Peter Mayer received a Lantern Award this month at the Southern Public Relations Federation (SPRF) Conference for our Public Relations team’s work on the launch of The Advocate New Orleans Edition (now The New Orleans Advocate) newspaper. SPRF’s Lantern Award program recognizes outstanding work in the field of public relations as evaluated by industry peers. Campaign work is submitted from all over the Southeast region and chosen based on research, planning, implementation, evaluation and creativity. The Peter Mayer PR team also received First Place, PR Campaign for its work for The Advocate at the annual New Orleans Press Club Awards banquet earlier this year.
About this year’s award-winning work
After The Times-Picayune announced its decision to print only three days a week, The Advocate, a Baton Rouge daily paper, answered community pleas to intervene and launched a new daily paper in New Orleans. Because of our recognized expertise in representing culture, we were asked to help launch The Advocate New Orleans Edition.
Our Public Relations team organized meetings with influential people and civic organizations around the city to secure widespread influential public support. When the team drafted a letter to local media and the people of New Orleans asking them to subscribe, The Advocate was inundated with calls. During the first week of the launch, we held a press conference at the iconic New Orleans entertainment venue Rock ‘n’ Bowl, and our PR team set up street teams around the city to hand out free editions of the paper. We achieved The Advocate’s goal of receiving 10,000 subscribers within the first six months of the launch in the first week. For details on our work for The Advocate, click here.
About the Southern Public Relations Federation
The Southern Public Relations Federation (SPRF) is a network of professionals from the southeastern states who gather to share their interest in public relations. The organization began as a Florida public relations organization in early 1972, but expanded its reach to Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana in 1973. The Lantern is the oldest and highest honor given to those in the public relations field.