Behind the Scenes of the Most Non-Upfront 2024 Upfront, Casa Cultura

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.

I didn’t even imagine it, and they basically brought it to me about a week-and-a-half before the upfront. They wanted it all fleshed out. And Luis, literally a week before, sent me a video of the steps.

A week before is crazy. What would you have done if you disagreed with the idea? What would have been the backup plan?

Listen, I trust them implicitly. We have been working on the vision of what we wanted for months. So, we were all pretty much in lockstep on what we wanted to do. Being in New York, in a theater that was Latin-owned—it was everything that we were trying to do and bring it to life. It sets the stage.

Shakira was there—did she see it?

I didn’t get to talk to Shakira about it, but she was as surprised as everybody else when she saw it on stage. But we’re really happy that Shakira was there. Univision is her family. We’re excited about [soccer tournament] Copa América and about her song representing it for us. I think everybody was really excited about the outcome.

Let’s talk a little bit about the nontraditional format. This was an upfront event that did not feel like an upfront. Can you tell us a little bit about the strategy behind it?

I loved it. We transformed the venue into Casa Cultura. It was to ensure that our community that we served was not [only] heard, but also felt. We [TelevisaUnivision] live and breathe Hispanic culture and the Hispanic audience 24/7. But a lot of our marketers and a lot of the people in that audience don’t. So, it was important for us to bring culture front and center for everybody in that audience to know what we know and feel what we feel every day.

The food came from the different [Latin-owned] places within New York. The soccer jerseys with personalization were about converting them into fans. Having them feel the fandom of what fútbol is all about. That was a huge hit—you couldn’t get into the space.

Latin culture is just special. We wanted everybody to experience its uniqueness—their vibrancy, their immense pride in their culture. We’re going to take that thread line from Casa Cultura, and you’re going to see a lot of it. It’s not a one-time-only thing for us.

Love that. Now, can you tell us anything about early negotiations following this beautiful upfront? What have the conversations been like coming out of Wednesday?

Yes, upfront is a point in time, but we are talking to our marketers 365 days a year. So, this is an ongoing process. We have been talking to them for months. English-language is definitely being commoditized. There are a lot of streaming services out there that are doing all the same old stuff. Obviously, content is crucial. But we are unique.

And our linear business is important to us. That is where the cultural moments begin and live. Our tentpoles are there. The 25th anniversary of the Latin Grammy Awards in November is critical. Premios Juventud in the summer. And now this summer with Copa. It’s life. And this is where consumers come for their passion points, and marketers are now seeing it. But we’re unique, and that’s why I think we’re going to fare very well this upfront.

And last year, the Super Bowl announcement was a big splash. How did that do?

It was the most watched Super Bowl on a Spanish-language network ever, and it’s been broadcast in Spanish since 2014. So, it was historical. The National Football League was really happy. We had more than 90 hours of coverage in the entire week leading up to the Big Game. We leaned in with [shows like] Despierta América!, and we were promoting it all throughout the week, which I think helped with the historical numbers.

We’re excited to continue to diversify our sports portfolio for our clients. For fútbol, we have over 50% of the coverage of the country. But diversifying our sports for the Hispanic audiences is definitely a priority for us. This is going to be the biggest summer of soccer for us and for the Hispanic audience. There’s nothing like Copa, and having it in the U.S. is going to be huge. We’re excited, and we’re going to be announcing some really big sponsors.

Last year, you said that 2022 is about change and 2023 was about differentiation. What was the main 2024 upfront message for TelevisaUnivision?

It’s clear and simple: 2024 is all about putting culture front and center. Marketers know that culture drives all consumer behavior. And we are a giant culture platform with hundreds of touchpoints across our entire portfolio with our four networks, our streaming service, all of our capabilities. [We are] leaning into news, sports, entertainment.

We have every cultural moment and passion point that our audience needs, and culture is at the center of everything we do. And everything we do is basically 95% live. That’s also a very unique proposition across the landscape.

OK, my last question for you is a very easy one: Will we see you and TelevisaUnivision back at upfronts next year?

Of course! Listen, our upfront, regardless of the format—and I loved our format this year—is a really important moment time for marketers to see and feel the power of our community. Like I said, we live and breathe it 24/7, but it’s an exclusive growth driver for their business. And this is their moment and our moment to bring it to life.

So yes, we will be back with a vengeance. Hispanics are 20% of the population, and they’re still only receiving 2% of the investment. So, until every client is investing in U.S. Hispanic audience in the appropriate scale, we aren’t going anywhere.