<b>The Rise of Vertical Productions: Inside Social First Shoots</b> <p style="line-height: 1.30; font-size: 14px;">In the past few years, vertical videos have become one of the most important parts of any brand’s content strategy. Mobile users make up 57% of worldwide video plays, underscoring how vertical video is now a must-have for brands and studios. That premise is front and center with <a href="https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/comcast-social-media-reality-series-xfinity-creators-1236823046/">NBCUniversal’s new vertical social competition</a> series, “Best in Class.” Created based on a concept by Carmichael Lynch for <a href="https://www.xfinity.com/overview">Xfinity</a>, and hosted by sports-media personality Katie Feeney, the series places six college creators into a series of content creation challenges. <b>What’s at stake? A $100,000 Xfinity brand partnership.</b> The director of this new series is Director Zane from <a href="https://www.zane-productions.com/">Zane Productions</a>, a company that has fully embraced social-first vertical video production. With attention paid to NBCUniversal reach an audience that expects vertical content to be prioritized. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/bRHHQmdf/Screenshot-13-8-2026-132326.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="1106" /> <img src="https://i.ibb.co/PzMdrBHh/Screenshot-13-8-2026-132341.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="782" /> Zane Productions has a <a href="https://www.zane-productions.com/vertical-video-production">broad portfolio</a> that illustrates the range that brands look for to meet the demand for this new model. <img src="https://i.ibb.co/tTMHfTRm/Screenshot-13-8-2026-132357.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="1035" /></p>