Savanta's VueAPI

Savanta's VueAPI

BrandVue is a brand tracking product offered by Savanta. While customers own the data collected, many struggle to access it in the exact form we report it, making internal distribution difficult—especially for tracking studies. To solve this, we developed an API for BrandVue, allowing seamless data integration into client systems. We also designed it to be compatible with AllVue, our broader project delivery dashboarding platform, enabling greater flexibility and future scalability. This improved reporting accuracy, data accessibility, and overall retention by increasing the value of the data we provided.

Problem

Some financial services clients wanted access to BrandVue data for two key reasons:

  1. To integrate the data into their financial models to analyse which metrics predict future performance and influence key consumer behaviours.

  2. To include BrandVue data directly in their internal dashboards rather than relying on our pre-built dashboarding tool.

Existing limitations included:

  • No direct data access: In the absence of the API, a client would have to request a CSV export from our data services which was a manual process that would have to happen on a schedule, then either be emailed, or dropped via (S)FTP.

  • Lack of flexibility: Clients needed a way to either pull pre-calculated metrics (for simple integration) or raw respondent data (for more advanced analytics).

  • High support requirements: Without robust documentation, implementation could be slow and require extensive support.

  • Sales enablement gap: The sales team needed clear positioning on how the API adds value beyond just "data access."

Approach

To achieve these goals, we:

1️⃣ Designed a secure authentication system – Created a way to issue API keys through our authentication UI, allowing non-technical users to manage access.

2️⃣ Developed two API offerings –

  • Metric API for standard reporting needs (requiring minimal processing effort by clients).

  • Respondent API for clients with data science teams who needed granular control.

3️⃣ Simplified API interaction – Used "GET" requests with query parameters initially, later improving efficiency with "POST" requests to handle multiple brand requests at once.

4️⃣ Created clear documentation – Developed Swagger documentation and example scripts to help users understand data structures and implementation steps.

5️⃣ Enabled sales teams – Trained teams on how to position the API as a strategic tool rather than just a technical integration, emphasizing use cases and business impact.

6️⃣ Addressed scalability concerns – Introduced a fair-use policy instead of a hard rate limit to avoid unnecessary complexity in the initial release, but later added query limits after a client’s excessive API calls caused dashboard outages.

Solution Design

🔐 Secure authentication – API keys issued through an easy-to-use UI, ensuring account-level tracking and security.

📊 Metric API for reporting – Provided pre-calculated, weighted results that aligned with existing dashboards.

📄 Respondent API for flexibility – Allowed clients to access raw data for custom calculations, enabling deeper analysis.

📑 Comprehensive documentation – Used Swagger to provide clear, maintainable API docs, reducing support overhead.

🚀 Optimized performance – Initially launched with a simple "GET" request structure, later enhanced with "POST" requests for greater efficiency and scalability.

💡 Sales enablement – Developed training materials and FAQ one-pagers to help sales teams articulate the value proposition.

⚖️ Scalability improvements – Enforced fair-use policies and later added query limits to prevent service disruptions.

Result

Reflection

✅ Adoption by 50+ clients – Strengthened long-term relationships and accelerated renewal cycles.

✅ Faster integrations – Reduced client onboarding time by providing self-service documentation, and easy to issue API keys.

✅ More efficient API structure – Improved efficiency by transitioning the Metric API to a "POST" request format, simplifying queries and reducing strain on servers.

✅ Scalability improvements – Added query limits post-launch to prevent performance disruptions.

✅ Increased stickiness – Clients who integrated the API had the longest retention and highest renewal rates.

While the API launch was a success, it also presented key challenges that shaped future improvements. Initially, we prioritized speed over scalability, which led to temporary outages when clients made excessive requests. A more proactive approach to scalability planning could have mitigated this earlier. However, by shipping early, we were able to validate real-world use cases and iteratively improve the API, particularly the transition to "POST" requests for better efficiency.

Another critical learning was the importance of building trust through transparency. Adoption was rapid, as was implementation (within less than a day of getting the docs a client would be set up). The speed can be attributed to the enhanced documentation and training, reinforcing the need for strong onboarding resources in technical products. Additionally, we learned that aligning sales messaging with business impact was just as crucial as technical functionality—ensuring sales teams understood how to position the API as a strategic tool was key to broader adoption.

By balancing usability, security, and scalability, we created an API that not only met immediate client needs but also became a fundamental part of how clients integrated BrandVue data into their decision-making processes.