Adriana Cisneros - NATPE Today Caracas, tomorrow the world

ADRIANA CISNEROS NATPE Daily 2012 . Day 1 . January 23

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When Adriana Cisneroslooks north to the U.S.market, she’s really

thinking about Venezuela. Becausewhen the Cisneros group ofcompanies takes something to theinternational market – whether it’stelenovelas for Latin America or thescripted ideas it’s currently pushingon the Big Five networks in theU.S. – the idea is often informed byextensive test flights over its nativecountry.

Venezuela, home of theCisneros-owned Venevisionbroadcast network and its manycorporate siblings, acts as alaboratory for the group’s mediaholdings, she explains, in no smallpart because Venezuelans are somad for social media.

"We have an amazing advantagebecause, for some bizarre reason,it’s a very interactive, social country,”she says of the fourth or fifth busiestcountry on Twitter and the seventhbusiest on Facebook. “We pickedup on this and started designingnew productions that have a 360-degree approach – making all ourproductions completely interactive,”and appealing to viewers youngerthan the typical telenovela fan.

That was five years ago, aroundthe time the granddaughter offounder Diego Cisneros steppedinto her role as vice chairman anddirector of strategy at the familycompany. Back then, interactivemeant setting up Facebook pagesand she pulled what she admitswas a less-than-innovativecompany into the 21st century. Nowthe Cisneros Group is keen onsocial TV applications like GetGlue,which, similar to the Foursquareapp, allow viewers to ‘check-in’ toprograms.

The company is also close to adeal with Argentina-based socialTV service ComentaTV on a roll-out in Venezuela. “For the nextthree years we’re going to be veryfocused on continuing to learn andexplore social TV,” says Cisneros.

Cisneros Group is also investingin ‘TV everywhere’ technology sothat its content can be screen-agnostic, just as the company looks

to be a border-agnostic playeracross Latin America.

That said, Cisneros says the riseof netcasting – she expects Netflixwill do well in Lat Am – is changingprogramming tastes across theregion. Viewers are getting so usedto seeing content from so manydifferent territories, thanks to theinternet, that taboos against localmaterial are starting to fade away,she says.

Latin American media firms usedto live by the rule of avoidingspecific references to a particular

country, she notes. “But we nolonger have to create content thathas to work well in all countries.There could be great value inseeing programming that’s actuallya very specific snapshot situated ina specific country.”

Lessons learned in SouthAmerica often apply in the North,where the U.S. Hispanic market isgrowing rapidly. When Cisnerossold its telenovela Eva Luna tolongtime partner Univision, theratings surprised even thestatisticians at Nielsen.

The ratings company calledCisneros to say that two millionyoung Hispanic viewers had“appeared out of nowhere” to watchthe show, which arrived on theSpanish-language U.S. networkwith ample interactive add-ons.Nielsen hadn’t known that thoseviewers even existed.

Eva Luna was “the first soap we’ddone in the U.S. where we broughtover all our knowledge ofinteractive strategy fromVenezuela,” she says. It’s now thetemplate on which all thecompany’s other Univision showsare based – both for additionaltelenovelas and upcoming projectsthat look to push the traditionalboundaries of the U.S. Hispanicmarket.

But as the U.S. market grows,

so does interest from networksother than Univision. Cisneros saysthe company is also “startingconversations” on possible co-productions with the Big FiveEnglish-language majors – offeringtheir expertise on Hispanics inexchange for getting a foot inHollywood’s door.

“I’m telling the networks theyneed to have the Hispanic market;there are 55 million in the U.S. anda lot of them really like watching TVin English. They need programmingthat will bring them to theirnetworks, so why not, whencreating a new sitcom or series, letus help you give it a Latinundertone?”

Cisneros says the company hasone such project that is set in Miamiamid a circle of American women.“But it has a very strong Latinaaspect,” a subtle combo of music,culture and setting that will lureHispanics without alienating Anglos.

Cisneros points to Modern Familyand its Latin cast as an example.The ABC series is “step one,” shesays, “but we need to do things witha little more sophistication, a littlemore depth.”

Hear more from Adriana Cisnerosin the Thought Leadership one-on-one session today at 11:00 a.m. inthe Fontaine Ballroom.

“U.S. networks need the

Hispanic market – there

are 55 million in the U.S.

and a lot of them like

watching TV in English.” Adriana Cisneros

Cisneros Group’s Adriana Cisneros tells Sean Davidson how the company test-flies ideas in Venezuela before takingthem abroad and how she’s now taking those ideas into the English-speaking U.S. market.

Today Caracas,tomorrow the world Cisneros telenovela Eva Luna

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