Darryl Mascarenhas has joined Loyalkaspar, the entertainment branding agency led by David Herbruck and Beat Baudenbacher, as the company's new creative director. Mascarenhas already has jumped into his first creative assignment – a co-branded spot for AMC's The Walking Dead and the new Microsoft Windows 8 operating system – that was as challenging as it was downright scary.

"We jumped at the chance to bring Darryl on board at Loyalkaspar," Herbruck says. "He's respected in the industry as a brilliant designer, strong leader and someone who's particularly adept at strategically partnering with clients. His work on the Walking Dead/Windows 8 spot only confirms his excellent reputation. Darryl immediately saw how this spot needed to look and feel, and he guided our team with an infectious optimism that never wavered despite many challenges."

Originally from Australia, Mascarenhas most recently was an associate creative director at Moving Picture Company, New York. Prior to that, he spent 18 months as an associate creative director at design house EyeballNYC. Mascarenhas began his career as a compositor/art director at the Sydney-based design studio Post Modern (now Method Studios). He left in 2009 to head up Steam's design department where he served as creative director before relocating to New York City in 2010.

"I've been following David and Beat's work since I was in Australia, and I've always been a fan," Mascarenhas says. "I think the reason Loyalkaspar is so successful is that they are always seeking original solutions to universal challenges. Most clients today don't come to us with a creative brief that we need to execute, but rather with marketing objectives and statistics, and they look to us for bold, original ideas. Loyalkaspar has found the sweet spot between strategy and creative, and I'm proud to be a part of what they're building."

Zombies In New Jersey:

That strength is on display in Mascarenhas' first assignment. "AMC and Microsoft's integrated marketing agency Liquid Thread came to us with a loose concept and a deadline of about three weeks, which wasn't a lot of time to bring the ambitious ideas to life," Mascarenhas said. "But of course we jumped at the chance and didn't look back."

Set to a plaintive piano soundtrack, the spot follows a Walking Dead fan as he uses his Microsoft tablet running Windows 8 to go in depth with his favorite show. Soon, a chat pops up from "ZombieBabe34" inviting him to watch the latest episode at her place. And that's when things get creepy.

The mood quickly turns sinister as our fan realizes that – in the world of Walking Dead – there is a thin line between dream date and living nightmare. After a frightening, frenetic climax of undead mayhem, our hero snaps back to reality, happy to keep the zombies on his high-tech tablet and out of his love life.

"To satisfy the fans, it was clear that we had to make something on par with the quality of the actual series," Mascarenhas said. "The challenge for us was in the production. No one expected us to shoot on-location and marshal the level of production we brought to it. Thankfully, we were able to bring in Line Producer Paul Middlemiss, who helped us secure the location in Montclair, N.J., and the crew needed to pull this off. That, along with the talented Loyalkaspar creative team, is the difference in this project going from an ordinary spot to something much more effective."