Re-editing and repackaging old library material for short form distribution on YouTube or TikTok can extend its life and value for years, according to industry insiders at influencer convention CreatorWorld, part of the Singapore Media Festival.
Steve Crombie discussed how his company Totem Network, re-edited and repackaged clips from “Baywatch”-style Australian reality show “Bondi Rescue,” generating multi-million views through extensive data analysis and testing.
“[‘Bondi Rescue’] had been produced for 15 seasons, was super popular, but no one was buying it anymore for distribution because Season 9 looked the same as Season 15,” said Crombie. “At the time it was getting 15-20 million views a year. So, we took the global rights to that show. We reimagined that content to social platforms. And in the last year we’ve got over 1 billion views.”
According to Crombie, the success of “Bondi Rescue” on both TikTok and Snapchat has contributed to the recommissioning of the show, an outcome he attributed to the extensive data mining that Totem engages in.
“There’s hundreds of tiny little things that we look at. What the audience wants to watch. How frequently they’ll want to watch it. What aspect ratio. Which characters they like. What time of day. What day of the week, and then looking at different format structures creating that regularity,” said Crombie.
“Even looking at how you break down the first second, the first three seconds, five seconds. One minute A/B testing. We actually have about 10 people touch every single video to basically work the algorithm and get the viewership and engagement.”
