Carrot Creative Blog

Recently I had the privilege of participating in a groundbreaking social media study underwritten by Cisco, spearheaded by one of my mentors, Dr. Neil Hair and sponsored by my Alma Mater,  Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and the University of Navarra. The comprehensive global study sought to better understand how consumer-based social media tools effect both interpersonal collaboration within a corporate setting and external communication with key stakeholders.

The direct impact of this study is not only a greater understanding of what sort of best practices have arisen in the advertising/PR industry but also how many firms actually have such policies. It’s fascinating to see how firms of different sizes and specialties leverage either embrace or choose to ignore the power of conversational messaging.

Top sports business trade journal, The Sports Business Exchange, chose Jeff Brunelle as their weekly sports professional to highlight.  As Carrot Creative’s Director of Sports & Entertainment, Jeff is the go-to guy for the social media and communication strategies for some of todays most successful athletes and sports organizations.  Impressively, Jeff is also the co-founder of LacrosseAllStars.com, with friend Ryan Craven, the leading content hub for lacrosse news and fan commentary.

An excerpt:

Top Media/PR bloggers from MediaBistro, Joe Ciarallo of PRNewser and Matt Van Hoven of AgencySpy, sat down with Carrot President and Creative Director Mike Germano to chat about the landscape of Social Media.

An excerpt:

“…social media is not meant for everyone (or, more poignantly, every client). Germano says clients come to him, whether of their own volition or via an agency who seeks Carrot’s skills, however Carrot still turns down one in five clients whose business isn’t right for Social Media. Regardless, Germano considers his (and co-founders Robert Gaafar and Chris Petescia) business an agency — not a vendor.”

From building Infieldparking.com, a social networking site for NASCAR fans, to building David Ortiz’s fan page on Facebook, Carrot Creative understands that marketing strategies used in the corporate world can also be applied to sports. President and Creative Director, Mike Germano, talks with SLAM magazine about the business of social media and the benefit it provides to NBA players:

“Brands want to communicate with customers, and there’s an equation there that can be easily replicated with sports in that players want to interact with their fans to create a more loyal fan base. [In terms of the NBA] social media allows players to very easily transcend just being a basketball player. It allows any athlete to take that next step in communication with fans and make it personal.”

For those in DUMBO that don’t know yet, FanFeedr has moved into the area. Ty Ahmad-Taylor and his team setup shop in the Green Building off Water St. a few weeks ago. As the sports guy here at Carrot, I was extremely excited to hear about such a cool fan-oriented product planting roots in DUMBO. FanFeedr is all about providing real-time personalized sports news to fans in the most desirable way, and their integration of Facebook Connect is a clear example of this. With the release of an iPhone app last Friday, the FanFeedr team seems to be rolling out with new innovations each and every week. I have no doubt you’ll start hearing much more about them in coming months.

In a recent article from Silicon Alley Insider Mark Zuckerberg was euphemistically quoted saying Facebook allows people “to stay updated on what’s happening around them and share with the people in their lives.” Translation? People like to brag about the awesome crap they do via status updates and Tweets.

As a prolific status-updater I am in no way claiming innocence on this (my last status update was VIP at DMB with Carrot Creative, jealous yet?) But seriously, the reason I bring this to our attention is because as a creative agency, working with brands that consumers want to associate themselves with makes our jobs at Carrot a whole lot easier. We encourage “cool” brands to offer viral content users can share, blog, post, whatever you want to call it, giving the consumer more opportunity to “tag their brag.”

Has anyone else noticed an abundance of Social Media Guidelines and books being sent around lately? I feel like I’ve received a ton this week. Razorfish released their Fluent Report. 360i put one out.

I had the pleasure of attending a NextNY event last Wednesday with Carrot Creative’s own Kristin and Maury in Time Square. The Topic - Does Design matter to Startups? The discussion was led by designers Crystal Beasley, Kevin Kearney, Nicole Tecco Reece, Dagny Prieto, and Stefan Lawrence. The meet-up was to help entrepreneurs better understand the role of a design team (often looked at as a wild, type-loving troupe of hippies) in the greater scheme of things while running a business.

So, will bringing on designers really matter, or does having your product or service “work” outweigh how it looks? Here are some insights from the discussion.