When I began podcasting, I remember Rob Walch always saying “Content is King; Quality is Queen.” He said compelling content was more important than a perfect recording. I took his saying and used it in more places than podcasting. I really felt that it applied to PowerPoint presentations, blog posts, videos, and so many other things. The message was most important.

Well, I’ve broadened it further and added my twist to it. “Context is King; Content is Queen; Quality is Prince.” Here’s my point: A message has more value when the time and place are right. If you have compelling content with good quality, but the time is wrong for the receiver, it doesn’t matter. If you have compelling content with good quality at just the time and place the receiver needs it, you can’t help but have an impact.

Directions to a new restaurant in Boston aren’t very important when you are still in San Francisco. The same directions are much more valuable the night you are driving your friends to the restaurant. Having the right content at the right time in the right place definitely matters.

This fits in with another saying: “You will win the customer if you can resolve their urgent need or point of pain.” Time and place matter. If you can present the solution (the right content) of good quality that resolves a prospects need or pain at just the right time and place, you will gain a customer. This is what built Google. Google puts the right ad in front of a searcher looking for a solution at just the right time.

This is changing.  In a post by the Marketing Profs,  “Mobile Ad Campaigns More Effective Than Online” mobile advertising is already outperforming online advertising five to one across a number of measure according to a study by InsightExpress.  Mobile phones obviously put the right message in the right place at the right time.

Context is King; Content is Queen; Quality is Prince.

This article in Advertising Age really demonstrates one of my favorite terms – corporate inertia. Nothing new in the concept of corporate inertia – just lots of people with a slow rate of change. Organizations that can adapt quickly to change, win.

This article shows the corporate inertia in the advertising industry. As a podcaster, I “know” there is an incredible relationship that is fostered between the podcaster and the consumer. The strength of this relationship is real, but hasn’t be measured, yet. Advertisers are using the metrics they know. Exposure, Eyeballs,… Advertisers are buying “exposure to” consumers not the “relationship with” the consumer. I do think this will change as the strength of the new media – podcasting relationship will be measured and fed back to the advertisers. The ADM – Association of Downloadable Media is working on this. I’m also sure PodShow, Podango, and Wizzard Media are all gathering their facts and figures to change the opinions of the advertising world.

If a conventional advertising conversion rate of 2% could be upped to 5% through the relationship strength of a podcast, I see huge advertising money moving into the new media arena. That’s why I’m playing in this sandbox.