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September 16, 2022

What Disney’s Dreamlight Valley can teach us about recycling content

Searching for something new for your next content strategy can be time-consuming. You can get stuck in a rut and start tearing your hair out. But we’ve got a little secret to let you in on: the perfect strategy has been right in front of you this entire time.

Content strategists spend forever trying to come up with new ways of saying new things; but why not come up with new uses for old concepts instead? Recycling your content every now and then can’t harm you, it can only help you. Like the old adage says: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

But no one said don’t tinker with it. Take a leaf out of the company that coined "Imagineering", Disney. They’re the gold standard for recycling content. And in today’s blog, we’re going to show you how recycling content can shake up your content strategy without the stress of setting up something new.

Welcome to Dreamlight Valley

When we’re not levelling up your digital marketing, and creating jaw-dropping data-driven content, we can often be found consuming everyone else’s content. And all this recycling (and upcycling) content comes from something we’ve consumed a lot of lately: Disney Dreamlight Valley.

For anyone not in the know, it’s Animal Crossing with sidequests and skill trees. And it’s jam-packed with every Disney franchise you can think of. Within hours of playing, you’ll meet Mickey, Goofy, Scrooge McDuck, Remy, Moana, Wall-E, Merlin and more.

Whilst spending hours fishing for bass with Goofy is fan service you didn’t know you needed, there’s something more fascinating about Dreamlight Valley. It’s a video game made entirely by recycling content.

Classic Disney characters we all know and love

What does recycling content mean?

Like recycling anything, recycling content is simply reusing your existing content and presenting it in a new format to expand its reach and extend its lifespan.

Whilst Disney take a tale as old as time like Remy’s adventures in cooking throughout Ratatouille and turn it into Dreamlight Valley’s recipe-collecting mini-games, recycling content can be as simple as turning your blogs into digestible twitter threads (and your tweets into blogs!)

 

What are the benefits of recycling content?

We’re not telling you to rip your content rulebooks without reason; there’s a method to our madness. Here’s just some of the benefits that recycling content can help take your business to infinity and beyond:

1.    Boost your content’s ROI

Creating quality content takes time. So when you pick up your old content, repackage it in new wrapping paper, and re-gift it to the world, you’re increasing its lifespan.
What makes Dreamlight Valley such an exciting game is that it takes classic characters like Donald Duck, Goofy, and Mickey Mouse and tells their stories in new and exciting ways – by making them forget everything they’ve already been through. By doing this, they’re maximising the life of these characters and giving them more mileage.

2.    Make your content more accessible

My whole family loves Disney, but we consume it in different ways. Whilst my nan might spend her days in retirement binge-watching the classics on DisneyPlus, I’ll spend my spare time tending to my village in Dreamlight Valley, and my brother will use all his annual leave on exploring Disneyland.
But what does that mean for you? Well, the more platforms you repurpose your content for, the wider an audience you can reach. We’re all consuming the same content, just in different formats, so you don’t need to create something new,just rethink how you present something old, instead.

 

How can I recycle my content?

The easy answer is…use your imagination. Just like Disney’s Imagineering experts, recycling and repurposing content can be as big or small as you want it to be in scope.

But just in case you need a helping hand, you’ve got a friend in us. These are just some of the things you can do to transform your content strategy without using up too much time and effort.

1.    Turn your written content into podcasts and videos

Dreamlight Valley isn’t a new take on Disney, it’s just a new way of digesting the same old characters you know and love. And recycling content is just the same.

If you’ve built up a backlog of blogs and opinion pieces to bulk out yourwebsite, you’re sitting on a goldmine of content to keep coming back to. With everyone’s eyeballs glued to their phones, and headphones firmly in forcommutes, videos and podcasts are the content everyone’s consuming.

But don’t waste time coming up with new things to feed consumers, simply take your blogs and turn them into fun video guides or podcasts discussing the content.

2.    Roundup all your content on one topic

Just like Woody’s roundup brings Bullseye and Jessie together for wild west adventures, or Dreamlight Valley puts every character under the Disney sun in the same space, roundup posts can do the same for your content.

Roundup posts are where you curate all the content you’ve created on one topic and present it all as a roundup post. This doesn’t even have to be another blog – it could be an infographic for LinkedIn or a link-hub for other social platforms.

3.    Drip-feed old content into new email campaigns

Whether you like it or not, email marketing is still effective in 2022. 91% of people access their email once a day, and 92% of all internet users have email addresses. But coming up with email campaigns can be difficult – what do you send to someone who’s already seen what you do?

Well, you take content from your website –whether it’s blog posts, product updates, or even your ‘about us’ page – and you drip-feed it back to your customers through email marketing.

Disney might not be emailing you all day, butwith Dreamlight Valley, they’re slowly drip-feeding you content into the gameweek-by-week as it grows. You know Moana’s tale, and you’ve seen what Wall-E’s world is like, but here’s a reminder of these things in a way you might not have looked at them before.

 

How do I know recycling content is right for my business?

Let’s be honest, if Disney are doing it in 2022 – you probably should be doing it, too. Although it’s worth saying that recycling content isn't right for anyone and everyone. But as long as you’ve got content to use, why waste time coming up with something new when something old fits perfectly in new ways.

If you’re still struggling to take your content creation to the next level, get in touch with us today to discuss how we can help you level up your business.

Written by
Jack Press
Marketing
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