Telemundo’s hit reality series La Voz Kids (The Voice Kids) returned for its second season on Sunday night, drawing 2.1 million viewers with nearly 1.1 million in the 18-49 demo. Those numbers are up 27% in viewers and 12% among the demo compared with the first season premiere.
During the two-hour premiere, the Spanish-language network also unveiled three new sponsors—Kohl’s, Chrysler and Universal Orlando Resort—that joined returning sponsors AT&T and State Farm.
The Kohl’s sponsorship was part of an integrated deal negotiated during the upfront that gave the department store chain a similar presence in both the fall run of NBC’s The Voice and Telemundo’s La Voz Kids this spring.
“This deal is groundbreaking because it was negotiated for both NBCUniversal-owned networks during the last upfront and is an example for marketers going forward on ways they can integrate in both NBCU English-language and Spanish-language programming with similar concepts,” says Mike Rosen, executive VP of advertising sales & integrated marketing at Telemundo. “The same creative concept that Kohl’s used in The Voice on NBC last fall is now being used on La Voz Kids, only customized for a Hispanic audience. It shows how NBCU can reach across platforms and connect the dots for marketers.”
During La Voz Kids, Kohl’s is also sponsoring a custom broadcast and online content series titled Ritmo En Moda, hosted by La Voz Kids’ cohost Daisy Fuentes. And during the blind audition and live performance episodes of the series, Fuentes and a stylist from the show appear in the La Voz Kids Style Clubhouse, where they will discuss the looks and trends on the show featuring Kohl’s apparel and home décor items.
There is also a custom Kohl’s hub on the Telemundo digital platforms with extended versions of the TV segments and a “Shop the Look” photo gallery aimed at driving viewers to Kohls.com for potential merchandise purchases.
Sales Driver
Meanwhile, Chrysler has succeeded Ford as the exclusive auto sponsor of the show. Chrysler is using the partnership to introduce and promote its new 2015 Chrysler 200 model with integrations both during the show and online.
Rosen says not only did the timing of the series work well for Chrysler, but it also gave the automaker a chance to reach an audience segment it wanted to target.
“The opportunity for Chrysler to use La Voz Kids as a launch platform for its new 200 model was a natural fit,” Rosen says. “It aligned well with the show’s multicultural audience that’s at the forefront on pop culture. Telemundo is one of the ways Chrysler will be rolling this new brand out to consumers.”
AT&T returns as the exclusive wireless sponsor and the official voting sponsor of the show and it will present the winner of the singing competition with a $50,000 prize.
During the show, AT&T is sponsoring a branded “Friends and Family Room” during the first six episodes where AT&T devices will be on display for use by the hosts. There will also be an AT&T section on Telemundo.com.
AT&T’s sponsorship also extends to zeebox with features such as Spot Sync, custom zeetags for each show, sponsored content driving viewers to the La Voz Kids homepage and sponsored polling and voting by viewers on the platform. Among the sponsored videos is a feature about La Voz Kids premiere season winner Paola Guanche. Spot Sync allows commercials to appear in zeebox the same time they are appearing on the TV telecast.
State Farm returns as the exclusive insurance brand and is sponsoring on-air lounges where contestants are interviewed following their performances. In keeping with State Farm’s “Get to a Better State” theme, the contestants will be asked to discuss how their voice coach’s guidance has helped them with their performances.
State Farm is sponsoring a branded video channel with extended content from the show, and content from the blind auditions during the show will be offered exclusively on State Farm’s Latino Facebook page. Also, as it did last season, State Farm is sponsoring some airings of Quiero Tu Voz, a daily highlight segment airing on Telemundo, as well as promotional segments for the show on Telemundo’s daily newsmagazine Al Rojo Vivo.
Orlando’s Magic
Last season, La Voz Kids was filmed in studios in Miami, but this season the action is taking place at Universal Orlando Studios, which will give the studio and the Universal Orlando Resort lots of on-air and onsite exposure. Being part of the NBCUniversal family, Universal Orlando will also be a location where marketers can do on-site, experiential marketing events throughout the course of the season, Rosen says.
Universal Orlando is also holding contests to give away weekly prizes, including a grand prize trip to the resort. In addition to a recording contract with Universal Music, the season-two winner of La Voz Kids will receive a vacation trip for four to the resort as part of the prize package.
Rosen says Telemundo’s ability to produce its own programming allows it to integrate marketers into not only reality competition series and into its scripted novelas, but also into new content that it is creating online.
One such example is the newly created digital sports reality series titled La Cueva de la Fiera, which was launched last month. The weekly webisodes, produced in partnership with Chevrolet and featuring integrations of the Chevy Silverado, are based around Mexican soccer star Rafael “Rafa” Marquez and offers an inside look at the world of his current pro soccer team, Club León.
Chevrolet, a founding sponsor of One World Fútbol Project, for the past three years has been sponsoring the distribution of soccer balls to organizations working with youth in war-stricken zones, refugee camps and disaster areas. During one webisode, Marquez surprises a group of kids by appearing at a soccer clinic and giving out some of the balls.
The series is being promoted on popular Telemundo sports telecasts and there are also social media and other digital elements. La Cueva de la Fiera is the first reality series produced by Deportes Telemundo (Telemundo Sports) exclusively for digital.
“Our custom marketing solutions can take a lot of different forms,” Rosen says. “Since we have the ability to produce most of our content, we can integrate brands into the content and we can work together with marketers to create content for the various platforms.”
