After opening with a $152MM weekend ten days ago, “The Hunger Games” remains the top box-office draw in the US. It’s now up to $250MM, and there’s speculation that strong word-of-mouth from those who’ve seen the film could drive it to dominate the box office for a third weekend. Clearly the movie, based on Suzanne Collins’ teen novel about Katniss Everdeen, has both buzz and staying power.

The story’s intended to teach life lessons, but it It also has lessons for retailers, brands and other companies creating video for business. (When you enjoy your work as much as we do at Invodo, nearly everything relates to it). Here are five lessons I took away:

1. Question the accepted ways of doing things. In Panem, the dystopian setting for the story, the twelve Districts surrounding the Capitol once rebelled. As punishment, two teenage representatives from each District must compete in the annual Hunger Games, a televised battle to the death with only one winner.

It’s implied that this functions as some sort of social control by giving the populace just the right mix of hope and fear. This is a great setup for the story but doesn’t, when you think about it, make a lot of sense. (Unless you think that “Jersey Shore” and “Ice Road Truckers” are similar conspiracies to keep us in line). In order to enjoy the movie, you just have to accept it and move on with the story. Maybe it’ll make more sense when I finally read the book.

However, when you’re launching a video program, you’ll want to question things that don’t make sense. You’ll hear arguments that your videos have to be short, thirty seconds or less in some cases. And someone will probably make a claim that user-generated videos are inherently more credible. Question those assumptions, because they may not hold. In fact, recent research shows that consumers are willing to watch two minutes or longer for video that genuinely helps them with a purchase decision, and they find professionally generated content more trustworthy.

2. Show your audience what matters to them. Once the combatants (“tributes”) are selected and trained, they must demonstrate their skills to potential sponsors. This, Katniss’ mentor explains, is crucial. Sponsors provide supplies that can make the difference between life and death, so “make sure they remember you.” Katniss, an accomplished archer, takes his advice to heart and startles a bored crowd by putting an arrow through the apple in the mouth of the main course on the buffet table. It scares the heck out of them – and they remember her.

Like the sponsors in the movie, your potential customers are dealing with a great deal of noise and distraction. If you want their attention, you have to earn it by clearly showing something that matters to them. If they’re shopping for a product, cut to the chase and show them the features that matter. If it’s archery they’re after, take aim and let fly like Katniss did. Either way you’ll cut through the noise and get their attention.

3. Focus on what matters in the long term. Another bit of mentoring Katniss acts on is the advice to avoid getting drawn into the immediate battle for weapons and food when the tributes are first released in front of a “cornucopia” brimming with supplies. Instead, she focuses on what’s needed for survival – finding strategic high ground away from the others as well as a supply of water. By doing this she avoids the initial pitched battle over resources and is better positioned for long-term survival.

It can seem like there’s a cornucopia of shiny objects to distract you when you’re launching a video  program. The prospect of going viral is only one of many shiny objects that will tempt you. If water is what really matters for survival, producing and deploying effective content across your site and product catalog is what really matters for a video program. Analytics are important, but look for ways to ensure that analytics and customer feedback are a seamless part of the production process. A fully integrated workflow that brings it all together provides a real advantage over a competitor more focused on the shiny objects.

4. Think and act strategically. Katniss may seem like an underdog, but she is a strategist throughout – whether evening the odds by purposely destroying a stockpile of weapons and food, or using a personal situation (I won’t give everything away) to manipulate the Gamemaster into changing the rules. Strategy can trump superior firepower and perhaps even allow a cunning combatant to take on the established power structure.

Strategy is a plan designed to achieve a vision. So your video strategy starts with the vision, and the vision leads to one or more goals. Perhaps it’s increased conversion, perhaps it’s SEO benefit, perhaps it’s customer experience. Once you’ve defined those goals, define the metrics that matter. It’s worth remembering that many video platforms excel at measuring what matters to publishers, yet can’t measure the single most important metric for a retailer or brand – conversion lift. By knowing what your objective is and what metrics tell you if you’re achieving it, you can ensure that your video program is deployed strategically rather than as a vanity or me-too project.

5. You can’t do it all yourself. Even in a winner-take-all game, Katniss bonds with a younger combatant named Rue and works with her to defeat an alliance of stronger enemies. And she ultimately pairs up with Peeta, also from District 12, to win the game by redefining the rules and facing down the Gamemaster.

A successful video program isn’t launched by one person. It delivers results to a team of stakeholders and it’s smart to involve them early to gain buy-in. Identifying stakeholders (ecommerce, brand, creative, merchandising) and bringing them to your side is crucial. Just as important is the selection of a video partner. Select a partner who is expert in the type of production you need, can deliver metrics to prove it, and is able to scale beyond the capabilities of an in-house program.

And as you go forward with  your video program, may the odds be ever in your favor!