Telemundo and Ford are in the midst a multiplatform consumer engagement initiative aimed at educating U.S. Hispanics on the importance of voting, with Ford also being the sponsor of the televised presidential debates on the network, as well as sponsoring content on other platforms.
In addition to sponsoring the commercial-free coverage of the debates, Ford is featured in tagged vignettes, snipes and election customized segments on Telemundo news properties, Noticiero and Al Rojo Vivo, and on the network’s presidential Election Day coverage.
Billboards and snipes for Ford appear during the televised debates, and Ford commercials air following the debates, during the network’s analysis portion of the debates.
Ford also has a presence on telemundoyahoo.com, the joint online partnership between Telemundo and Yahoo, and on holamun2.com, the Web site for Telemundo’s sister cable network mun2.
The two sites offer Hispanic users political news, including custom content featuring candidates’ profiles, calendar of events, video streaming of on-air election segments and community boards, where users can access tools needed to engage in message boards and polls voicing their opinions on the political process.
Ford also is sponsoring content on an A La Mano mobile media component in five markets—New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and Dallas—where users can find political news by logging on to the local Telemundo station in those markets.
The mobile content and features include a Ford link, an exclusive Ford election site, a 30-second pre-roll ad, a local calendar of events, a polling location finder by zip code and address and an opt-in feature to receive election reminders via text messages.
Ford is also running televised spots on mun2 aimed at driving viewers to the Web and mobile sites, touting the availability of information on the voting process. And ads on Telemundo are also driving viewers to the other platforms.
Jackie Hernandez, chief operating officer at Telemundo, said the campaign involves six media components. “We are bringing this educational effort across every media platform we have,” Hernandez said. “And we are using every platform to drive people to the other platforms.”
The deal began with the first presidential debate on Sept. 26 and continued through the vice presidential debate on Oct. 2. After the Oct. 7 debate, the final presidential debate will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 15.
The deal was put together by Ford and its Hispanic media agency Zubi Agency in Miami.
“We are thrilled that Ford has partnered with us on this multimedia initiative focusing consumer engagement across our entire portfolio in our long-standing mission of service to the community,” Hernandez said.
In a related project, Telemundo is partnering with Innerscope Research to conduct the first biometric studies during the presidential debates. During the first debate on Sept. 26, 20 Democratic voters and 20 Republican voters wore specially-wired jackets that measured their emotional responses during the debates.
Telemundo was also able to gather information from those 40 people about their responses to Ford, whose billboards and snipes appeared on screen during the debate, as well as to the Ford commercials that ran during the analysis portion following the debates.
[Read More: mediaweek]