• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, October 5, 2011

With communications transcending from analog to multiple digital platforms, where consumers have more control, marketing is no longer about the medium being the message as media guru Marshall McLuhan famously theorized.

According to research and design expert Bill Buxton, principal researcher at Microsoft, marketing's new guiding principle should be "the experience is the message."

Buxton made the case for his theory during an Advertising Week presentation Tuesday afternoon. He provided what he called a "made up example" to demonstrate his point.

Nike, let's say, has an outdoor ad campaign on city bus shelters. Nike's ad makers, said Buxton, should be thinking about how to get consumers, or bus riders at least, to want to seek out shelters that have the Nike ads.

Buxton's solution: a bus map that riders could access by pointing their smart phones at the Nike ads displayed at the bus shelters. The map would pop up on top of the bus shelter ad—not the tiny phone screen—for greater ease of use. The map might even have a Nike Logo water mark on it—a gentle reminder of who's providing the service.

"Consumers will seek out your ads if you provide something they can use," Buxton said.

And if they happen to be the market for a pair of running shoes, even better.