Carrot Creative Blog

We’re excited here at Carrot Creative. 2009 has some big things coming up for us. (Stay tuned for them, of course we’ll let you know!)

To help get us in gear, I’ve asked the entire team to disclose their resolutions for the upcoming year.

Without further adieu…

Robert Gaafar, CEO

• Participate more in the NYC tech community, online and offline
• Get rid of the 10 foot pile of papers on my desk
• Establish a buzzword-free office. If anyone mentions a buzzword, they have to drop down and do 10 pushups. I’m not kidding.

Smashing Magazine compiled a list of this years top web designers and offered an insightful glance into their design process and all the sites they found influential in 2008. We’re thrilled that our very own website was chosen by Alen Grakalic of CSSGlobe and Templatica fame as one of his favorite sites of the year.  

Check out the whole article for some year-end eye candy.

UPDATE We’ve been also featured as BuildInternet.com’s top site for jQuery navigation in 2008! Thanks for the heads-up Zach.

The Social Cash blog interviewed our very own Mike Germano last month discussing all things marketing, the future of Facebook and Mike’s favorite topic: Carrot Creative. Mike provides some insightful thoughts on the future of marketing within the popular social network and what it means for the big brands who are starting to “get it” and engage.

Check it out and stay tuned for an upcoming prediction and resolution list about the future of web marketing in 2009 from the entire Carrot Crew.

I’ve had some discussions lately about the changing landscape and the need for social media for brands as well as who is the “right person” for the job of managing the social media campaign. Is it the advertising agency? The PR agency? A whole new type of agency or specialist that has yet to emerge?

Andy Sernovitz, contributing writer for the Smart Blog on Social Media has a great take on this and who he think should be running the social media world: PR executives. As Andy says, “PR executives make the best social media executives. There is a similar mindset. Traditional media relations requires finding the right influencers, building trust, and sharing credible, relevant stories. Translating those actions to social media — replacing reporters with the bigger community — is exactly how to run a great social media program.”

While catching up on a weekend’s worth of news, I came across an intriguing New York Times article (which Mashable also commented on) dealing with the “struggle” certain advertisers are having creating successful social media campaigns. The article dealt with a certain subset of marketers who do not see the value in engaging the consumer with topical social media elements. It read like a textbook case of plug and play advertising, taking a circle peg from the past and trying to jam it into the square opening of the present.

Today at Carrot Creative, there is a new face amongst the desks in DUMBO. Me!

As communications and public relations campaigns continue to mix and social media becomes a more common focus of the overall communications strategy, it’s important for growing agencies to take this into consideration and work together across all of these areas.

So, here I am. I will be the new Director of Communications here at Carrot spearheading the external communications for the company as well as providing insight to communications strategy on all of the amazing campaigns Carrot is currently working on with their clients and partners. If you’re interested, more information about my professional experience can be found on my LinkedIn page, but in the spirit of communicating, feel free to leave a comment and say hi. Or, follow me on Twitter.

We’re thrilled to announce that our President and Creative Director, Mike Germano, is prominently featured in Liz Lynch’s new how-to guide for the new-age marketer, Smart Networking.

It’s always good to see the mainstream taking note of the importance of social media and realizing that it is not just a passing fad, but an integral component in every new advertising and PR campaign.