Charged with promoting New Orleans tourism during a traditionally sluggish period, Peter Mayer recently launched the Christmas New Orleans Style campaign for New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation (NOTMC).

The campaign’s basic objective is to make potential visitors aware of something New Orleans residents already know – that this is a great place to celebrate the holidays, with authentic cuisine, live music around every corner, first-rate shopping, vibrant nightlife, mild temperatures and many beloved holiday traditions that are colorful and unique.

The multi-platform campaign centered on a series of short YouTube videos featuring New Orleans native Bryan Batt, a veteran stage and TV actor perhaps best known for the role of Salvatore Romano in the AMC hit show Mad Men. In the videos, which can be viewed on a special enhanced landing page devoted to the campaign, Batt encourages viewers to spend the holidays in New Orleans, explaining the many reasons for doing so in humorous, slightly irreverent exhortations. The campaign integrates NOTMC’s existing social media presence to extend reach and awareness. A :30 TV spot, also featuring Batt, is running in select markets, and print advertising features a QR code that sends smartphone users to a mobile landing page where they can get information and enter the contest quickly and easily.

Bookings are incentivized through a contest that offers the chance to win a $4,000 Cool Yule Shopping Spree, along with free airfare, a three-night stay at Loews Hotel and two Reveillon dinners, giving the lucky contest winner the full New Orleans holiday experience.

The campaign launched November 1 with a goal of 5,000 contest entries. Within 10 days, the campaign landing page had received more than 8,000 visits, and more than 6,000 people had entered the contest.