No Longer Considered (such of) A Minority Player On TV
2017 is the year for brands interested in targeting a Hispanic American audience! Historically networks such as Univision and Telemundo were the two primary distributors of Hispanic American targeted programming, and oh have the times changed! Shows like Orange Is The New Black and Jane The Virgin with Emmy-award nominated casts have made the networks take notice, and revamp their own programming slates to ensure they don’t miss out on ad dollars and eyeballs.
Even big name shows like The Walking Dead and The Flash have high ratings with Hispanics as many of the core characters are of Latino decent. In this blog post, Hollywood Branded takes a look at new (and returning) television shows with some of the top Latino and Latina talent targeting Hispanics that should be top of mind for product placement and integration partnerships.
Hispanics In TV Today
Today’s TV series are becoming much more multi-cultural in nature, with stand-out starring roles helmed by some of today’s hottest Hispanic female and male talent. Not only is there a rise in the quantity (and quality!) of shows, but also an increase in the development of relevant storylines to the Hispanic audience.
TV Shows To Keep In Mind
This list is by no means entirely comprehensive, and new programs come along weekly. But they are some of our favorites that are either currently airing, or going into production soon.
Based on the network, opportunities for brands may exist for:
- Product Placement (loan/trade of product to appear on show) or
- Branded Integration (fee paid to have a guarantee – and possibly bigger footprint – on the show.)
Additionally, there may be possible options to:
- Extend the partnership with a supported media buy, or
- Co-brand the show within advertising content for retail or co-branded media campaigns for the brand.
Scripted TV Series
CLUB DE CUERVO (Netflix)
Club de Cuervos is a Mexican comedy-drama web TV series produced by Gary Alazraki and Michael Lam. It is the first Spanish-language Netflix original series. The story centers on the football club Cuervos FC, based in the fictional city of Nuevo Toledo, Mexico, and the power struggle that follows the death of its long-time owner and patriarch, with the two siblings fighting over the ownership and direction of the team.
CAST: Luis Gerardo Méndez and Mariana Treviño
JANE THE VIRGIN (The CW)
Jane The Virgin is a satirical romantic comedy-drama telenovela, that debuted on the CW in October 2014. The show is a loose adaption of Venezuelan telenovela, Juana la Virgen. The series stars Gina Rodriguez as Jane Villanueva, a working, young Latina virgin, who becomes pregnant after being artificially inseminated by mistake. The show has received critical acclaim since its premiere with Gina Rodriguez taking home a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The series has also received the Peabody Award, an AFI award and has been nominated for the Critics' Choice Awards as well as the TCA awards.
CAST: Gina Rodriguez, Yale Grobglas, Justin Baldoni, Andrea Navedo, Ivonne Coll, Jaime Camil, Yara Martinez and narrated by Anthony Mendez.
EAST LOS HIGH (Hulu)
The five time Emmy-nominated show East Los High revolves around lives of a group of teenagers navigating their final years at a fictional high school in east Los Angeles. The series is Hulu's first with an all Latino cast.
CAST: Vannessa Vasquez, Gabriel , Danielle Vega, Alexandra Rodriquez, Carlito Olivero and JD Pardo.
LOPEZ (TV LAND)
Comic George Lopez stars as a fictionalized version of himself in this in this autobiographical sitcom. Lopez portrays America's most successful Hispanic comedian who struggles between two worlds. He feels that he is too rich to go back to his Latino, working class-roots, but feels too ethnic to fit into the world of affluent celebrities. He faces a number of problems and crises - many of which are a result of of his own doing. It's all tied in to Lopez's real-life insecurities and inability to connect, which the comedian says are "all part of my charm."
CAST: George Lopez, Masiela Lusha, Constance Marie, Luis Armand Garcia, Valente Rodriguez.
THE FOSTERS (Freeform which is the rebrand of ABC Family)
Executive Produced by Jennifer Lopez, The Fosters is an American family drama that follows the lives of the title Foster family led by lesbian couple Stef and Lena, a cop and school administrator respectivley, who raise a multi-ethnic blended family that consists of one biological and four adopted children in San Diego, California.
CAST: Cierra Ramriez
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK (Netflix)
Orange is the New Black is a Netflix original series based on the book with the same title. Piper Chapman is a public relations executive with a career and a fiance when her past suddenly catches up to her. In her mid-30s she is sentenced to spend time in a minimum security women's prison in Connecticut for her association with a drug runner 10 years earlier. Forced to trade power suits for prison orange, Chapman makes her way through the corrections system and adjusts to life behind bars, making friends with the many eccentric, unusual and unexpected people she meets.
