It’s no secret that Mardi Gras is a big deal in New Orleans – and for Peter Mayer staffers, too! We took a quick poll of our employees to see how they do Mardi Gras. Here are the stats, their advice, and some of their funny answers.

1. What is your favorite parade?

- Muses won by a long shot; Bacchus came in second and Krewe du Vieux came in third.

2. What is the best place to watch a parade?

- It’s a secret. I don’t want the whole city showing up at my spot!
- You don’t watch them. You move with them. You become a part of them. Watching is for the babies and the old people.
- With whatever friend has access to bathroom on the route.
- Uptown – Between Napoleon and Louisiana – Neutral Ground Side.

3. What is the best place to get a drink during Mardi Gras?

- Superior Grill – amazing margaritas.
- Anywhere but Superior Grill.
- Uptown: my kitchen. Downtown: my backpack.
- Happy’s on Poydras near Rampart or Evangeline II Lounge on St. Charles.
- From your buddy.

4. Best place to get something to eat?

- Carnie truck – Gator on a stick.
- Whatever my uncle is cooking on the parade route.
- Popeyes.
- Matassa’s.
- Half Moon on St. Mary – the best vegetarian chili cheese fries in the city!

5. Are you dressing up for Mardi Gras?

- Yes – 47.9%.
- No – 23.3%.
- Not sure yet – 28.8%.

6. What is your costume?

- Classified.
- Sat: Drum majorette; Sun: Moulin Rouge can-can dancer, and Tue: Wonder Woman in her aquatic outfit.
- It’s a family costume. My husband and I will be lions and my toddler will be a lion tamer.
- Oompa Loompa.
- As much purple, green and gold flair as I can find, paint included.

Since 1980, when we moved to the 300 block of Camp Street, or Newspaper Row in what is now New Orleans’ Central Business District, Peter Mayer has been steadily expanding. We started out with 20 or so employees in an old printing/newspaper building at 324 Camp and only occupied 3 of the 4 floors. Soon we grew to fill all 4 floors. Then in 1996, we grew into the adjacent building at 320 Camp Street with 60 employees. And just this week, we finished building out the last corner of the largest building, 318 Camp Street, by adding more conference rooms and work space to accommodate our new size—right at 200 thinkers, planners, builders, creators and brand stewards.

The new space, which was designed by Barron/Toups Architects of New Orleans and built by Edifice Builders of New Orleans, has 16 new workstations, three offices, two intern stations, two conference rooms and additional restrooms. Yay, additional restrooms! Jill Dupre, interior designer, will help decorate the space. The growing CenturyLink account management team will be the primary occupant.

We firmly believe that inspiring spaces inspire people, and to that end, we’ve kept the design eclectic and industrial. Another goal is to capture the natural light and spread it out to where people work. So there are minimal doors and high walls. Next time you are in the building, ask for a quick tour. We’d be happy to show it off.

Surely you have heard of Pinterest by now. If you haven’t, here are five reasons you better look it up quick.

1. It’s really easy

There seems to be some debate over whether or not people like to make lists. Sure, there are those who live and die by their to-do list, and those who have never made one. But it’s a little more complicated than that. Way back in 2010, when talking about privacy concerns and the concept of sharing Facebook posts with only a subset of friends, Mark Zuckerburg said, “Guess what? Nobody wants to make lists.” What he really meant, though, is no one wants to make lists of their friends. It is flat-out hard to do. Consider that nice lady in the cube next to you. You don’t really care if she sees photos of you and your girlfriend, but she is not quite on that sure-let-me-show-you-pictures-of-last-Friday-night level. So what is she? Close friend? Acquaintance? See, lists of people are no fun.

But Pinterest gets it right. People like to make lists—or categorize and keep track—of things. As Dennis Crowley of foursquare said about the service’s new-ish lists feature, “People make lists of places all the time. I’m going to Chicago, what should I do? Let me jot down five ideas.” It is easy to look at a picture and identify it as a “recipe,” “place to travel,” or “idea for the kids’ room.” And it’s fun.

User can re-pin existing pins, or pin images from websites using a bookmarklet.

2. It’s the definition of super-curation

If you’re like many consumers, your expectations for controlling the media you consume are ever increasing. Last September, Facebook helped advance this shift by giving you the ability to choose whether or not you “subscribe” to updates from your friends and even whether or not you see all or just some of a particular person’s updates.

