System for Highly Enhanced Brand Awareness
Target Market 1: Poker enthusiasts and lottery players in the United States that are not allowed to play online for money at present.
In a Nut Shell
● A provisional application for business method patent was filed in the U.S. The patent will (Excluding Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey ) be the only legal system that would allow U.S. residents to play online poker for money. Additionally, participants will also be able to legally play online lottery as well as other games for cash prizes. According to a 2010 research on the eve of outlawing online gambling in the United States , there were 1.5 million players that played poker online for money. With about a billion dollars worth of money wagered.
● A new highly enhanced system for brand awareness. Participants enter the system's website in order to play poker for free and win real money or to participate for free in a lottery raffle with a chance to win real money. In order to qualify, contestants must watch a short video ad and then type either the product's name or a marketing message according to the advertiser's preference. This advertising model CPBA (Cost Per Brand Assimilation) is significantly different from the existing models, CPM (cost per 1,000 static ads viewed), CPC (cost per conversion) and CPV (A short pre roll video advertisement at the beginning of a YouTube, video news article and the like). Unlike any of the existing methods, Cost Per Brand Assimilation guaranties that %100 of the ads are actually viewed, and furthermore, requires the viewers to type in a marketing message.
● The Inventor - Eli Abir :
The inventor of this system is Eli Abir. A serial entrepreneur that has in the past earned millions of dollars for investors in a number of ventures.
In the middle eighties, Abir conceived a new way to finance used cars in the United States . The investor, Baruch Skurnick, invested $250,000 and within three years had a six million dollars return on his investment.
Alibaba's Eat It in a Pita: Abir invested $400,000 of his own money establishing a small chain of Israeli style fast food restaurants in New York designed to cater to the American customer. Abir sold the chain three years later for $700,000.
Internet Driver. An Internet Startup: The investor, Sagi Eshel, invested $300,000 and sold %20 of his shares for $750,000 four years later.
Meaningful Machines. A multi functional in-language and cross language-translation Artificial Intelligence system: 20 million dollars invested by a group of investors in the United States . The company now does business exclusively with the defense department the United States .
System for Highly Enhanced Brand Awareness
The idea: Developing an advertising system gears toward enhanced brand awareness.
The enhanced brand awareness is achieved by compelling the viewer to interact with the video advertisement.
The viewer interacts with the advertisement by typing the product's name or the marketing message at the end of the short video.
The end user's motivation for such interaction is the chance to win money by playing instant lottery. Or by earning points (convertible to real money) in order to play online poker ( Texas Hold' em) tournaments for real money. Poker player that won will be able to convert his/her winnings into real money that will be deposited in his/her bank account.
The system will cater to people who desire to play online games of skills and chance for free, and win real money. As well as players that would have played by using their own money if the law allowed.
The Business Method Patent will allow U.S residents to legally play online poker, as well as online lottery, for real money without investing any of their own funds.
The Poker and the Lottery prize money will come from the advertisers. Our working assumption is that advertisers will pay 3 cents per ad exposure (estimated average). This income will be allocated in the following way: One cent for prize money, and two cents for system operation and profits.
In time we will add additional games - online bingo for example. We will also use the platform for other activities such as fund raising tool for political campaigns, charities, and more.
The process: The website's homepage will have a welcome screen where the players will be choosing between poker or lottery games. Poker players will be asked to register, or to log into their existing account. Once they do, they will be able to watch the ads and start accumulating funds. In the lottery route, prior registration will not be necessary. The players will be asked to register only after they won in case they do. At this point both poker, as well as lottery players will start watching the ads and then typing in the products' names, or the promotional messages according to the advertisers' requests. In exchange for completing the typing required at the end of each ad, poker players will accumulate in their accounts one cent per ad, while lottery players will play instant lotto. Immediately afterward a new ad with a different advertisement will show up.
The number of ads a player will be allowed to watch in a row will be limited to prevent overloading the players’ minds - reducing the ads effectiveness. Our working assumption is three ads in a row and then a ten minutes break - hence, a maximum of eighteen ads per hour.
The lottery track: Players will be participants in an instant lottery game as soon as they finished typing the marketing message. Prize money will accumulate continually until someone wins. The winning will be deducted from the total prize money available. Obviously that total will continue to grow again immediately until the next participant wins.
The poker track: Players will accumulate one cent per ad in their personal accounts. Once a player accumulated three cents, he/she will be able to play in the nine-player entry level tournament. If they win, they may continue to play in higher level tables until they run out of their funds or win a minimum amount which will allow them to cash out.
