Multicultural Advertising Takes Over the NewFronts

Multicultural advertising pure-plays, including Canela Media, Estrella TV, Latination, MyCode, and Revry, took the stage in New York City, highlighting the key pillars of their offerings for the next 12 months. Other not exclusively diverse audience-targeted platforms like AtmosphereTV emphasized that 68% of its audience belongs to the highly coveted multicultural demographic.

IAB 2024 Newfronts: LATV Becomes LatiNation

Andres Palencia, CEO of LATV Networks, LLC, Bruno Ulloa, President, and Gisella Fu-Ripp, SVP of Sales, LATV, announced during their IAB Newfronts presentation that the company will now be called LatiNation, and LATV will become a unit of it. The reason is that the scope of offerings has expanded, with LatiNation now offering services for creative, branded content, video production, and influencer marketing with Latino creators to its clients.

IAB Newfront: Revry Steels the Show

Revry, a global streaming network launched in 2016 that focuses on queer content and creators, made a theatrical presentation which included Co-founder and CEO Damian Pelliccione and comedian and drag queen entertainer Murray Hill acting and singing in a Berlin 1920’s-like cabaret ensemble. Revry’s senior management promoted advertising in queer entertainment content to a full room of representatives of media agencies and brands. Hinting at the November elections and at the U.S. political environment. Pelliccione noted, “Now more than ever, your involvement in LGBT matters.” “It’s about obtaining social capital,” he added. 

MyCode’s Hispanic Unit is Now Remezcla Media Group

MyCode, a company that started as HCode ten years ago, first appeared at the IAB Newfronts. The Hispanic unit will now be called Remezcla Media Group by MyCode, reflecting MyCode’s 100% acquisition of Remezcla last December, when MyCode was bought by Ariel Alternatives, which bills itself as the first African American-owned mutual fund (check out Portada’s analysis here).

Edgar Hernandez, Chief Strategy Officer, My Code, explained that Remezcla will launch a FAST Channel dedicated to Gen Z Latino audiences and emerging Hispanic voices. In addition, the company will partner with GOAL.com, a global website dedicated to soccer, which will power Remezcla’s Copa America coverage. Among other announcements made by Alexandra Kennedy, EVP Commercial Strategy, My Code, Damian Benders, General Manager, B Code, and CRO Matt Weissbecker is a partnership with Crackle through which it is set to release six original series over the next year, including “Roots of the Rhymes. In the words of  Benders, the series will be “musically unique and authentically representative.”   My Code also announced a partnership with iSpot – a leader in the industry for syndicated real-time media measurement. and of Culture Code – a program that will celebrate music, arts, and entertainment, bringing together their brands into a diverse mosaic of storytelling through editorial and social-first series and experiential events.

“A series that will be musically unique and authentically representative.“

IAB Newfronts: Nielsen Alerts About Too Much Emphasis on Performance Marketing…

Ameneh Atai, GM of audience Measurement at Nielsen, said that according to a recently obtained brand marketer survey, 70% of brands plan to lean more on performance marketing in the future.  Atai acknowledged that performance marketing is suitable for conversion measurement and short-term sales. Yet, research has proven that sales will decay by at least a 1:1 ratio if brand equity decays. “Performance marketing only is not aligned with corporate KPIs such as full funnel ROI,” she said. “To focus on long-term growth, brands need planning and measurement solutions.”

Atai also explained that according to a Nielsen analysis of 230 brand advertisers, only 2 brands reach 90% of their target audience.

“Performance marketing only is not aligned with corporate KPI’s such as full funnel ROI.“

…and LG Ads Highlights new CTV Native Ads and Wants a Share of the Search Business.

Other Nielsen data presented highlighted that Black consumers spend the most media time, 81 hours monthly, out of which TV amounts to 44 hours (CTV 39). Regarding CTV consumption trends, Serge Matta, President of Global Ad Sales at LG Ad Solutions, and Tony Marlow, Global CMO of LG Ad Solutions, explained that the big news over the last 12 months is the ascension of AVOD (Advertising Video on Demand) with 80% of consumers liking AVOD and 69% preferring it over SVOD (Subscription video on demand). Another interesting data point presented by  LG Ads is that consumers, on average, are 11 minutes in discovery mode on their CTV channel when they choose what program they are interested in. According to Matta, this allows CTV native advertising to tap into consumers’ need for “enhanced content discoverability,” as consumers are highly engaged during the discovery process. Matta went one step further by saying that OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) like LG will become ‘discoverability engines.’ Other trends and upcoming offerings discussed by LG Ads executives include:

• AI: Dynamic creative swaps based on weather, audience, and time zone.
  
• Curated film collections that are brand-supported.
• Sponsored search through remote.
• Shoppable TV: Bringing shoppable ads from view to buy in one click.
  

  “Original equipment manufacturers will become ‘discoverability engines.“

IAB Newfronts: Canela Media-WB Partnership to Reach Bilingual Hispanics

Canela Media, represented by Oswald Méndez, Chief Marketing Officer; Matt Montemayor, SVP of Sales; Andrés Rincon, SVP of Sales, and Samantha Huggins, Enterprise Account Director, announced an exclusive partnership with Warner Brothers Discovery Conexión Latina, to reach bilingual U.S. Hispanic audiences, a large population that represents nearly two-thirds of U.S. Hispanic adults. They noted that “70% of Canela’ s audience does not watch Spanish-language broadcasts.” On the sports/soccer side, Canela will host an exclusive event with soccer legend Lionel Messi, in partnership with MARCA. The special with Lionel Messi will only be available on Canela.TV

Estrella Media: ‘Authentically Latino, Inherently American’

Estrella Media, whose content, digital, and commercial operations were recently acquired by MediaCo Holding Inc, announced a partnership with factual entertainment and media company Curiosity at the IAB Newfronts. Estrella will program three new curiosity content channels in Spanish, launching first on Samsung TV Plus: Curiosity Español, Curiosity Animales and Curiosity Motores. The presentation was made by Steve Mandala, Chief Revenue and Local Media Officer, and René Santaella, Chief Digital and Streaming Officer. EstrellaTV’s anchor and host, Nour Milla, presented audience insights. Mandala said, “We are a content company first, with strong distribution platforms making the content available anytime for our fans. Our content strategy of focusing on the brand of ‘topical entertainment’ focuses on how we entertain and inform – from our reality and competition shows, personality and pop culture series, and our award-winning news that has a tremendous impact during this election year.”