That’s excellent, but how do you tell Facebook you do want to see every photo your old college roomie uploads of the fabulous food he is cooking up, but you have zero desire to see any other content from him. You don’t. So you see every “important” update or you unsubscribe from all of them. Neither suits you, and Facebook is suddenly less able to meet your “needs.”

Pinterest doesn’t put you in that predicament. If you and your sister have all the same dream travel destinations, but she has atrocious taste in art, fine—follow her travel board and not her art board.

Co-founder Ben Silbermann’s “Delicious Food and Delicious Drinks” board shows the items he has pinned, as well as others’ engagement with the pins.

3. It’s aspirational

Unlike other popular social networks, Pinterest allows you to create the you you want to be. In fact, that is the very point of Pinterest. Social network “etiquette” calls for using a representational photo for your profile picture. Your activities and interests are captured by little thumbnails, and your status updates and uploads create a very real virtualization of your life. You are bound by who you are in that moment and who you have been.

Pinterest is forward looking. It says, I may live in this shabby apartment due to circumstances, but this is the kind of house I would like to have. It is about things you will do. It is about getting better.

4. There’s no urgency and no pressure

For the average social media user, being active on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is plenty to keep you parked at the computer for hours on end and justify that unlimited data plan. The thought of another “must-do” social media network might be terrifying. The pressure to respond to messages on Facebook, to maintain an active Twitter stream and update your blog regularly is intense. But there is not that pressure on Pinterest (at least not yet). No one will care if you don’t pin anything for a few days (though most users are quick to admit they are on the site daily) because following a person on Pinterest is secondary to sifting through the steady stream of visual satisfaction.

5. And last, it’s like a game

The fact that you can pin on your own terms makes it a little like those asynchronous games—Farmville, Words with Friends—whose popularity has caught us all by surprise. There is no required commitment, and a low level of commitment will not hinder one’s ability to enjoy the site. But, the more you pin and follow people or boards, the better your experience will become.

As one Pinterest “super user” said, “To me, Pinterest is a game I can customize and always win.” Bingo.

Pinterest, which is still technically in beta and is invite-only, allows users to create “boards.” Not unlike the real bulletin boards you may have in your home or workspace, users “pin” images to the boards from around the web and from photos they upload. Users can follow other users or choose to only follow particular boards from a user. Though some sources say Pinterest launched as early as 2008, it didn’t start to gain mainstream popularity till last fall; since that time, traffic to the site has grown 400% to almost 12 million monthly unique visitors.

Want to see what all the fuss is about? Request an invite on the site or ask one of your friends that is already pinning (they have unlimited invites to dole out). Just want to take a peek? Here you go.

I’m a die hard Google fan. There, I said it. I love their search engine, their products and their brand’s personality. I love that they value curiosity and intelligence. I also love that most of their products are free. And most of all, I love Google for the first “core principle” in their company philosophy:

“Focus on the user and all else will follow. Since the beginning, we’ve focused on providing the best user experience possible. Whether we’re designing a new Internet browser or a new tweak to the look of the homepage, we take great care to ensure that they will ultimately serve you, rather than our own internal goal or bottom line. Our homepage interface is clear and simple, and pages load instantly. Placement in search results is never sold to anyone, and advertising is not only clearly marked as such, it offers relevant content and is not distracting. And when we build new tools and applications, we believe they should work so well you don’t have to consider how they might have been designed differently.”

So, you can imagine my dismay when I learned of Google’s most recent initiative, “Search, plus your world.” At first blush this sounds like the beginnings of social media and search integration—the Holy Grail of Internet media. But instead, Google has actually hardcoded content from their social media product, Google+, into their search results.

Google’s decision to prioritize Google+, not surprisingly, resulted in complaints from Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, this has also resulted in the FTC expanding its antitrust investigation to include Google+. Of course, Google is simply trying to increase Google+’s market share; however, whether the move reflects the sixth item in Google’s company philosophy—“You can make money without doing evil”—is questionable.

Facebook, Twitter and MySpace certainly think it’s questionable. The three social media networks have partnered to create a bookmarklet (found at www.focusontheuser.org) that uses Google’s own algorithm to replace hardcoded Google+ results with social media results from around the Web (watch the video on their site for a full explanation).

