By: John Aceti
Univision Deportes once again holds the Spanish-language rights for the Concacaf Gold Cup this summer, but the net has added a number of new sponsors and activations around this year’s tournament, which begins Saturday. New sponsors include Valvoline, Uber Eats, Jeep and AT&T, adding to a list that already included brands like Constellation Brands, Sprint and Allstate. The roster of 20+ sponsors will see various activations across Univision’s coverage of the tournament, including a Wells Fargo-sponsored live polling feature on social media and a number of “sponsored moments” such as the Allstate “Save of the Game” or the Modelo Especial “Jugador Especial” (Player of the Game). One of the larger activations is a four-part digital series, “Tierra de Gigantes,” sponsored by Nissan, that will air on Univision’s Facebook and YouTube pages. The series will center around four Mexican national team players and their journeys as athletes.
HIGHLIGHT REEL: Another major activation this year comes by way of a new Univision Deportes partnership with Twitter. Real-time highlights from the Gold Cup will be featured on Twitter via live stream. By sharing top moments from the tournament on the social media platform, Univision President/Ad Sales & Marketing Steve Mandala is hoping to give viewers more ways to interact. He said, “We want to make sure that our viewers that are super fans have ways to engage as super fans.” AT&T, State Farm, Toyota and Walmart are some of the sponsors who will activate through this new Twitter partnership.
NUMBERS GAME: Univision Deportes will air all 31 matches of the ’19 Gold Cup, with many coming in primetime for U.S. markets. Given that the Gold Cup is the only tournament this summer featuring the U.S. and Mexican men’s national teams, the net is expecting big numbers for its coverage. Mandala said Univision Deportes has been able to see firsthand how much soccer has grown in the U.S. in recent years. Mandala: “The pie is getting bigger and we take a giant slice of that pie. … We deliver world-class soccer leagues and we do it really well, that’s why viewers come to us.”
Source: Sports Business Daily
