API Reference

Use Case: Sales Prospecting

Business Challenge

Sales teams need to identify companies and brands whose customer demographics align with their media inventory or location audience. Rather than cold prospecting, this approach uses actual population movement and demographic data to generate qualified leads with proven audience overlap.

Common Scenarios:

  • Billboard operators seeking advertisers whose target customers drive past their displays
  • Shopping centers identifying retailers whose customers match their visitor demographics
  • Event venues finding sponsors whose audiences attend similar events
  • Media agencies prospecting brands with audiences that match specific geographic markets

Required Inputs

  • Location Data: Place IDs for your media locations, venues, or geographic areas of interest
  • Audience Criteria: Demographic, behavioral, or geographic characteristics you want to match
  • Market Scope: Geographic boundaries for your prospecting (DMA, county, radius, etc.)

API Workflow

Step 1: Analyze Your Location's Audience Profile

Use Placecast Profiles to understand who currently visits your location or passes your billboard.

API Call: POST /measures/placecast/report
→ API Documentation: Placecast Profiles

{
    "place_id": [5682]
}

Response Structure (key fields shown):

{
    "places": [
        {
            "name": "John F Kennedy International Airport",
            "id": "67ff2de13334487acdfa4971",
            "place_id": 5682,
            "activities": 2127778,
            "visits": 1693268,
            "visits_unique_persons": 1169734,
            "visits_avg_dwell": 184,
            ...
        }
    ],
    "segments": [
        {
            "type": "consumer",
            "category": "commuting and transportation",
            "description": "Mode of transportation past 7 days (any purpose) Bus",
            "id": "03009",
            "percent": 0.113471700876648,
            "index": 288,
            "motionworks_segment_id": "e5ae87c4-ecac-483b-aa8d-f37f4dc5828a"
        }
        ...
    ],
    "dma": [
        {
            "id": "501",
            "description": "New York, NY",
            "weekly_visits": 1354333,
            "daily_visits": 193476
        }
        ...
    ],
    "county": [...],
    "postal_code": [...],
    "state": [...],
    "days": [...],
    "dwell": [...],
    ...
}

Step 2: Identify Target Demographics

From the Placecast response, identify the strongest demographic segments that visit your location.

Focus on:

  • High-index demographic segments (index > 120)
  • Significant visitor percentages (percent > 0.05)
  • Relevant behavioral characteristics for advertiser matching

Example High-Value Segments (from segments array):

  • High-index demographic segments (index > 120)
  • Significant visitor percentages (percent > 0.05)
  • Relevant behavioral characteristics for advertiser matching

Step 3: Find Geographic Concentrations

Use the geographic distribution data to identify where your high-value audience lives and works.

Analysis Points:

  • Counties with highest visitor concentration (weekly_visits and daily_visits)
  • DMAs with strong representation (dma array results)
  • ZIP codes with significant visitor density (postal_code array)

Geographic Analysis (from response arrays):

  • Counties with highest visitor concentration (county array weekly_visits and daily_visits)
  • DMAs with strong representation (dma array results)
  • ZIP codes with significant visitor density (postal_code array)

Step 4: Find Relevant Audience Cohorts

Use Popcast cohort search to find audience segments that match your location's visitor profile.

API Call: POST /cohorts/search
→ API Documentation: Popcast API

{
    "motionworks_data_product_name": "Popcast At Home",
    "search_text": "transportation"
}

Response Structure:

{
    "cohorts": [
        {
            "motionworks_segment_id": "e5ae87c4-ecac-483b-aa8d-f37f4dc5828a",
            "cohort_description": "Mode of transportation past 7 days (any purpose) Bus"
        }
        ...
    ]
}

Step 5: Analyze Cohort Geographic Distribution

Use Popcast At Home to understand where your target cohort lives by geographic market.

API Call: POST /measures/popcast/at_home
→ API Documentation: Popcast API

{
    "motionworks_segment_id": "e5ae87c4-ecac-483b-aa8d-f37f4dc5828a",
    "geography_type": ["DMA"]
}

Response Structure:

{
    "motionworks_segment_id": "e5ae87c4-ecac-483b-aa8d-f37f4dc5828a",
    "geographic_type": ["DMA"],
    "customer_segment_name": "Mode of transportation past 7 days (any purpose) Bus",
    "year": 2022,
    "persons": 45200906,
    "all_persons": 333633487,
    "composition_percent": 0.13548072289278323,
    "results": [
        {
            "geography_id": "US2020XDMA501",
            "description": "New York, NY",
            "persons": 3917399,
            "all_persons": 22015625,
            "composition_index": 131,
            "composition_percent": 0.177937215046132,
            "geo_type": "DMA",
            "customer_segment_name": "Mode of transportation past 7 days (any purpose) Bus",
            "vintage": "20230909"
        }
        ...
    ],
    "ids": [...],
    "vintage": "20230909",
    "pagination": {...}
}

Expected Outputs

Qualified Prospect List

  • High-Index Brands: Companies whose customer demographics strongly match your audience
  • Geographic Targeting: Specific markets where audience overlap is strongest
  • Behavioral Insights: Lifestyle and consumption patterns for targeted messaging

Sales Intelligence

  • Audience Overlap Metrics: Quantified match between prospect customers and your audience
  • Geographic Concentration: Where shared customers live, work, and spend time
  • Engagement Opportunities: Optimal times and locations for audience engagement

Competitive Advantage

  • Data-Driven Prospecting: Replace demographic assumptions with actual movement data
  • Audience Validation: Prove audience alignment before sales conversations
  • Strategic Positioning: Lead with insights rather than inventory specifications

Business Application

Sales Outreach Strategy

Use audience overlap data to craft personalized sales messages that demonstrate understanding of the prospect's customer base and market challenges.

Example Approach:
"We've identified that 23% of your customers in the Denver market regularly visit our billboard locations along I-25. Here's how our inventory can help you reach them during their daily commute..."

Proposal Development

Include population intelligence insights in media proposals to show strategic thinking beyond simple demographic assumptions.

Value Propositions:

  • Demonstrate actual customer movement patterns
  • Quantify audience overlap with precision
  • Show geographic concentration opportunities
  • Provide competitive differentiation through data

Account Planning

Use ongoing population intelligence to track prospect customer behavior changes and identify new engagement opportunities.

Out-of-Home Advertising Applications

Leverage audience intelligence to optimize billboard and digital display advertising strategies.

Strategic Applications:

  • Billboard Prospect Identification: Target advertisers whose customers regularly pass specific billboard locations with high index scores
  • Inventory Optimization: Use visitor demographic data to match billboard locations with advertiser target audiences
  • Media Planning: Demonstrate audience reach and demographic alignment to potential advertisers using actual movement data
  • Campaign Targeting: Identify geographic markets where billboard audiences align with advertiser customer bases for maximum impact

Related Use Cases

Technical Resources