Cynopsis: What’s the pitch?
Craig Geller: We have four core messages we went out to the marketplace with: growth, sustainability, stability and the anchor, which is getting a real handle on what advertisers are looking for in this market. When you’re standing in front of 1000 of your closest friends, you’re speaking at them, not with them, and we want to make sure that we were speaking with them.

As far a growth, we’ve had incredible ratings performance growth throughout the last 15 months, and that speaks to [president and CEO] Manuel Abud and his vision and his working with our programming department to determine what this audience is looking for. We’ve grown in every daypart, and our growth in prime time against people 18-49 was up 41 percent year over year. At the core of that growth has been 18-34.

When it comes to sustainability, we have a pipeline of content because of our ability to get content from multiple sources. Our parent company produces over 79,000 hours of content, we get to go to places like Colombia and Spain for product, and we have originally produced for the U.S. We’ve been able to go to the marketplace during this Upfront and show them our pipeline, and what is a counter-programming strategy. We don’t have a novela in our lineup. It’s not that we don’t think it’s a good product, but until we find something that is really going to resonate and keep our trajectory of growth, we’re going with a counter-programming of the game show hour at 7, reality at 8, newsmagazine at 9, and then we go head to head with dramatic series at 10.

That leads to stability. The advertising community wants to know that they have a place that’s not going to change and they’re not going to have liability. You also have to have a crown jewel, and we’re home to Mexican League soccer. We own the broadcast rights to four teams in the U.S. and we physically own two teams.

And we’ve done a lot of consultative selling in talking to advertisers, which is sell for solutions, making sure their brand is connected with this important audience.

Cynopsis: What are advertisers responding to?
Geller: This marketplace, with everyone running around trying to decide which party to go to, call that the traditional Upfront. But there’s nothing traditional about how media is being consumed or how media will be purchased. It’s about answering the call of, “What are you solving for me?”. We went to the marketplace and showed, “Hey, by the way, in addition to having soccer, which people migrate to, there is a change that’s going on in Spanish-language television.” We’re seeing that people are going for this counter-programming strategy.

The second is, technology that connects the mobile or tablet screen to the television, a program called RPM, Real Participation Media – talking to those that multi-task while they’re watching. We’ve created an opportunity where we’re going to talk to the audience on-screen – there’s a poll, there’s a survey, there’s participation needed to help us move this program forward. Viewers will be prompted on where to go to begin engagement with RPM at the beginning of the show. They log on and absolutely see themselves on TV.
 
The other side of that is it takes us into the world of data-driven media – we’re becoming a whole lot smarter about who that consumer is. Western Union has signed on as our first partner on RPM.

There seems to be this thought that, “What I program for the TV should be the same as what I program for my digital streams.” We’re taking a different approach – while we want the look, feel, taste to be Azteca, we also recognize what people go to their digital content for online is a little different. We’ve put together an entire programming format called “The Better Life,” to really address the needs and wants of this audience that is on their mobile device or our web site. It answers the call of what’s important.

We also recognize that native advertising is taking a different fold, so we announced the opening of the Azteca Glassworks Digital Studio. The fundamental thing for us here is storytelling. We recognize that our distribution platforms, broadcast, our digital platforms and mobile platforms, are powerful, but we also recognize that that content needs to be shareable.

Cynopsis: Have you jumped into programmatic TV?
Geller: From a technical standpoint, we’ve gotten into programmatic TV. We have built the infrastructure on the back end to make sure that when programmatic folks want to connect, we’re ready to go. It’s not about trying to discount our inventory, it’s about the inventory that becomes premium, because you take all those data streams that show how well Azteca indexes, and we have great stories. Mass appeal is really fragmented. Mass participation is really where people are going, and this audience that we actually speak with are mass participating with multiple brands in multiple categories. 

Cynopsis: How do you stand out from the pack?
Geller: By having one-on-one sessions, versus talking at them in an arena, we were able to have very deep conversations, and coming out of those we have guidelines on what we have to do moving forward. The consultative approach is really going out and saying, We’re here to give you a significant audience, help us understand what you’re looking for, as the paradigm of media has changed dramatically.

Cynopsis: What new categories do you hope to break?
Geller: We’re looking for growth among all categories; the outliers are financials and pharmaceuticals. It has to be a marketing decision long before it becomes a media decision, so as an industry we need to continue to be ambassadors.

Cynopsis: What might marketers be surprised to learn about Azteca America?
Geller: How we’re approaching the marketplace. They were extremely pleased about our growth. We hear about fragmentation; I think they were really pleased to hear

that in terms of audience composition we have a higher concentration of 18-34 year olds than both Univision and Telemundo.

Most people appreciated that we listen. God gave us two ears and one mouth, and most salespeople speak twice as much as they listen.

Cynopsis: What kinds of multi-platform offerings are available to advertisers?
Geller: We’re not going to force a square peg in a round hole, so for us it’s about recognizing what the client’s initiatives are and making sure we have a screen to do so. We’re device agnostic – we truly believe that the television screen is still the greatest mass medium in the business. That’s not going to change. So we’re going to continue to be a media company that diversifies its portfolio across all screens, and with that comes the opportunity for advertisers, and our viewers, to come along.

Cynopsis: What programming is most resonating with advertisers?
Geller: What’s connecting with our advertisers is programming that has a deep level of engagement and with the amount of growth we’re having, there’s not one hour of prime time or early fringe that is not making advertisers excited. They’re having a tough time finding this person that’s 18-34 or 18-49, and that’s our core.

We have a program coming up called “Rabia,” and I will tell you that it is some of the finest, well-produced TV content, regardless of language. If you turn it on even if you don’t speak the language, you would say this is ready for prime time or even a movie. It is just that good. I’m really excited about our ability to bring content that this audience has not been exposed to. What Azteca’s doing really well is making sure that this audience that is searching for choice, is finding opportunity. We’re not afraid to step out. And the audience has voted, and we’re winning, one day at a time.

Just the Facts
– Azteca America is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca, S.A.B de Cv., one of the two largest producers of Spanish-language content in the world.

– Azteca’s core programming drove growth over April 2015 among A18-49, with The Winning Hour’s Escape Perfecto increasing +74%, adventure reality series Desafio gaining +44% and Kaçak increased +58% in the demo. Azteca reached an unduplicated prime time audience of 3.2 million viewers and 1.6 million among A18-49 for the month.

– KAZA in Los Angeles and KPDF in Phoenix were the fastest-growing Spanish-language broadcasters in their respective markets among A18-49. Several markets delivered double-digit growth in the demo, including Los Angeles (+61%), Houston (+25%) and Phoenix (+19%).

GET WITH THE PROGRAM(MING)

New to Azteca for 2016-2017: Game show Ahora Caigo, a crossword-style game added to the 7p “Winning Hour” block of interactive, family-friendly shows; adventure reality show Desafio at 8p, pitting players against each other as they battle the forces of nature; and as dramatic series fill the 10p hour, Rabia focuses on a group of people who escape quarantine during an outbreak of rabies.

Returning programs include midday entertainment show Venga la Alegria, celebrity news show Ventaneando, newsmagazine Al Extremo, game shows Todo o Nada and Escape Perfecto, Mexican reality show La Isla and First Division league soccer matches Friday and Saturday nights on Primetime Futbol.

Roberta Caploe: Publisher @robertacaploe
Diane K Schwartz: Senior Vice President, Media Communications Group

Cynopsis Ad Sales: Mike Farina | VP, Sales | 203-218-6480
Cynopsis Job Listings Sales: Trish Pihonak | Director of Operations | 203-899-8459

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