For example, a player who had accumulated three cents after watching three ads is eligible to join a nine-player entry level tournament. The three cents per player translates into twenty seven cents, total table value (3c x 9 = 27c). The winner will get eighteen cents, second place finisher will earn six cents and the third placed player will get three cents. The winners will then be able to enter a second tournament with table value of 18c per player - total prices of $1.62, where the winner wins $1.08 dollars. The third tournament this winner can join now is a table with a value of $ 9.72 ($1.08 x 9 = $9.72) and win $6.48. In the next level up, table value will be $6.48 x 9 = $58.32 and the winner gets $38.88. The next level up (assuming, of course, that the player continue to play for the maximum amount each time) is a $349.92 table with a first place prize of $233.28. The next table then is a $2,099.52 and a $1399.68 for the winner. Thus, with skill and luck a player can accumulate $1,400 by winning six tournaments after starting by watching three ads. Obviously, players will not be compelled to play for all the money they have accumulated. They will be able to play at the three cents minimum tables as well as the highest stakes tables if they choose to and have the funds for it.
In another scenario, some of the players will accumulate $2.5 a week on the rides to and from work in order to play on the weekends. For this scenario we are assuming an hour ride each way in public transportation (or as passengers in vehicles), which will allow the players to watch as many as 18 ads in each direction, 36c a day, $1.80 in five days and an additional 70c in their free time. These players will be able to start at tables with $22.5 total table value ($2.5 x 9 = $22.50). In this scenario, by winning one tournament the winners will already have $15 each. By winning a second table these players will have $90 each ($15 x 9 = $135 for the table and $90 for the winner). Next table total value will be $810. The winners of these tables will win $540 each. Thus, we can see that a player that starts with $2.5 can win $540 after three straight wins! Players that won a forth tournament will have $3,240 each, and so forth. The aforementioned analysis demonstrates clearly the incentive that players will have in investing their time watching ads in their spare time.
In addition to the tournament tables, we will also have regular Texas hold'em tables.
Lottery players are expected to play during the rides to and from work (in public transportation or as passengers in vehicles) during the week, as well as in their spare time.
Target Markets:
Target Market 1: Poker enthusiasts and lottery players in the United States that are not allowed to play online for money at present.
Target Market 2: Poker players in the United States that aren’t willing to risk their own money, but in this case will be delighted to play for real money rather then for meaningless points on other poker sites.
Target Market 3: U.S. Advertisers interested in significantly more effective online advertising campaigns.
SWOT Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats
Strengths:
● The patent is the only solution that allows Poker enthusiasts in the U.S. (except in Nevada , New Jersey and Delaware ) to participate in online poker games for money. The same for lottery players.
● No need to pre-register to play lottery and a very short and simple registration process for both poker players, and lottery winners.
● Registration and participation are free of charge.
● Players are not risking money they brought from home, but only money already won on the site.
● Solution for those who used to play online poker for money, and are not allowed doing so any longer.
● Opportunity for players that play poker online for fun, refraining from risking their own money (there are millions of such players in the U.S. ) to play for real money rather than just for points.
● Compelling the players to type the product's name or the promotional message provides for a highly effective ad campaigns.
● The system’s design will prevent "Robots" from playing in the system. Thus guarantying the advertisers that only real people are watching their ads.
Weaknesses:
● The low entry level amounts may cause frustrated players to quit the game.
● The need for poker players to register before they can start playing may deter potential players from becoming actual players.
● Due to the nature of the activity, meaning gambling, some advertisers will refrain from advertising in the system.
● Business method patents are viable only in the United States . We will not be able to prevent others from establishing similar systems outside the U.S.
Opportunities:
● Expanding the use of the system to other areas of the world.
● The Option of using the platform for other activities such as fund raising tool for political campaigns and charities.
● Provide the advertisers with additional tools to improve their use of the system.
● Make use of the data gathered by the BI system to improve advertisers' performance and/or to sell it to other organizations.
Threats:
● The patent is still in its provisional stage. There is no guarantee that it will be approved.
● The site is expected to be the target of cyber-attacks.
● The gaming part of the system may be subject to "political" attacks by a variety of righteous persons such as religious leaders, politicians, owners of existing gambling establishments and others.
● Until the advertisers' base is large enough, extensive usage of the adverting module may force us, from time to time, to let some of the players watch ads or self promotions "on our account".
