Telemundo Taps Enrique Iglesias to Woo Madison Avenue

Executives at NBCUniversal’s Telemundo hope a new song captures the interest of advertisers as the industry’s “upfront” season gets underway.

Enrique Iglesias will hold forth at a private event for advertisers that Telemundo expects to launch the evening of Monday, May 15, part of an effort to talk about the Spanish-language network’s ratings momentum; a growing focus on programming based on musical themes; and Telemundo’s first broadcast of the World Cup in 2018. With the network notching significant gains in viewers between 18 and 49 in primetime, “we believe 2017-2018 will be a doubling down of that momentum,”said Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal International Group and NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, in an interview.

“It’s a big change,” he said of the coming World Cup broadcast. For years, the event’s broadcast has been the responsibility of rival Univision Communications. Telemundo can use the event as a promotional platform for other programming. And to get the word out, Telemundo hired ad agency Anomaly to promote its World Cup coverage and well as other soccer broadcasts.

The network has also focused on developing new programming genres. “Guerra de Idolos (War of Idols),” which debuted earlier this month, is billed as”the first original musical drama series in Spanish-language television,” and features actors who also sing and dance. Ford Motor Co and Subway struck advertising partnerships around the program. “It is in the spirit of ‘Empire,’” said Conde. Telemundo has also focused on running mini-series inspired by the lives of artists such as Celia Cruz, Nicky Jam and Jose Jose.

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