- Steve McClellan

NEW YORK Sprint Nextel is sponsoring a four-episode microseries spanning three different platforms -- online, TV and mobile -- called Heroes: Destiny, a spin-off of the NBC prime-time hit, Heroes. Each of the five- to-seven minute episodes will debut Monday nights in November.

The microseries was a year in the making and features significant input from consumers, who essentially developed, through a voting process, the character traits, background and special powers of a new hero. More than 1 million consumers voted on who the new hero would be, the producers said. The new character, known as Santiago, is played by Colombian-born actor Roberto Urbina. Lina Esco and Andrea Thompson also star.

The microseries, shot on 35mm film, is a co-production of Sprint media shop Mindshare, a unit of WPP, and NBC Universal Television’s creative partnerships and innovations unit.

According to David Lang, head of Mindshare Entertainment, the production and writing team from the Heroes prime-time show had significant input in the spin-off. “Authenticity is so key to making a project like this successful,” Lang said.

The microseries will feature Sprint's Instinct phone in some scenes -- but it is a “subtle integration," said Lang, noting that Santiago does not use the phone in the show.

The TV series Heroes will air what Lang described as “pod busters” throughout November that will promote the microseries, which can be seen online at NBC.com and Hulu, as well as on video-enabled Sprint phones. Sprint ads will also air adjacent to the on-air promos.

It’s the first microseries that Mindshare has paired with NBC to produce. Two years ago, the shop did a similar project with Fox called The Rookie, a spin-off microseries from the network’s blockbuster 24, which was sponsored by Unilever’s Degree.