Our hack was an attempt to see how the camaraderie of your social sphere could influence everyday consumption habits. Using the Tendril API, we allowed users to track their real-time electrical energy consumption data in comparison to that of their Facebook friends. In addition to being able to visualize trends in energy usage between you and your peers, users were able to commit to energy saving goals. These goals could then be shared on your Facebook wall in an effort to educate the public.

Above, you can see a screenshot of the energy consumption
comparison between you and your Facebook friends.

I am proud to say that our app took home prizes for Best User Experience and runner-up in the Tendril Energy Internet and Smart Home App Contest. It was also demoed by Tendril at DistribuTECH, the utility industry’s leading Smart Grid conference in San Antonio, Texas. It’s refreshing to see a company like Tendril taking advantage of opportunities like this Hackathon and is a testament to the fact that social media can really change the world.

The Green Carrot Team celebrating their win with Eric Shiflet of Tendril.

In addition to learning about how information technology could influence consumption habits, we also learned how an extremely limited amount of time could influence the workflow of our team. Rather than following our conventional methods for producing a web project, we chose to use a more organic approach. In the interest of saving time, our team utilized Google Drawings to create an interactive wireframe that allowed all of us to collaborate in real-time. Opportunities like this hackathon give creatives the ability to test out new methods of working together and if any part of this experience seems interesting to you I would highly recommend attending one in your local area.

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And thus, Instacheer was born! Carrot designed and developed a website that pulls in holiday themed Instagram photos that fall in snowflakes over an animated snowy scape. You can easily toggle the various tags on and off. This way, if you have a hankering to only see photos of dogs dressed up as Rudolph, well… we wouldn’t dream of stopping you.

So check out Instacheer, share with the ones you love (and even ones you don’t love), and have a great holiday season from the Carrot Creative team!

This article is copyright © 2012 

While my favorite thing about Carrot is the people and being small enough to know everyone’s favorite food (note to self: pick up peanut butter filled pretzels for Dan), it’s still exciting that we’re large enough to offer great benefits that rival any New York agency. We’re still working on that free cafeteria, but we do have medical, dental and vision insurance plans. We prefer that our team members spend their time worrying about how awesome the work they’re creating is, rather than how they’re going to pay to get their tonsils out.

In truth, there’s only one thing missing from Carrot — you. We’re growing steadily and, in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re right smack-dab in the middle of taking over the world. We can’t sail this pirate ship without a full crew, so check out the positions below that we’re looking to fill. Think you’re a good fit? Drop us a line/email/pigeon/parrot/baked good.

Developers
Carrot does things a little different than the average agency. We’re looking for devs who will have an opinion and cringe at the phrase “code monkey”. Everyone is a creator at Carrot, and we mean that.
Check out the full description here (PDF).

Strategists
Did you play Risk as a kid? Are you the bomb at Connect Four? If so, we want to talk to you! Carrot is looking for a strategist who geeks out on data, has experience managing marketing/sales funnels, and relishes the idea of being measured on ROI.
Click here for the full description (PDF).

Assistant Account Executive
Do you have to-do lists for your to-do lists? Have others referred to you as their lifesaver, the one that helps keep everything together and running? Carrot needs support from a note-taking, calendar-scheduling person like you. Think you can help a brother/sister out?
Check out the full description here (PDF).

If Carrot sounds like a place you’d fit in, we want to hear from you.
Go ahead, fill out an application!

I may be one of the younger Carrots on the team, but I’ve had a lot of jobs at a lot of different companies. In my experience, Carrot Creative is the single most amazing company I have ever had the honor of being a part of. It’s not just that I feel like a part of a team when I come into the office, but I feel like I’m part of a family when I leave the office. We look forward to hearing from candidates to help our family grow!

This article is copyright © 2012 

This article is copyright © 2012 

This article is copyright © 2012 

Large Corporation = Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

Large corporations are generally what people really know, or are familiar with, when they think of “business”. You may think the large corporation is good for you (and for some people it is), but let’s be honest… few people really want to work for a large, staunch corporation. It’s sort of like oatmeal raisin cookies — you think they should be delicious but those raisins are ruining the whole thing. Let’s just say raisins equal red tape and move along, shall we?

“We Have No Money and Only Three Employees” Startup = No-Bake Cookies

There’s a lot to like about joining a real startup. I’m talking about a boot-strapped, let’s spend as little money as possible for as long as possible type of startup. Things are so exciting. You have control of the vision of the company, small victories are so satisfying, and it’s amazing to be part of the startup scene. You’re constantly surrounded by inspiring people who believe in their ideas, and it makes you want to push that much harder. But, you don’t have any money. Every expense hits hard. You’re often lacking resources…. sort of like missing an oven. Thus the comparison to no-bake cookies. Look, they’re good. Really good in fact. But at the end of the day, I want to be able to bake my cookies. I want to be able to have a little crunch when I take a bite. The no-bake cookie is satisfying, but only for so long.

Startup Funded by a Large Company = Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

These companies seem perfect… at first. You’re part of this exciting startup environment and you have money. I know, it sounds impossible. But it does happen! So here’s the thing — once your fun and exciting startup gets acquired by a much larger company, things start to change. Suddenly there are restrictions on your work and the company culture becomes stunted. It’s sort of the good with the bad situation. You have this little peanut butter cookie, which on its own is good, but certainly not the best thing you’ve ever had. In the middle of this cookie you have the Hershey’s Kiss. Dare I say one of god’s greatest gifts to man. But you have to bite through a lot of the boring peanut butter cookie to get to that chocolate. Like I said, the good with the bad.

