A new film created with Toyota sounds the turning of the ignition on a new venture from TelevisaUnivision aimed at generating more interest from advertisers for the company’s Spanish-language media offerings.
Así Studios aims to produce inspirational films that speak to Spanish-speaking viewers and can appear across TelevisaUnivision’s linear, streaming, digital and audio properties. The entity’s first creation, “Imparable: Ismael Guzmán, tells the story of a Texas man who has dedicated two decades of his life to helping the youth of East Austin play soccer. It features the Toyota Tundra — Guzmán and his family have long driven the car — and will appear across the company’s holdings, including its ViX streaming hub and its TUDN Spanish-language sports network,.,
“We feel like there are a lot of stories about our audience that show the positive impact the have on America and those need to be told, and told by brands,” says Dan Riess, executive vice president and chief growth officer of U.S. advertising at TelevisaUnivision, in an interivew. “A big of marketing now is making sure brands are helping and being constructive.”
The company launches the studio just a few weeks ahead of the industry’s annual upfront, when U.S. TV networks try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory ahead of their next programming cycle. Last year, Univision secured double-digit percentage increases in advanced ad commitments for both broadcast and cable. Since that time, the company has merged with Televisa to create a bigger portfolio of Spanish-language media properties.
Caroline Olkowski, who has logged stints at Vice and Snap, among other places will work as the head of Así Studios, with filmmaker Alberto Ferreras serving as creative executive-in-residence and Oneil Vargas-Estevez as director of production.
“We are excited to partner with the TelevisaUnivision team on the launch of Así Studios, providing an innovative platform that created a wonderful opportunity to feature the story of the Guzmán family along with the all-new Tundra,” says Ann Dragovits, media manager, integrated marketing operations at Toyota Motor North America, in a statement. “This partnership allows the brand to be part of creative and culturally relevant storytelling that showcases our vehicles in an authentic way for our Hispanic audiences.”
Not every effort from Así Studios will be documentary style, Riess says. The company views the new effort as a means of serving not only current clients, but reaching new ones. TelevisaUnivsion would like to make more inroads among financial and pharmaceutical marketers, says Riess. Viewers can expect to see other projects debut soon. “We have others coming that we can’t announce yet,” says Riess. “We have a full slate.”