The New Marketing: The Idea With The Best APIs Wins - Tom Cunniff - MediaBizBloggers

By 1stFive Archives
Cover image for  article: The New Marketing: The Idea With The Best APIs Wins - Tom Cunniff - MediaBizBloggers

As audiences fragment, marketers run more campaigns in more places than ever: TV, radio, print, web, direct marketing, search, PR, social media, mobile, e-commerce, sponsorships.

And the list goes on, advertising infinitum. But integrating these efforts so they add up to more than the sum of the parts rarely happens.

Where's the Disconnect?

· Functional BlindnessCommunication across silos – if it happens at all – is usually a formality. Functional teams are so focused on their own specialty, they aren't looking for ways to link with other functional teams to cut costs and boost speed.

· Dysfunctional ArroganceIt's human nature to view our specialty as the center of the universe. But unchecked egos can lead to private (or public) dismissal of efforts from other specialties as unimportant or irrelevant. Connectedness and teamwork requires mutual respect.

· Keeping The Gold In The SilosPeople can't be truly media-agnostic or get excited about integrated ideas as long as their year-end bonuses are tied to selling what's in their silo vs. someone else's silo.

We live in a connected age. We need connected marketing processes.

Here's one way to get there: let the idea with the best APIs win.

What Is An API? And Why Does It Matter?

According to Wikipedia, "an application programming interface (API) is an interface implemented by a software program to enable interaction with other software, similar to the way a user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers."

APIs enable programs to work together fast, seamlessly, and with less wasted effort. Most of what we call social media today – sharing photos, videos, Tweets and Facebook updates – is made possible by good APIs.

Which Ideas Have The Best APIs?

Ideas with strong APIs have four things in common:

1.Shareability and ShareworthinessShareability is about computer connections: is it easy to share something positive about the brand? Can a consumer do it without having to think? Shareworthiness is a tougher hurdle, because it's about human connections: can we set things up so that sharing something about the brand will increase the sharer's social capital?

2.ContinuityCan the fundamental story about the brand be linked and coherent, no matter which medium you discover it in? Can you follow a thread from a promotion into advertising and social media or pick it up at any point in the story and feel it's all part of the same fabric?

3.Awareness and ActivationDoes the idea enable ways to generate awareness, and activate it through digital? In a recent conversation with Michael Lebowitz of Big Spaceship, he said "awareness without activation is like lighting fuses without placing any dynamite at the end." Amen.

4.No Device ConflictsCan the idea easily be ported to any medium, device or platform? A great TV idea that doesn't immediately spark great ideas for apps or billboards or promotions isn't a great idea. We need to look for big concepts, not shiny one-offs.

How To Get Ideas With Better APIs

First, we need more of what IDEO's Tim Brown calls "T-Shaped People". He describes them as people who are "able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to a universal human need." We need to develop people with great experience in their core specialties but who are also skilled to looking across silos to find places where ideas can connect.

But to do that, we need incentives that reward connectedness and media agnosticism. Agency compensation should be retooled to reward the best APIs. Not the best TV commercial, or PR program, or online idea, but the idea with the best potential connections.

Today's young agency people come into the business wired for connectedness but find that their agency's culture is not. Why? Because the way the agencies are compensated tells them that while their clients talk about connectedness, they don't really value it. We're not putting our money where our rhetoric is.

Finally, media should shift from media as divisions (outdoor, TV, etc) to media that connect seamlessly. The word "division" all by itself is a fairly hefty clue about what's wrong.

No modern computer is built without the ability to connect and do more. No modern medium should be built that way, either. From a product POV, media should have great APIs built-in -- not bolted-on during the sales process.

We live in a connected age. We need connected marketing processes.

How soon can we start?

Tom Cunniff began his career as a copywriter at traditional agencies, founded an interactive agency in 1994 and now works on the marketing side creating and integrating traditional and interactive. All of Tom's opinions are entirely his own. Tom can be reached at tomcunniffnyc@gmail.com.

Read all Tom's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Radical Common Sense - MediaBizBloggers.

Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggers.com
Follow our Twitter updates @MediaBizBlogger

Copyright ©2024 MediaVillage, Inc. All rights reserved. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.