A report from Placer.ai that the City created for Highland Park businesses. | Screen Capture from City of Highland Park video
The City of Highland Park will continue its partnership with data analytics company Placer.ai for another three years after the City Council approved a contract renewal on Oct. 26.
The new agreement will run from Dec. 1 through Nov. 30, 2029, extending a partnership that began in 2023.
“We have seen so many positive applications from the insights that we’ve gained from this data,” City Communications Manager Amanda Bennett said. “We’ve seen those benefits from data visualizations it provides, as well as the analytics that we are able to access for both City applications and our businesses.”
When the City entered the agreement with Placer.ai in 2023, the three-year contract was $72,000 annually. The new agreement is $82,145 and the data insights the service offers remain the same.
Placer.ai is a proprietary market and location intelligence platform software service. The platform reportedly has helped City in its marketing campaigns, business and economic development, event planning and attracting new developments.
Placer.ai identifies locations of new businesses, recognizes how streets and other safeties are used, tracks foot traffic in the business district, and more. Its data reportedly is stripped of identifying information.
The City relied on Placer.ai event data to inform its marketing campaign with iHeartMedia and optimize the marketing by converting engagement rates into visits. When the City sees increased attendance and engaged foot traffic during events, the data helps officials consider the future of that event.
The platform reportedly has also been helpful to local businesses, in addition to the City, by providing them with “unique reports,” based on the data. Businesses can come to the City’s Office of Business Development and request information about their visitor patterns, reportedly helping them with business hours and other decisions.
Bennett called those unique reports a “high value component” for local businesses, and the platform gives the City a good picture of “efficacy and success” of their services, Bennett said.
In addition to requesting unique reports, businesses can request business district level analysis to see insights for a wider area, she said.
The platform gives “accurate comparative statistics,” Bennett said, that the City couldn’t get elsewhere. Prior to 2023, the City reportedly relied on rough head counts to measure how many people came to an event, making the platform an added tool for the City to compare “apples to apples” year over year, she said.
Bennet said because Placer.ai is analyzing analytical data, the City trusts it more than generative AI. And when a report is put together for a business, a City staff member is pulling that data and helping interpret it for a business owner.
“When anything has comparative analysis like Placer.ai, you can feel confident in making the comparison,” Bennett said.
The City has measured the success of the platform from seeing its real world applications, getting feedback from staff members and the public, and regularly evaluating their software subscriptions to make sure they are continuing to deliver actionable insights.
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Alessia Girardin
Alessia Girardin is a community reporter focused on stories out of Highland Park and Highwood. A Chicago native and Regina Dominican alumna, she has published work for local and New York City publications and earned a master’s degree from New York University.
