen of size Y (criterion 612), the message 620 for a screen of size Z

(criterion 622). Let us first note that this does not generate more transmission than in the trivial solution mentioned before using a multitude of identifiers 601 601 _j , 601 _k .

It should then be noted that the method according to the invention has an increased richness, by the dissociation of the recipients and of the criteria. It provides the possibility of checking on criteria 231 which might not even be available to the transmitter 100 in its database 101.

In our example of an ad to display, we can imagine broadcasting the same 700 ad in different languages. The “language” criterion is an example of an internal parameter 231 that the terminal manages itself (following an adjustment made by the user on the terminal) which is not necessarily accessible beforehand to the transmitter 100, or which the database 101 can hardly reflect in real time with certainty. Less obviously, while it is conceivable that the screen size could be accessible to the transmitter 100 in its database 101, certain systems identify the subscribers independently of the equipment they use. The most telling example is GSM technology, where the subscriber can change the terminal (and therefore the screen size as far as we are concerned) without necessarily being reflected in the transmitter's database 101 100.

The invention therefore makes it possible to extend the field of selection of recipients by considering the distributed database resulting from the conceptual addition of the parameters 230 of each terminal to the database 101 of the transmitter 100.

The method according to the invention provides for a complex crossover of criteria to be expressed, but also covers a simplified system or devoid of any logic additional to the identifier.

In a particular mode with implementation of data processing instructions, the announcements sent by the computer server are in the form of a set of data to be used and operating instructions which are each transmitted with an identifier. announcement to the terminal, received 1 13, managed, stored, and restored or, more generally, exploited according to the associated instructions and contained in the message, thanks to the software operating means contained in the receiving radiocommunication terminal. These instructions define the way in which the human machine interface of the terminal must process the data of the announcement, screen display, sound broadcast, etc. The instructions are generally conditional so that restitution does not take place unless the conditions are met. The conditions can be linked to the time, frequency, duration, specific instructions and / or other parameters. These instructions can define the display, unique or not, of texts, animated images, or not, the emission of sounds and more generally the activation of any device of the mobile radiocommunication terminal, then the possible recording of data relating to the actions of the user following the restitution of the message on his equipment in the form of a "certificate" described below. On the other hand, the instructions being able to be conditional as a function of parameters related to the terminal or to the user, a mass broadcast on all the terminals can in fact give a restitution limited to only a subset of the terminals or users whose characteristics are recognized. It is thus possible, while implementing a mass broadcast, to obtain the equivalent of a more specific broadcast and usually operated by the implementation of "point to point" messages. Network resources are therefore saved during broadcasts to subsets of terminals and / or users compared to a broadcast where only "point-to-point" transmissions, each having to carry the entire announcement, would be implemented . In a particular mode, the advertiser wishes the broadcasting of an advertisement to be perceived by the user. To respond to this problem, the invention makes it possible to synchronize the reproduction of the announcement, that is to say the execution of actions linked to the instructions, co.nditionnally on moments and / or events ensuring that the attention of the the user is carried on the terminal. The appropriate moment of restitution can be defined according to events specific to the equipment: start or end of communications, inactive of the terminal, etc. and / or according to events specified in the message by the conditional instructions associated with the data: time or time range for a return, geographic location of the user, etc. Thus, the conditional restitution depending on the state of the terminal can be linked to the lighting of the terminal, during the standby of the terminal, during the entry or exit of a screen saver state, a keypad lock or unlock, one call incoming or outgoing, start or end of call, end of terminal delay, SMS presentation. Likewise, conditional restitution can be linked to a verified condition (e.g. time> = scheduled time of restitution; time slot ...), to a change in condition (e.g. change from one geographic area to another ). The geographic positioning information of the terminal which may be subject to conditions for the rendering of the advertisement can be obtained by any means depending on the network used. Thus, in the case of GSM, the location information "location area" can be tested in the case where a return is conditional on the geographic position of the terminal. The condition of the restitution also makes it possible to define restitution priorities: each announcement is associated with a priority level and the restitution of a particular announcement can be defined conditionally to its priority with respect to the others.