Although some will argue that Google has the right to update their products as they choose, it’s important to understand that Google’s dominance in search (65.9 percent in December 2011) gives them the power to affect significant change with even the smallest step. Consider that Google’s stock is currently trading at over $600 a share, Facebook is poised to have the largest internet IPO in history, and each company is trying to win the digital ad game, and it’s easy to see why the introduction of “Search, plus your world” is getting people’s attention.

I’m still a die hard fan, but I hope that they come to an agreement with the rest of the social media industry that is mutually beneficial to all users. As I mentioned above, my favorite thing about Google is the first principle in their company philosophy, “Focus on the user and all else will follow.”

From Jeremy

A 30-second commercial in Super Bowl XVI cost advertisers up to $4 million; this year, marketers created multimedia campaigns aimed at engaging fans and extending the effects of their efforts.

To do this, advertisers built buzz by releasing teasers, or extended versions, of their commercials online before the big show. This year’s most successful teasers were for Volkswagen, Honda and Acura which each generated over 10 million online views. Each leveraged past icons—Star Wars, Ferris Bueller and Jerry Seinfeld—to position their brands. They were rewarded with a massive amount of traditional and social media exposure, successfully building hype for their Super Bowl ads.

Audiences are more engaged with the Super Bowl commercials than ever; IAB estimated that 41% of PC owners would be using their computers during the big game, along with 56% of smartphone owners and 45% of tablet owners. This represents a great opportunity for marketers to engage consumers and leverage brand connections.

Even before the game, Volkswagen encouraged fans to create invites for their own Super Bowl parties and promoted them via rich media ads on YouTube. That ad placement added several hundreds of thousands of dollars to the price tag, but ensured a premium placement when fans went online to view other Super Bowl spots.

Chevy developed the first app tied to a major sporting event. The app created for iPhone and Android customers allowed consumers to compete for one of 20 Chevrolets and 6,000 other prizes. Chevy kept distracted consumers interested in their brand by posing questions related to their ads and products in order for consumers to win the prizes.

But all did not go smoothly for social media from Toyota and Chrysler. Toyota got into trouble early last week for spamming Twitter users who used the #Patriots or #Giants hashtag. Instead of personalizing their messages they sent the same message to all fans, each and every time they used the hashtag. Consumers reacted negatively, leading Toyota to cancel their social campaign.

Chrysler received rave reviews for their Halftime in America spot. They incorporated their video into rich media ads and in premium placements online. Their interactive map was designed to show fans how they were helping keep America, and Chrysler, on track. Millions of social media connections were made, but the NFL had YouTube remove the video for copyright infringement. Hours later it was back online, but not before sapping the campaign’s momentum.

To measure the social buzz around Super Bowl campaigns, Peter Mayer utilizes Sysomos; we can track the volume of social chatter, sentiment related to ads and trending data. This year’s most positive mentions went to Doritos and Bud Light spots, which used animals and babies to sell their products. Go Daddy and Lexus received the worst reviews from fans for their lackluster offerings.

This year’s Super Bowl didn’t produce many standout commercials, but the industry is breaking new ground with its use of interactive and social media. While results and case studies pour in from this year’s campaign, we can rest assured that these brands are already planning on outdoing themselves next year with better creative and more interactive offerings. We will continue to monitor their results and report back on the findings.

And from Josh

I don’t like it. Not one bit. All this pre-release, pre-hype, watch-it-before-the-game scheming. Oh, I understand it from everyone’s point of view. There’s a lot of money at stake, and if you can garner more eyeballs before the Super Bowl, then what could be wrong with that? A lot.

Call me a purist or a scrooge or a naysayer, but what I like about Super Bowl commercials is that they have to fight it out during the Super Bowl. It’s a win-or-go-home game, just like the actual Super Bowl. And to win, to become talked about the next day, week and year, these ads have to be special. They have to stop you from going to pee, delay your trip to the fridge. They need to make you want to “shhh” the room; they should be so surprising and startling that you want to clap. Or laugh. Or say, “Aww.” Or be so outstanding in the allotted commercial break that they actually could be considered better than the game itself.

But now all of these old rules have been made moot by the preview party. The YouTube early release. The best of Super Bowl Commercials Show. I say “Hooey.”

