A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM UNIVISION

Cynopsis Media Presents: Upfront: Spanish Language
05.09.13

by Tom Gilbert

The broadcast and cable upfront markets may be having a harder time of it these days, but the Hispanic upfront market continues steadily forge ahead, continuing to gain ground as the landscape’s primo emerging sector.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM UNIVISION

“Every year we see the marketplace grow. We see more brands coming in, we see more clients coming in,” said Lia Silkworth, senior VP and media director for the Tapestry division of SMG Multicutural, whose clients include General Motors, Best Buy, Kellogg’s, Burger King and Walgreen’s, among other brands.

Silkworth isn’t expecting a stellar market this year, but rather the reliable modest growth the Hispanic market has consistently seen in the recent past. She predicts annual market increases in the mid-single digits.

“The marketplace is strong, with more unique options than ever,” she said, pointing to the growth of Discovery networks and nuvoTV, praising the latter for targeting culturally dextrous young Hispanics with English-language programming. She added, “It’s almost like the networks are solidifying the offerings they had before and making them even better versus creating new ones,” mentioning multi-screen programming and other “smart things [networks] are doing to keep up with the demand of how Hispanics are consuming media.”
 
Isabella Sanchez, VP of media for Zubi Advertising, whose clients include Ford, JPMorgan Chase, SCJohnson and Sunny Delight, expects a healthy upfront this year, with increases in the automotive, movie studios, telecom and consumer packaged goods categories.

Sanchez also believes that the upfront will benefit from the increased attention focused on it by the outcome of last year’s presidential election.
 
“The results showed that the Democratic Party targeted the Hispanic segment more aggressively than the Republican Party, and reaped the benefits,” she said.

Sanchez’s analysis was echoed by Christine Fuller, managing director of media investment for GroupM’s MediaCom, which counts among its clients P&G, Shell, Universal, GlaxoSmithKline and VW.

“Obama’s election made everyone realize that you cannot win if you ignore the Hispanic consumer,” she said. “That was an eye-opener for many marketers.”

Fuller said MediaCom is forecasting 5 percent total-market growth for Spanish-language TV this time out. “Hispanics over-index on usage and consumption,” she explained. “Buying power is projected to increase significantly even in a moderate economic growth.” She expects to see increases in the retail and restaurant categories, and continued strength in automotive, packaged goods, beverages, direct-response TV and pharmaceuticals.

She is also expecting a rebound from telcos, she noted, which reduced their spending in the Hispanic market in the past.

While last year’s market felt the effects of the presidential election, Fuller pointed out that this season will encompass another quadrennial event: the World Cup Soccer championships, which will be played in June and July of 2014 in Brazil.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM UNIVISION

“The World Cup throws monkey wrenches into everything,” said Tom Maney, senior VP of ad sales for Fox Hispanic Media, whose Upfront is May 15th. “It will suck out a couple of hundred million dollars from the marketplace to go to the coverage.”

Maney, who represents the broadcast network Mundo Fox, which launched last year, and the Hispanic-targeted cable channels FoxDeportes, Utilisima and Nat Geo Mundo, thinks the total Hispanic upfront market is going to be up anywhere from 5 to 10 percent in total gross volume of dollars.

“For us, I predict cable is going to be really strong in the upfronts,” he said. “The Hispanic market is getting a lot more sophisticated in the way they use cable. We are seeing a shift of more dollars to cable as it continues to grow its share.”

The effects of the World Cup playoffs are more a matter of money moving around within the market, rather than leaving it entirely, he said. 

“Every four years you see a transfer of dollars, and the majority of the upfront money from chief World Cup category sponsors like the McDonald’s, the Hyundai-Kias, and the Anheuser-Busches of the world will go toward supporting their World Cup mix,” he explained.

Maney expects existing advertiser spending to range from flat to plus-5 percent.

“You’ll see more advertisers; that’s true of every upfront I’ve ever done. There’s new business every year,” the sales veteran said. But he believes there will also be more business from existing advertisers, but for different brands.

“The Hispanic consumer is getting the attention and awareness based on its consumer buying power that’s making advertisers go, ‘Let’s advertise this brand, too, and this brand,'” Maney said.

He adds that he believes cinema, fast-food and wireless categories will continue to be strong in the Hispanic market, but sees financial services  credit cards, investments and brokerage houses – as a category that’s sorely undersold.

“Hispanics are as concerned about their 401Ks and retirement and college funds for their children as anybody else, but they’re rarely advertised to about that,” he said, adding, “On the network side, we have seen growth from the banks, since they’ve become national rather than regional.”

