1. Attend more tech events/meetups
2. Blog it out more
3. Try to figure out how to get work done while I’m sleeping
4. Build a padded room office for Mike Germano to run around in

Mike Germano

1. Start NYC Digital District
2. Spend even more of my life working
3. Drink more

Chris Petescia

1. Get out for more events, tweetups, meetups
2. Catch 2-3 live shows /month
3. Create a solid hub/stream of personal webs
4. Put off planning of 2010 wedding until 2011

Katy Kelley

1. Learn the lyrics to Blackalicious’s “Alphabet Aerobics”
2. Greet at least three new followers on Twitter daily
3. Set aside time to write better and more engaging content on the Carrot Blog
4. Narrow it down to only one Chipotle burrito a month (this is a very lofty goal)

Kyle MacDonald

1. Practice my Ruby 5x a week
2. Attend more tech meetups
3. Attend more concerts
4. Go to the doctor when I need to
5. Not light a match

Steve Badowski

1. Become a Javascript Wizard
2. Finish my portfolio website
3. Hike part of the Appalachian trail

Maury Postal

1. Travel more
2. Learn to cook (edible food)
3. Publish a book
4. Meet Phil Collins

Jeff Brunelle

1. Rule the office in NBA Jam
2. Replicate my mom’s strawberry jello salad (best thing on earth) and eat healthy everyday
3. Learn Yoga and Tai Chi
4. Wear more flannel

Kaitlin Villanova

1. Keep it fun & healthy
2. Continue to learn about the elements of design to make my job as liaison between client and Carrot designers more efficient.
3. Eat a cinnabon with Colin and Lebron James
4. A.B.C.

Antonelli Briceno

1. Learn to write and contribute the blog with tech updates
2. Finish one of my personal/portfolio sites
3. Finish one of my Flash/iPhone games
4. Find a movie buff to see all the new movies with

Jacob Cass

1. Make a new year’s resolution.
2. Adhere to the resolution.
3. Complete new year’s resolution.
4. S***, now what?

Colin Murphy

1. Have a cinnabon with Lebron James
2. Loose the gut (which may or may not be directly related to eating Mama Badowski’s cookies)
3. Become a better designer (Kyle, Chris, Steve, Tony and Jacob I’m always down for a lesson)
4. Earn a permanent spot on the Carrot team

I’m sure by now you are either laughing or asking for that three minutes of your life back that you spent reading this. Anyways, now to the serious stuff. It’s been extremely rewarding to work with all of these talented people and to watch them help Carrot grow over the past five years. It’s going to be a great year and we look forward to sharing with you all of the exciting work that we have lined up for 2010!

This article is copyright © 2010 

After much anticipation, Carrot Creative has completed our first film site, and what better way to lose our film site virginity than with the cinematic adaptation of Tucker Max’s New York Times bestseller, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell?

It all started when Tucker’s right hand man, Ian Claudius, first read about Carrot in Smashing Magazine’s fantastic post, Looking Back On 2008 With Top Web Designers. A quick phone call, plane ride, and train ride later we found ourselves in the middle of Times Square at Magno Studios for a private screening of the film with Tucker Max himself. At Carrot Creative, we have an innovative 360 degree project immersion program that dictated our enjoyment of the film while kicking back with a cooler of frosty libations (errr… 40oz-ers). This helped us fully recreate the target market’s optimal viewing conditions.

As our fearless leader @mikegermano mentioned in an earlier post, “the great thing about working with a client like Tucker is that he is as open and excited about our ideas as we are and isn’t afraid to push the limits to what we can do. When you have that kind of trust from a client, it’s always refreshing and makes our entire team want to start immediately.”

So, we hit the ground running, tackling a project we’d otherwise dismiss. Tucker has always been very innovative with how he leveraged the social power of the Internet, successfully cultivating a rabid following before the words “Social” and “Media” were ever used together. We’ve always admired his tenacious business sense and respected his extraordinary use of the written word. What better way to launch a feature film then with an extremely targeted, engaged, and receptive audience?

After handful of late nights, and some seriously fun brainstorming sessions over delicious Grimaldi’s pizza, we pulled it off. So, without further adieu, our latest masterpiece.