Again, for the agencies and advertisers, and maybe even the public, the new way has its advantages. We get to see it more, more, more! More for the consumer, more for the agencies and more for the clients who are footing the bill.
But have we done the typical American thing? Have we taken something that was good—maybe even great—and made it worse by trying to make it better? Have we taken the great once-a-year moment and overdone it?

Hey, I love my birthday, but it only comes once a year, so maybe I’ll just have a pre-birthday a week before and then I get a weeklong birthday culminating on my actual birthday! And then for the week that follows, I’ll celebrate “The Best of Josh’s Birthday, 2012!” Makes no sense, right?

So thanks, America. Thanks to us, the agencies, the clients and, of course, the media, for taking the great ritual and spectacle of the Super Bowl commercial and ruining it, like Die Hard 4.

Nonetheless, here are my top five and bottom five spots that I actually saw and experienced during the Super Bowl:

Top 5:
Audi – “So Long, Vampires”
Fiat – “Sexy Italian”
Kia – “Mr. Sandman”
Sketchers – “Mr. Quigley”
Cars.com – “Confident you”

Bottom 5:
Bud Light – “Platinum”
Lexus – “Box”
Go Daddy – “Body Art”
Honda – “Ferris Bueller”
Doritos – “Stretch Baby”

The tool can generate a variety of reports, and among them are: trenders, a report that delivers insights into the habits of online users over time; source/loss, a report that examines what is drawing visitors to and from a particular site; and audience duplication, a report that calculates the common audience between two or more sites.

Other agency research resources include MRI, Ipsos Mendelsohn, The Media Audit and Nielsen AdViews.

“We’re investing in new talent that will allow us to better meet the growing specialized needs of our clients,” said Mark A. Mayer, agency president.

Erin Durbin has been hired as a Digital Account Executive. Erin comes from Baltimore, where she was the communications coordinator for the Carson Scholars Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to recognizing academic achievement in America’s young men and women. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communications with concentrations in advertising and psychology from the University of Miami.

Emily Edson has been hired as a Junior Account Executive. Emily completed Peter Mayer’s summer internship program. She majored in communication and rhetoric and minored in studio arts at the University of Pittsburgh.

Valerie Galati has been hired as an Associate Project Manager for CenturyLink. Valerie comes from St. Charles Vision, where she was working in sales and marketing. She majored in public relations at the University of Miami.

Brian Oberkirch has been hired as Director of Interactive Strategy. Brian comes from Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., where he spent the past year as a senior digital strategist. He has 15 years of experience in advertising, marketing and public relations, working with clients such as Nokia, EADS Telecom and Procter & Gamble. Brian earned a bachelor’s degree in communication marketing and a master’s degree in communication arts from the University of South Alabama; he earned a Ph.D. in humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Danielle Russo has been hired as a Graphic Designer. Danielle comes from ShoppersChoice.com in Baton Rouge, where she was a web and graphic designer. A native of Mandeville, she earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from LSU.

While we keep pretty busy around the office, many of Peter Mayer’s employees are dedicated to admirable pursuits outside of work, too. We took a minute to catch up with Ellen Kempner, Vice President, Management Supervisor, who is well known for the time she spends volunteering.

We hear you’re kind of a champion volunteer. Where do you give most of your time?
I love the idea of being considered a champion volunteer. Where I give most of my time has changed over the years; however, my main passion in the recent past has been related to the LA/SPCA.

How long have you been volunteering? How much time do you put in monthly?
I have been volunteering nearly all my life and spend roughly 20 hours per month on volunteer activity.

Wow, that’s quite a commitment. What drew you to volunteering in the first place?
I learned from my parents at an early age the importance of “giving back.” As a result, volunteering has become a critically important part of my life.

What has been your craziest volunteering experience? How about the most rewarding?
Crazy experiences come easily when working with animals. Recently I was chairing a Board meeting and had put my favorite leather handbag on the floor next to me. We love to have dogs and cats in the room during the meeting, and that day we had an adorable dog that was up for adoption with us throughout the meeting. When the meeting was over and I was gathering my things, I noticed that my handbag was dripping wet. Little did I realize that the dog had peed all over my purse!

It’s impossible to isolate my most rewarding experience with the LA/SPCA. Every time I see a dog or cat leave the shelter to go to their “forever home” I am filled with joy, and for me there is no better reward.

