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Peoplecount tests real-time Wi-Fi location analytics for digital signage metrics

Audience metrics firm Peoplecount has announced a new turnkey solution for measuring real-time location analytics such as foot traffic, dwell time, return trips and pathways for digital place-based media.

January 27, 2016

Audience metrics firm Peoplecount has announced a new turnkey solution for measuring real-time location analytics such as foot traffic, dwell time, return trips and pathways for digital place-based media. The company recently compared mobile data analytics, including cell data, Wi-Fi and beacons, as tools for place-based media measurement, selecting Wi-Fi analytics for a two-month pilot test.

Installing a network of Wi-Fi routers in a suburban shopping mall, Peoplecount tracked Wi-Fi pings every 5 seconds for two months. Foot traffic was verified with manual and door counting equipment. "We were excited to learn that for individual points the accuracy was 91 percent and across the venue as a whole, 99.5 percent," Peoplecount President and Chief Methodologist Kelly McGillivray said in the announcement, while also acknowledging that it took some time to learn how to filter and expand the data to get meaningful results.

Besides location-specific foot traffic, the technology, which passively detects Wi-Fi-enabled Smartphones, yields reliable, real-time metrics of dwell time, return trips and footpath analytics, the company said. By geo-fencing the data, it is possible to track people inside and outside a store or in different parts of a venue, which can range in size from a small retailer to an international convention center or airport terminal. "This is an economical, accessible and secure approach to location-based analytics," McGillivray said. "This technology works almost anywhere in the developed world."

Peoplecount said it is now offering this turnkey service, named Placescount, to out-of-home and place-based media operators. It is intended to be ideal for dynamic digital signage providers, as the power and Internet connections are already established. Placescount can measure media audiences in airports, malls, transit stations, stadiums, casinos, convention centers and other large venues, the company said.

Next steps include examining the logistics for outdoor use in the wake of the growing incidence of Wi-Fi-enabled out-of-home advertising, according to the announcement.