Placer Discover 2024 – Bringing Data to Where We Cannot Go
In a rapidly changing world, access to good quality data is crucial to guarantee the success of businesses and communities. Placer Discover is an annual gathering of industry experts from real estate, finance, downtown management, retail, and technology. The one-day event is held in New York City before the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Deal Show. From the opening keynote with Alicia LeBouef from Meta to the closing session six short hours later, Placer outdid themselves. This is my second time attending this conference with two years between visits. Placer Discover left me in awe of the innovation happening and the possibilities ahead.
Alicia LeBouef from Meta during the opening session.
In the two years between the Placer Discover gatherings here are some of the major changes I’ve observed:
- Focus on real estate companies as the core customer has shifted to segmentation into nine practice areas with Civic being one of the largest.
- Partnerships with a number of companies and data providers that have created mutual benefit.
- Placer has a high priority on quick implementation when the right opportunities to partner come up.
- There is no use case or client that does not stand to benefit from some way by gaining access to Placer.ai or to Placer data relevant for them through an intermediary.
- Retail is changing. How we shop and use data shopping needs to change too.
Given my interests in downtown revitalization, three major themes emerged – benefit of Placer for business improvement districts (BIDs), benefit of Placer for Main Street America, and benefit of Placer for businesses.
Placer Segmentation
Immediately upon arrival at Placer Discover it was evident that partnerships are at the forefront of the growth of Placer. Seemingly one-time competitors are now partners like ESRI.
Following the morning breakout sessions was a general session with co-founder Koby Ben-Zvi. He discussed the company’s shift from commercial real estate to diverse verticals, emphasizing retail and financial services. Market segments that Placer identified and has teams for include: Retail, CPG, Grocery, Finance, Civic, Restaurants, Advertising and Media, Aviation, Tech & Other, CRE, Entertainment, Management Consulting and Healthcare. The growth of Civic as a portion of total revenues was particularly striking.
Key themes of the founder’s talk were the introduction of new solutions, leveraging partnerships, and a focus on AI-driven insights. Altria’s transformation towards non-nicotine products and data-driven retail strategies was highlighted, with plans for future collaboration and innovation. What was fascinating to me is how on monthly store visits Altria was able to share data about customer spending habits, and suggest SKUs that better appeal to market demand for individual stores. This SKU matching behavior once was reserved for large retailers like Target. Now it was happening down to the level of convenience stores and bodegas.
Placer Benefit for Businesses
One area where the growth of Placer is most evident is among retail and restaurants. Retail is changing and every customer has a front row seat to see and participate in those changes firsthand. This was on display during the Opening Keynote. The evolution of omnichannel retail was discussed, emphasizing the importance of customer-centric experiences and the integration of AI in enhancing shopping journeys. Alicia Lebouef from Meta provided introductory comments.
An animated dialogue followed with Ethan Chernowsky of Placer. Key points included: the role of AI in targeting and cost savings, the significance of local inventory visibility, and the impact of social media and video content on consumer behavior. The potential of AR/VR in retail and the necessity for a seamless digital-physical shopping experience were also highlighted. One example was shopping. People on dietary restrictions like low sodium could have products meeting their dietary preferences visually singled out. This application has the potential to help with buying decisions.
Placer Benefit for BIDs/SIDs
Given my work in downtown revitalization over nearly 20 years, I was particularly interested to hear more about work with Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). During a breakout lunch with New York City BIDs, nine areas BID leaders use Placer were identified:
- District Analysis
- Event Analysis
- Workforce Analysis
- Support Local Business
- Economic Recovery and Growth
- Retail Analysis and Recruitment
- Reports for Marketing, Communications, and Grant Writing
- Travel & Tourism – overnight visitors
- Transportation – traffic counts, pedestrian counts
Members of the Civic team pitched tiered pricing based on the size of annual revenue for each district. In return BIDs would get automated monthly reports delivered as PDFs for specially defined metrics each month, the inclusion of 24/7 platform access, and ongoing training and support. Attendees agreed on the value of customizable data sets and comparative metrics for business insights. Further discussions on data sharing and stakeholder engagement were encouraged.
