Pilot and aircraft owner Erin Pierce

The excitement for Super Bowl XLVII is building.  Thousands of fans have flown in to south Louisiana for the week-long party - many of them on private jets. That it means business is taking off for smaller airports.

The party in the Big Easy is already in full swing, but those coming to town on private planes will be flying in non-stop all weekend long.

"When New Orleans fills up, and Lake Front fills up then it will be Hammond that they start sending aircraft to. And we've already been notified that they're looking to send 40 aircraft our way, which puts us up to about 117 aircraft," said Jason Ball, director or Hammond Regional Airport.

Ball says this is a big deal for smaller regional airport; but he says he and his crew have everything under control.

"We have an air traffic control tower that was brought in just for this event," said Ball. "Ours won't be done until 2014, so the state and the guard brought one in from Alexandria."

Pilot and aircraft owner Erin Pierce says the last time the Super Bowl was in New Orleans, airports around the state did get some overflow travelers but nothing like what they are about see in the next few days.

"There's just a lot of options for people to get into aircraft...private aircraft to go flying instead of using the airlines. And the airline's less pleasant if you don't want to take your shoes off and go through a full body scanner," said Pierce.

With all of the excitement behind the big game, its festivities and all New Orleans has to offer tourists, Ball also hopes this is an opportunity to promote the Hammond area to folks from all over the world.

"We'll get the FBO's to put in the air craft, some information about our area...about the entire Northshore area...That way when they are sitting on the runway, waiting to take off, they have a little something to read and possibly can look at a long-term commitment or a long-term relationship," said Ball.

There are rumors that a few celebrity guests could be on some of those flights. If this is true, Ball says their names will not be released, but he will not be passing up the chance to take a picture of a star.Co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said ad nauseum that the social network is becoming a mobile company. It appears that the statement has finally come true. As announced during Wednesday’s fourth quarter earnings report, Facebook now has more people accessing the site via phones and tablets than on desktop. Zuckerberg said (but did not elaborate) during the earnings call that the company is developing mobile-first projects that will make the experience better for both users and advertisers.

Of Facebook’s 1-billion plus users, 618 million check Facebook from their phone or tablet. Even more interestingly, Facebook announced that 157 million people (monthly active users) only access Facebook from their mobile device, and that number has grown quite a bit over the past year. In the fourth quarter of 2011, only 58 million users were mobile-only:

People aren’t just checking their Facebook updates on their mobile devices. They’re engaging rapidly.

According to comScore statistics in December, Facebook is the top driver of awareness of new mobile app installs. Among those who learn about new apps on Facebook, 48 percent click directly from the Facebook app to download new mobile apps. Zuckerberg said that between the Facebook mobile app and Instagram, Facebook now accounts for more than a quarter of all mobile activity.

I think more people are starting to understand that mobile is a great opportunity for us. Mobile is the perfect device for Facebook for three reasons — it allows us to reach more people, get more engagement from the people who we reach, and I think we’ll also be able to make more money for each minute that people spend with us on their mobile devices. … The next thing we’re going to do is get really good at building mobile-first experiences. That’s going to be a big thing for us this year. If we do this well, we should be able to bring even more relevant content and connections to more people and continue to deepen their engagement.

Of course, while mobile is a great platform for bringing Facebook users together from all over the world, it also has to be a viable way to advertise. Facebook proved that late in the fiscal year. The company’s mobile advertising revenue rose from 14 percent in the third quarter to 23 percent, nearly a quarter of the overall ad revenue intake, in the fourth quarter.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg pointed to a successful Facebook mobile campaign that Walmart ran over the holidays, which delivered 50 million ads to potential customers. Sandberg also noted that more brands are using Facebook to launch new products, generating buzz that leads to sales. Michael Kors utilized the social network to launch a new line of sneakers. The company said that many of the shoes sold out online and in stores, and Michael Kors achieved a 16-point increase in awareness in the new sneaker among the 36 million people that saw the campaign on Facebook. That’s basically 5.8 million new people in the brand’s target audience who are now aware of those kicks.


We’re continuing to take advantage of the significant opportunity we have on mobile. As we said before, approximately 23 percent of our advertising revenue now comes from mobile. In addition, 65 percent of our advertisers are now using ads in news feed, which run on both desktop and mobile, up from 50 percent at the end of the third quarter. Marketers are recognizing that our news feed is the most efficient and effective place to reach their customers. … Clients also recognize that because our users share their real identities on Facebook, and because they are logged in when they use Facebook on mobile, we have a unique ability to serve advertising that people find relevant. This is an important competitive advantage for us, relative to other mobile platforms.