Discovery Solutions was first launched in the US in 2002 and the offering's expansion into Asia coincided with the channel rolling out multi-channel platforms in a number of markets such as in Hong Kong recently.
Simeon Dawes, advertising sales director looking after North Asia from Hong Kong, has been moved to the regional headquarters in Singapore to head up the Discovery Asia Solutions team.
According to the channel's vice-president of advertising sales, Mark Whitehead, more clients are interested in such campaigns.
"Simeon, as part of the Discovery Solutions group, will work with a core team from various functions across different departments to put together creative, fresh and integrated ideas that best meet clients' needs and objectives," Whitehead said.
Asia already had a headstart with solutions-type deals, but never had this formal structure in place, he said.
It has, for instance, partnered Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) on a three-year fully integrated global campaign that included special programming either created or acquired for TNZ, vignettes, TNZ advertisements, and an online component/contest.
Part of its solution for Samsung was a documentary, Digital Cool. The documentary was on how technology and R&D shape the lifestyle of youths in Korea and around the world.
"We not only have three networks that clients can now advertise across (Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Discovery Travel & Adventure), they can tap our global infrastructure," Whitehead said.
"We felt this is the right time in our evolution as a global company to expand the service we offer advertisers in the international marketplace. We now have the media industry's most extensive infrastructure, a family of diverse high-quality networks, multiple platforms (new media, licensing, online) and a significant presence in all major markets around the globe."
Whitehead said Discovery Solutions in the US created and executed some of the largest advertising partnerships in the company's history, including 2003/2004 cross-platform deals with P&G and Clorox.