Placecast™ 2.3 Release Notes

Release Date: November 15, 2025

Placecast™ 2.3 represents a significant advancement in the accuracy, comprehensiveness, and methodological sophistication of the Motionworks Population Intelligence Platform. This release introduces four major enhancements that strengthen our ability to deliver precise population movement insights across North America.

Key Enhancements Overview

Census Geography Modernization: Complete transition from U.S. Census 2010 to U.S. Census 2020 geographies across all Placecast™ products, with enhanced infrastructure for rapid integration of future census releases.

Advanced Trade Area Modeling: Updated distance calculations using network-based routing instead of straight-line measurements, providing more realistic travel pattern analysis.

Enhanced Transit Control Data: Station-level first-party data integration for major transit operators using advanced AI processing techniques.

Dynamic Control Group Evolution: Expanded and refreshed control groups across all DMA markets with adaptive methodology for ongoing place lifecycle management.

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Census 2020 Geography Integration

What's New

Placecast™ 2.3 marks the full integration of U.S. Census 2020 geographies throughout the Population Intelligence Platform. While Motionworks has been providing 2020 geography reference data and cross-reference tables since 2023, this release represents the first complete product integration of these updated geographic boundaries.

Technical Implementation

All place visitation data, trade area analysis, and home location reporting now utilize Census 2020 block group definitions as the foundational geographic unit. This transition ensures Placecast™ reflects the most current population distribution patterns and administrative boundaries across the United States.

Infrastructure Benefits

The updated geographic infrastructure positions Motionworks to rapidly integrate future census releases, including the anticipated U.S. Census 2030 geographies. This enhanced flexibility reduces the typical 2-3 year lag between census publication and product integration to an estimated 6-12 months.

Important Compatibility Note

Backward Compatibility: While aggregate visitation metrics (total visits, dwell time, frequency patterns) remain consistent with historical data, home location geographies will reflect updated census boundaries in both countries. This change is not inherently backward compatible with Placecast™ 2.2 reporting geographies. Users comparing home location distributions across versions should reference the U.S. geography transition tables for accurate historical analysis.

Visitation and Occupancy Changes

Overall visitations, dropoffs, passby, and occupany will not change for places as a result of these changes to underlying Census geography. From September 2024 through September 2025, place visitations and related Placecast metrics are greater than 98.9 percent similar between Version 2.2 and Version 2.3. Where differences do exist, the reported visistation and related metrics are different by 1 percent on average with the maximum percent change across all places and all months less than 8 percent.

Table. Comparison of Placecast By Date Metrics between Version 2.2 and Version 2.3

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Enhanced Trade Area Distance Modeling

Methodology Update

Placecast™ 2.3 introduces network-based distance calculations for trade area modeling, replacing the previous Euclidean (straight-line) distance methodology. This enhancement provides significantly more accurate representations of actual travel patterns between visitor home locations and destination places.

What This Means

Previous Method: Straight-line distance measurements between block group centroids and place locations.

New Method: Network distance calculations using typical transportation modes, accounting for road networks, traffic patterns, and realistic routing scenarios.

Impact

The following analysis compares average Trade Area distances by place type between Version 2.2 and Version 2.3 using data from June 2025.

Overall, trade area distances declined across most categories, typically between 10 and 25 percent, indicating more localized catchment zones in Version 2.3.

The largest contractions occurred in large destination or regional draw locations, including Rest Stops (−6.1 mi), University Campuses (−5.7 mi), Amusement Parks (−4.5 mi), Convention Centers (−4.5 mi), and Events (−4.5 mi). Airport-related venues including Commercial Airports (−4.3 mi), Airport Terminals (−4.2 mi), and Airport Concourses (−3.8 mi) also showed significant reductions. Hospitality and entertainment venues such as Theaters (−3.9 mi), Hotels (−3.8 mi), and Outlet Malls (−3.7 mi) demonstrated meaningful decreases, suggesting improved precision around core visitor areas. Everyday retail and service types including Grocery Stores, Quick Serve Restaurants, Bars, and Gyms generally saw smaller decreases between 1.0 and 2.2 miles.

A few categories experienced increases in average trade area size, most notably Car Wash Facilities (+4.4 mi), Community Centers (+4.0 mi), and Event Detection (+2.7 mi). These increases may reflect broader movement ranges or expanded boundaries in the updated model.

Table. Comparison of Average Trade Area Travel Distances between Version 2.2 and Version 2.3

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Advanced Transit Control Data Integration

Expanded First-Party Data Sources

Placecast™ 2.3 incorporates enhanced station level first-party ridership data from major transit operators, significantly improving the accuracy of transit station visitation estimates:

• Miami-Dade Metrorail: Complete rail system coverage with station-level ridership controls
• Miami-Dade Metromover: Automated people mover system integration
• Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PATH): Trans-Hudson rail service data integration

Technical Innovation

The integration leverages advanced AI technology to rapidly process and standardize varied first-party transit data reports from multiple operators. This AI-driven approach enables more efficient onboarding of additional transit systems while maintaining data quality and consistency standards.

Data Quality Enhancement

Previous transit control data relied primarily on system-wide aggregate ridership numbers reported to federal agencies. The new station-level controls provide granular validation for individual transit locations, significantly improving the precision of visitation estimates at transit hubs and surrounding areas.

Note: These enhanced transit controls also benefit Placecast™ 2.2, as they are implemented across the historical data pipeline.

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Dynamic DMA Control Group Evolution

Comprehensive Market Coverage

Placecast™ 2.3 implements refreshed and expanded control groups across all Designated Market Areas (DMAs) in the United States. Control groups are cross-tabulated by DMA, Place Type, and Urbanicity classifications, providing robust validation frameworks for diverse geographic and commercial contexts.

Adaptive Methodology

The updated control group system includes dynamic evolution capabilities that automatically adjust validation parameters as the commercial landscape changes. This methodology accounts for:

• New Place Openings: Automatic integration of newly identified commercial locations into appropriate control group categories
• Place Closures: Systematic removal of permanently closed locations from control group calculations
• Category Changes: Detection and accommodation of places that change business types or operational models

Validation Framework

Control groups serve as the foundation for validating place visitation estimates across different market sizes and geographic contexts. The refreshed methodology ensures that validation standards remain current with evolving commercial patterns and demographic shifts observed across U.S. markets.

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Implementation Timeline and Availability

Release Date: November 15, 2025 Product Coverage: All Placecast™ products (Profiles, by Date, by Home) Geographic Scope: United States and territories, Canada Historical Data Coverage: September 2024 to present

Historical Data Strategy

Placecast™ 2.3 incorporates historical data beginning September 2024. For analysis requiring data prior to September 2024, Placecast™ 2.2 remains available with complete historical coverage back to January 2019.

Parallel Product Availability:

• Placecast™ 2.2: January 2019 through December 2026 (final updates)
• Placecast™ 2.3: September 2024 forward

This approach ensures users have uninterrupted access to historical analysis capabilities while benefiting from the enhanced methodology and geographic accuracy available in Placecast™ 2.3. Motionworks anticipates continuing updates to Placecast™ 2.2 through the end of calendar year 2026, with the official final date to be announced. This provides a seamless transition period for long-term trend analysis.

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Next Steps for Users

For Existing Customers

Review the geography transition documentation to understand the impact of Census 2020 geography integration on your current analysis workflows.

Questions and Support

Contact your Motionworks customer success team for specific questions about how Placecast™ 2.3 enhancements affect your use cases and reporting requirements.

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Updated 2025-11-15