A Brand New World
The Product is The Star on Hispanic TV
by Laura Martinez -- Multichannel News, 12/16/2007 7:00:00 PM
Late last month, a large shipment of Macy’s shoes, handbags, leather coats and accessories landed in the Manhattan offices of Azteca America, where a couple of network executives were ready to fly the merchandise to its Mexico City studios.
The reason for the haul: Macy’s sponsors Ventaneando, the Mexico-produced daily celebrity gossip show. As part of the sponsorship package, each of the show’s hosts starting Dec. 3 began modeling and giving away merchandise from Macy’s, which has committed $600,000 for a 13-week sponsorship.
“What better way to sell your product than with live, on-air product integration?” asked Azteca America president of network sales Bob Turner. “That’s as good as it gets.”
Product integration and its close relative branded entertainment are by no means new in Spanish-language television; but the trend has accelerated in the past few years as marketers seek creative ways to engage consumers with TiVo-proof pitches that transcend the 30-second-spot. Just like their general market counterparts, Hispanic television outlets have embraced product integration and extended it to their online and mobile platforms, making some programming seem like one big product pitch.
Though there isn’t any specific data (Nielsen Media Research’s Web-based product-integration measurement tool Place*Views only tracks ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, The CW and MyNetworkTV), product integration represents an important chunk of the ad buys on some of the smaller networks.
“I think over 80% of the ad buys [we get] have some kind of product integration or sponsorship attached to them,” said Danny Crowe, president and founder of bilingual music and entertainment network LATV.
LATV this year teamed up with AT&T to produce its first “Battle of the Bands” talent search. The sponsorship package consisted of several on-air promotions for AT&T, as well as 30-second-spots and some Web advertising.
Crowe called his network “product-integration friendly,” mostly because all of its content is original and it is constantly producing updated content. “If a need comes up to quickly create custom product integration opportunity for an advertiser we can do that,” he said.
Another outlet pushing for product integration and branded entertainment is Sí TV, the Los Angeles-based English-language network targeting 18- to 34-year-old Latinos. “Branded entertainment is extremely important to us,” said CEO Michael Schwimmer. “It is important for the advertiser because it allows them to create a deeper connection with the adult, Latino audiences; and it’s important for us as an emerging network without Nielsen ratings. It allows us to attract bigger advertisers and bigger dollars than we would otherwise.”
One way Sí TV integrates brands into its programming can be seen in “Movie Twins,” a series of 90-second interstitials in which twins Annie and Alicia go through a series of adventures surrounding a movie release. In a recent episode promoting the release of Spider-Man 3, for example, the twins experience a series of street adventures while driving in a brand new Kia, whose features and logo appear prominently throughout the short.
Schwimmer said Sí TV produces between 12 to 15 of these interstitials each year. They represent a classic example of the new ways to integrate a brand in the programming. “We script, shoot, edit and do all from the ground up,” he said. “And what our advertiser gets is a custom piece of programming showcasing their product.” Other advertisers that have been featured in “Movie Twins” include Volkswagen, Twix, Maybelline, Verizon Wireless, Lionsgate and Sony Pictures.
Sí TV, which is currently available in 16 million homes, is now putting a special emphasis on two new Web sites, sientertainment.sitv.com and sitrends.sitv.com, which focus on user-generated material but also feature content and talent from Sí TV programming. Verizon Wireless and AOL Latino are partners in the new sites, which offer advertisers two more platforms to pitch products to young Latinos and integrate brands into content. “Remember: our audience is not simply sitting on the couch watching TV,” Schwimmer said.
NEXT BIG HIT
For those still watching from the couch, Telemundo’s primetime programming is by far ahead of the curve when it comes to product integration. Since 2002, when it was acquired by NBC for $2.7 billion, the Spanish-language network has made a point of pitching itself as the haven for U.S.-based advertisers trying to reach growing Latino audiences through mostly original programming. But while the strategy has been in place for years now, it was this year that Telemundo signed its largest product-integration deal.
In March, Telemundo launched telenovela Dame Chocolate, which deeply integrated Clorox into the plot. The production, which marked the brand’s first venture into branded entertainment in the U.S. Hispanic market, had an international scope as the telenovela was sold in several countries.
According to Patricio Wills, president of Telemundo Studios, there were over 200 uses of the Clorox brand in Dame Chocolate, which then had to be manipulated to fit the five different names by which Clorox is known in other Spanish-speaking countries.
Telemundo categorizes Dame Chocolate as one of its top 10 telenovelas of all times, but the network is planning an even bolder move for the summer: airing a telenovela completely commercial-free, supported only by brand integration.
The idea behind Idolos de Juventud, which follows a group of young students through their studies at a music and arts school, is to integrate a brand from the very beginning of the series, even before it’s written. “This is something we call concept integration,” Wills said.
800-POUND GORILLA
Many broadcast and cable executives insist that producing their own programming gives them an advantage over 800-pound gorilla Univision, which imports most of its high-rated primetime fare from Grupo Televisa. But even as Univision is limited in what it can do with Televisa’s programming, it has signed several branded entertainment deals for the programs it does produce, and extended them onto its radio, online and mobile platforms (see Q&A with Univision’s David Lawenda, page 31).
Univision has engaged plenty of advertisers in shows such as Sábado Gigante, El Show de Cristina, Escándalo TV and most recently Cómo Ama Una Mujer, the five-part dramatic series executive produced by Jennifer López.
For Cómo Ama Una Mujer, Univision lined up a list of blue chip sponsors including Garnier Fructis, Visa and General Motors, which integrated their brands either as part of the storyline or placed prominently on the screen.
More recently, on the day after Thanksgiving, Univision viewers were treated to a one-hour broadcast special with Mexico’s pop and mariachi singer Alejandro Fernández. The show, The Christmas Gift, featured never-before-seen footage of the artist, and was entirely sponsored by JCPenney, one of the nation’s top 40 advertisers in Hispanic media.
“The challenge was to create visibility for the brand but in a way that went beyond the 30-second spot,” said Salma Gottfried, executive director at Dallas-based Dieste Harmel & Partners, J.C. Penney’s Hispanic ad agency and a partner in the Univision sponsorship deal. “We are trying to evolve with the market; it is not anymore about the 30-second spot,” she said.
At press time, Univision was preparing the Dec. 14 broadcast of Nuestra Navidad, a Christmas music special it co-produces with Estefan Enterprises, and which this year will be presented by Target.
Marketers and TV executives insist product integration has to be carefully planned out for the strategy not to backfire or scare away audiences. But the bottom line remains: Is the investment paying off?
“I personally don’t like to be bombarded with advertising, but I can understand why this type of advertising is efficient,” said Federico Subervi, professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University and director of the Latinos and Media Project. “For a mass audience, if a star or TV personality you admire tells you he or she feels better in a certain car or shopping at a certain store, they will feel good about it too.”
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