giants’ pending patents and Bill Gates granted patent coming to disrupt affiliates model by rewarding social influencers

Ehud Barone, inventor, udi@beesandpollen.com

Social network rewards

Pub. # US20110184792

Priority date

Jan 28, 2010

Advertising offers using social networks

Pub. # US20130117097

Priority date

Nov 7, 2011

Multi-channel, self-learning, social influence-based incentive generation

Pub. # US20140019225

Priority date

Jul 10, 2012

13

Rewarding independent influencers

Patent # 8712837

Priority date

Apr 30, 2007

The Invention Science Fund I, Llc

About Me

Ehud Barone

udi@beesandpollen.com

• 2005: Inventor of “Advertising and incentives over a social network” US 8560385 B2 - first patent combining social influencers + ad campaigns for word-of-mouth generation, in a practical method relevant for today’s social networks (e.g. Google, Facebook)

• 2006 – present: CTO, Bees and Pollen, active in the field of leveraging social network data for optimized delivery of user experience

• 2014 – present: inventor, IP monetization, Bees and Pollen

Table of Contents

• What makes 'Rewarding Influencers' space so hot?

• What are the leading patents and applications in this space?

• What’s the difference between these patents?

• How these patents are going to disrupt the market?

• How these patents are going to make big money to the top players?

User Generated Content

Why User-Generated Content Is the new marketing currency(Nov, 2014)

65%65% of brandsParticipate in digitalInfluencer marketing

92%

92% of consumers trust their friends and family more than ads, andthey’re much more likely To make purchase based onRecommendations than billboards

Social Networks

61%61% of influencers saybrands contact themfor their access to certain audiences

Google +Post Ads - amplify your content and create conversations across the web

Social spend will double by 2018 (Nov, 2014)

Influencers & Experts Bloggers

The surprising brilliance of the linkedin influencers program(Aug, 2013)

Over 409 million people view more than 17.6 billion pages of bloggers each month(WordPress, 2014)

Brands and influencers goes together

User generated content is king

Source: Rewarding digital influencers (Jun, 2014)

'Rewarding Influencers' is Tightly Coupled with the Latest Hyper-Growth Market Trends

'Rewarding Influencers' as Prime Catalyst to the Whole Eco-System of Online User Generated Content

Social Networks’ Members

(e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Google+)

Experts & Influencers

(e.g. LinkedIn, Quora)

Bloggers(e.g. WordPress)

Reviewers(e.g. Yelp, Google+

Local)

Brands’Websites

ContentVertical

Websites

SearchEngines

Apps

Content Distributors

Content Publishers

Content Consumers (Users) Driving Traffic, Sales and $

Influencers’Generated

Content

GoogleAdvertising offers using social networksUS20130117097Priority date: Nov, 2011RCE, Non Final Action (Sep, 2014)

Priority Date

Bees and Pollen LtdAdvertising and incentives over a social network Patent #: 8560385Continuation:App #14/560,931Inventor: AtazkyPriority date: Sep, 2005Granted, continuation pending

MicrosoftSocial network rewardsUS20110184792Priority Date: Jan, 2010Abandoned (Jan, 2015)

Rejected over

IBMMulti-channel, self-learning, social influence-based incentive generationUS20140019225Priority date: Jul, 2012Non Final Action (Nov, 2014)

Rejected over

The Invention Science Fund I, LlcRewarding independent influencersPatent #: 8712837

Inventor: William H. Gates, IIIPriority date: Apr, 20079 publications (8 continuations, 2 granted, 7 pending)

Filed by Bill Gates after he left Microsoft with 11 other top technologists

2005 2012

Continuation filed Dec 2014 based on hereby disclosed IBM, Microsoft and Google pending patents

'Rewarding Influencers' Top Patent Applications

'Rewarding Influencers' Microsoft Pending Patent (US20110184792) -Claims Illustration

Microsoft pending patent captures a broad concept of rewarding influencers based on social network interactions

Method comprises of 3 general steps:

1. Obtaining information from a social network, said information describing interactions of users via said social network

2. Determining influence of some of said users on others of said users via said social network from said information

3. Computing a reward based on said influence for at least one of said users

Step 1:Obtaining information from a social network

(e.g. shares, status updates)

Step 2:Determining Influencebased on interactions

Step 3:Computing and communicating

rewards

Users’interactions

Users’influence

75% discount

50% discount

25% discount10%

discount

'Rewarding Influencers' Google Pending Patent (US20130117097) -Claims Illustration

Google pending patent captures a broad concept of rewarding influencers for using their social network accounts behalf advertisers

Method comprises of 3 general steps:

1. Transmitting an electronic advertisement to a user, wherein the electronic advertisement includes an invitation for the user to receive a non-cash benefit in return for allowing an advertiser associated with the electronic advertisement to utilize one or more aspects of an account of the user on a social network for the benefit of the advertiser