Much of the benefits Placer creates for BIDs are also true for Main Street programs with a few exceptions. The growing partnership between Placer and Main Street was evident in recent marketing after Small Business Saturday, identifying 5.4 million people who shopped in Main Street districts in 2024. There is something incredibly impressive about a rapidly growing global company coming to the assistance of some of the 1200 Main Street programs nationally. Similar to how Placer can benefit BIDs, many of the same benefits can be produced for Main Street programs nationally.
Reinvestment stats are the beginning, middle, and end of every conversation about Main Street. Or to echo the International Economic Development Council, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”
The following chart shows some of the most common reinvestment stats and how data within Placer might assist with collecting them.
Placer Help on Gathering Reinvestment Stats for Main Street
| Stat | How Main Street Measures It | How data within Placer.ai can assist |
| Net Jobs | Speaking with businesses | Workforce Analysis |
| Net Businesses | Tracking openings and closing | Retail Analysis and Recruitment |
| Public Investment | Reported from partners or managed by Main Street program | Economic Recovery and Growth |
| Private Investment | Reported by business or property owners | Retail Analysis and Recruitment Travel & Tourism – overnight visitors Transportation – traffic counts, pedestrian counts |
Placer Benefit for Main Street Stakeholder Groups
One of the key topics discussed was site selection and retail analytics. Placer.ai can be used for retail analysis and support recruitment. When considering new retail opportunities, there is an ability to filter data based on square footage that different retailers require.
The session also touched upon marketing campaigns and how Placer.ai can measure their impact, allowing businesses to determine the effectiveness of their advertising efforts. Overall, the meeting provided valuable insights into the features and applications of the Placer.ai platform for businesses in different sectors.
Main Street programs can help to connect local businesses with Placer and train them on how to use data to grow their business.
| Stakeholder | Main Street | Placer |
| Property owner | Three benefits of owning real estate Reduced vandalism and crime means lower maintenance and contingency cost Support for new uses, particularly on upper floors Place quality and attracting customers commands higher rent | Site selection report based on tag. Key decisions included focusing on specific sub-markets and utilizing a match analysis tool for site assessment. (Will) Search square footage of vacant spaces available and find retailers that match square footage requirements. |
| Business owner | Increased sales Improved image creates new markets Value of business increases over life cycle Lower vacancy from spillover Technical and financial assistance make businesses more effective | help businesses identify the best locations for their stores based on various factors such as foot traffic and demographics. Identify new customers without cannibalizing existing. Store closure report. What customers can be absorbed by other customers. Build clusters that have the potential to attract people from further away. Manage and curate skus to attract customers. Prepare a report comparing different audiences (employees, residents, visitors) in a specific region, such as downtown Atlanta, to aid in development decisions Provide a tutorial on using the Map Studio tool to build maps with layers based on specific demographic and traffic features. Demonstrate the site selection tool and its functionalities, including creating tags and narrowing down shopping centers based on specific criteria. Develop a list of locations within a chain that are up or down the most, and order it by percent of change. Create groupings of retailers based on categories such as postpaid, prepaid, and natural chips, and explore the possibility of sharing these groupings with other users |
| Public officials | Increased tax base and eatables Increased property value increased number of jobs Better services available Better relationship between public and private sector | Support site selection process. Infrastructure Data Product: analyze the impact of new roads and projects on real estate investments. Using the data to fund projects and conduct impact studies. |
| Utility companies | More ratepayers Increase in net revenues | |
| Residents | Choice of items within a walkable distance Ability to live without a car For residential owner, resale value Tax dollars stay in community when spent at local businesses Place attachment leads to better health, happiness, and longevity | |
| Employees | More and better paying jobs Transportation options to make it easy to get to and from work Access to nearby goods and services that support work Third places provide opportunities to meet and do business outside office | |
| Tourism agencies | Increase in visitation Increase in overnight stays and tax revenue Greater capture of spending | Monitoring of visitation and spending at local businesses and reporting variance month over month and year over year. Visitation for events like music festivals. |
Recombinant Innovation and Users Training Other Users
Some key takeaways from the live demo that Jessica provided of broader relevance to Main Street programs follows:
- Grouping of Retailers: Jessica discussed the need to create custom groupings of retailers. It is possible to share these groupings with other users to standardize across products.