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM UNIVISION

Steve Mandala, executive VP of advertising and sales for Univision, who eschews predicting precise percentage increases (“I feel that people who are making predictions in the press are somehow negotiating through the press”), gauges the market based on second-quarter scatter, the outlook for the third quarter and the general economic conditions.

“If you line all three of those up, they will certainly spell that this may not be the world’s biggest, best-ever upfront, but it should be a strong market that represents a recovering economy,” he said.

He expects the automotive category to rebound, and that telco spending will continue to grow, particularly around pre-paid service.

“We believe movie studios are under-invested, and we expect big increases in Spanish for that category. Hispanics are more likely to go to movies on opening weekend, and in bigger numbers,” he said.

Univision  which enjoyed a breakthrough earlier this year when it outperformed NBC to finish fourth-place in the February sweeps – will present its broadcast upfront May 14 at Manhattan’s New Amsterdam Theatre. A big emphasis will be placed on the company’s promotional power across all of its platforms – two broadcast networks, 10 cable networks, 52 tv stations and 70 radio stations, along with digital brands, Mandala said.
 
“Our country is not only changing, it has changed. The Hispanic market is 17 percent of the total population. It’s the only part of the broadcast television business that’s growing,” Mandala said. “The challenge lies not only in helping people think differently, but also engaging them to act differently.”

According to Mike Rosen, executive VP of network sales and integrated marketing for Telemundo, its upfront presentation is no longer as much about selling as it is about getting the word out to the press and letting the public know about it.

Telemundo, which presents May 14 at Jazz at Lincoln Center, precedes its upfront with “partnership development meetings” held with advertisers during April.

“We sit down at the table with our key clients and find out from them what it’s going to take to drive their business results in the Hispanic marketplace. That’s when we really start to develop the true integrated partnerships so many of our clients are looking for,” Rosen said. “What we talk about in April is what we will transact against once the upfront starts.”

He also anticipates growth in cinema advertising, as well as in pharmaceuticals.

“Virtually every ad category is probably underspent against Hispanics,” Rosen contended. “Now the key is to prove that the investment is going to develop the right ROI, and therefore the decision to increase their investment becomes an easier one.”

“The great part of being part of the fastest-growing demographic in the country and having a media brand that speaks to a young, vibrant Latino audience is that everybody wants a piece of this audience,” said mun2 General Manager Diana Mogollon, who anticipates yet another increase this year, with growth in product categories across the board.

“We’ve been very lucky that our batting average has been much better than average,” she said about Youth-oriented mun2, a cable channel that carries programming in both Spanish and English. “Last year, we launched four originals, and all four are on again next year. Three of them are No. 1 in their time period.”

The success, she explained, is about “balance of product,” which for her network is a blend of reality, sports and music. “It’s always perfecting your secret sauce… what’s going to be your DNA?  What’s going to help you best to attract the audience?”

Discovery U.S. Hispanic’s two Hispanic brands distributed in the U.S. — Discovery en Espanol and Discovery Familia – will make their annual upfront presentation May 14 at Gotham Hall. According to General Manager Ivan Barguieras, since the cable networks are available only on Spanish-language tiers, they’re in a different ballpark from their broadcast brethren.

“We continue gaining traction and momentum, and every quarter we break a record,” he said. “Because of where Discovery is located in terms of its distribution tier, the challenge is in expanding our reach and working with our partners and our distributors to allow for Discovery en Espanol to be delivered to more Hispanic homes.”

Jennifer Lopez will be the center of attraction at nuvoTV’s upfront presentation, being held May 15 at the Edison Ballroom. Lopez, whose Nuyorican production company is developing original programming for the English-language Latino cable network, will join executives in presenting nuvoTV’s schedule.

Craig Geller, senior VP of advertising sales for nuvoTV, said the network’s target is the 37 million “modern Latinos” who consume most of their content in English, a unique segment he said is “underserved in terms of general-interest networks today.”

But it just might be the one segment that best represents where the market is headed.

“With the birth rate outstripping the immigration rate in the growth of the Hispanic marketplace, the second and third generation is really more and more about connecting with content that reflects their main language, which is English,” Geller said. “The nation has awakened to the power of this modern Latino.”

Later –
Tom Gilbert
05.09.13

Roberta Caploe: Editorial Director
Denise O’Connor: Group Publisher, Cynopsis Media
Diane K Schwartz: Senior Vice President, Media Communications Group

Cynopsis Ad Sales: Mike Farina | VP Sales & Marketing | 203-218-6480
Classifieds Sales: Trish Pihonak | Director of Operations & Content | 888-702-3858

Copyright Cynopsis 2013

All outgoing e-mails are scanned and sent out virus free. Copyright Cynopsis 2013