NBCUniversal’s Cultural Consultancy
Help global brands decode culture the way entertainment companies do.
At NBCUniversal, I built Co-Lab from the ground up. A cultural consultancy that began as an idea became a $68M strategic capability, reshaping how NBCU partnered with advertisers and establishing cultural intelligence as a core business offering.
Co-Lab gave marketers what evertainment companies take for granted: access to the storytellers, analysts, and cultural signals shaping what audiences care about before it becomes obvious.
Brands with high cultural relevance grow 6x faster than those without it.
Kantar, 2023Why Co-Lab existed
Brands with high cultural relevance grow 6x faster than those without it (Kantar, 2023). But most marketers don't have access to the cultural engines that create relevance: the creators shaping global entertainment, the data tracking audience emotions in real-time, the strategic intelligence identifying what's next before it trends.
NBCUniversal had all of this, but historically, advertisers only accessed it at the point of media buying. Co-Lab changed that dynamic, moving NBCU upstream into strategy development, insight generation, and creative collaboration. It gave brands entertainment-grade cultural intelligence before campaigns launched, not after.
What made Co-Lab different
Entertainment Intelligence
We decoded cultural signals shaping tomorrow: audience emotions, fandom behavior, micro-trends, community values, platform shifts, and content ecosystems. Not what's trending—what will trend.
Direct Access to Storytellers
We brought showrunners, writers, producers, and creators into strategy-sessions giving brands access to the people who actually shape global culture through entertainment.
Real-Time Data + Newsroom Insight
We tapped into NBCU’s News political forecastfing, over 70+ years of historical ratings data, and real-time audience behavior across platforms to ground strategy in evidence, not assumptions.
Strategy + Creative Co-Creation
We didn’t deliver insight decks, we facilitated collaborative working sessions where brands and entertainment experts developed strategy together. You left with frameworks you could use, not presentations to file away.
Co-Lab By
The Numbers
32 global brands served
across CPG, beauty, tech, finance, retail and healthcare categories
$68M+ strategic impact
Client value delivered through cultural intelligence, frameworks, and collaborative development
5 proprietary frameworks
New-stalgia, Localism & Fandom, From Comment to Contentg, and other strategic systems adopted
20+ workshops delivered
Bringing together marketers, showrunners, creators and strategists for collaborative strategy sessions
12,000 marketers reached
Through keynotes, live streams, global summits, cultural presentations, and thought leadership
The Drum, Adweek, and NBCUniversal press releases gaining recognition for redefining entertainment-brand collaboration.
Featured in industry press
Two examples of how Co-Lab helped brands navigate cultural complexity and turn tension into opportunity
Selected Work
Storytelling in Healthcare
Translating entertainment principles into brand strategy
Healthcare advertisers struggled to break through during lockdown when crisis communication dominated every channel. Brands needed narrative frameworks that balanced medical authority with emotional resonance.
The Challenge
We brought together the showrunner, writers, and lead actor from NBC's New Amsterdam to share how they translate real medical issues into emotionally resonant storytelling. The workshop equipped healthcare marketers with entertainment-grade narrative frameworks to move from clinical messaging to human connection.
What Co-Lab Delivered
85% increase in attendee confidence applying storytelling principles to their work. Workshop content became top-performing thought leadership asset. Several brands commissioned follow-up campaign development engagements.
The Impact
Co-Lab Workshop featuring (L to R)
YUSUF CHUKU, EVP Strategy, NBCUniversal
RYAN EGGOLD, Star, “New Amsterdam”
ERIKA GREEN SWAFFORD, Producer, “New Amsterdam”
DAVID SCHULNER, Creator/Showrunner, “New Amsterdam”
Election Year Strategy
Cultural Volatility Planning
with Steve Kornaki
Ahead of the 2024 U.S. election, global advertisers feared political noise would drown out brand messaging. CMOs needed data-driven confidence to invest during a culturally volatile period.
The Challenge
We hosted a global summit featuring NBC News' Chief Data Analyst Steve Kornacki, who delivered proprietary electoral forecasting and media impact modeling. Paired with brand-health analysis and scenario planning, the session provided advertisers with an evidence-backed roadmap to navigate election volatility.
What Co-Lab Delivered
150 global agency leaders equipped with strategic frameworks for election-year investment. Brands maintained advertising spend with confidence. Summit became NBCU's top-performing client advisory content. Multiple clients commissioned custom scenario planning.
The Impact
Press & Recognition
Recognized by NBCUniversal leadership for creating new organizational capability and redefining how entertainment companies collaborate with brands.
NBCU TOGETHER
NBCUniversal & Sky Launch Co-Lab, a New Cultural Consultancy + Research Initiative
THE DRUM
‘Think like an entertainer’: NBCU and Sky unveil Co-Lab to produce global ad strategies
Co-Lab taught me that the most valuable strategic work happens at the intersection of cultural intelligence and collaborative creation. That philosophy now powers my independent practice—bringing the same entertainment-grade cultural analysis and framework-building approach to clients without the corporate infrastructure.
What changes: Scale of resources (smaller, more targeted research)
What doesn't: Strategic rigor, cultural lens, framework quality