Operation:
Advertising Module:
New player will be asked to choose between poker and lottery. Players will be identified in the system by their user-names. The system will allow players a maximum of three exposures to ads in a ten minute period. As default setting, the system will not serve the same ad to the same person, in any ten minute period.
The Lottery Track: After typing the marketing message the player will be transferred to the lottery game room and will participate in an instant lotto game. If the player didn't win, he/she will immediately be able to watch another ad and right after that play another instant lotto game. After three such attempts the player will have to wait ten minutes before repeating the process. If the player won, he/she will be transferred to the clearing room where he/she will be asked to provide the relevant information necessary for the payment to be processed. Lottery players will be allowed to keep their winnings in the system and used them at the poker tables.
The poker track: A player will be able to watch three ads in a row, type the marketing message each time and then join the game tables. The three cents earned by watching the ads will be converted into 1,500 table chips to be used in the game.
Advertisers will be given several packages options:
Total exposure per ad, per person in minutes/days/months.
Total number of exposures based on their budget.
Extended exposure in a certain period of time.
Bundling several advertisements per person.
Games Module:
Poker: The three cents earned by watching the ads will be converted into 1,500 table chips to be used in the game. The entry game page will show the highest value table in action at the time. From there he/she will be able to choose a table with the stakes he/she wish to play in. Poker players will be able to add to their balance by viewing additional ads at any time, subject to the ten ads per ten minutes limit. When players accumulate a minimum of $25, they will have the option of transferring to the clearing room where they will be asked to provide the relevant information necessary for the payments to be processed. Lottery: Every so often X (representing known number of exposures, for example 1,000,000) the random numbers generator will create new Y single value numbers. The Y numbers will be the winning numbers for the next X cycle. (Some of the money prizes under each Y will be of different values) the numbers are actually different pixels on the lottery screen. Once the players finished typing the marketing message, they will be transferred to the lottery screen where they will press on any location on the screen. If the location pressed is one of the winning Y locations, they will immediately be transferred to the clearing screen where they will be asked to provide the relevant information necessary for the payments to be processed. If the player didn't win, the player will be transferred back to the advertising module to watch another ad. If the player played three times in a row, he/she will have to wait ten minutes before repeating the process. Within X cycle, a Y winning pixel can only be a winning pixel once. In theory, a player can win as many as three money prizes within every three ads viewing cycle. Prizes under Y pixels that did not pay out in an X cycle will be added to the next X cycle. Thus, increasing the total screen value for the new X cycle.
Funds Raising Module:
The system may be used in several other ways rather than online gaming. For example, it may be used as a fund raising tool for candidates during a political campaign, or for charity purposes. Instead of the one cent per ad going into the gaming system, the candidates or the charity organizations will get that money.
Clearing and Payments:
Charging advertisers by using all common means of payment.
Payments transfer to players using all common means of payment.
Reports:
Exposure reports to advertisers.
Poker players will have easy one click access to their balance.
BI
Reporting to the authorities according to all relevant laws
Financial reports to management and investors.
Security:
Prevention of fraud through means of payment.
Preventing Identity Theft/Stealing players' money.
Intrusion prevention for diverting lottery results/poker games.
Preventing robots "play" instead of human beings.
Preventing theft and forgery by internal users (employees).
Availability and Survivability:
"American website" - To allow Americans to play, and allow advertisers to market to target audiences according to region.
Compatibility with different web browsers, smartphones and tablets.
Mirror sites, backups, Load Balancing.
Speed monitoring 24/7 access - NOC.
Marketing:
● Contacting advertising agencies in order to present the
● Application and its superior value to their advertisers.
● Selling packages to major clients through advertising agencies.
● Selling packages directly to advertisers.
● Providing smaller regional advertisers the means to purchase advertising packages on the site itself.
● Players will be offered to send invitations to their friends from within the application itself.
● Soliciting advertisers and players through social networks, and by advertising on such networks (Google, Facebook).
● Applying affiliate programs.
Schedule:
● March 2014 - Completion of the business plan.
● Until May 2014 - Raising initial capital - a million dollars.
● Until May 2015 - Development of Initial model.
● March 2016 - Development of additional platforms & infrastructure.
● March 2016 – Raising additional capital - a million dollars.
● July 2016 – Final testing. Launching the system.
● July 2017 - Recruitment of players and Advertisers – achieving operating balance.
● July 2017 and forward - Generating profits for investors.
Finance:
System's income will be generated from video ads exposures.
Expected payment (a conservative estimate) is three cents per exposure.
One U.S. cent will be allocated for prize money.
