PETERMAYER Enters Its Joy Era

What if joy could grow your business? That’s exactly the question that prompted PETERMAYER to renew its purpose and redefine its mission statement: to make the world a more joyful place one brand moment at a time. Starting today, the New Orleans-based agency is showcasing its new purpose with an updated website, the launch of its always-on insights program, the Brand Joy Lab, and an appearance by CEO Michelle Edelman at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. 

In today’s information-overloaded world, marketers are challenged with meeting the needs of consumers who are overwhelmed by the media and drowning in daily doom scrolls. But PETERMAYER saw a silver lining in the relationship between brands and consumers, leading to an initial and happy hypothesis: Would brands focused on bringing joy perform better than others in the market? After a year and more than 4,000 survey participants in the Brand Joy Lab, they found the answer and it was a resounding yes: There was an 80% correlation between the joy a brand brings and a consumer’s intent to purchase from them.  

And so, the agency’s commitment to Unleashing Brand Joy commenced. Research also showed that 63% of purchase intent is related to the joy those consumers experience via a brand’s marketing communications, begging the proposition that to see those conversions from joy, brands must start earning the credit for the joy they elicit.  

“Using the proven principles of positive psychology (say that five times fast), we’ve found that most products and services can provide even momentary feelings of joy and those moments make a real difference during the daily grind. The disconnect is that brands aren’t getting credit for the joy they bring – that a person’s happiness can be very much connected to and delivered by their brand – and that’s where we come in and help them unleash it,” said Michelle. 

More than a marketing makeover, PETERMAYER has retooled its process to unlock the advantages of Brand Joy for its current and future clients. Launched in the agency’s “all-in” style, the process begins with discovery, understanding the Joy Vitals, or where a brand sits against its category’s expectation to evoke joy. And from there, they can chart out the most opportune moments to unleash said joy in a method the agency calls Joy Mapping. That takes a brand all the way through to its communications plan and activation, where yes, credit is given.  

“When we began studying joy as a concept, we knew it would be a compelling emotional driver for the consumer. But first, we needed to become experts, and not only in what joy means to an audience but how they experience it in their everyday lives,” said Laura Thomas, SVP, head of strategy (who finds joy daily in dark chocolate).

“Developing our own practice lets us not only study the subject day in and day out but lets us grow what joy means with our clients. Big things are happening with joy at PETERMAYER, and we can’t wait to bring brands along for the ride.”  

As we continue data sourcing, the Brand Joy Lab will release independent studies, articles and downloadable reports based on its data as well as showcase product-specific campaigns. Also launching this month is Tandemonium, a monthly newsletter aimed at sharing joy-related trends, insights and news, straight to inboxes. Happy mail, delivered. 

To view the full research report or to learn more about how PETERMAYER can unleash your brand’s joy, visit here.