ADWEEK’s upfront postmortem chats have included NBCUniversal, Fox, and Amazon, but now it’s TelevisaUnivision’s turn.
At TelevisaUnivision’s 2025 upfront event this week, guests at Hall des Lumières were treated to an opening performance by Prince Royce as well as an immersive presentation full of color, vibrancy, and energy to highlight Hispanic culture. Now, TelevisaUnivision’s president of U.S. advertising sales and marketing, Donna Speciale, is explaining how it all happened.
Speaking with ADWEEK, Speciale discussed the behind-the-scenes of the company’s event, the strategy behind TelevisaUnivision’s music initiatives, and what she’ll do differently next year.
ADWEEK: Congratulations on making it through upfront week. Looking back, what are you most proud of?
Speciale: The energy in the room was just electric. For us, what I’m most proud of is the story that we tell. We have a very unique story that’s different than most. We’ve always been rooted in culture and community, and we have a purpose. Our expertise in Hispanic is so deep, with 70 years of expertise, and we showed our investment. Our evolution is not stopping with all the announcements that we had—with our music strategy, with the microdramas, which I will tell you, clients are so excited about.
I’m getting so much great feedback about the microdramas and the extension of our music strategy because there’s no other media company that’s focusing on that the way we are.
This is the first time TelevisaUnivision hosted the upfront at Hall des Lumières. How was this new space compared to previous venues?
Our goal has always been to make it simple for everybody, but also to educate, so this space lent itself perfectly to really bring the vibrancy and have clients be immersed in the culture. You saw it around the walls. The projection that we were doing. When we had our sports up, you were immersed in the stadiums. You saw the immersions when we were talking about El Conquistador, and we immerse you into the Dominican Republic, into the forest, into the jungle.
The goal was to get our clients and our partners to be literally a field of vibrancy and the energy of the Hispanic culture. That’s what we try to do every time. I thought this space really brought it to life.
