Univision and Televisa might be engaged in a nasty court battle in Los Angeles, but the company they own and operate together, TuTv is showing no signs of disturbance and is in fact gearing up to step up marketing efforts for 2009.
“We are sort of like the Switzerland [in the conflict,]” said Chris Fager, president and CEO of Los Angeles-based TuTV, the Univision and Televisa joint-venture founded in 2002.
TuTv, whose programming hails from Mexico-based Grupo Televisa, has a distribution of about 2 million Hispanic households, and features popular video channels in the country in addition to a large library of Spanish-language films. TuTv’s marketing strategy centers on sweepstakes and promotions relevant to its target audiences and carried out in conjunction with the carriers as strategic partners.
In Los Angeles, for example, TuTv last year partnered with Time Warner Cable to offer free admission to the movie screening of Los Paquetes de Paquita, a comedy starring popular Mexican actress María Victoria, who was on hand to meet and greet fans. The promotion, done with the sponsorship of local media outlets, aimed at showing audiences some of the titles available in TuTv’s De Película and De Película Clásico movie channels.
“We are focused on results,” said Ariela Nerubay, vp of sales and marketing of TuTv, citing an August 2008 promotion in conjunction with Time Warner Cable, Desert Cities inviting “cable nevers” to sign up to Time Warner Cable’s digital combo to take part in a sweeptstakes, offering free tickets to an Alejandro Fernández concert in Los Angeles. The response rate was an unprecedented 2.83% surpassing by 30% the campaign goal and achieving a 12% growth in the tier.
TuTv has an ongoing marketing promotion in Bakersfield, Texas, with Bright House Networks, and is offering a DVD, CD combo to people who sign up for Bright House Network’s Extremo Pac, a $44.95 monthly package consisting of 30 Spanish-language channels and 43 English-language channels in addition to free VOD.
According to Nerubay, similar efforts are on the way for the summer in the New York City area.