CAST: Dascha Polanco, Selenis Leyva
NARCOS (Netflix)
For brands interested in period dramas, Netflix takes on the infamous Medellín drug cartel in "Narcos," which follows the rise and fall of Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar and the Drug Enforcement Agency agents hunting him. The story is told largely from the points of view of Escobar, played by Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, and U.S. DEA Agent Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook), on opposite sides of what would become an all-out war. The gritty drama begins with the early days of the drug battle, when the biggest offenders were "hippies in flip-flops" caught with up to a kilo of marijuana, continuing to the violent, bloody battles between members of the cartel peddling tons of kilos of cocaine and drug agents from Colombia, Mexico, and the U.S. -- a struggle estimated to have cost at least 4,000 lives over two decades. Pedro Pascal ("Game of Thrones") co-stars as Mexican DEA Agent Javier Peña.
CAST: Wagner Moura, Pedro Pascal
CHICAGO FIRE (NBC)
The firefighters, rescue squad members and paramedics of Chicago Firehouse 51 are deeply committed to their rewarding and exhilarating jobs, despite their inherent danger and stressors in Chicago Fire. The truck company is led by Lt. Matthew Casey, who sometimes butts head with the leader of the rescue squad, the brash Lt. Kelly Severide. Regardless of personal tension, when it's time to face the job, all the courageous team members quickly put their issues aside and their lives on the line.
CAST: Monica Raymond
SHADES OF BLUE (NBC)
Shades of Blue stars Jennifer Lopez as New York detective Harlee Santos, a single mother who runs with a group of dirty cops, taking her cut of the bribes and protection money to give her bright promising daughter the best life possible and a leg up for a better future. However, all good things must come to an end and she is caught by the FBI, which forces her to turn informant on her cop family. Harlee struggles to walk a line between loyalty, honor and betrayal, all the while working to keep everything to together for her daughter.
CAST: Jennifer Lopez
BALLERS (HBO)
Ballers is HBO's top hit comedy series and explores the lives of a group of former and active professional football players, their families, wives, girlfriends, friends and handlers, in what is Entourage for the sports world.
CAST: Dwayne Johnson
HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER (ABC)
Annalise Keating (Oscar-nominated,Tony-winning actress Viola Davis) is a brilliant, charismatic and seductive professor of defense law, who teaches a class called How to Get Away With Murder. Annalise, also a criminal defense attorney, selects a group of students -- the best and the brightest -- to assist with cases at her firm alongside her employees, the trustworthy and discreet Frank Delfino (Charlie Weber) and Bonnie Winterbottom ("Gilmore Girls" alum Liza Weil), an associate attorney. Mysteries arise that test everyone's limits and reveal dark truths.
CAST: Lauyren Velez
SUPERSTORE (NBC)
This workplace comedy, is similar to "The Office", but this time forsaking a desk-bound environment for the world of retail. The giant megastore where Amy works is staffed by employees with a wide range time served under their company-issued smocks, from summer hires to committed for-life managers. Together they all must face the daily grind of bargin hunters, the madness of door-bustling sales and painfully boring training sessions, forging alliances along the way.
CAST: America Ferrera
PURE GENIUS (CBS)
From the executive producer of Parenthood and Friday Night Lights comes a unique medical drama centered around a young Silicon Valley tech billionaire who builds the ultimate cutting-edge hospital that treats only the most rare and insurmountable medical mysteries—at no cost. Lending credibility to this new venture is a maverick surgeon who’s the first to discover that his boss’s mission is to get bureaucracy out of medicine, use the most forward thinkers in technology, and just save lives—including his own.
Cast: Odette Annable
QUEEN OF THE SOUTH (USA)
While living in the barrio of Jalisco, Mexico, poor Teresa Mendoza falls in love with a member of a successful drug cartel, hoping the love will help her rise above the hopelessness she feels in her life. When it doesn't happen, she is forced to flee country after her boyfriend is murdered. She lands refuge in America, where she teams up with an unlikely person from her past to take down the leader of the drug ring that is after her. In Queen of the South, Teresa ends up starting her own drug empire, becoming one of world's wealthiest women in the process. With her success, she discovers that money doesn't fix all all of her problems, and she can only depend on herself if she wants to stay one step ahead and stay alive.
CAST: Alice Braga
Scripted TV Series That Are Pilots
Why would a brand even want to get involved at the pilot stage of a project? Because your presences in the pilot could possibly lock out competition depending on the brand category, create a first look "placeholder" for your brand to be fitted into when the show is picked up, and create friends with a production crew that can make magic happen for you later on.
LATINO SIBLING COMEDY (ABC) *Pilot In Development
ABC has put into development a single-camera sibling comedy from veterans Peter Murrieta and Bobby Bowman. The project, starring Latino Comedians Felipe Esparaza and Dustin Ybarra, is produced by 3 Arts and ABC Studios.
CAST: Peter Murrietta and Bobby Bowman
Talk Shows... and Reality
Extra (NBC)
Extra, a daily syndicated newsmagazine delivers the latest in celebrity buzz, ranging from couples breaking up and making up to action on the Hollywood singles scene. Currently hosted by actor Mario López, the show also covers the latest events in the entertainment industry -- including award shows and movie premieres -- often heading to the red carpet to ask celebrities about what they're wearing. The show always features an extensive lineup of celebrity interviews, during which the stars discuss their latest projects.
CAST: Mario Lopez
THE REAL (Daytime Syndication)
BASKETBALL WIVES LOS ANGELES (VH1)
Basketball Wives LA follows the lives of a gropu of women with relationships to some of the biggest basketball players in the game. VH1's hit series returns for its most explosive season yet - and welcomes Evelyn Lozada, who previously was on Basketball Wives, into the group. Lozada will be joined by Keonna Green, who just had her second child with Nick Young, Aja Metoyer, who has a 3-year-old with Dwyane Wade and the original cast Shaunie O'Neal, Tami Roman and Jackie Christie.
CAST: Evelyn Lozada
TOTAL BELLAS (E!)
Nikki and Brie are part of the main cast for the reality television show Total Divas, which began airing in 2013, and they got their own spinoff series Total Bellas in 2016. The series provides an intimate look into the women's immediate family and their partners, WWE stars Daniel Bryan and John Cena respectively
CAST: Nikki and Brie Bella
AMERICAN LATINO (LNTV)
American Latino TV is a half hour-program that celebrates American Latino pride. The weekly, award winning half-hour show sets the standard for culturally relevant television for young, U.S. born Latinos in the United States.
CAST: Valery M. Ortiz, Lilliana Vazquez, Natasha Martinez
ELZ (LNTV)
ELZ takes you deep into American Latino culture, with aspirational stories that explore the lives of today's leading entertainers, athletes, and activists. ELZ features interviews with Latin celebrities, musical artists, and, more importantly, everyday dreamers doing extraordianry and inspirational things.
CAST: Lili Fifeld (host of the show)
THE LYLA'S (WeTV)
Sisters to Bruno Mars... The Lylas are fierce, independent women, leaving their home - and in some cases their relationships and kids - for a chance at pursuing their love of music. Their story is one filled with all of the drama and chaos that comes from making a major life change, with the added spice of doing it alongside your sisters.
CAST: Jaime Kailani, Tiara, Tahiti and Presley Hernandez
LATINATION (LNTV)
Join host Humberto as LatiNation takes an entertaining and in-depth look at the impact of the Latino experience on American culture. From investigative exposes to talk show discussions, from pop culture to politics, nothing is off limits on LatiNation.
CAST: Humberto (host)
LIVIN' LOZADA (OWN)
Former "Basketball Wives" star Evelyn Lozada gets her own show, showcasing her personal and professional lives, along with her daughter, model Shaniece Hairston. Lozada is busy, from learning to be a mother again - she has a young son with her fiance Carl Crawford - to setting up a new home in Los Angeles and working on getting her new book published. Add to to that to-do list dealing with family issues back East, and Lozada has a full plate in front of her. Shaniece seeks mom's advice and sometimes utilizes it as she works on launching her own bikin line while contining to pusue her burgeoning modeling career. The show features the ladies' family and close friends, who offer their support as Evelyn moves on from her past and Shaniece looks toward adulthood and her new life.
CAST: Evelyn Lozada
And so many more - check back as we'll keep updating this blog!
Another Option To Target Hispanic Fans – Music Brand Partnerships
Brands interested in the Hispanic demo should also consider music video artist partnerships. With names like Jennifer Lopez, Pitbull, Shakira, Christina Aguielera, Marc Anthony, Carlos Santana, Fergie (1/18th!), Bruno Mars, Demo Lovato, Dave Navarro, and dozens other.
Artists are hand chosen for each campaign based on their own specific fan follower, and campaigns can be created that range from brand integration to social media overlay and even retail store music download and Point of Sale partnerships. Media buy pre-roll options for the videos can extend the partnerships as well. And best of all? Super-fast implementation for brands at the ready, with partnerships executed within 2 to 8 weeks’ time frame if wanted.
Here are a few case studies of some music video partnerships orchestrated by our agency.
- Estelle and sparkling wine partner Rosa Regale – Thank You music video and extended campaign
- Jason Derulo social media stunt and partnership with PassionRoses – Talk Dirty Album Release
- Sean Paul and motor oil partner Royal Purple - She Doesn’t Mind
Next Steps To Directly Target Hispanics Via TV Shows
And this is just the tip of the iceberg of shows with strong Latino and Latina actresses.
Have you ever wondered how a comprehensive product placement program works? Or do you want to know how to create a promotional partnership strategy with a movie partner? This video will answer all of your questions as it shows the steps and processes taken by Hollywood Branded that lead to your brand increasing both consumer engagement and sales!
