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2016 Hispanic TV Upfront Report
TOTAL EXPOSURE, MULTIPLATFORM DELIVERY FOR MULTICULTURAL SPORTS FANS
ESPN Deportes, like Telemundo, will be sharing its Upfront plans with media buyers and clients as part of a “total market” presentation hosted by its bigger general market sibling. It’s part of a new effort to pitch advertisers on multicultural, rather than only Latino, marketing opportunities.
“We’ve transformed a little bit.”
That may be a bit of an understatement from John Fitzgerald, VP/Sales at ESPN and head of its Multicultural Ad Sales Group.
In April, Freddy Rolón succeeded the recently departed Lino Garcia as vice president and general manager of ESPN Deportes. Rolón reports to Russell Wolff, executive vice president and managing director of ESPN International. Rolón was previously VP of programming and business initiatives at ESPN Deportes, a role he had held since 2011.
With the change, ESPN Deportes officially rolled its Upfront presentation into that of bigger sibling ESPN, set for 9:15am on Tuesday, May 17 at New York’s Minskoff Theatre. Just two years ago, guests were whisked to a VIP breakfast Upfront experience at the Hearst Tower focused exclusively on ESPN Deportes via a livery service, with key network talent in the vehicles at the ready for one-on-one conversations.
“The landscape is at that point where, for ESPN, it made sense to say, ‘Let’s do one Upfront,” Fitzgerald explains. “We want to show how important ESPN Deportes is to those attending the larger Upfront presentation.”
In an interview for the 2016 Hispanic Upfront TV Report, Fitzgerald focused the discussion on big events airing on both ESPN and ESPN Deportes, and the multicultural advertising opportunity ESPN Deportes provides advertisers who will also place their buys on ESPN.
“We are all fans of the finals, or the opening night baseball game,” Fitzgerald says. “These are highly engaging moments, and we’ve surrounded them across all of our networks.”
With the Hispanic sports fan, there are little differences, he explains. ESPN Deportes can provide the “total market” solution so many advertisers now seek.
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