Ads to Icons introduces new approaches to advertising that go beyond traditional TV/press/billboard communications. It argues that in an age of media saturation and far better customer information, advertising no longer needs to push information at customers. Instead, the book features cases of "pull" advertising — digital, live events and social networks formed as a response to an advertising brief.

Paul Springer shows how advertising can still rise above the noise and clutter of mass communication to make people take notice. Quoting fifty benchmark cases from five continents, he considers a variety of new advertising methods, including in-game and interactive digital advertising, "flash" stores, and other unified on/offline campaigns. He explains why those campaigns were successful and analyzes their contribution to the field. Examples include campaigns by Nike, Mastercard, Cadbury, Ford, IKEA, and Sony Ericsson.