Two U.S. cents will be used to finance operations, and for profits.
Assuming 6 million ads viewed per day - For example: One million users each of whom will collect 6 cents, meaning two rounds of three attempts each. Or 250 thousand players each of whom will collect 24 cents, meaning 8 rounds of three attempts each. Or any other combination totaling six million ads viewed a day will translate into a total income of $180,000. $60,000 of which will be returned to customers via games winnings, while $120,000 will be allocated to operate the site and profits.
According to this scenario, total income for the year will be sixty six million dollars ($66,000,000) forty four million ($44,000,000) of which will go for operating costs and profits. It is not inconceivable that the above scenario is very conservative. It is possible, if not likely, that the system will have far more ads viewed per day in the gaming system. A million people a day on the way to work and back, accumulating money to play on the weekend can translate into 40 to 50 million ads viewed a day (means around $500,000,000 annual income) just by this slice of potential users of the system alone.
We must stress that these are only the assumptions for the gaming part of the system. We strongly believe that renting the system to political campaigns will be far more lucrative. We also believe that any non profit organizations will use the system on ongoing basis.
Until the system is operational we will have to finance the following:
System development - Programmers, IT personnel, Licenses.
Infrastructure – Computers, Peripherals, and Communication.
Marketing - Marketing personnel, Affiliate & Social network marketing.
Day to day operations.
Estimated Cash Flow *:
Assumed cash flow in millions of dollars.
Date
|
Description
|
In
|
Out
|
Bal
|
May 2014
|
Raising initial capital - a million dollars
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
May 2015
|
Development of Initial model
|
0.4
|
0.6
| |
Mar 2016
|
Development of additional platforms & infrastructure
|
0.4
|
0.2
| |
Mar 2016
|
Raising additional capital - a million dollars
|
1
|
1.2
| |
Jul 2016
|
Final testing. Launching the system
|
0.4
|
0.8
| |
Jul 2017
|
Operation & Maintenance – One million ads per day
|
11
|
7.3
|
4.5
|
Jul 2018
|
Operation & Maintenance – Two million ads per day
|
22
|
14.6
|
11.9
|
Jul 2019
|
Operation & Maintenance – Ten million ads per day
|
110
|
50
|
62
|
* These are assumptions for the gaming part of the system only. We strongly believe that renting the system to political campaigns will generate much higher income, though.
The founders:
Eli Abir: %75
Brain damage: Inventor and CTO. Artificial Intelligence. Technology to allow computers to understand spoken language, including street language. Israel .
Meaningful machines: Inventor and CTO Artificial intelligence based translation system. New York
Internet Driver: Inventor and CTO. System for translating URLs while retaining the meaning of the addresses. New York
Restaurateur: Founder of Alibaba's eat it in a pita. A small fast food chain. New York
Used Car Dealer. New York
Taxi Driver. New York
First lieutenant combat officer in the Israeli military. Israel
Omer Hermoni: %20
Entrepreneur, Financial, IT & Marketing Consultant, Self employed.
VP IT& Communications - Avnet Components Israel .
CIO - The RDT Group.
Chief Cost Accountant and IT Manager - Soda Club.
Chief Financial and Cost Accountant - Bell wholesale travel. United States .
Planning Manager – Operations - Ferricorp. United States .
Air Marshal and Bodyguard – Israel Government.
Captain in special forces Israeli military.
* BSc+ MBA The University of Illinois , Chicago , United States .
Lahav and Linet Barak: %2.5
Bracha and Roni Marcus: %2.5
Work assumptions:
Evaluating the ads via other ads:
Since there is no model that can be compared to this system, we had to make a price per ad viewed assumptions by using a combination of existing models. In fact this system is in many ways a hybrid of CPC and CPV. Even though the user ends up clicking on the advertisement at the end of the process, said viewer is not transferred to the marketer's website. However, this is not your everyday exposure only ad. Not only a true %100 exposure which no other advertising method can guarantee, but most importantly, enhancing the marketing message greatly by making the viewers type the marketing message at the end of the short video ad. The viewer does so in order to be able to play either lottery or poker, or to help his/her favorite candidate. We call this method CPBA (Cost per Brand Assimilation). The closest model to CPBA that we propose is a pre roll video ads that appear on YouTube before a desired video is shown. Similarly many newspapers have video news stories imbedded into articles these days. They also use similar pre roll advertising.
The values of ads using the different methods runs between a fraction of a cent per ad, to tens of cents per ad, and as high as a few dollars per ad in some cases. Base on the different cost structures for each type of existing ads, we believe that the 3 cents per ad viewed we assumed for this presentation is a low figure.