- Real Estate Background and Retailer Impact: Jessica shared her background in real estate and discussed how adding certain retailers, like an Apple Store, can impact shopping centers. She provided an example where an Apple Store addition caused a temporary spike in traffic, which normalized after a month.
- Historical Traffic Data. She stressed the importance of analyzing historical data before making significant investments.
- Variance Analysis in Retail Chains: Jessica explained the feature that allows users to look at variances within a retail chain to identify which locations are performing the best or worst. Users can order lists by the percentage of change to identify stores that need attention. These lists may be downloaded for further analysis by operations and marketing teams.
- Site Selection Reports: Jessica described the site selection tool, which can generate reports based on tags and specific criteria. She provided a real-life example of a company focusing on power centers without grocery stores and how they used the tool to identify similar successful centers.
- Audience Analysis for Property Reports: Jessica discussed the importance of understanding different audiences (employees, residents, visitors) when developing areas, using Downtown Atlanta as an example. She explained how the World Cup 2026 influenced their decision to attract businesses catering to visitors while also considering long-term sustainability and cross-over benefit for residents.
- Marketing Campaign Impact Measurement: Jessica talked about using Placer to measure the effectivness of marketing campaigns, such as billboard advertising. She provided an example of a small town where a local business used Placer to identify the best locations for billboards based on traffic and daytime population.
- Map Studio Tool: Jessica introduced the Map Studio tool, which allows users to build maps with layers based on specific criteria like car traffic and demographic features. She highlighted its ease of use and the ability to create detailed maps quickly without needing extensive GIS knowledge.
- Help Center and Academy Resources: Jessica reminded attendees about the Help Center and Academy, which provide self-service resources and how-to articles. She encouraged users to utilize these resources to quickly find answers and learn how to use different features effectively.
- Case Study on City of Dunboyne: Jessica discussed a case study from Atlanta. The study focused on targeting specific ZIP codes for marketing campaigns to monitor sales growth over time. The Campaign Impact tool was designed to provide detailed reports. The tool includes a catalog of customizable reports, such as heat maps and trip orientation by market. Reports help identify where people are coming from and where they are spending money outside the city.
- Retailing Advertisements: Jessica explained the concept of retailing advertisements to combat tax revenue loss. The tool helps identify areas where tax money is being lost due to customers shopping in other cities.
- Using data to invest in local improvements to retain customers.
- Custom Tags and Reporting: Jessica demonstrated how to create and use custom tags for detailed reporting. Tags can be used to run specific campaigns on underperforming stores or shopping centers.
- Starbucks Case Study: Jessica shared a case study involving Starbucks and stores with and without drive throughs. Suburban moms traveled further distances to stores with drive throughs. Urban millennials tended to prefer stores without. The study helped Starbucks develop a strategy for building parallel sites.
As this final presentation continued on it occurred to me there is no use case that Placer data cannot add value. Which led me to ask the question what are qualities of customers that help them to use the platform effectively. Jessica responded that key qualities include:
- Spending time in the dashboard and focusing on marketing and campaign performance.
- Emphasis on teamwork and collaboration for better results.
- Finally and most importantly it was suggested that users start with a question, and then use Placer and various reports to provide answers to that question.
“There’s applications for every vertical, really, which is what I’m gonna show.”
Jessica Owens