Learn Which Brands Own Share-Of-Visit, Were Most Efficient, & Have The Biggest Opportunities For Growth

PlaceIQ, the company building a new model of consumer behavior with location data and insights, announced the release of its annual Year In Location Foot Traffic Guides, revealing in-depth location-based trends and insights that shaped the Travel, Retail and Dining industries in 2018. This research was conducted using PlaceIQ’s proprietary data, comprised of 200MM+ unique, anonymous devices across the US Each of these guides can be downloaded.

Location is an extremely powerful holistic marketing solution. From advertising to targeting, to measurement and analytics—location and Share-Of-Visit are key mechanisms for understanding consumers, competitors, event performance, market opportunities, and more.

“We are often asked by our clients and partners how to use our data to create new growth opportunities through location-intelligent consumer insights, real-world attribution, or market analysis,” said Duncan McCall, CEO, PlaceIQ. “Our yearly reports strive to showcase creative applications of our data that yield new business value for brands.”

Each PlaceIQ Year in Location Guide lays out Quick Hits & Big Shifts in 2017-18 before going deeper into trends and insights that have shaped these industries. Traverse just a few of the most timely foot traffic insights in the Travel, Retail, and Dining sections that follow.

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TRAVEL

For March Madness, can location data tell which colleges have the most loyal basketball fans?

Marketers can use location intelligence to glean travel insights, determine which cities are sending the biggest crowds to events, and how out-of-towners shop, dine, or recreate differently. For March Madness, we looked at which college fans went the extra mile(s) to watch their favorite team compete for the title at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

In this year’s finals, Virginia prevailed to win it all, despite Texas sending nearly three times as many fans to the game. Out of the remaining Final Four games, Texas also had the highest representation that week, with 1.75 times as many fans as Michigan brought to the game. So while the Red Raiders didn’t bring home the Championship, they can boast the most loyal fans.

In comparison, during last year’s Final Four, PlaceIQ saw a similar trend where nearly three times as many Jayhawks fans made the trip to the semi-finals in San Antonio, yet Villanova still took home the win and went on to win it all.

PlaceIQ research has also shown that the hotel industry can be an excellent indicator of travel health, so for a look back at the year’s trends, PlaceIQ focused on which hotel brands won the year in terms of foot traffic.

How loyal are Hotel visitors? Loyalty, or inversely, a visitor’s propensity to cross shop, can help marketers discover the right profiles to conquest. Within the premium competitive set, PlaceIQ discovered that visitors to Wyndham Hotels are the most loyal: 46% of their visits to premium hotels are to a Wyndham property. Residence Inn visitors proved most likely to explore other brands and are 10% less loyal than the category average.

Nationally, Share-Of-Visit within the Cost Conscious competitive set reveals Hampton Hotels leading the pack with 20.1% SOV. Holiday Inn Express comes in second with 15.6% and the remainder ranges from 12.3 to 7.7% with little discernible monthly change. For a more dynamic look, PlaceIQ highlighted the state in which each brand does best amongst its competitors in the Travel Guide.

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DINING

A consumer visits a restaurant for one main reason: they are hungry! For dining brands, visitation is a clear indicator of purchase intent, making location data an extremely powerful tool to help brands inform marketing decisions and reach consumers who are likely to dine-out again.

Burger Showdown! While most brands remained flat in terms of Share-Of-Visit, McDonald’s saw a 1.8% increase between May-August, driven by their $1 sandwich offer during the summer. Niche burger brands, including Shake Shack and In-N-Out Burger, continued to dominate the competition in terms of efficiency—Shake Shack alone had 2.8x the visitors-per-location as Wendy’s!

Among fast food favorites that do not serve burgers, Subway, Taco Bell, and Chick-Fil-A had the highest Share-Of-Visits. White Castle offered a table and candlelight service dinner on Valentine’s Day — which led to a 28% increase in overall foot traffic.  Location data has become an essential tool for restaurant marketers to find and message hungry customers in an efficient way. Whether it’s reaching frequent diners of your brand or understanding the impact of a promotion, location data is a critical tool for restaurant marketers in 2019. For more on Dining, download the report.

RETAIL

Location data has become an essential tool for Retail marketers to find and message offline shoppers. Visitation to a physical store is a top indicator of purchase intent and can be used to strategically reach frequent Retail shoppers. With increasing pressure from e-commerce giants, now is the time for marketers to leverage offline behaviors to fuel successful online campaigns.

Which brands won the year in terms of foot traffic? Who stole Share-Of-Visit from competitors in which dayparts? What effect did retail industry disruptions have on in-store visitation? The answers to these questions and more lie in location.

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