What are some of the successes the LA/SPCA has seen since you’ve been volunteering there?
The shelter was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina; however, we were fortunate to be able to rebuild an outstanding facility just over the Crescent City Connection on the Westbank. Since then we have added a Community Clinic that performed more than 8,000 spay/neuter procedures last year alone. Our volunteer base has grown to more than 1,000 dedicated people whose passion and dedication are demonstrated every day. Roughly 8,000 animals pass through our doors every year and we were able to find 1,500 of them forever homes last year. Through its leadership role in advocating for all aspects of animal welfare, the LA/SPCA is recognized as the go-to source for animal-related solutions and information throughout the state of Louisiana.

What are some of the challenges the organization still faces?
Animal overpopulation continues to be a significant challenge in our community. The only long-term solution is an aggressive commitment to spay/neuter programs. The success of community-wide spay/neuter initiatives is a function of education and responsible pet ownership. Unfortunately, not every pet owner lives up to his or her responsibilities. Overpopulation means a greater need for adoptions to help ensure the quality of life every dog and cat deserves. The LA/SPCA works tirelessly to develop and implement creative solutions to these challenges. If we could stop the cycle of overpopulation we could get closer to the balance of finding a forever home for every animal in our care. That would be a dream come true!

And if other people want to volunteer, how can they get involved?
The LA/SPCA is always looking for additional support through both volunteer opportunities and donations. To volunteer, they should reach out to LA/SPCA’s Volunteer Coordinator, Dionne, at dionne@la-spca.org. To make a donation, and for additional information, please check out the website, la-spca.org.

December 7, 2011, marked the 70th anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor. To commemorate the event, The National World War II Museum in New Orleans opened a new exhibit, hosted special programming and held The International Conference on WWII. Naturally, the Peter Mayer Public Relations team felt a focus would be on Hawaii, but the team was able to direct much national and international interest to the New Orleans campus and The Museum’s observations.

Media hits included a mention in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a radio segment for the BBC, an on-air mention of the exhibit during the highly-rated NBC Sunday Night Football program, and wire stories from The Associated Press and Reuters News agencies moving a few days prior to Dec. 7. Furthermore, local media, including network TV affiliates, talk radio, Twitterers and The Times-Picayune focused on the Museum and its various stories. The Times-Picayune, ran a feature story on the front page of the Metro section on Dec. 5. Weather.com featured an article on the Museum and Pearl Harbor on the website’s home page. In addition to these efforts, an aggressive print outreach in board member markets resulted in prominent and influential op-ed placements in respected metro newspapers across the nation, including those in New York, San Diego, St. Louis, Jacksonville and regional placements in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola and Lake Charles, among others.

What is “social proof”? If you’re a duck hunter, it is the reason you put hundreds of decoys around your blind instead of just one—people (and ducks) like a crowd and want to be where the action is. In the social marketing world, the concept suggests that if a brand can prove a large group of people are making purchases or “liking” it on Facebook, they will attract even more people. While this is a flashy concept for brands, it misses the real power of social media completely. Social media connects people through active engagement in conversations, not passive agreement of ambiguous behaviors.

Social media platforms have recently attempted to add more contexts to this phenomenon. Both Facebook’s new “Talking About This” counter and its sponsored stories (premium advertisements) encourage users—and marketers—to focus on conversations rather than “likes.” This represents a fundamental shift in the use of the platform, and one all marketers should be excited about. In the past, brands created content calendars that focused on passive user engagement (likes, shares, views, etc.); today, leading brands develop conversation calendars designed to elicit more active engagement (comments, posts, uploads, etc.).

It’s not just Facebook. Google is using Google+ to enhance its overall suite of services by integrating elements of conversational social proof across its platform. The “One” and “+1” buttons show social proof while users are searching on Google. Google has attempted to incorporate actual conversations about a particular subject into the buttons (they appear to be testing multiple options).

Just as decoys might pique the interest of ducks in flight, lots of “likes” will attract attention for your brand. But actually putting dinner on the table also depends on the skills of an experienced duck caller—with ducks and with social media, it’s not just the crowd, but the conversation, too, that matters. Peer-to-peer recommendations have always been at the heart of many purchasing decisions, and the more that brands focus on the content within those recommendations, rather than the number of mentions or passive engagements, the more results they will see.