"The intensity of the relationship and the connection with the brand is like nothing I have ever experienced," said McCauley, who added that he rarely had such experiences when he worked for sports cable channel ESPN. "That is going to be the focus of our message this year."
For its part, NBC Universal's Telemundo has teamed up with Clorox, IKEA and other brands to integrate their products into the story line or as part of the sets of Telemundo's \o7telenovelas.\f7 Unlike Univision, which buys its \o7novelas \f7from Mexican network Televisa, Telemundo is producing its own soap operas and is using them to entice advertisers.
"We can sit down with clients and say, 'OK, tell us what your business needs are' and then we can create original content," Telemundo President Don Browne said.
Univision, which maintains that the majority of its viewers are bilingual, says its "sweet spot" is the audience that all advertisers covet: adults ages 18 to 34. According to Nielsen Television Index, Univision drew more viewers in this age group than any other network 41% of the time during the sweeps period in February.
Telemundo, a distant second to Univision in market share, also says its largest viewership is bilingual, though its age group skews older.
On a weekday afternoon or evening, the typical Telemundo and Univision viewer would seem like the ideal customer for toy manufacturer Fisher-Price: young mothers or grandmothers.
But Fisher-Price dropped its Spanish-language television campaign in 2005 after concluding that it was reaching Latinas with young children on English television and with grass-roots print advertising.
"We have found that [Spanish-language campaign] didn't increase awareness ... because it was readily understood in English," said Brenda Andolina, director of brand marketing for Fisher-Price. She noted that ads for toys, showing happy children playing with cheerful music in the background, faced few language barriers.
For Fisher-Price parent Mattel Inc., the lack of weekday children's programming on Spanish-language television is a problem. To hawk Hot Wheels or Barbie, Mattel goes to Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel, which are big with the elementary school-age crowd.
Beyond that, Spanish-language TV isn't valued as highly as English because there's less variety in the prime-time lineup. Original episodes of popular shows air once a week on an English-language network, but on Univision and Telemundo, prime time is dominated by the same \o7telenovelas \f7series every night\o7.\f7
