AU2007302894A1 - Advertising system and method - Google Patents

Description

WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -1 ADVERTISING SYSTEM AND METHOD Field of Invention The invention relates to the field of electronic communications and in particular to a system and method of advertising over a mobile device and/or computing network. 5 Background The use of mobile phones and smart mobile devices has become widespread. Mobile messaging (for example SMS, MMS and email messaging) to these mobile devices offers opportunities for communicating advertising material. 10 However, current advertising methods such as blanket delivery of messages have the potential to irritate mobile phone users who do not wish to receive the messages and may breach local laws relating to unsolicited marketing material sent via electronic commurucations. 15 What is needed is a system and method of advertising over a mobile network that will ameliorate one or more of the drawbacks of current methods or that will at least provide the public with a useful choice. Summary In broad terms in one form the invention provides a method of providing promotional 20 messages to one or more mobile devices from an advertising system comprising the steps of: receiving-at the advertising system over a network the number of a mobile device associated with a user and identifying a behavioural profile associated with the user; receiving from the mobile device associated with the user, a message requesting registration with the advertising system; sending to the mobile device at pre-determined intervals promotional messages that 25 are compatible with the user's behavioural profile; and at the end of a pre-determined account period providing a financial payment. The term 'comprising' as used in this specification and claims means 'consisting at least in part of, that is to say when interpreting statements in this specification and claims which WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -2 include that term, the features, prefaced by that term in each statement, all need to be present but other features can also be present. Related terms such as 'comprise' and 'comprised' are to be interpreted in similar manner. Preferably the method further comprises the step of receiving at the advertising system 5 information about the user's likes and dislikes in respect of types goods and services. Preferably the method further comprises the step of managing at the advertising system the maximum number of promotional messages that the user receives based on a predetermined limit over a given time period. 10 Preferably the number of promotional messages sent to the mobile device in any time period does not exceed the pre-determined maximum number of promotional messages. Preferably the pre-determined maximum number of promotional messages to be sent to a 15 user's mobile device can be set by the user. Preferably the amount of the credit is proportionate to the number of promotional messages sent to the user's mobile device in the pre-determined account period. 20 Preferably, the method further comprises receiving advertising message data for an advertising message from advertisers, the advertising message data comprising message rules regarding a quantity of messages to be sent to registered user's mobile device. Preferably, the message rules further comprise details of preferred demographics for 25 recipients of the message. Preferably, the message rules further comprise a specification of a type of good or service that the message relates to. 30 Preferably the method further comprises the step of determining which users match the behavioural profile of the message rules.

WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -3 Preferably the method further comprises the step of determining which user's preferences do not indicate a dislike for the goods or services that are the subject of the message. 5 Preferably the method further comprises the step of determining which days the message can be delivered to recipients while maintaining the daily delivery load of the advertising system balanced. Preferably the method further comprises the step of determining how many users can 10 receive the message on each day while maintaining the daily delivery load of the advertising system balanced. To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest. themselves 15 without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The disclosures and the descriptions herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting. As used herein the term "and/or" means "and" or "or", or both. 20 As used herein "(s)" following a noun means the plural and/or singular forms of the noun. The invention also provides an advertising system configured to perform the methods of the invention, for example, by being programmed with computer-executable instructions. The 25 invention also provides computer-executable instructions which, when executed on a computer system, cause the computer system to perform steps in the methods of the invention.

WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -4 Brief Description of the Figures At least preferred embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures in which: 5 Figure 1 illustrates a preferred network environment for the invention; Figure 2 illustrates one exemplary computer architecture for the invention; Figure 3 illustrates some data types that may be stored and utilised by the invention; 10 Figure 4 illustrates a process flow for users to register with the invention; Figure 5 illustrates a process flow for advertisers to submit new campaign data to the advertising system; 15 Figure 6 illustrates process flow for a recipient allocation process; and Figure 7 illustrates process flow for a distribution process flow. Detailed Description 20 The present invention is embodied in the methods described in this specification, including the methods as implemented in any suitable computing and mobile network environment. The invention is also embodied by computer software that implements the methods described in this specification comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed in an appropriate computing system, will cause the system to perform the methods 25 described in this specification. Computer executable instructions may include computer programs, computer modules, routines, objects, components, or data structures that perform particular tasks. The invention may be embodied in such computer-executable instructions as stored in any computer 30 readable medium. The invention is also embodied by any system that is a combination of WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -5 hardware and software that is configured to perform the methods of the invention, for example, by being programmed with appropriate computer-executable instructions. Computer-executable instructions suitable for implementing the invention can be prepared 5 by a person skilled in the art using any one of a wide variety of computer programming languages that are known in the art and that are appropriate for use in systems like the one described in this specification. Figure 1 illustrates one exemplary network arrangement in which the present invention may 10 be implemented. The network arrangement illustrated in figure 1 is only one example of a suitable network environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation to the use or functionality of the invention. As illustrated in figure 1 one or more clients 110, for example 110A, 11OB and 11 OC are 15 operated by advertisers who wish to promote goods, services, or special offers via the system of the present invention. Advertisers can upload details of current promotions over a network such as the Internet 130 to an advertising system illustrated at 150. Details of current promotions may include specific messages that the advertiser would like sent to the mobile device of people who belong to particular behavioural profile or who meet particular 20 criteria. Clients 110 may comprise personal computers or workstations as described below. It will be appreciated that clients 110 may also comprise any device with sufficient processing, input, and output capabilities to provide an interface to the advertising server system at 150, for 25 example a laptop, a pocket PC, or a smart phone. It will be appreciated that a client 110 may be connected to the advertising system at 150 via the Internet 130 by any available means such as, for example, wireless, dial up, or broadband connections. Typically, details provided by advertisers to the advertising system are entered via a web-based interface. 30 Advertising system 150 comprises at least one server 170 operating under the control of appropriate operating and application software having a data memory 160 storing local data WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -6 for the invention. In preferred embodiments the advertising system comprises a gateway interface server and a backend server. Three further clients 1 10D, 1 10E and 1 1OF are illustrated by way of example and are operated by users (also referred to as customers) who wish to register with the advertising 5 system and receive advertising material on their mobile device (usually a mobile phone). Customers register with the advertising system providing details about themselves and their nominated mobile device to advertising system 150. Typically customers will register with the advertising system via the Internet through a web interface accessed at client devices 11 OD, 11 OE and 11 OF, for example. Advertising material is then sent at prescribed intervals 10 to the mobile device registered by the customers. Customers who are registered with the advertising system receive a credit of a pre-determined value on the account for their nominated mobile device at the end of pre-defined account periods, generally monthly. Other payment options are possible. The basic concept is that a financial payment is made in consideration for the user receiving promotional messages. In some cases as discussed 15 above the financial payment will be a credit to a mobile account for the user's device. Other examples include a financialpayment to a financial account associated with the user. These financial accounts include electronic wallets, on-line auction accounts and financial bank accounts. In a further option the financial payment is made not to the user but to a charitable 20 organisation. In one form the system selects the charitable organisation in which to make the financial payment. In another form the user is provided with a nominated list of eligible charities. The user selects one of the charities and financial payment is made to that charity. For example 120D and 120E are mobile devices that have been nominated by the customers 25 who signed up to the advertising system from client devices 11 OD and 11 E respectively. Device 11 OF which is a client device may also be a nominated mobile device associated with the user who registers with the advertising server 150 via device 11 OF. Device 11 OF may be for example a pocket PC or smart phone.

WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -7 Figure 2 shows an exemplary system architecture 200 for a typical client 110 and server 170. System 200 is only one example of a suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation on the use or functionality of the invention nor is it intended to suggest any dependency or requirement for any one or combination of components 5 illustrated in figure 2. The invention is capable of being embodied in a number of computing system environments or configurations. The computer system 200 typically comprises one or more processors 202, a main memory 204 for example RAM, and an input/output controller 206. Exemplary system 200 also 10 comprises non-volatile storage memory 160 in the form of one or more computer-readable media such as, for example, an internal or external hard drive, CD-Rom, or other storage device. The exemplary computing system 200 may also comprise peripherals such as a keyboard 208, and a pointing device 210, for example a mouse, touch pad or trackball. The exemplary computer system will typically also comprise a display or screen device 212, and 15 one or more other output devices 216 such as a printer. The system 200 could also include a network interface card or controller 218 and/or a modem 220. The individual components of the system 200 could communicate via a systems bus 222. Data memory 160 stores local data for the invention and may be located at server 170, or be 20 distributed across both server 170 and clients 110. Figure 3 illustrates some exemplary types of data that may be stored and utilised by the invention. The data illustrated in figure 3 is not an exhaustive or exclusive list and is not intended to suggest any limitation to the data that may be stored in order to perform the invention. The data stored in data memory 160 comprises computer-executable instructions 310 which, when processed by server 170 will 25 cause the server to perform steps in the methods of the invention as described in more detail below. The data stored in data memory 160 also comprises customer data 320 relating to registered users (customers) of the system who have agreed to receive promotional advertising material 30 on their mobile devices.

WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -8 Figure 4 is a process flow diagram for a preferred method for registering a customer with the advertising system to receive promotional messages on a nominated mobile device. Typically the registration process is completed over the Internet via a website, for example, from client devices 11OD, 11OE, or 11OF. 5 As shown at 410 in Figure 4, the customer may begin the registration process by entering the electronic address of the customer's primary mobile device into a web interface provided over the Internet. At 420 a backend server of the advertising system 150 records the mobile device electronic address that the user entered at 410 and assigns a temporary user ID to the 10 mobile device electronic address. Next, the web interface prompts the customer to enter full identifying and broad demographic details such as a full name, date of birth and gender as shown at 410. These details are then stored against the mobile device electronic address as shown at 430A. The 15 identifying and demographic information is then run through a behavioural analysis algorithm that builds an initial behavioural profile together with mobile device electronic address and ID that is stored as customer data 310. To confirm that the user (customer) wishes to register with the advertising system and that 20 the user's mobile device number has not been provided to the system by an unauthorized person, the advertising system may send a validation message directly to the new customer's nominated mobile device as shown at 430B. To confirm that the customer wishes to register with the advertising system, a validation code is generated for the customer and nominated mobile device and this is sent in the validation message to the nominated mobile device 25 together with a website address for the user to visit as shown at 450. Upon receiving this message as shown at 440, the user can visit the website address that was sent to the mobile device and can enter the validation code into the web interface at that address as shown at 450. When the advertising system receives the validation code that the 30 user entered into the web interface the advertising system checks that the code matches the one that was sent to the customer's nominated mobile device at 450. If so, then the WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -9 customer's ownership or use rights in the mobile may be deemed to be verified and the customer's registration activated. As shown at 410, the new customer is typically prompted to add to their customer profile via 5 the web interface so that promotional material can be targeted to be of interest to the customer. This may be done for example by asking the user if they 1) would, 2) would not, or 3) do not mind, receiving promotional messages relating to particular types of goods and services. Types of goods and services may be, for example: sport, fashion, automotive,. entertainment, home-ware and so on. This information is stored as customer preferences as 10 shown at 430A. In one embodiment a registered customer will automatically receive a number of messages up to a pre-determined maximum in a given time period (for example, four messages per day). However, in an alternative embodiment, customer preferences also include the volume 15 of messages that the customer is willing to receive over any given time period. The user may be able to choose from a number of different levels of message volume up to a pre determined maximum (for example, they may select two messages per day, three messages per day, or the maximum four messages per day). 20 From the time that the customer's registration is activated, the user's mobile device will begin to receive promotional messages up to the predetermined limit or up to the maximum volume indicated in the customer's user preferences. At the end of every pre-defined account period, typically monthly, a credit in a dollar amount is applied to the customer's nominated payment option. The higher the volume of messages the customer receives on 25 their mobile device the higher the credit that will be applied to the customer's nominated payment option. Payments options may include, but are not limited to: telephone account, charity donation, electronic payment account, or electronic wallet. In addition, it is envisaged that promotional messages will only be sent to the customer's 30 mobile device from the advertising system if the message is a match to the behavioural profile of that customer. For example, if a customer's behavioural profile signifies that the customer does not wish to receive any messages about goods and services relating to WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -10 "fashion", then no fashion-related promotional messages will ever be sent to that customer's mobile device. Promotional messages that are sent to the customer's mobile device may include information 5 about special and limited period offers on goods and services or may include vouchers for discounts that are only available to registered users-of the advertising system. Typically such vouchers will be valid for a limited time and can be redeemed by showing the voucher on the mobile devices display to the relevant vendor of the goods or services. 10 Customer's can manage their user profile and demographic selections or cancel their registration via the Internet through a web-interface to the advertising system. Once a customer has requested that their registration with the advertising system be cancelled, the customer's mobile device will cease receiving promotional messages from the advertising system within twenty four hours. Access to user account information will typically be 15 password protected so only the registered user can alter their customer profile. It is possible that potential registered users of the advertising system may be young, for example teenagers of 14 years of age or under. In such cases the registration process may include additional checks to ensure that the customer's parent or guardian approves of the 20 customer's registration with the system. An alternative registration process flow for young customers may exist. The registration process is similar to that illustrated in figure 4 except that after the customer has entered their name, date of birth, and gender at 425, the advertising system determines that the customer's age is under a threshold value and the customer is prompted to enter the mobile device number of their parent or guardian. 25 A potential customer who is under a threshold age can only register with the advertising system if the customer's parent or guardian has approved the registration. So, the advertising system searches through Customer data 320 for a registered mobile device that matches the number provided at 410. If the parent or guardian is a registered customer on the advertising 30 system, then the advertising system checks that the parent or guardian's phone number is not issued to someone not eligible to be the potential customer's parent or guardian (for WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 example, if the customer associated with the phone number provided is too young to be the parent or guardian of the potential customer). If the parent or guardian is a registered customer who is deemed eligible to be a parent or 5 guardian, or if the parent or guardian is not a registered customer with the advertising system, then a verification message is still sent to the customer's mobile device in the same way as at 435 in figure 4. However, at the same time, an authorisation message is sent the parent/guardian's mobile device. The parent/guardian replies to the authorisation message with a message containing the keyword "OK". The "OK" validation from the 10 parent/guardian is recorded together with the mobile device verification from the customer Alternatively, the parent/guardian may reply with "NO" to decline permission to join the advertising system. This will be stored against the Customer's data 320 and will prevent the customer from joining the advertising system until they are no longer under the age 15 threshold. Advertisers may also register with the advertising system of the invention. Advertiser account details are stored in data memory 160 as shown at 330 in figure 3. Advertiser account information may be managed by the advertiser over the Internet via a web interface 20 and access to advertiser account information may be password protected. Related to the advertiser data 330 is campaign data 340. Advertisers may submit new campaigns for which they would like promotional messages sent out to registered customers over the web interface. 25 Figure 5 is a process flow diagram illustrating an exemplary process in which an advertiser initiates a new advertising campaign using the advertising system of the invention. As shown at 510, the advertiser can initiate the campaign via the web interface. The advertising system sets up a new campaign and assigns a status indicator. Status indicators may be integer values indicating what stage the campaign is at. As shown at 520, brand new campaigns may be 30 allocated a status indicating that the campaign is now in progress.

WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -12 Once the campaign is initiated the user is prompted to enter the behavioural profile that they are hoping to reach with their campaign and the timeframe over which they would like the campaign to run as shown at 520. The broad demographic data for the campaign that was entered by the advertiser at 510 is compared to the demographic data for all registered 5 customers. The mobile devices of all registered customers who do not fit within the demographic are filtered out. The number of remaining mobile devices registered with the system to which the campaign messages could be delivered may be returned to the advertiser for review and consideration as shown at 510. 10 As shown at 510, the advertiser then enters the first promotional message that they wish to send out to registered customers as part of the new campaign. The advertiser then enters rules for the message including an indication of the subject matter of the message, for example, "sports" related goods. Rules for the message may also include more specific profiling within the behavioural profile entered at 510 that identify in more detail the 15 preferred recipients for the first message. Rules for the message may also include a preferred time of day or specific location for delivery of the message and the intended number of recipient mobile devices for the message. As shown at 540 the advertising system the checks the total time required to distribute the 20 message at full capacity. The advertising system will then allocate timeslots to the message, as shown at 550B, and then record the distribution timeslots for the message as shown at 560B. This process is known as "distribution balancing". The "distribution balancing" process aims to keep the number of messages scheduled for 25 delivery on any one day at any one time as balanced as possible. As described above, an advertising campaign typically runs across a time range, from a campaign start time to a campaign end time. The job of the distribution balancing process is to allocate delivery of messages for the campaign between the campaign start time and campaign end time so that the number of messages across all campaigns that must be delivered on each day is kept as 30 even as possible.

WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -13 The distribution balancing method begins by determining the total number of messages that are to be sent for a particular campaign between the campaign start time and campaign end time. In order to schedule delivery of these messages in such a way that the delivery load for the advertising system remains balanced, the advertising system retrieves current data on all 5 messages already scheduled for delivery for other campaigns between the start and end tines. The process then identifies the time with the highest volume of messages scheduled (across all campaigns) between the start and end times of campaign X. Then the process distributes 10 the messages for campaign X across the other times in the time range for campaign X until all messages for campaign X are allocated to a delivery time or until all times in the time range for the campaign have been allocated a message delivery volume equal to that of the time with the highest volume of scheduled messages whichever occurs first. 15 At this stage the status indicator for the campaign can be changed to indicate that the campaign has been confirmed and instantiated and is ready for allocation as shown at 560B. The advertiser may then receive booking confirmation information as shown at 590. It is envisaged that messages that are entered by advertisers for inclusion in an advertising 20 campaign may be checked by an administrator of the advertising system before approval for the campaign is given as shown at 530. Figure 6 is a process for allocating the appropriate mobile devices to receive the messages. As shown at 610, the advertising system filters the mobile devices that were originally 25 returned at 630 to locate mobile devices that meet the message rules stored for that message at 520 in figure 5. These filtered mobile devices are then given a provisional ranking as shown at 640 under the "validity ranking" process described in more detail below. The validity ranking process provisionally ranks the filtered mobile devices according to the appropriateness of sending the particular message to each mobile device. 30 The top ranking mobile devices for the message (up to the quantity requested by the advertiser) are tagged for receipt of the message as shown at 645.

WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -14 As shown at 650, steps 630 to 645 can then be repeated for additional messages for the campaign up to a maximum number allowed. In the example illustrated in figure 6 the maximum number of messages allowed for a campaign is 5. When finished, the advertiser 5 can complete the process of creating the campaign by indicating via the web interface that the campaign is complete. The "validity ranking" process is one of the processes that the advertising system may use to identify appropriate mobile devices to which to send a particular message. The ranking in 10 this process is done so as to ensure that each registered customer of the advertising system receives as broad a variety of promotional messages as possible and to avoid sending too many messages that are of a similar type or from a similar advertiser to a single mobile device within a short period of time. 15 The validity ranking process is performed in respect of a particular mobile device (Y) and for a particular message from campaign X that it is proposed to send to the mobile device. The message from campaign X that it is proposed to send to the mobile device is designated the "base" message. 20 Allr messages from all campaigns that are already scheduled to be sent to mobile device Y from 30 days before the start date of campaign X to 30 days after the end date of campaign X, are retrieved. The retrieved messages are ranked according to how similar they are to the base message. 25 Similarity may be judged based on whether the advertisers, keywords, and/or content of the messages are similar or the same. At this point the "distribution ranking" algorithm described above may be used to determine which time within the time range for campaign X, the proposed (base) message is likely to be 30 scheduled to be sent out.

WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -15 The validity ranking process then determines how appropriate it would be to deliver the proposed (base) message to the mobile device (Y) on each day (D) of the most likely days for delivery of the message. This is done by producing a "base ranking" for each of the messages retrieved. The base ranking for a retrieved message combines the similarity rankings for each 5 message that were determined with the time interval between the day D and the day on which the retrieved message was sent or is scheduled to be sent. A retrieved message will receive a less favourable base ranking if it was judged very similar to the base message and was delivered or is scheduled to be delivered within a very short time interval from day D. 10 The least favourable base ranking across all of the retrieved messages for a day D is designated to be the validity ranking for that mobile device (Y) on that day (D) in relation to the proposed (base) message. Although the validity ranking process described above provides a useful method for ranking 15 registered mobile device as potential recipients of a particular promotional message in terms of maximizing the variety of message that a registered customer receives, the advertising system may further pinpoint appropriate recipients in terms of the subject matter of the message by means of the "distribution ranking" process described. 20 For each mobile device that is a potential candidate to receive the message on a particular day, a "distribution ranking" is calculated. A distribution ranking takes the validity ranking for the mobile device for a particular day D in relation to a proposed (base) message, and combines it with a best fit assessment between the rules for the proposed (base) message that were specified by the advertiser and the behavioural profile, location and preferences of 25 the registered customer associated with the mobile device. By way of example, two mobile devices may have similar validity rankings. The registered customer associated with one of the mobile devices may have indicated a positive interest in receiving messages relating to the subject matter of the proposed (base) message. The registered customer associated with the other mobile device may have only indicated that they wouldn't mind receiving messages 30 relating to the subject matter of the proposed (base) message. In a situation like this, the mobile device belonging to the registered customer who expressed positive interest in WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -16 receiving messages relating to the subject matter of the proposed (base) message will have a higher distribution ranking than the other mobile device. Once a distribution ranking has been generated for each mobile device for the day, they are 5 sorted from best match to worst match for the proposed (base) message. The advertising system then assigns the proposed (base) message to mobile devices starting at the top of the list with the best matched mobile device. The advertising system stops allocating the message to mobile devices when the number of deliveries of the message allowed for that message has been reached. 10 Although mobile devices can be allocated to messages on a provisional basis, because users can cancel their registration with the advertising system with 24 hours notice, scheduling should be controlled carefully. Scheduling data 350 recording the allocation of advertising/promotional messages from a campaign to a particular mobile device for a 15 particular day and time may be stored in data memory 160 as illustrated in figure 3. It is possible that because of fluctuations in numbers of registered customers, some messages that had been scheduled for delivery on a particular day may need to be rescheduled. To do this, the advertising system can reschedule the messages by recalculating 20 distribution balancing and distribution ranking values for messages that need to be rescheduled to be sent on the next closest appropriate day and mobile device. Figure 7 illustrate a process for the distribution of the scheduled and allocated campaign messages. As illustrated at 710, the advertising system would detect an allocated messages 25 due for distribution in the distribution time period. The distribution time period may be a period of time that may be as small as one hour, or as long as one day. The advertising system may then retrieve all allocated mobile devices electronic addresses as shown at 730. The advertising system may then create a distribution file as shown at 750, 30 which contains the allocated mobile devices electronic address, the message to be distributed to that device and the time at which it is to be distributed.

WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 - 17 This file may then be passed to the messaging gateway to distribute the message at the allocated time for that mobile device as shown at 760A. The messaging gateway may return delivery information which may be stored against 5 messages, advertisers or customer information for statistical purposes. The foregoing describes the invention including preferred forms thereof Modifications and improvements that would be obvious to those skilled in the art are intended to be incorporated in the scope hereof, as defined by the accompanying claims.

Claims (14)

1. A method of providing promotional messages to one or more mobile devices from an advertising system comprising: 5 receiving at the advertising system over a network the number of a mobile device associated with a user and identifying a behavioural profile associated with the user; receiving from the mobile device associated with the user, a message requesting registration with the advertising system; sending to the mobile device at pre-determined intervals promotional messages that 10 are compatible with the user's behavioural profile; and at the end of a pre-determined account period providing a financial payment.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving at the advertising system information about the user's likes and dislikes in respect of types of goods and 15 services.

3. The method of claim 1 or claim 2 further comprising managing at the advertising system the maximum number of promotional messages that the user receives based on a predetermined limit over a given time period. 20

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the number of promotional messages sent to the mobile device in any time period does not exceed the pre-determined maximum number of promotional messages. 25

5. The method of claim 3 or claim 4 wherein the pre-determined maximum number of promotional messages to be sent to a user's mobile device can be set by the user.

6. The method of any one of the preceding claims wherein the amount of the credit is proportionate to the number of promotional messages sent to the user's mobile 30 device in the pre-determined account period. WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 - 19

7. The method of any one of the preceding claims further comprising receiving advertising message data for an advertising message from advertisers, the advertising message data comprising message rules regarding a quantity of messages to be sent to registered user's mobile device. 5

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the message rules further comprise details of preferred demographics for recipients of the message.

9. The method of claim 7 or claim 8 wherein the message rules further comprise a 10 specification type of good or service that the message relates to.

10. The method of any one of the preceding claims further comprising determining which users match the behavioural profile of the message rules. 15

11. The method of any one of the preceding claims further comprising determining which user's preferences do not indicate a dislike for the goods or services that are the subject of the message.

12. The method of any one of the preceding claims further comprising determining 20 which days the message can be delivered to recipients while maintaining the daily delivery load of the advertising system balanced.

13. The method of any one of the preceding claims further comprising determining how many users can receive the message on each day while maintaining the daily delivery 25 load of the advertising system balanced.

14. An advertising system for providing promotional messages to one or more mobile devices, the system configured to: receive at the advertising system over a network the number of a mobile device 30 associated with a user and identifying a behavioural profile associated with the user; receive from the mobile device associated with the user, a message requesting registration with the advertising system; WO 2008/041871 PCT/NZ2007/000292 -20 send to the mobile device at pre-determined intervals promotional messages that are compatible with the user's behavioural profile; and at the end of a pre-determined account period provide a financial payment.