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Data

MobileScapes Out & About

Understand population movement patterns at the neighbourhood level

 

Discover whose mobile devices are leaving their home locations. MobileScapes Out & About provides access to up-to-date insights into the changing movement patterns of different population groups down to small geographic levels. Weekly monitoring reports help users to compare out-and-about activity week-over-week or versus the same time last year.

Connect Out & About data to EA’s traditional databases or existing market and customer analysis for a more granular understanding of Canadian movement patterns, behaviours and preferences as we adapt to a post-COVID-19 reality. This information can help municipalities ensure appropriate services and infrastructure are provided and that businesses can be well-prepared to serve their customers.


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Easily accessible

Access via the ENVISION analytics platform or through project work

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Understand who is out and about

Understand who leaves home, goes out to work, to shop, for recreation, on which days and at what time of day

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Inform recovery planning

Use weekly monitoring reports to compare activity week-over-week or versus the same time last year

Get started with MobileScapes Out & About today 



Discover who is leaving their home, where they are going and at what time of day

 

• Data updated weekly 
• Data extracts weighted to Household Population 15+
• Historical data from Jan 1, 2019 for time series analysis
• Built at the dissemination area (DA) level and aggregated to other geographies 
• Available by weekpart (Mon–Fri, Sat–Sun, Mon –Sun) and daypart (eight dayparts)
• Access as weekly monitoring reports inside ENVISION or through project work
• Monitoring reports compare activity week-over-week or year-over-year

For release notes and more information, visit our community site.

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When are people out-and-about and for what purpose?  

 

Access basic insights to understand when people leave their homes and for how long. Access add-on insights to determine the reasons why people are leaving their homes.

Basic insights: 

  • People moving beyond 500 metres from their inferred Common Evening Location (CEL) in any observation
  • The time of day people are going out
  • The distances that people are travelling
  • How long people are away from home when they are out

Add-On insights:

  • Purpose of current movement - work, school or other
  • General greenspace outdoor activity – running, hiking, going to parks, etc.
  • General economic or commercial activity - grocery shopping, mall visits, etc.
  • Heavy Commuter Rail usage


    Answer important sector-specific questions, quickly

     

    • How much of the population is leaving home for work, school, shopping or exercise? How does it compare to previous time periods?
    • When are people going out, how far are they going and how long are they out?
    • For commercial activity, how quickly are different parts of the population heading back to bricks-and-mortar locations for general shopping activities?
    • How do changing shopper patterns impact staffing, store hours and sales forecasting?
    • How have shopping patterns changed?
    • Which groups of citizens are accessing parks and other green spaces?
    • How should municipalities adjust their infrastructure for changing commuter trends such as rail use?

     


        Out-and-About-Weekly-Monthly-Report-Examples

        See the Data in Action

        Read about EA's recent mobile movement studies covered by the media, timely analysis from our industry experts and insights on how organizations are looking to mobile movement data and mobile analytics to inform their recovery planning.

         

         

        Measuring Canadian Travel Patterns

        Understand the impact of COVID-19 on Domestic Overnight Visitors within Canada, its provinces, territories and tourism regions.

        Go to dashboard

        News Coverage

        Find recent coverage of EA studies looking at financial and social impacts across Canada's population.

        Read more

        COVID-19: A Neighbourhood View

        We combined the City of Toronto’s COVID-19 case data with our population data to access a more nuanced view of the pandemic as it affects Toronto.

        Read more

        The Many Faces of Vulnerability

        As the economy reopens and we assess the impact of COVID-19 government, NGOs and businesses alike want to understand who needs support and what services are required.

        Read more

        Ready to really understand your customers?

        Learn how MobileScapes Out & About can help your business

        MobileScapes Out & About FAQs

        • Mobile movement data are anonymized and permission-based data collected from location-enabled apps on mobile devices. The main sources of data are opt-in location-enabled applications on mobile devices and ad exchange platforms.  At its most basic level, raw mobile movement data provides a unique and persistent, yet anonymous, device ID, along with a date, time and latitude/ longitude coordinates for each observation. We then take steps to ensure privacy, such as summarizing the data to periods of time. All observed latitude and longitude coordinates are moved to the nearest 6-digit postal code to ensure anonymity.

          Researchers can then observe devices within a defined area such as a store, public square or roadway for a given date and time range. Common evening location (CEL) and common daytime location (CDL) are inferred according to where these devices are most frequently observed during the day and at night. When analyzed correctly, mobile movement data can help you understand who’s visiting your locations, where your customers are coming from, how often they return and where else they might be going.

        • Many industries benefit from the use of mobile movement data. Here are a few examples:

          • QSR chains can understand how frequently people are going out and identify who is returning to work on an ongoing basis.
          • Retail site location analysts use mobile movement data to understand which retail locations to open and which locations to close.
          • Grocers can understand who is shopping in store and how often.

          Questions about how MobileScapes Out & About can help your specific situation? Get in touch.

        • The MobileScapes Out & About data starts on January 1, 2019 and data are updated weekly in EA’s ENVISION platform.

          If you access the data in the form of a project, you can also get weekly updates.

        • Yes. Our mobile movement data are collected only if the individual provides consent or permission. Consumers can easily change their level of location sharing overall or for individual mobile apps via their privacy settings on their mobile devices. Depending on the individual app settings, device holders can decide if a particular app should share their location while in use or block that permission outright. We actively participate in industry and association conversations in these areas, creating policies that protect individuals and allow for the responsible use of data.

          To learn more about our privacy efforts, read our privacy policy.

        • For product-specific information including release notes, metadata and FAQs, visit our community website.

          To learn more about mobile movement data and our suite of MobileScapes products, visit the mobile analytics page.

        • CEL stands for Common Evening Location. CEL represents where the device is most typically observed during evening and overnight hours. To protect user privacy, all observed latitude and longitude coordinates are assigned to the nearest postal code to ensure anonymity.

        • CDL stands for Common Daytime Location. CDL is where the device is most typically observed during workday hours. To protect user privacy, all observed latitude and longitude coordinates are assigned to the nearest postal code to ensure anonymity.

        More Ways to Access Mobile Movement Data

        MobileScapes is the most comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date mobile movement database available for marketing and business applications. Choose from three easily accessible configurations to suit your various business needs: MobileScapes Out & About, MobileScapes ENVISION and MobileScapes Plus.

         


        Mobile Analytics

        Powerful insights come from understanding the movement patterns of a population. Find out what makes MobileScapes the most comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date mobile movement database in Canada.

        Learn more

        MobileScapes ENVISION

        Now ENVISION users can quickly analyze large volumes of mobile movement data by location using hand-drawn polygons, existing location files or the new EA geofence library. Easily connect movement data to EA's 30,000 data points to derive key insights and link to dashboards and custom reports.

        Learn more

        MobileScapes Plus

        Access standard and customized mobile movement data extracts, including weekly reports, via API or as flat files. Choose weighted or unweighted data options and leverage EA's new geofence library.

        Learn more

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