Can Walmart, of all things, teach the film and TV industry a thing or two about creating content?

If you’d posed that question five years ago, the answer might have been a derisive scoff and heel-turn out the door. Maybe some of you are even doing that right now. But given that the retailer’s Canadian division pushes out thousands of pieces of content every year with a team of five – to the tune of millions in ROI – it’s a question definitely worth considering.

The intricacies, measurement and possible return on brand-created content were the themes explored at this week’s BCON Expo in Toronto, a day-long branded-content conference produced by Playback and strategy magazines. Although the event was hard-targeted at marketers and the agencies that work with them, a fascinating parallel between the worlds of brand marketing and traditional content creation are starting to emerge. Because if there’s one thing everyone in this ecosystem can agree on, it’s that original content is one of today’s most valuable non-commodity commodities. Here are five reasons indie producers should start taking a look at how global mega-brands are building original content strategies.

1. Finding value in content is a long-term play: Keynote speaker Robert Rose, head of the Content Marketing Institute, emphasized the long-term nature of ROI when it comes to branded content. It’s an interesting idea when viewed through the lens of traditional media, which is most often driven by quarterly profits and first-weekend box office. But Rose said this is one of the fundamental errors being perpetrated in the content space right now, as brands leap on the content bandwagon but abandon strategies quickly when a return (in the form of “brand lift” or sales) isn’t seen. It’s essentially the same issue studios and broadcasters are dealing with as they struggle with non-traditional viewing habits: is cancelling a show after a couple of poorly performing episodes (or seasons, in Canada’s case) still the right move when there are so many other places for it to live, grow and gain value? No one can keep making a series for five years if no one watches it, but the old paradigm of value assessment in TV is possibly in the same bucket –  is it an error the industry can keep affording to make?

2. “Nimble and agile” are the new buzzwords and content today is “always on”: One striking theme highlighted by the day’s speakers, which spanned L’Oreal, Kraft, GE and RBC, was the newsroom mentality being cultivated in marketing departments. Many said their teams are structured to react as quickly as possible to changing events and adjust their brand strategies accordingly. Notably, this is often done with very small teams. One’s first impression might be that these companies are cruel overlords, punishing teams of junior staffers with 18-hour days. But in fact, the ability to create reams of content in real, or close-to-real, time relies on maximizing of available assets, that can be cleverly summed up as….

3. Reuse, recycle and scavenge like crazy: Walmart’s supercharged content strategy is managed by five people (and yes, a rotating lineup of agency partners) who work to create a core set of content assets and exploit them enthusiastically across platforms. (Note: this does not mean: post your video on YouTube and Facebook and don’t forget to tweet it.) It’s setting up one piece of IP and figuring out how different pieces of it can be used for different things over the long term: pieces of a “Snack Report” photo shoot used exclusively for Pinterest or Instagram; an annual toy-testing event expanded into a three-part special for YTV; a series of short-term social strategies that ladder up to a long-term editorial package for PR purposes. Much of the content used for such things is scavenged out of ongoing content creation efforts, presenter Heather Loosemore, Walmart Canada’s senior director of marketing, explained. “I’ve trained myself to look for content pieces everywhere,” she said, citing photo-shoot throwaways and unused edits as examples. Know of any other industry where reams of content are regularly discarded?

4. Brand-created content and traditional content are not so far apart after all: Nielsen’s Harry Brisson, director of Nielsen Media Lab, built his presentation on research the company has done on thousands of hours of content (with a focus on TV pilots) and adapted it into advice for branded content creators. The findings were of the variety that many of you will find familiar – “Begin strong: grab attention with an arresting open” – but what’s interesting is how Nielsen arrived at its conclusions. The company used biometric assessments – measuring facial expressions to assess reaction to content on screen. Having used over 4,000 hours of content, Brisson boiled his content-effectiveness advice into five bullets: Begin strong; have a unique premise; first impressions matter (“Be deliberate with introductions to new characters, as early perceptions can be difficult to change later on”); Providing payoff to viewers (“You’d be surprised at how much content doesn’t have this”); and to “Stick the landing: hook your viewers by providing fulfilling resolution to episode arcs while also raising unanswered questions.” Sure, it was for premium-content rookies looking to get in the game, but Nielsen’s research backs up TV writers’ instincts with nice, hard data.

5. The mass media buy isn’t what it used to be: The complaint of producers across the ages, especially here in Canada, is whether or not a series got the amount of mass-media marketing it deserved. But pouring a bit of cold water on the long-held dominance of the mass media buy was global beauty behemoth L’Oreal. Stephane Berube, chief marketing officer, L’Oreal Canada, recalled that at a similar event a few years ago, he had crowed that L’Oreal was one of the world’s top advertisers, in terms of volume purchased. “I’m not sure that’s something to be proud of anymore,” he reflected. “Should we be spending all this money?” L’Oreal’s fastest-growing brands, including Kiehl’s and NYX, spend “zero dollars on media.” While this is a terrifying notion for media owners, it speaks to the power of micro-content and “UGC,” or user-generated content. NYX, a cosmetics brand, uses UGC for 100% of its marketing, he said. And 94% of the beauty content on YouTube is created by fans and beauty vloggers, he noted. That speaks volumes for independent content creators’ ability to use their own assets to help boost the visibility of their IP.