CPC: Click through based advertising is campaigns where the advertiser pays for each click through.
CPM: Exposure based ads, where the advertiser pays for each exposure.
CPV: cost per viewed used in pre roll ads.
CPX A new model where the advertiser pays only for ads that appears in strategic locations on the web page.
The number of online poker players. All potentially clients:
Based on a 2010 research there are 1.5 million American are playing illegally poker for money online. In addition to attracting large numbers of players from the above mentioned pool of poker enthusiasts, the larger pool is made out of players that at this time only play poker for fun and would be happy to play in a cost free game for real money rather then for meaningless points. It is also worth noting that many of these players pay real money for these points that can never be translated back into real money (Zinga is one such example). In total, the number of players playing online poker easily exceeds 30 million a month.
Work assumptions as to the way the system will be used:
We believe that most poker players will play in their free time. Thus evenings nights and weekends will be the most taxing times on the system as far as poker games. We assume that many poker players will accumulate money by watching ads during the week on their way to work and back using public transportation.
Lottery players are likely to spend their time on the way to work and back playing instant lotto. Accordingly, we believe that mornings and afternoons are expected to be the busiest time for the system's lottery games.
In addition to games online, the system will be used in a number of other ways. For example during a political campaign it may be used as a fund raising tool for the candidates. Instead of the cent per ad going into the gaming system, the candidates will get that money. Such activity can be very lucrative. In the 2012 election one hundred and twenty nine million (129,232,106) people voted for both of the presidential candidates. Both candidates had a minimum of ten million highly enthusiastic supporters. If both candidates rented the system from us and were able to convince their highly enthusiastic supporters to invest a three minutes a day to watch ten ads each, they would have raised $1,000,000 a day each, and the system would have had an income of $4,000,000 a day. Assuming the last six months of the campaign only, the system would have had a total income of seven hundred and twenty million dollars ($720,000,000) from the last six months of the presidential campaign alone. To that we can add the primaries and the facts that the presidential campaign lasts for far longer then six months, and the fact that many other less enthusiastic supporters will still watch some ads during the election cycle. Additionally, there are thousands of other elected officials a cross the United States - Senators, Congressmen, Governors, Mayors, and many others. Since it will not cost the candidates anything to use the system and have it prominently displayed on their websites, and their campaigns will have zero men hours invested in running the system, we can safely assume that each and every candidate and each and everyone of their rivals are likely to use the system.
Additional information on the inventor of the system:
The inventor of this system is Eli Abir. A serial entrepreneur that has in the past earned millions of dollars for investors in a number of ventures.
In the middle eighties, Abir conceived a new way to finance used cars in the United States . The investor Baruch Skurnick invested $250,000 and within three years had a six million dollars return on his investment.
Alibaba's eat it in a Pita: Abir invested $400,000 of his own money establishing a small chain of Israeli style fast food restaurants in New York designed to cater to the American customer. Abir sold the chain three years later for $700,000.
Internet Driver. An Internet Startup: The investor Sagi Eshel invested $300,000 and sold %20 of his shares for $750,000 four years later.
Meaningful Machines. A multi functional in-language and cross language-translation Artificial Intelligence system: 20 million dollars invested by a group of investors in the United States . The company now does business exclusively with the defense department the United States .
There are many articles written about Eli Abir and his inventions in the most important newspapers, magazines, as well as in books in the United States as well as in the rest of the world. The following links are to a few of these articles.
The Washington Post: Making Computers Understand
PC Magazine: I Really Know What You Mean
PC Magazine: Scaling the Language Barrier
Red herring: Polyglot Extraordinaire
Scientific American: Multilingual Machines
Wired Magazine: Me Translate Pretty One Day
Intelligent Systems: Machine Translation Inching toward Human Quality
The book SAFE: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World. Chapter 11 features Eli Abir SAFE: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World
The book Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping. Chapter 5 features Eli Abir Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping
Links to the information sources:
A research on the number of players in the US and the world.
Why is it illegal for players in the US to play for money?
Poker players need to travel to Canada
Annual advertisement budget and types in the USA :
Advertisement prices and type
The CPX model: http://www.saymedia.com/news/say-media-introduces-industry-first-%E2%80%9Ccost-exposure%E2%80%9D-pricing-model-provide-greater-value
Cost per eye balls in television ads by target groups and time slots.
Number of online Texas Hold'em Poker players:
