Univision's Lisa
Valentino
Univision
Last week Univision brought on digital veteran Lisa
Valentino from Conde Nast to help ramp up ad sales.
The former ESPN and Yahoo executive wants to help push
more big advertisers to shift resources and marketing dollars
toward targeting Hispanic consumers.
Valentino is also urging Facebook and Google to support
quality journalism, and wants the industry to tackle its
various measurement challenges.
Over the past few years, the Spanish language broadcasting giant
Univision has moved aggressively to expand both its digital, and
its non-Spanish media footprint.
In 2016 alone the company acquired the humor brand The Onion and
the remaining assets from Gawker Media (minus the now defunct
Gawker.com), while also taking
full control of Fusion, the millennial-aimed media property
the company launched with Disney in 2013.
At the same time, like every other traditional media powerhouse,
Univision has been trying to deliver its content to various
digital platforms while making money and protecting its still
lucrative TV business along the way.
To help lead that push forward, last summer, Univision installed
Tonia O’Connor as its first chief revenue officer. And last
Friday, the company introduced digital ad veteran Lisa Valentino
as its new executive vice president Revenue Innovation.
Valentino was most recently chief revenue officer for industry
and agency at Condé Nast. Prior to that role Valentino logged
stints at both ESPN and Yahoo. Business Insider caught up with
the sales executive to talk about her new gig and the state of
the ad business.
Mike Shields: What don't people realize about
the media habits of the US Hispanic audience? Are advertisers
spending enough to reach this demographic given its size and
growth?
Lisa Valentino: I think it’s fair to say that
many advertisers and buyers aren't fully aware of the enormous
buying power this segment represents, how and where it's growing,
and how Hispanics tend to be more loyal and attentive to brands
that respectfully and effectively communicate with them as
consumers. Even in 2018, there's still a huge learning curve in
our industry. In my last role, I listened to many of our Fortune
100 partners speak to the need to reach a more culturally diverse
consumer in an authentic way. That presents a tremendous
opportunity for us.
Shields: What do you think are some of the most
glaring areas of need in the ad industry right now?
Valentino: Some of the biggest challenges
we face include updating our measurement system – i.e. Nielsen –
to more accurately reflect consumer behavior especially as it
relates to video. As you know, video viewing is up, it’s
just occurring differently across multiple platforms especially
with younger consumers.
Shields: What about taking on Google and
Facebook for digital ad budgets? It seems harder than ever. Are
they a friend to media companies?
Valentino: I believe we will see a
commitment towards quality journalism and premium storytelling.
The ecosystem and business models have to support the
continued creation of a high quality product and the duopoly
hasn’t gotten there yet. I also believe we will see continued
consolidation and new forms of partnership emerge which will
create less reliance on one or two platforms. It’s a great
time to be attached to a brand that stands for something and we
want to help lead the change.
Shields: We haven't heard as much noise
regarding the big Hispanic broadcasters in terms of doing things
like Snapchat Discover or shows on Facebook Watch or even getting
distribution on new digital cable alternative (e.g. 'skinny
bundles.') Will we see a more aggressive push on these fronts?
Valentino: Well, that's the unfortunate thing
that some in our industry are unaware. Univision has already been
among the first of any traditional media to jump onto Sling TV,
develop co-productions with Netflix, introduce direct to-consumer
subscription linear and library services, stream live sports on
Facebook and more. The company’s leadership in experimentation
and pressing the digital envelope is another reason I felt this
was a great fit for me. And, we’re just getting started in
terms of innovative partnerships.
Shields: You're coming back to a big TV-centric
company that's trying to get more digital after several years at
Conde Nast. What do you think about that kind of shift?
Valentino: These are rapid days of
transformation for all of media and I’ve always been drawn to
premium brands that have strong credibility with consumers. I
began to notice that Univision has not been sitting idly by as
they navigate the complex sea change in consumer consumption.
Whether it's been their embrace of digital-first brands like
Gizmodo and The Onion or their partnerships with Netflix and
Facebook, they clearly are looking at new ways to leverage their
strong brand. Quite simply the invitation to help them innovate
the business model in this dynamic space was just too exciting to
pass up.
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