Products that “advertise well” often sell well, too.  A cloth that cleans any spill? A grill that cooks anything better and easier? Sham-Wows and George Foreman Grills were both money machines. There’s a bigger market for products that advertise well and work even better. Whether it’s the Wii, the Prius or the iPad. Things really get interesting in services, where the “product” and the “advertising” often can’t be separated.

Take Zappos. They are an etailer that “advertises well” — every kind of shoe, better service than any other shoe store. That’s a strong proposition, and an easy one to take in. But most of their advertising is the experience you have while shopping. There’s no pitchman. No sleek device.  Just excellent information architecture, clean design, an easy shopping cart and ordering process and integration with servicing emails. NetFlix? They took the idea of related items to the next level to offer users more of the types of movies and shows they like. And Mint took scraping technology and personal finance management and created a way to get a snapshot of your net worth. You can’t imaging any of these companies getting started without technology folks in the room.  All three are services that have created tremendous value by creating experiences that advertise themselves. And you can’t do that by focusing on traditional “creative” disciplines alone anymore.