There’s word this week that Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble are planning a joint marketing campaign. This is a huge deal with implications for the entertainment industry — and also with important lessons for your small business, nonprofit, or state agency.

The companies will be creating “in-store and digital initiative designed to provide more entertainment options for the entire family.” And most importantly, not all of this is in-store programming. According to digiday:Daily:

A focal point of Family Moments is a project with Procter & Gamble to produce family-friendly TV programming, beginning with “Secrets of The Mountain,” a TV movie which will debut on NBC on April 16, 2010. “Secrets of The Mountain,” a two-hour movie, is a drama/adventure and focuses on Dana James, “a public defender and single mother who takes her family to visit a mountain cabin they inherited from their eccentric uncle, only to find themselves embarking on the adventure of a lifetime.” It will be produced by P&G Productions has produced nearly 50 movies of the week, 35 years of “People’s Choice Awards,” 20 soap operas and a number of beauty pageants and variety shows.

Wal-Mart and P&G have identified a need among their customers, and they’re filling it.  But you can do the same thing on a smaller scale. What information does your core audience lack?  What can you provide?  It doesn’t have to be a feature-length movie. It can be a newsletter, or a weekly interview with an expert in your field, or a daily roundup of industry news gathered from across the Web.

Branded content is any kind of information or entertainment you offer people as an organization.  And it’s an incredibly effective way to build a stronger relationship with the people who are most important to you. Your communications plan  will be better for providing it.