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NBC Universal last week relaunched its Digital Studio, which is now
tasked with developing and producing “brand-centric” digital content
(including both episodic programming and what NBCU describes as
“deep interactive experiences”), distributing them across the company’s
various digital properties, and also finding and developing quality
digital programming into which advertiser brands can be “organically
integrated.”

OMG Digital (in cooperation with its sister companies, Davie Brown
Entertainment and OMG Entertainment and Sports) has signed on as
the new unit’s first partner. According to NBCU, the partnership is a
“first-of-its-kind” relationship that will provide brands with a “seat at
the table” during the development phase of the unit’s original digital
content, and that will create a “new paradigm” for branded
entertainment by ensuring that content is “created around an
advertiser’s marketing plan.” “This is the first time that programming
with the distribution potential of NBC Universal will be centered from
the start around advertisers,” OMG Digital CEO, Matt Spiegel, said in a
prepared statement. “When we were presented the opportunity of a
strategic alliance with NBC Universal Digital Studio, it was
immediately apparent to all that combining the strength of NBC
Universal’s storytelling and the breadth of their distribution network
with our insights and understanding of brands offered a unique way of
giving brands a seat at the table with writers and producers in
developing episodic programming that ties directly to brand needs.”
According to NBCU, the new Digital Studio will offer advertisers “full
service solutions,” including access to top writers, producers and talent,
high-quality production expertise, consumer insights, and measurement
and analysis services.

To date, the new unit has announced two of its productions:

• “Gemini Division,” which stars Rosario Dawson and Justin Hartley
  and which is produced in association with Electric Farm Entertainment
  (the company behind the online series, “Afterworld”). Set “five minutes
  in the future,” the hybrid live-action/animated sci-fi series follows a
  New York City homicide detective as she investigates the murder of
  her fiance and uncovers “an underworld of genetically fabricated
  life-forms that bring into question the legitimacy of her own
  relationships and being.” Brands involved in the series’ development
  include Intel, Microsoft, UPS and Acura TSX. The series is scheduled
  to debut this summer.

• “Woke Up Dead,” which is also produced in association with Electric
  Farm Entertainment. The series, which is currently in pre-production,
  centers on a college student who discovers he has “zombie-like”
  capabilities, such as the ability to be submerged under water without
  having to come up for air, and whose “entire life is quickly thrown into
  a tailspin, as scientists, military officials, religious zealots, the United
  States government” and his girlfriend “race for answer at any cost and
  by any means necessary.”

The new unit is led by Cameron Death, who holds the title VP, NBC
Universal Digital Studio. Its other senior staff include Suhaila Suhimi,
who holds the title, director of brand strategy, and who was previously
digital director at OMD (working with such brands as Frito-lay,
Absolut, FedEx, Hertz and Hersheys), and Nichol DeGruccio, who
holds the title, executive producer of digital production, and who most
recently served as executive producer for original online video series at
NBCU.