Perfectly-Sized New Media Agency = Funfetti Nutella Cookie

These companies… these are the ones you want to work for. Now I may be a bit biased given my love for working at Carrot Creative, but here it goes anyways. These agencies are less than 50 people, everyone has the opportunity to contribute to projects, and you have control over the work you do. Companies like this are exciting… and I mean exciting in the sense that things are always changing and challenging you, making it so you love the work you do. With companies like this, it’s about fit. It’s the perfect harmony of great work and great people. This is not unlike funfetti cookie sandwiches with Nutella in the middle. Each bite  is amazing, your taste buds flaring up while you sit there and think “Could it get any better than this?”. Well, the answer is no. No, it can’t.

This article is copyright © 2012 

I’m not afraid to say that Blogs with Balls is my favorite conference — and I’m sure you can guess why. The founders are amazing, the panelists always blow me away, and the conferences are held in the coolest locations with the best after parties. This year it will be back in New York at one of the most spectacular corporate offices in the country — Bloomberg Global Headquarters.

Blogs with Balls (BWB) is the leading sports new media event series in the country and is attended by the premiere sports media experts. I have presented at the BWB conference before, but this year I am particularly excited because Bloomberg Sports is hosting and the conference is being held at their headquarters. Of course, the best part (as usual) is the line-up of other panelists who I’ll be presenting with. There are 35 in all, including advertising, sports blogs, and sports entertainment. Basically, you’ll learn something if you just walk by the building. However, you’re guaranteed to learn something if you actually come to the event (and the pre- and post- parties on Friday and Saturday). If you’re wondering what you can you expect to learn from me, have no fear. We’re not just fanboys over here at Carrot. We have worked with some of the largest sports brands around: MLB.com, NASCAR, the NFL and most recently Burton Snowboards. Let’s just say we know what we’re talking about.

Panels will be covering a wide range of topics, but they will fall into one of the three objectives of BWB:

1. Facilitate best practice discussions for the online sports media community
2. Educate companies and advertisers on how to best utilize online sports opinion influencers and how to best interact with their audiences
3. Provide insight and strategy for athletes, teams, leagues and their representatives who are looking to tap into emerging mediums

Pre-sale tickets for the event are available now, but probably not for much longer. The conference is coming up fast, it’s already only a month away on Saturday, September 24th! You can purchase your tickets here.

This article is copyright © 2012 

BBH Labs

• Twitter: @BBHLabs
• Website: BBH-Labs.com

Bud Caddell, Independent Strategy Consultant

• Twitter: @Bud_Caddell
• Website: WhatConsumesMe.comtwitter.tw

Faris Yakob, Chief Innovation Officer of MDC Partners

• Twitter: @Faris
• Website: Farisyakob.typepad.com

Brand Flakes for Breakfast, by Humongo

• Website: BrandFlakesforBreakfast.com

Conrad Lisco, Head of Community Experience at Co:

• Twitter: @Conradlisco
• Website: ProseandConrad.com

Made by Many

• Twitter: @MadebyMany
• Website: Madebymany.com/blog

R/GA

• Twitter: @Rga (Kudos to whoever does their tweeting. Solid balance of humor and information.)

Tangerine (a talent agency that posts awesome 10 question interviews with industry talent)

• Website: Blog.tangerine-ny.com/

This article is copyright © 2012 

If you didn’t get the memo status update, check-in, tweet, or comment, today is officially Social Media Day. So, from us to you—a little tribute to Zuck, Dens, Biz, and Chad.

This article is copyright © 2012 

Over the last year Kaitlin Villanova and I have worked hard to grow and extend the Digital DUMBO brand to match the exponential size of the monthly networking event. As you may have noticed, last week we officially rolled out the new brand identity for Digital DUMBO across our web presence and collateral.  Surprisingly, this is actually the third iteration of our logo. It seems as if our logo evolves in tandem with the evolution of the Digital DUMBO community.

Over the past year this evolution has taken place in many different forms. We’ve had the opportunity to showcase some amazingly innovative and creative companies at our monthly events in interesting ways such as arm wrestling, sumo wresting, ugly holiday sweaters, and bingo. We hosted a career fair. We participated in and helped plan programming for the DUMBO Arts Festival. All of these accomplishments were made possible because of ideas brought to the table by members of our community.

These accomplishments have led to growth in the size of our community and in new partnerships. This growth has pushed forward our logo as well. The new logo designed by Carrot Creative’s talented team was created to be more dynamic and more iconic than our previous brand, without completely abandoning the color palette and aesthetics of our original identity. The love mark depicts our two D’s, but also creates a face, humanizing our brand and serving as a representation of the community that Digital DUMBO is built upon. We also made a point to allow for a logo that could be utilized by other cities as we continue to explore ways to grow beyond New York, using the format and philosophies of our event to help grow stronger digital communities elsewhere.

The past few months have served as excellent building blocks for the future. We realize that there are many things that we can do better in order to be a better matchmaker for the community. Two areas that we are focusing on in the near term is the creation of the Digital DUMBO Workshop Series and in improving DigitalDUMBO.com. We hope that the Workshop Series will provide high value educational programming to our community in a more focused setting. For our website, we’re exploring ways in which we can create a more vibrant community online to complement our offline community.

We hope that our new logo marks a turning point not only in the design of our brand, but in our efforts to be even better at building a strong digital community that fosters economic activity for all.

We hope to see you at the next event!

This article is copyright © 2012