a core conversation SxSW Interactive
2012 #brandasapi Peg Faimon & Glenn PlattArmstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

WHAT’S OUR PREMISE?The philosophical and
tactical underpinnings of APIs offervaluable insights into successful brands in the new economy.Today’s brands need to focus on developing and nurturing anopen relationship with their customer built beneath thecommunication layer.Customers can build new, unique, and useful things with brand“primitives.”Brands, then empower customers to innovate and customersempower brands to evolve.

WHAT’S AN API?An application-programming interface
is a set of programming instructionsand standards that allows developers to access web data to build new applications powered by their functionality.

WHAT’S AN API?

HOW DOES AN API WORK?

HOW DOES AN API WORK?

HOW DOES AN API WORK?

HOW DOES AN API WORK?

HOW DOES AN API WORK?

WHY LOOK AT APIs? They
are ubiquitous. Every time you use Facebook to login… link Instagram to Foursquare… use a smartphone app for Netflix… you use an API.Programmable Web lists over 5000 APIs. APIs are assumed.Just ask Google what the biggest complaint about Google+ was when it rolled out? No API.

WHY LOOK AT APIs? programmableweb.com

CONSUMERS CHANGING? MAKERSWe have become
an economy of makers/doers. Today’sconsumers are not passive, they are active in their brandenthusiasm and passion. It’s about doing things. Today’sconsumer doesn’t want to be told what to think abouttheir brand. They want to be able to tell the brand whatthey think.

CONSUMERS CHANGING?

CONNECTIONS? Brand as API is
an analogy,process, and checklist to be sure that your brand is connecting with your customer. On their terms.

IS A BRAND A PROMISE?A
brand is the fulfillment of the promise. A brand is not a fantasy or ideal. It is the reification of the intangible. It is borne out in action, ownership, connection, and tethering.

WHAT ARE WE BUILDING FROM?
Brand as API learns from, but is different from... Transparency Crowd-sourcing Brand Utility Marketing with Meaning Open Brand

WHAT ARE WE BUILDING FROM?Building
blocks from current models… Solving problems/improving lives Being there at the right time/place Outsourcing innovation & insights Live testing & rapid iteration Ongoing conversations Not closed campaigns

HOW IS BRAND AS API
DIFFERENT? How is the Brand as API model unique/distinct from other current models?

WHAT ARE BRAND PRIMITIVES? The
LCD of your brand.More than “brand essence”, these are the building blocks of the “brand essence”.Each primitive adds value independently.

How does theanalogy of APIwork
to evolve brands?

API KEY =Customizing and monitoring
each customers’relationship with the brand. Managing access. Personal point of entry.

RATE LIMITS = Open more
to superusers,brand evangelists, and influencers.

DEVELOPER COMMUNITIES = Customer communities.

DEVELOPER MARKETING = Marketing about
the open relationship and ease of accessing it. Marketing about utility.

BUSINESS MODELS = Get over
the control hangups.Explore alternative revenues models. Opening the brand to internal constituents, preferred partners, and your customers.

EXAMPLES =Show people how others
connect to the brand.

DOCUMENTATION =Make connecting with the
brand a no-brainer.Lowest possible barriers to entry and extensive just-in-time help to do it.

MASHUPS =Can customers build brand
mashups?

RADICAL BRANDING?We don’t think so.
Brands that will win, brands that arewinning, are doing so because they are rethinking theirrelationship with their customers.They are not only opening the brand up to the customer,they creating the conditions for innovation by simplifying,empowering, and building bridges between their customersand their brands.Most importantly, these two way bridges aren’t fixedbridges, they move.

RADICAL BRANDING?Connecting with the brand
has to be more thanengineered utility.It has to be organic and market-driven utility thatrepresents the diversity of ways that customers feelconnected to their brands.Our Brand as API framework provides a roadmap andchecklist for doing just that.

CONTACT US PEG FAIMON about.me/pegfaimon
GLENN PLATT about.me/glennplattARMSTRONG INSTITUTE FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA STUDIES aims.muohio.edu BRAND AS API SITE brandasapi.com

“PRIMITIVES” Marketing Models http://www.marketingwithmeaning.com/ http://www.resource.com/o-p-e-n
http://www.brandutility.net/ API Primers |Reviews |Discussion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r7QpIDEI_ohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSUnBPv4iQ0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKhK8E7bXZw http://vimeo.com/33499514 http://vimeo.com/33268308 API Resources http://programmableweb.com http://readwriteweb.com http://mashery.com Examples of APIs for Best Practice Analogieshttp://twillio.com (Marketing and Documentation) https://stripe.com/docs/api (Documentation) http://urbanairship.com (Making it Easy)