The legendary adman David Ogilvy told his clients that, “Promise, large promise, is the soul of advertising.” But in a faltering economy where trust is now in short supply, smart marketers are delivering the product experience first, and advertising it later – if at all. By the end of the decade, a category-leading ad budget could be a sign of brand weakness, not of strength.

The earliest known ads were drawings of a certain male body-part on the streets of Pompeii that directed potential clients to a brothel, making advertising the second-oldest profession. The marketing manager of the establishment set a model that’s lasted for 2,000 years. The message is father to the sale: Media promises an experience that trial delivers.

Now, even the best-crafted messages are attenuating to the vanishing-point. Media have subdivided into capillaries, too numerous and often too narrow to measure. Reach gets more expensive and product experience gets more remote.

Experience-first marketing reverses the equation. Deliver your best to some, and they will sell the many in ways that no media plan could envision. The media is not the message any more. The experience is the message that ignites media.

Direct sampling has long been a staple in the marketing toolkit and in today’s environment I expect it to explode, challenging coupons as the primary engine of product trial. Sampling leaves nothing to chance. It makes sure that people get the full effect of product design. They see it, they handle it, they use it - and then tell their friends.

Commerce Bank’s “Penny Lane” kiosks count people’s buckets of change for free. They come from other banks to get this simple job done, and an astonishing number end up moving their accounts. Commerce Bank makes its service story tangible. It’s not a promise. It’s what they really did for you. And word goes out.

Nike takes new products into urban neighborhoods. When the Nike van rolls up, it’s a big event. Everybody gets to test-fly the new shoes. And word goes out.

Great products create their own media, most of it free media. Experience-first marketing raises the bar for competitors while lowering costs for innovators. By the end of the decade, a category-leading ad budget could be a leading indicator of brand weakness, not of strength.

In our experience design practice, we’ve found that intensely individual experiences can be the grains of sand around which marketers form pearls. After her grandmother got dangerously ill from misreading a medicine label, Deborah Adler, one of our students at the School of Visual Arts, designed a more fool-proof packaging system for drugs. A major retailer bought her thesis project. They sold the same medicines as other pharmacies, but they suddenly had a powerful new story to tell about how their customers can feel a little safer. The story behind their new pharmacy packaging became a media sensation. And word goes out.

We worked on The CNN Grill to bring the network’s CNN=POLITICS mantra to life in ways that messaging alone never could. We invited CNN viewers to submit their hopes about what politics meant to them. We used their responses to cover a turn-of-the century Denver brick warehouse. Inside, a guest could enjoy a great burger and a debate with Anderson Cooper, among others. CNN suddenly became the “standing room only” hit of the convention. And word goes out.

No one need to be “sold” when people live the difference.

The singular is often the universal. The more an experience matters, the faster the word goes out in a zillion-channel world. And, unlike pre-packaged “viral” messages that consumers simply fly through and (maybe) forward, the stories people tell – This is what happened to me – have the velocity and the potency of truth.