While marketers trip over their own feet in the ongoing rush to be relevant during meme-producing cultural events—like the World Cup—they’re missing the bigger and far more important opportunity: contextual communication.

Robert Scoble and Shel Israel wrote about the importance of context in their latest book, “Age of Context” (a must-read). In the book, Robert and Shel identified five trends that are converging to put context at the center of people’s digital lives. The book is filled with examples dealing with everything from health and fitness to travel.

What’s nowhere to be found in the book, though, is public relations or internal communications. But the idea of context—who I am, where I am, what I’m doing, where I’m going, what I’m going to be doing when I get there, and what I need and care about—will quickly become an integral part of communication.

Mobile is at the heart of the rise of context. The other factors—social media, data, sensors, and location-based technology—are vitally important. But without the ability to carry instant, high-speed, high-resolution access to everything with you in your pocket, the concept of context wouldn’t be as critical as it is. Among the many uses to which people put their smartphones and tablets is accessing information they need right now, based on where they are and what they’re doing.

As the operations side of businesses and app developers figure this out, communicators lag woefully far behind. While we’re busy trying to force-fit a clever FIFA-related message into our tweet stream, we’re not thinking at all about how the value of our messages, resources, and information can multiply exponentially by delivering them when they’re truly needed.

While few the media business are figuring this out, there are some who are starting to rethink their models based on the knowledge that readers are increasingly likely to consume their content on mobile devices.

In the new Forrester book, “The Mobile Mind Shift” (another must-read), authors Ted Schadler, Josh Bernoff, and Julie Ask point to the mobile site for the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald:

In the morning, the site emphasizes quick-hit news that focuses on the useful—financial information and traffic reports, for example. In the early evening, the mobile site delivers more entertaining lifestyle, entertainment and sports features during what (mobile director Stefan Savva) calls “me time.” At night, it’s even more entertainment. As Stefan says, “the more relevant we are, the more chances we have of inserting ourselves into their day.” Fairfax (Media, owner of the Herald) is now exploring customizing content and ads to the reader’s location.

Delivering information that’s relevant to me in the context of my immediate situation—the time, my location, and so on—is far more compelling than a tweet attempting to capitalize on the Oscars or the Super Bowl. It’s also more compelling than the same list of headlines everybody else gets. It’s also harder work.

But consider the benefits and how invaluable a contextual approach to the delivery of content can make us to our audiences. In internal communications, for example, employees typically get news and features in a table of contents that is populated with whatever content the internal comms department has finished producing most recently. Is it any wonder employees don’t rush to read intranet articles? Now, consider a front-line production worker—let’s call him Elliott—at a manufacturing facility 1,500 miles from corporate headquarters.

6 a.m.—Elliott wakes up and reaches for his smartphone and checks his internal communication app, which reminds him that several senior executives are visiting from headquarters today. There’s also a link to an article in a major national publication about the product his facility manufactures, along with the current drive time (given traffic conditions) from his house to the plant.

8 a.m.—At work on time, Elliott gets an article from the internal communications department about increased demand for the product based on the positive media coverage. As a result, he learns by reading the short item, an extra shift will be added. His supervisor, he reads, will have more information about how this will affect his schedule. He also gets a list of employees at the plant celebrating a birthday or anniversary today. If he runs into one of them, he can pass along his best wishes.

10:30 a.m.—A notification alerts Elliott that there’s a breaking news item: A new shift manager has been named to fill a vacancy at the plant. If he wants to, he can tap through to read more about the new manager.

Noon—It’s lunchtime and Elliott is standing in line at the employee cafeteria taking advantage of previously unusable moments by checking his phone. He might open Instagram or WhatsApp, but internal communications—knowing he’s perusing fluffier content at this time of day—shares some interesting company images along with summaries of new feature stories and videos about the business unit that operates his facility.

1:30 p.m. During a break, Elliott heads to the company store. A beacon in the store detects he’s arrived and notifies him of a bit of logowear that’s on sale.

2:30 p.m. In half an hour, Elliott has his performance review with his boss. He gets a calendar reminder along with an article internal communications produced two years ago about how to shine at a performance review. (Reading the article paid off, so after the meeting he gives it a “like” and leaves a comment about how spot-on it was.)

4 p.m.—Elliott will be going home soon to spend time with his family, so internal communications sends him a reminder that the benefits enrollment deadline is approaching, something that requires his wife’s input. With a tap, he can add the reminder to his calendar or to-do list. He also gets a short list of new employee services offerings, including discount movie tickets and notice that a health fair will be held at the plant next week. One tap lets him buy the tickets or add the health fair to his calendar.

5 p.m.—A quick check of the app lets Elliott know there’s an accident on his route home, so he decides to take an alternate route that will get him home faster. He also gets an update from the plant manager covering the day’s production results; this includes a link to updated metrics on plant performance that he can view any time.

7 p.m.—Now that he’s home with a little more discretionary time, Elliott opens the company news app and sees a video summary of a talk the CEO gave recently, along with curated links to some external media articles about the company, the industry, and the marketplace. He can also get an early look at some new TV spots for the products he works on that will hit the airwaves next week. Finally, there’s a reminder that his shift will begin an hour early tomorrow, the result of that additional shift being added to accommodate the sudden surge in consumer demand. If it were Friday, he might also get a reminder that the plant softball team is playing tomorrow.

While this flow of information doesn’t fit the traditional mold of internal communications, it is bound to capture Elliott’s attention far more than the list of headlines on the intranet home page that has little, if anything, to do with Elliott and his job. Instead, it’s content—much of it produced by the same internal communication staff that once produced the printed employee newsletter—that is centered around where Elliott is at the moment, what he’s likely to be interested in, and what his job is.

It’s internal communication Elliott won’t be able to live without.

The same concept applies to other audiences for corporate communications. Consider, for example, a reporter who arrives to cover a press briefing on a product launch. Before he leaves the office, he gets a summary of who’s speaking and directions to the event. Once he arrives, he gets a digital copy of the press release and a link to both a Pinterest pinboard and an Instagram account dedicated to the launch. When he gets back to the office, he gets shareable photos and video from the event along with contact information for resources to whom he can reach out for additional information, along with links to event coverage that has already been published elsewhere.

That’s media relations reporters won’t be able to live without.

In retail and sales, businesses are already figuring out that context and mobility are at the heart of the relationship with the customer. In communications, nobody has figured this out. Communicators have also missed the boat on the impact of other technologies, including desktop publishing in the mid-1980s and the World Wide Web in the late 1990s.

Like the Web, contextual communications will require communicators to partner with technology specialists and learn new languages. The adoption of contextual communications is inevitable, though. The only question is which organizations will adopt it first and reap the rewards.