2. Receiving an indication that the user has accepted the invitation for the non-cash benefit

3. Performing one or more actions on behalf of the advertiser relating to the account of the user on the social network

Advertiser

User

Ownership

User’s Social Network Account

Step 1:Transmitting an electronic ad

with an invitation for a benefit in return of

using user’s social network account

Step 2:Receiving an

indication that userhas accepted the invitation

Step 3:Performing action/s

on user’s social network account

behalf of advertiser

'Rewarding Influencers' IBM Pending Patent (US20140019225) -Claims Illustration

IBM pending patentcaptures a broad concept of rewarding influencers for promoting marketplace offerings among relevant friends

Method comprises of 4 general steps:

1. Detecting a social network interaction by a user within a social networking website that positively references a marketplace offering of an entity

2. Determining a social networking influence of the user based upon the interactions of his connections with said entity

3. Determining that said influence of the user satisfies an incentive rule threshold

4. Generating an incentive for the user

EntityUser

Ownership

Step 1:Detecting an

interaction with positive reference to

an offeringMarketplace

Offering

Friend Friend

Friend Friend

Step 2:Determining influence of the user based on

the interactions of his connections with the

entity

Steps 3-4:Generating an incentivefor the user(assuming threshold

meet)

Ownership

'Rewarding Influencers' Bill Gates Patent (8712837) -Claims Illustration

Bill Gates granted patent captures a broad concept of rewarding influencers based on their content influence (complementary to affiliates)

Method comprises of 4 general steps:

1. A person accessing a content owned by a content owner where:• the content relates to a 3rd party (e.g.

brand). • The person and the 3rd party has a possible

matter of interest2. The accessed content influencing the person3. The person triggering some kind of involvement

with the 3rd party (independent of clicking an affiliate link)

4. The content owner receiving a reward/benefit in response to his content’s influence

ContentRelation

Ownership

Possible matter of interest

Person

3rd Party

ContentOwner

Step 1:Accessing

the content

Step 2:Influencing the person

by the content

Step 3:The person triggering

involvement

Step 4:Rewarding

the content owner in

response to his content’s

influence

'Rewarding Influencers' – Sample use case by Amazon’s Goodreads

By rewarding influencers,

Book giveaways can be targeted to influencers having best capacity to generate word-of-mouth among most relevant friends interested in that particular genre

By rewarding influencers,

Authors can run targeted campaigns and special offers (e.g. autographed copies) to most relevant social influencers and get them excited to generate buzz

By rewarding influencers,

The most relevant social influencers can be encouraged to write reviews, thus delivering higher volume of reviews comprising higher reach and credibility among friends

Amazon’s Goodreads Mobile App / Website

'Rewarding Influencers' – Sample use case by Alibaba Tmall

Source: Alibaba has a second attempt at making a social network (Jul, 2014)Alibaba issues new IPO filing, reveals people spent $272 billion on Taobao and Tmall in past year

• Tmall and its sister site Taobao are the

two biggest ecommerce sites in China

and collectively they account for most of

Alibaba’s revenue.

• Tmall grew 90.1% in the past year, while

Taoba’s sales grew 32%.

Tmall – top Alibaba online marketplace

($82B revenues in 2013)

• Mobile app dedicated to

tagging brands in your selfies

with a built-in social network functionality

Fun – latest Alibaba social network Jun, 2014

Alibaba’s newest effort to build a

social network into its Tmall shopping

app

By rewarding influencers,

Alibaba Fun mobile app can target the most relevant social influencers with incentives (e.g. discounts, free samples) in order to wear/use brands’ products and promote them via their selfies

'Rewarding Influencers' – Sample use case by Facebook Offers

Source: How to use Facebook offers (Feb, 2014)

By rewarding influencers,

Facebook can target the most relevant social influencers with high value Facebook Offers (e.g. discounts, free samples) to try out new products and maximize their viral effect in Facebook News Feed

'Rewarding Influencers' – Sample use case by Google +Post Ads

Source: Are Google +Post Ads Over the Top? (Dec, 2014)

By rewarding influencers,

Google +Post Ads can harness influencers for their ads like in Facebook Offers Use Case (see previous slide), wherein the most relevant social influencers are targeted with special high value incentives to maximize ad engagement, relevancy, social conversation including overall viral effect (e.g. comment,+1, share)

'Rewarding Influencers' – Sample use case by Online Reviews Sites

The Challenge of Online Reviews Sites:

• Postings of fake positive reviews has become prevalent

• False negative reviews by competitors

• Highly satisfied customers being encouraged to review sites

Source: The Challenge of Online Reviews

By rewarding influencers,

Online review sites can harness influencers to remedy the fake reviews issue and also help new businesses to promote themselves in a much more powerful way using social influencers trusted word-of-mouth generation in form of credible, friend-to-friend reviews

Thanks!

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