By Laurel Wentz
Mailed 2004-11-17
New Production Strategies Favor Brand Integration.
NEW YORK -- Product placement has come to scripted drama on U.S. Spanish-language TV.
The new development is an offshoot of NBC-owned Telemundo's efforts to be more relevant to its U.S. audience by producing all four of its hour-long nightly ”novelas," as the dramas are called, here rather than relying on imported programs from Latin America. In the past, those imports were the staples of U.S. Spanish-language TV networks.
Now, the 20 hours of weekly novelas that air between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. are homegrown productions that offer content integration opportunities never before available.
Verizon cell phones
For instance, the popular Spanish-language soap opera La Prisionera is the usual dramatic mix of star-crossed lovers, betrayal and wrongful imprisonment it always was except the plotline now includes demonstrations of call waiting and picture taking using Verizon Wireless cell phones.
“New genres also open up new opportunities. This month Telemundo began airing the first home improvement show on Spanish-language TV, called Asi Se Hace ("That's How You Do It") with product placement by Big Lots. Home Depot and Lowe's are believed to be negotiating with Telemundo to become part of home improvement shows.”
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