The retail industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by the desire for convenience and the growing importance of technologies such as artificial Intelligence, automation, and digitisation. In the last three years alone, there have been over 133,000 patents filed and granted in the retail industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Personalisation in Retail: Targeted in-game advertising.
According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which uses over 128,000 patents to analyse innovation intensity for the retail industry, there are 70+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
Targeted in-game advertising is a key innovation area in personalisation
In-game advertising allows the game manufacturers or the advertising firms to deliver advertisements remotely. The advertisement format can vary from images, videos, and audio to dynamic ads, static ads and more.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 40 companies, spanning technology vendors, established retail companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of targeted in-game advertising.
Key players in targeted in-game advertising – a disruptive innovation in the retail industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to targeted in-game advertising
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
The leading patent filers in the targeted in-game advertising space include Sony Group, SoftBank Group, Casio Computer, Chemtron Research, and Qualcomm. Sony is working to bring advertisements to its free-to-play PlayStation in 2023. The ads appear in games and are give game developers a way to monetise their work and encourage them to continue building free-to-play games.
Chemtron Research, CCL Industries, Magna International, Sony Group, Signify and Novalia are the leading companies, in terms of application diversity.
In terms of geographic reach, Cfph, Yazaki, Novalia, BlackBerry, SoftBank Group and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are the top players.
The global gaming industry is currently worth around $300bn. It has grown over the years forming a variety of audiences. Dynamic in-game advertising is bound to grow with the growth of the gaming industry.
To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the retail industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Retail.
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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.
GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.
