CHAPTER NINE T H E TO U C H I N G EXPERIENCE How to Deliver on a Promise at Meaningful Touch Points I t was a White House first. On April 28, 2009, 293 photos were uploaded to a newly created "official" photostream on Flickr. 1 These behind-the-scenes images captured by White House photographer Pete Souza delighted photo enthusiasts and social media evangelists alike, but the event may be more significant because it was the peak of validation for the Flickr brand-- a brand that didn't exist when the previous administration entered the White House. Flickr began life as a feature for another product. It was designed to allow users of a massive multiplayer online game to share photos during their game play. According to cofounder Caterina Fake, "Had we sat down and said, `Let's start a photo application,' we would have failed." 2 Instead, the team members focused their energy on building a simple way to share photos and have fun. Before long, they realized that they'd stumbled onto a unique business opportunity. They scrapped the game concept and launched Flickr in February 2004. It grew so fast that Yahoo! bought the company a year later for a reported $35 million price tag. 187 American Management Association · www.amanet.org