Carrot Creative Blog

The first week of the new year is always saturated with media predictions for the year ahead and this year is no different. The overall economic gloom has washed over the media in a pallid periwinkle haze of indifference. Most current rhetoric points toward desperate depression-era advertising filled with a myriad of uses for old boots and stale Wheat Thins. The WSJ published their advertising forecast for 2009 and essentially just restates what has been repeated ad-nauseam for the past 6 months: Madison Avenue is cutting back the glitz and glamour in a rush to the bottom.

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.”

On November 4th we built and launched one of the most successful fanpages on Facebook: Yes We Did. Now that we’re closing in on 81,000 users we thought we’d give an update on our vision for the page.

We are in the process of authoring a comprehensive article about our experience bulding the page and the reaction that you, the fans, have had to it. As part of our article we will be conducting a survey of our users to find out how social media played an important role in this year’s historic election.

Of course we did! Newfangled digital tape of course! Today we had the pleasure of overlooking the “set” of Law & Order Criminal Intent and the fabulous NYC based drama Gossip Girl. Our view from the front lines is available on our flickr page.

I just wanted to express my gratitude to Marcus Eaton Trio and Tim Reynolds / TR3 (and both of their crews/management) for their generosity and kindness. If you missed out on Saturday’s show at the Highline Ballroom in NYC, be sure to catch these guys when they’re back to NYC, likely in a couple of months. Not only are both bands tremendously talented, they are great folks to hangout with (a great perk of my job), and certainly great clients to work with. While there are several fans at Carrot who enthusiastically agree, I wanted to personally note that I am looking forward to continued work with Tim & Marcus!

Today is one of our favorite days…Blog Action Day.

For the last couple years, >carrot has used Blog Action Day to highlight one of the many initiatives we take in order to do good in our office and in our world. However, this year we would like to take this opportunity to highlight the work of some fellow bloggers whom have inspired us to join their cause in ending poverty in the world while bettering ourselves personally.

We’re gonna go ahead and say yes.

The Brooklyn Paper recently reported that Spike Lee is making moves to the 6th floor of our awesome building in DUMBO. We are on the 3rd floor of 55 Washington St… so we basically have become cooler overnight. Our CEO- Robert Gaafar- is already projecting exponential growth in sales and awesomeness for the remainder of our fiscal year. Meanwhile, the rest of us are going to have to play it cool and hope for casual elevator high-fives when we’re in need of a sweetness pick-me-up. Does Spike Lee play Wii? I bet he does.