Sit back, crack open a beer, and enjoy the social capabilities of the site. Be sure to check out the flick in theatres September 25th.

This article is copyright © 2010 

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.”

Here are a couple of status updates as good examples

• Just had an amazing 8 mile run with my new Asics“
• “Won free tickets to see Bruno tonight!”

(disclaimer we have no relationship with Asics or Bruno)
By using these brands to vindicate their bragging, these people unknowingly promoted the brand in perfect context… textbook marketing. Technology platforms that monitor this kind of “name-dropping” across the web give brands and marketers a direct link to how consumers incorporate the product with their lifestyle. Understanding a brands “social reputation” is an integral part of a marketers job.

So with that, take a minute to think about what brands YOU want to associate yourself with and do them a favor and find them on Twitter, join their Facebook Fan Page, or hey, tattoo their logo on your forearm. A good one to get started with? The Carrot Twitter page and Facebook Fan Page.

What do you think, do you have any examples of shameful bragging that put brands in a good (or bad) light?

This article is copyright © 2010 

Jacob Cass will be joining Carrot Creative in the beginning of 2010.

As he describes on his website, he’s a self-employed graphic designer, specializing in the fields of corporate identity (logo) design, web design, print design and branding with the majority of his time spent designing and implementing marketing promotions for small businesses such as logos, websites, brochures, letterhead, business cards and more.

But really, who IS Jacob and why did we hire him? (via Twitter to boot!—check out how we lured him in on his own blog post announcing the news!)

We appreciate creativity and an innovative process can give to the Internet. From being fans of Jacob’s blog it was evident to all of us how well he understands the role social media and the impact on design and the future of communications. The Internet has never had geographic boundaries and neither have we with our hiring practice. We moved our office to NY because we loved the culture and the atmosphere and knew that DUMBO was the place to grow the business. We wanted to create the most diverse company working with a variety of clients and work with people who get community. When we came across Jacob, his huge community and following for his award winning design work, his quick understanding of the business and eagerness to work in a cool environment—it seemed like a no brainer. He said yes and now we eagerly wait for his arrival in the beginning of the new year.

In preparation, we’ll be watching this video on repeat until he arrives. Follow Jacob on Twitter and give him a welcome to the Carrot family!

This article is copyright © 2010 

Full details can be found here including a form to register for a specific time to come down to the park and donate. Members of the Carrot Crew will be there along with reps from the other companies sponsoring. Snacks will also be provided and if needed, I’m sure one of the Carrot Crew members will gladly hold your hand if you’re nervous about needles.

Spread the word and see you there!

If you have any questions, please contact: Dorothy McGivney (646) 402-5943 – contact@jauntsetter.org

This article is copyright © 2010 

With more than 500,000 small businesses in the tri-state area, The New York Enterprise Report is once again honoring those who are among the most innovative. Carrot Creative has been nominated as a finalist in the Human Resources & Leadership category.

Companies were chosen based on their ability to demonstrate the use of a best practice to generate competitive advantages, revenue profits and/or long-term value. Twenty-seven companies, based in the NY metro area, were selected as finalists out of dozens of qualified applicants for each category and will be recognized at the event.

Mike Germano, Carrot Creative’s President and Creative Director, will be in attendance at this year’s event on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City, NY.

We’re honored to be included amongst a list of top small businesses doing great things within the New York area and look forward to a great event to meet others in the industry. This will be a great opportunity for Carrot Creative to show off our unique working environment and all of the exciting projects and clients we’ve been working with.

Are you attending? Let us know!

This article is copyright © 2010 

While del.icio.us is the standard for tagging articles, we still wanted to put emphasis on what we were getting out of the news. Posting that you liked an article or thought it was interesting is a plus for research and reference. But, the extra two cents YOU put into the story is what really makes things work. Just think about recent articles or blog posts you’ve read. Half of the comments on them are more interesting than the actual article!

So, is there a new solution to doing this? Enter Amplify, a service from the creators of Clipmarks. I met with  Eric Goldstein, one of the creators last week to talk about what they’re doing and how this can change the way people check out news on the web. Amplify, as it says on the website, “is a service for sharing clips from articles, blog posts or anything else you read on the web with your friends on Twitter.”

