Content is king; production is chancellor

Content is king. We’ve heard it thousands of times. Content is king.

But while watching a local television commercial today, I wondered if that is always true.

Which catches your attention more? A television spot with horrible content, yet great production, or a television spot with great, clever content and horrible production. The idea might be funny, but the image looks and communicates better, in most cases.

In meetings, which is more likely to succeed? A great idea or concept that isn’t sold correctly? Or a bad idea that’s sold incredibly convincingly.

Or, think of it in personal terms. Who gets the job – a fully qualified, future superstar who has a horrible interview, or the person who’s half as qualified yet twice as good as interviewing?

The truth is, production matters. Your idea might be great, but if you can’t show how great it is with a great production level, it looks cheap. It looks cheesy. It looks like a bad idea. Image, as someone else has said, is everything.

If content truly is king, then production is it’s chancellor, the entity whose sole job is to make the King look good – to cover up blemishes, to speak for the King in times of trouble and to make a problem come to a positive outcome.