• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 13, 2011

GE and OMD have quietly begun working with a group of young entrepreneurs to help them bring some next generation business plans to life, and to have some of their entrepreneurial spirit rub off on the way the marketer and the agency plan and buy their media. The initiative, which is hosting 12 of the best and brightest students from leading universities such as the Harvard Business School, MIT and Stanford, is one part ventures incubator and another part new media lab.

Students participating in the program, dubbed the GE/OMD Innovation Incubator, will work at OMD's New York headquarters for 10-weeks and will be paid a stipend while they flush out their own business plans and contributor some of GE's new media initiatives. The effort isn't a venture capital initiative, per se, but the student that demonstrates the greatest potential will receive a $10,000 scholarship at the end of the project.

While the goal isn't necessary to acquire equity stakes in the new ventures, the marketer and the agency are mainly interested in tapping ideas from young entrepreneurs that could lead to new media business models.

"We are excited to partner with OMD on this exciting project that will help digital innovators and student entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life," said Linda Boff, executive director-global digital marketing. "As a company committed to innovation and technology, we are always looking for new and interesting platforms that serve as a place for creative dialogue for the next generation of digital media solutions."

The incubator is the latest manifestation of big Madison Avenue agencies and their clients getting involved with the venture community, and follows efforts by Publicis, Interpublic, The Media Kitchen and others to formalize a structure for tracking, vetting, and in some cases, participating directly in start-ups that could impact the world of media. The most notable and tangible example most likely is Interpublic's equity stake in an early round of funding for Facebook, an investment that has yielded gigantic returns based on the social network's recent valuations, but most agencies say they are less interested in speculating on financial returns than they are on being involved with new and emerging media platforms that could give their clients and organizations competitive advantages.

"We are thrilled to be working with GE as the first digital media agency to support the next generation of digital talent," said Alan Cohen, CEO of OMD USA, adding, "With all the activity around media start-ups, we thought it would be a good idea for our digital people to learn from these students and vice versa."