The Expanding Universal

Vince Klaseus was named president of the newly created Brand Development division at NBCUniversal in fall 2014, charged with overseeing Universal’s portfolio of brand-building divisions – consumer products, games, digital platforms and franchise brand management. In 2018, Klaseus spoke with License Global about Universal Brand Development’s (UBD) upcoming plans. Quite a bit has changed since then. 

“UBD is now a part of the Global Theme Parks division (Universal Parks & Resorts), and this drives our approach in both fan experiences and our acceleration into our digital world,” says Klaseus. “We’re the best of both worlds. Organizationally we connect with Parks, while creatively we also still align and partner with our content divisions like the film studio, Peacock and NBC on connectivity and synergy. 

“Our alignment to the Parks creates a bench strength that most others don’t have,” he adds. “We are only one of two media companies that have global theme parks, which allows us to tap into that in-person fan experience 365 days a year. We’re harnessing the capabilities of the parks to become closer to our fans and provide a better consumer experience.” 

Read more about Universal Brand Development in the February 2022 issue of License Global.