In the absence of conditions, the advertisement is restored when the advertisement is complete, that is to say that the common and specific parts are available. This availability may be the result of the storage of the common and specific parts of the announcement (data and instructions) in the memory of the terminal or of the associated "smart" card or be linked to the waiting for broadcasting by mass transmission. a specific announcement for which the operating instructions for the mass data have already been received by point-to-point transmission and stored. Whether the common part (data and instructions) is stored or not, the element triggering the processing process by the terminal of an announcement for restitution is the reception by point to point transmission of instructions for processing mass data from the 'announcement: if the common part is available then the data is executed (this execution can be possibly conditional, i.e. the corresponding actions will or will not be carried out according to the conditions imposed), if the common part does not is not available, either because it is not stored (storage, which is an action that can possibly even be conditional), or that the point-to-point transmission of a particular announcement took place before the transmission of the common part by mass transmission, execution (possibly conditional) will only be continued when the common part is transmitted.

In a particular mode, it is also envisaged that instructions for processing the mass data which are transmitted with the common part (reception of the mass message) of the announcement are executed upon reception of the common part independently of the reception. and combination with instructions from "point to point" transmission. To this end, in the mass message, an intrinsic instruction list can be associated with the announcement identifier, the common data set to be used and the operating instructions for said common data set. Such an implementation can, for example, be useful in the case where storage is a possible instruction, the common part then being able to be stored or not depending on the presence or not of the corresponding instruction in the intrinsic instruction list. . As with any operating instruction, the instructions in the intrinsic instruction list can be conditional. Thus, it is for example possible to define a common part which would be stored only if the terminal has enough memory.

In the case where restitution is conditional, restitution takes place only when the condition, which can be complex, is verified. The conditions being carried by the advertisement, the data and corresponding instructions stored in the terminal being able to be modified, it is possible to switch an advertisement from a deferred restitution mode to an immediate restitution mode. The conditional actions can be combined by conventional logical operators of the AND, OR, NOT, OR EXCLUSIVE type, in an advertisement, the restitution of the advertisements can be dependent on complex criteria thus making it possible to select a particular subset of the users and terminals. A script associating data and criteria lists and / or data processing instructions can be defined. This script can itself implement data of the indicated types: simple text, HTML, images, sounds ... The script in one form of implementation can be based on a grammar and a vocabulary of the C programming language type, BASIC, pascal ... or be implemented using graphic means: the client can select graphic objects corresponding to data and / or states and defining conditional operating links.

Within the framework of the statistical follow-up of the reaction of the user to an advertisement and therefore of the measure of impact on the diffusion of an advertisement, the advertiser or the order-maker 102 can specify for each advertisement the type of event or reaction or action that must be kept track of. It is thus possible to keep track of a number of restitutions, the hours of restitutions, the duration of restitution display to measure the interest of a user in a particular announcement. The interest of a user in a particular announcement can, for example, be manifested by pressing a key on the terminal, the effect of which can be variable depending on the message displayed on the screen. Otherwise for a message A, a key on the terminal will store a telephone number or a URL / IP address location. For message B, the same key will transmit message B to another subscriber. The user's action is memorized from this information to be sent in a certificate. In the simplest case, statistical monitoring corresponds to a simple counter implemented in the form of a variable which is incremented. The message thus contains a definition of counters for this message as well as the increments to be applied for each event of interest. Statistical monitoring, a counter in the simplest mode, can be managed at the terminal level by a system of certificates which can be sent back from the terminal to the network. In return, upon receipt of the certificates, the ordering party performs a conversion for present results, for example in the form of statistical reports.

The radiocommunication terminal, by means of method 7, is capable of statistically recording and accounting the data relating to the exploitation or restitution of announcements and user actions linked to the appearance of these messages. This process includes a system for grouping this information together for each message returned in a "certificate". This certificate is produced by this system 8 in a format suitable for supplying a computer system for monitoring messages. Each certificate is then distributed to the computer server which will record and draw up a set of monitoring statistics correlating the return of messages and user reactions following these restitutions. The announcements are broadcast by the two means of transmission known as mass and "point to point". In a GSM network, mass transmission carries the common part of the announcement by SMS-CB, and the specific part of the announcement with the instructions for operating the mass data by "point-to-point" SMS transmission. In practice, the transmission capacities on the network being physically limited, the SMS and SMS-CB messages allowing the transmission of a few tens of bytes, the announcements are transmitted via several SMS-CB and / or SMS. The advertisement is reconstituted on reception thanks to the implementation of its identity, the different SMS and SMS-CB messages of the same advertisement being grouped together at least logically and, in the case where the advertisement is stored, physically.

When the terminal receives a transmission containing an announcement, the following steps are applied:

- The authenticity of the advertisement is verified, guaranteeing that the passage comes from an accredited orderer.

