TelevisaUnivision Sells Out Copa América Adverts
Manufacturers that didn’t purchase into Copa América protection must watch the match last from house like several staff not from Argentina or Colombia: Advert house is formally bought out.
Conmebol’s first Copa América in america since 2016 has been an enormous success for TelevisaUnivision, whose stay sports activities protection at the moment accounts for 19 of the highest 20 Spanish-language packages aired within the U.S. throughout 2024. For the reason that match began on June 20, TelevisaUnivision has been the No. 1 community in primetime in any language, based on the corporate.
General, Copa matches have accounted for 8 of the 12 months’s prime 10 Spanish-language telecasts.
Among the many highlights, Mexico’s draw with Ecuador on June 30 attracted 3 million complete viewers. Although Mexico was eradicated within the group stage, it averaged greater than 2 million viewers for Univision throughout its run.
Moreover, Lionel Messi-led Argentina’s win over Canada within the semifinal drew 1.17 million viewers, whereas his Barcelona/Inter Miami teammate Luis Suarez and Uruguay’s loss to Colombia introduced 1.3 million. Even the quarterfinals averaged 1 million viewers, led by the 1.4 million who noticed Argentina defeat Ecuador.
TelevisaUnivision’s Copa América protection by way of the semifinals was seen by 44% extra folks than its 2021 Copa protection, and by an viewers 23% better than Fox managed this 12 months for a similar match.
Alongside the way in which, TelevisaUnivision’s Asi Studios branded content material department helped Copa sponsor Mastercard create an advert that includes former Mexican nationwide staff participant Hector Herrera and Ted Lasso actor Cristo Fernandez subbing in for a neighborhood enterprise proprietor. It additionally labored with Verizon on a fan-centered social advert throughout Mexico’s 1-0 loss to Venezuela in Los Angeles.
ADWEEK spoke with John Kozack, TelevisaUnivision’s evp of multimedia gross sales, about placing up large numbers in large moments and harnessing the facility of a rising fanbase in sports activities advertising.
ADWEEK: TelevisaUnivision is wrapping up each its Copa América and Euro protection this weekend. How have the 2 tournaments labored out for the corporate concurrently?
Kozack: We’re the house of soccer. During the last month, what we’ve seen within the outcomes have simply bolstered it between Copa América and UEFA Euro Championships.
It’s been unbelievable for us. Now we have dream matchups: Three out of the 4 groups [in the Copa semifinals] had been Spanish-speaking international locations, so it couldn’t have gone higher with Colombia and Argentina enjoying within the last on Sunday. This could possibly be Messi’s final soccer match for the nationwide staff, so that is going to do blockbuster rankings for us. On Sunday, now we have the UEFA Euro Championship, after which we go proper into Copa América.
You’ve bought out your advert stock for Copa América. What does that imply for TelevisaUnivision’s sports activities protection traditionally, and the way did you get there?
We’ve been promoting this for a 12 months, and now we’re bought out. It’s good to say as a result of this has been the highest-grossing income match ever for Univision, excluding the World Cup. We’ve seen super success, and we’ve seen blue chip manufacturers coming in from Verizon, who purchased out the entire class for us, after which Constellation, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Samsung … all leaning into soccer, and there’s loads of momentum.
When do you know Copa América was going to promote out, and what helped push it over the road?
The massive sponsors—even Verizon shopping for out the wi-fi class—occurred some time in the past, proper in final 12 months’s upfront. Then what we’ve seen is, because the match has gone on and the matchups and the fanático round Argentina, Messi and Colombia [grew]—and, by the way in which, the U.S. and Mexico didn’t fare so nicely, and it didn’t harm us in any respect—that is the match that U.S. Hispanics care about as a result of each single staff has followers [here]. We had an excellent base laid in with sponsors throughout all of our platforms.
Because the match went on, the rankings success we had and the way we’ve been in a position to evangelize it available in the market, we actually bought out this week due to these dream matchups.
With Copa América sponsors, together with Mastercard and Lowe’s utilizing Lionel Messi’s presence, and Verizon and Diploma partaking with followers and gamers from across the match—relatively than simply the U.S. or Mexican nationwide groups—do you’re feeling that helped enhance TelevisaUnivision’s worth as a platform?
Sure. We’ve identified this for years, however soccer is exploding within the U.S., and we may be very near that tipping level. Copa América is only one factor that’s going to assist, and having it in america was very good by [governing body Conmebol], and there’s little question it helped our gross sales.
How did Copa affect the way in which that you just approached gross sales and pitched potential consumers?
The strategy hasn’t modified as a result of we all know we’re the house of soccer. What has modified is now that now we have Asi Studios, our branded content material capabilities, that’s completely different. We haven’t executed that earlier than. Now we have our streaming service VIX, Asi Studios and our social creators, so we push this content material out and attain all people at scale now. That’s the distinction between this 12 months’s Copa América and our soccer versus 5 years in the past or 4 years in the past.
How can you use your Copa expertise to plan for future tournaments?
These tournaments appeal to the whole Hispanic U.S. inhabitants.
In case you’re a fan of Colombia, you’re all in. In case you’re a fan of Panama, you’re all in. Then you could have the broader groups like Argentina, Brazil, after all the U.S. right here, so we need to be in all places our customers are. You’ll be able to’t simply be on linear TV nor would you need to. You need to purchase our content material that we push out on all of our social handles, you need to purchase our content material on our streaming service … so it’s actually about maximizing attain, and all of our advertisers get that.
{The marketplace} has modified and continues to be dynamic. However the excellent news is now we have these platforms to be in all places our audiences are, and that’s an enormous distinction from the place our firm was three years in the past.
Because the advert gross sales panorama shifts and consumers weigh the deserves of conventional 30- and 60-second spots towards programmatic and built-in advertisements, TelevisaUnivision’s Copa América protection appeared to achieve discovering a stability alongside that spectrum. How do you discover that equilibrium?
You need to have stay sports activities. In case you’re a writer, it’s worthwhile to have stay sports activities.
Now we have stay sports activities, we’re the house of soccer and our linear enterprise is powerful. It’s sturdy with stay sports activities. It begins there, fairly frankly. And in the event you have a look at Univision, we’re speaking about Copa América in our morning present, Despierta America, after which in a few of our daytime reveals. It lives all through our ecosystem. The Verizon Halftime Report—that also issues, and that’s nonetheless the place you get the mass attain.
On Sunday, now we have the Euro Championship—Spain versus England— at about 3 p.m. Jap time. Then now we have the Copa América on the identical day at 8 p.m. What we’ve executed is in between these two video games, we name it a bridge present, and we’re going to host a studio present the place all the things about what you simply noticed through the Euro, after which we’re going to preview the Copa América last in primetime. Now we have to point out that we simply created to maintain viewers engaged.
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