Universal Marketing Group / Opportunity development / Est. 2007

Something’s
missing.

Sometimes it’s an idea.

Sometimes it’s the business behind the idea.

Sometimes the idea is already there — but nobody knows what to do with it.

That’s usually where we come in.

Every visible outcome has an invisible beginning. Long before anything is announced, someone has to notice it could exist. That part interests us most.

01 / Questions

We like questions without obvious answers.

  1. 01

    Can an everyday behaviour become a product?

  2. 02

    Can an existing piece of IP become something audiences haven't experienced before?

  3. 03

    Can changing who pays completely change a business model?

  4. 04

    Can a physical space become an entertainment format?

  5. 05

    Can an audience support a business without becoming the product?

  6. 06

    What turns a good story into a production somebody will actually finance?

02 / Range

We’re not very good at staying in our lane.

Over the years, our work has crossed entertainment, film, technology, advertising, mobility, e-commerce, consumer products, licensing and live experiences.

Not because we set out to cover a list of industries.

The ideas took us there.

Film

Technology

Commerce

Entertainment

IP.

Advertising

Live Experiences

Consumer Products

03 / Process

An idea isn’t good just because we like it.

There’s an idea.

  1. 01

    Who wants it?

  2. 02

    Why?

    one possible answer ↳ No.

  3. 03

    Who pays?

  4. 04

    Who owns it?

    one possible answer ↳ Wrong approach.

  5. 05

    Why now?

    one possible answer ↳ Not yet.

  6. 06

    What already exists?

  7. 07

    What’s missing?

  8. 08

    Who needs to be involved?

  9. 09

    Does the maths work?

This might work.

Build it.

04 / Involvement

So, what happens when we get involved?

We take the idea apart.

Before anything gets built we look for the assumption the whole thing rests on — and try to break it.

We figure out the business.

Structure, ownership, costs, margins, timing. What has to be true for it to stand on its own.

We find the missing pieces.

Rights. People. Technology. Production. Financing. Distribution. Marketing. Partners.

And if it still makes sense, we help build it.

Sometimes that means a few weeks of structuring. Sometimes it means years of operating it with the people involved.

A project is rarely just a project.

Projects are rarely made by one person or one discipline. They happen when the right pieces connect — rights, audience, positioning, financing, partners, distribution, technology, timing.

Almost nobody holds them all. We connect the ecosystem an opportunity needs to move.

01 / The thing itself

Rights

IP · Technology

02 / Who it's for

Audience

Positioning · Experience

03 / What makes it possible

Financing

Partners · Commercial Model

04 / Whether it holds

Viability

Distribution · Timing

05 / Definition

So what exactly is Universal?

Universal develops opportunities.

Some begin with us: a gap, an overlooked asset, a connection nobody has made yet. Others begin with a conversation — a brand, a rights holder, an idea already in motion.

Either way, the work is the same: identifying the missing pieces and bringing together the people, resources and structures needed to make it real.

Then why Marketing Group?

Because that’s where we started.

Universal Marketing Group was founded in 2007.

The work changed.

We kept the name.

Current Thinking 01

What if the best format for an idea isn't the format it started as?

The idea doesn't owe the format anything.

Andreas Kotal, founder of Universal Marketing Group

Andreas Kotal

Founder

HE’S BEEN BUILDING THINGS FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES.

Companies. Strategies. Ideas that became businesses. Work with major international brands and entertainment IP. And, because apparently that wasn’t enough, he also teaches entrepreneurship at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna).

Still has trouble staying in his lane.

06 / Evolution

2007Today
  • Advertising
  • Mobility
  • Entertainment
  • E-commerce
  • Licensing
  • Consumer products
  • Film
  • Technology
  • Live experiences
  • Project
    Development.

Current Thinking 02

Can something solve a real problem and still not deserve to be a product?

Useful isn't quite the same as viable.

The receipts.

75+ Projects that made it
past the question.

19 Years of not
staying in our lane.

9 Industries.Because one was apparently not enough.

Current Thinking 03

When does owning the infrastructure become an advantage — and when does it become the business you never meant to build?

Ownership is expensive clarity.

07 / Interest

What are we looking for?

Things we haven’t seen before.

  • A script with something unusual in it.
  • An overlooked piece of IP.
  • A strange business model that might actually work.
  • An artist with an idea that isn’t the obvious extension of their brand.
  • A technology looking for the right application.
  • An experience people would actually leave home for.
  • A problem everybody has accepted because “that's just how it works.”

Or something we haven’t thought of yet.

Spotted something?

Tell us.