TelevisaUnivision told advertisers at its upfront presentation Tuesday about more ways they can connect with Latin culture, including through music and live events.
Among the headlines were Shakira announcing that her song Punteria will be the official song of TelevisaUnivison’s coverage of the 2024 Copa America soccer tournament.
Speaking of soccer, the company announced that Hyundai has become the official automotive partner of Liga MX in the U.S.
Univision also announced the creation of “Sistema Uforia,” offering advertisers a way to take advantage of all of Univison’s Latin music assets and new festivals tied to some of its award shows.
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The Spanish-language media giant designed its event as a Casa Cultura — or house of culture — to give media buyers and marketers a taste of what the growing Hispanic community is creating and enjoying.
“I want people to feel the Latin culture,” Donna Speciale, president of U.S. advertising sales and marketing at TelevisaUnivison, told B+C before the upfront. “This is our way of bringing it to life.
“Hispanics are now mainstream. Everybody — society, not just marketers — is now seeing it with the explosion of Latin music, for one,” she continued. “Think about what’s happening in the political landscape. The Latino vote is critical.”
From a business perspective, the Latino community contributes $3 trillion to the economy. “Our audience is a growth driver for clients and nobody else can make that statement,” she said.
For years, Speciale has been trying to get more marketers to spend more per month on Spanish-language advertising.
During last year’s weak ad market, TelevisaUnivision had a historically strong upfront. Last year, the company added nearly 100 new clients after adding about 200 the year before.
More than 250 of TelevisaUnivision’s ad clients are using the company’s household graph, which now includes nearly 100% of all Hispanics,
Positioning TelevisaUnivision as a cultural platform could help close the gap between the size of the Hispanic audience and the share of ad dollars spent with Spanish-language media.
“It’s unfortunate that only 2% of media investment is tied to Hispanic, given that we’re 20% of the population,” Speciale said. “That makes no sense. It’s obviously not anywhere near a fair share, so the growth potential is huge.”
Speciale said that TelevisaUnivision was unique because it has viewership growth and advertisers demand for both its linear networks and its streaming service.
TelevisaUnivision said that its streaming service ViX now has 50 million global monthly active users and grew 70% in the U.S. since last year. On Wednesday, the company will launch a new ad-supported premium tier of ViX that will enable marketers to advertise in more of the streaming service’s original content.
ViX also has an expanded roster of ad formats including contextual targeting, interactivity and commercial and social capabilities.
TelevisionUnivision’s new Sistema Unforia enables marketers to connect with the company’s more than 500 music touchpoints from television and radio to live concerts and music awards shows.
Making Music for Sponsors
Advertisers will be able to sponsor three new music-themed opportunities in 2025.
“Lo Nuestro Fest” is a three-day festival of Latin Culture in Miami in February built around Premio Lo Nuestro, the long-running Spanish-language music awards show.
“Casa Creator,” which the company calls the largest gathering of Latin creators ever, will be held in conjunction with Premios Juventud, the company’s youth music awards show.
TelevisaUnivision is also creating a new artist discovery arm to help connect brands to up-and-coming musicians and culture-makers.
“I don’t think a lot of people realize it but all of the stars now in Latin music from Shakira to Peso Pluma to Bad Bunny all started at Univision,“ Speciale said. “A lot of it starts here with our radio stations.”
“We actually have the pulse of who’s up and coming and a lot of clients have been wanting to lean into who the next hot artist is,” she said.