- The integrity of the advertisement is checked, guaranteeing that the advertisement has not been altered in transit during its transit and that it is received without error. - The ad is stored in the storage area. It may be necessary to delete an old announcement if the area is full.

- The conditional parameters of the advertisement are considered, in particular the priority and the temporal (appropriate time) and geographic specificities:

- If the message is immediate or at a specific time, an alarm is activated 2. When triggered 3 (possibly immediate) the selection process recognizes the message in question. - If the message is to be returned to a particular location, the same procedure is applied for a "geographic" alarm.

All the messages contained in the storage area are analyzed to determine the messages whose specifics of the opportune moments include the moment indicated by the terminal. If the event is the triggering of an alarm, the message (s) which generated the alarm programming are sought.

Data relating to a message should be returned to a message tracking system. A "certificate" is a composite gathering this data in a compact format for one or more messages.

Claims

1. Method for selective mass distribution of an advertisement to users having terminals in a telecommunications network managed by an operator, each of the users being identified by user characteristics, each terminal being identified by terminal characteristics of which at least his address,

- the network allowing a so-called "mass" transmission of a mass message from the operator to a set of terminals, - the network allowing a so-called "point to point" transmission of a "point to point" message from the operator to a particular terminal identified by its address, characterized in that

- at least one common part intended to be broadcast to a set of users is determined in the advertisement, the common part of the advertisement being in the form of a set of common data to be used;

- in addition, at least one "point to point" message is transmitted at least one ad identifier to be used;

- At least one means is available in the terminal for storing the advertisement identifier to be used, transmitted by "point to point" message;

- There is also available in the terminal at least one means for processing the message data; the exploitation of the data of a message taking place only when the advertisement identifier of the common part transmitted by mass message corresponds to the advertisement identifier to be exploited stored in said terminal.

2. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that it is further determined in the advertisement at least one specific part intended to be broadcast to a specific user, the specific part of the advertisement being in the form of a set specific data to be used and in that one transmits by at least one "point to point" message said specific part, said "point to point" message then comprising at least:

- at least one ad identifier to be used; - the specific data set to be used and its advertisement identifier; and in that there is also available in the terminal at least one means for associating the common part and the specific part of the same advertisement, their identifiers being identical.

3. Method according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that

- a selection list is also transmitted by mass message;

- there is also at least one means available in the terminal for logically comparing the list of stored characterization criteria with the selection list, the processing of the data of an advertisement taking place only when the advertisement identifier of the common part transmitted by mass message corresponds to the advertisement identifier to be used stored in said terminal and the comparison of the list of characterization criteria with the selection list is positive.

4. Method according to claim 1, 2 or 3 characterized in that one transmits the mass messages and the point to point messages in an asynchronous manner and in that one has in the terminal a means allowing storage of mass messages.

5. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that in the messages, the data to be used are associated with instructions for using said data, said instructions being chosen from at least one or more of the following actions: start of a timer; data storage in the terminal; erasure of data in the terminal; updating of data in the terminal; storage of instructions in the terminal; deletion of instructions in the terminal; update instructions in the terminal; storage of data and associated instructions in the terminal; erasure of data and associated instructions in the terminal; display of data on the terminal; audio broadcasting of data on the terminal; start of statistical monitoring of a type of action carried out by the user on the terminal; transmission to the operator of statistical monitoring; presentation of a request to the user on the terminal, storage of the user's response to a request in the form of a certificate, transmission to the operator of a certificate; repetition of one or more actions.

6. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the data processing instructions are conditionally activated, the conditions being chosen from one or more of the following criteria: message identifier having a particular value; terminal with a particular characteristic; user with a particular characteristic; terminal in a particular state; terminal passing to a particular state; specific action by the user on his terminal; particular schedule reached or exceeded; result of specific statistical monitoring; start of a timer; end of a timer.

7. Method according to claim 6 characterized in that one combines the conditions of the operating instructions with at minus one or more of the following logical relationships: AND, OR, OR EXCLUSIVE, NO.

8. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a database is used associating a user and his user characteristics with at least one terminal and his terminal characteristics, the user characteristics. being chosen from: the usual place of residence; standard of living; consumption habits; personal interests; the results of surveys; the results of surveys.

9. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a network chosen from GSM, CDMA, IS95, GPRS, UMTS, DECT is used.

10. Terminal for telecommunications network for implementing the method according to any one of the preceding claims.