That’s really it. The easy interface (once you add the Amplify add-on to your Firefox browser) lets you clip parts of the articles you like onto a clog in a few simple clicks. Once you’ve sent the clip to your clog, you can comment on it, share with across the web and keep a conversation about your post write there. You receive notifications when others respond (a bonus) and get to interact with like minded users willing to provide feedback.  I’ve been a fan and some of the Carrot Crew has already picked up on it as well. Check out Jeff’s clog.

We’re going to use a group clog for Carrot Creative to start sharing what we’re reading on a daily basis and provide commentary. We’ll still of course blog here, but check out the Carrot Creative clog here.

This article is copyright © 2010 

This mystery client is Tucker Max. We’ll be building a fully integrated website and digital strategy for his upcoming feature film, “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” based off of the New York Times Bestseller book of the same name.

We had an awesome time meeting Tucker in person earlier this week for a private screening of the movie (if you like his stories you’re going to love it) and to discuss ideas as to what will really light it up. The great thing is that Tucker is as open and excited about our ideas as we are and isn’t afraid to push the limits to what we can do. When you have that kind of trust from a client, it’s always refreshing and makes our entire team want to start immediately.

The movie opens September 25th nationwide so the website will be up prior to that. We’ll keep you updated on the launch of the project and other cool promotional tie-ins Tucker has up his sleeve to get this going.Trust me, they’re going to catch your attention.

On a side note, if you know the history of Tucker Max (and you can check out his website or book if you want to really dive in) you can tell that he knows how to push boundaries and step on toes. While we here at Carrot have many clients interested in getting into social media, some aren’t willing to jump over the big walls and try things that may be a little risqué for the current status quo. Sure, this is totally fine, but if you take a look at the campaigns that really take off, it’s from the companies that push limits and make a loud statement. This is the exact reason why we chose to work with Tucker Max. He embodies all of this and we’re going to build a kick ass website and digital campaign to match all of these ideals.

Tucker Max wants a campaign that will excite everyone and stir some conversation. Carrot Creative is here to help with that.

This article is copyright © 2010 

When I first accepted the job with Carrot someone asked me if I was nervous about working with such an inventive, tech savvy company but coming from the Internet giant Yahoo! I feel right at home.  During my time at Yahoo! I worked on the client services team specifically for The Right Media Exchange. Before that I worked on communication strategy and marketing for the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). I have an innate passion for social media and new technologies and their ability to connect people and relevant information.

I’m stoked to be working with the brilliant and gregarious team here at Carrot; I have a really good feeling about what’s to come. Feel free to say hello in the comments or find me on Twitter at @KaitVillanova

For additional fun, here are seven random and possibly unnecessary facts about me:

1. Like a few of my colleagues here I grew up in Connecticut.
2. As a devout advocate of digital networking, I still believe nothing can replace a good old fashion coffee meeting “networking 1.0″.
3. I love to snowboard, except since moving to NYC 4 years ago I only get the chance to go a couple times a year.
4. I blogged about Twitter in March of 2007, which means I’ve been geeking-it-up on that thing for over 2 years (I have retired my first account).
5. I say words like dude, rad, and gnarly more often than I should as a professional and an adult.
6. I absolutely love the beach but Central Park beach is great too
7. I’ve got flip cup skillz.

This article is copyright © 2010 

How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live
TIME’s cover story on Twitter by Stephen Johnson, a must-read.

10 Ways Twitter Will Change American Business
This slide show takes us through 10 ways using Twitter might become profitable for businesses. Hyper-local marketing, consumer data mining, and micropayments are a few of the topics covered.

Twitter craze is rapidly changing the face of sports
SI.com presents an in-depth look at athletes who tweet and how Twitter is having a big impact on sports.

Apps Boom as Companies Seek a Place on Your Phone
More and more companies are setting their sights on the mobile industry for sustained revenue, and this gives developers a chance to not only just sell their apps in the App Store, but also sell their company. This NYTimes article by Jenna Wortham discusses the opportunity on the table.

This article is copyright © 2010