Mark your calendar for Mediaweek, October 29-30 in New York City. We’ll unpack the biggest shifts shaping the future of media—from tv to retail media to tech—and how marketers can prep to stay ahead. Register with early-bird rates before sale ends!
To kick off TelevisaUnivision‘s 2024 upfront, attendees were treated to a vivacious opening number: an original song written and composed by the TelevisaUnivision music team, Carlos Marmo and Agustin Barreto. The number was choreographed and directed by Luis Salgado, from hit Broadway shows In the Heights and On Your Feet; featured Manny Marquez (On Your Feet) on percussion; and included performers from R.Evolución Latina, a company of Hispanic Broadway artists.
The audience would have never been able to tell that the first full dress rehearsal had taken place only 48 hours before.
In our latest upfront postmortem chat (see NBCUniversal and Fox), TelevisaUnivision president of U.S. advertising sales and marketing Donna Speciale sat down with ADWEEK and opened up about the logistics behind the Spanish-language media company’s vivacious opening number, why this summer will be a big one for the network’s live programming and the strategy behind its nontraditional upfront.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
ADWEEK: Donna, your special thing for the upfront is always a buzzy topic. Last year, it was playing with the soccer team, and the year before that, it was the big salsa number. Tell us everything about what went into this year’s grandiose kickoff.
Speciale: First, it was important for us to shine a light on the power of the consumer in a new and different way. Each year, we try to do something different. And, to be honest, the team hid it from me for a while. They were not sharing it. But they kept telling me that they were working on this spectacular opening number. And I appreciate all the work they did. The talent resources that we used are in-house. We had a lot of individuals in our own company that did the script and all the writing of that number. To me, that was so impressive.
Luis Salgado, the choreographer from In the Heights and On Your Feet, was thrilled to collaborate with us and his [nonprofit organization] R.Evolución Latina and provide all the professional theatrical singers with diverse cultural backgrounds from all over Broadway. That was important. Then, we also incorporated percussionist Manny Marquez … and it brought it all together. I love the inclusivity and the community involvement of this number.