22Trends: APIs for Everything

The next trend (from our infographic on exponential trends) we’ll be taking a deep dive into is APIs for Everything.

“Users are going to consume new material in any way that they want to, wherever, whenever; and your goal as publisher is to make sure that you have a presentation layer that serves them wherever that is.” – Daniel Jacobson, Netflix lead API Engineer

An application programming interface (API) is a set of rules and specifications that software programs can follow to communicate or “interface” with each other. As important digital platforms (like Google, Facebook, and Twitter) open up their APIs and allow developers to integrate them, digital concepts can become more interesting and complex, because there’s almost no limit or boundary to what can be conceived.

The analogy that’s best helped me understand what an API does is a board game versus a deck of cards. With a board game, you essentially have one option: to play a game using the rules and constructs that the game provides. With a deck of cards, however, your game options are practically endless: there are thousands of different ways to play with a deck of cards.  An API takes a digital property from a board game to a deck of cards; it allows users to transform and tailor their experience, using platforms and constructs they may already be familiar with. Want to use Twitter to execute a real world scavenger hunt? No problem whatsoever. Want to host a talent contest and aggregate the entries? Piece of cake. Want to integrate new music functionality into a product with a specific, dedicated fan base? You can, all because of APIs.

We throw around the term “exponential ideas” a lot, because that’s what we’re striving for in all of our work here at 22squared. There’s no one set of rules that makes an idea exponential, but one thing that does seem to set exponential ideas apart from the rest is problem solving. It’s hard to engage consumers: most lead busy lives and aren’t focused on what a brand is trying to tell them. But if a brand can give them a tool to solve a problem that they have (whether they realize they have the problem or not), that’s where the magic happens. That’s where being intrusive stops and being exponential begins. APIs give brands the option (and opportunity) to organically integrate where their advocates already are. What it comes down to is simple: know your customer innately, and use APIs to add value to their experience with your brand.

Weekly Social Download: So you don’t have to stress out that everything just changed again.

Interactive Shoppable Music Video

An online fashion store called SSENSE collaborated with Iggy Azalea, FKi, and Diplo for their music release by creating a shoppable music video.  The musicians are wearing designer clothes from Phillip Lim, Givency, and Alexander McQueen and viewers can click on hot spots that will drive them to a commerce experience.

A Year in the Like

Microsoft and Facebook have partnered up to create A Year in the Like, a tool that takes you on a visual journey through the past year by pulling information from your Facebook Timeline.

Smart Argentina: Animated Twitter Ads

Smart Argentina used Twitter to do an innovative animated campaign for its Fortwo microcar in the South American market. Scrolling down on the brand’s Twitter page gives an idea of the concept, but doesn’t fully convey the intended effect, so there’s also a YouTube video combining the total of 455 individual tweets to show an animation of the Fortwo driving through Argentinian city streets, and ending with the tagline, roughly translated from Spanish, “It fits in any space. Why not in 140 characters? Smart Fortwo…a big idea for the city.”

The Value of Social Business: Exploring the ROI Question

Social is a new type of technology, one that’s much more freeform, unstructured, and unpredictable than the advances that came before it. This means much more innovation, variety, and volume will come from it. It also means it must be managed very differently. The ROI of a social business effort regarded and managed through the traditional IT project delivery process will look very different than a deployment and management effort matched to the technology.

Caine’s Arcade

The power of social media and young boy with imagination who raises over $140k for his college fund with one video.

Stop Blabbing About Innovation and Start Actually Doing It

These days, every established company is at risk of having its industry–and its own business–disrupted by a startup. Cognizant of this, companies devote a lot of time to talking about how important it is to innovate. But here’s the truth: most companies can’t innovate because everyone is paid to maintain the status quo.

TALK BITE: Skype vs. Facebook and Twitter

Skype is on a mission to put humanity back into the way people connect. Skype has released a provocative new campaign, “It’s time for Skype,” putting Facebook and Twitter directly in the cross-hairs. The ads suggest the social networking sites are “degrading humanity” with impersonal communications of 140-character limit and wall posts.

By identifying an enemy, Skype has created a talk-worthy campaign that not only communicates a point of difference in a world of bigger fish, but creates a greater purpose that goes beyond the digital realm. Whether you think it’s too vicious, bitter or brilliant, we can all agree that the world could use a little more humanity.