TelevisaUnivision is launching a Hispanic identity graph that does something most other third-party data generally doesn't—accurately identify most U.S. Hispanics.

The media company, which talked about developing the data graph during last year's upfronts, is finally ready to put it to use. It tested the result via Truthset, a company that grades data from multiple providers by matching hashed email addresses to compare the accuracy of their records against other databases of known quality. Truthset found TelevisaUnivision's data substantially outperformed other providers on reach and accuracy with Hispanic households.

Four multicultural marketing lessons from top executives

Identifying U.S. Hispanic and other multicultural audiences has been a challenge for third-party data providers: 15 third-party databases on average covered only 59% of the Hispanic market and accurately identified people as Hispanic only 83% of the time, according to a Truthset analysis from the fourth quarter of 2021, reported earlier this year by the Association of National Advertisers’ Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing. That added up to only 49% visibility into the U.S. Hispanic market, which represented no progress since the third quarter of 2020.

By contrast, Truthset found TelevisaUnivision’s Hispanic data graph covered 85% of U.S. Hispanics with an accuracy rate of 86%. That combines for a visibility score of 73%. It’s still far from perfect, but it closes nearly half the gap from other providers.

TelevisaUnivision is billing it as the biggest and most accurate picture available of the U.S. Hispanic audience for use by agencies and marketers in developing media plans, by other media companies, and by data and analytics providers to improve their products.

“One of the biggest watchouts with all the conversations happening with new TV currencies is that we believe there hasn’t been enough focus on representation,” said Donna Speciale, president of sales and marketing for TelevisaUnivision. “Hispanics and minority media have definitely been under-represented in a lot of these data sets, which is why we took a really big stance a year ago to say that we need to create this household graph.”

RSVP for Ad Age In-Depth: TV Pivot on May 24 and 25 at AdAge.com/TVPivot

The media company will formally unveil the Hispanic identity graph during its May 17 upfront presentation.

“The graph is here so agencies and advertisers can use that information, connect with their data, and better speak to and engage with our consumers across linear and digital,” said Dan Aversano, senior VP of data, analytics and advanced advertising for TelevisaUnivision. “They can also use it to activate outside of our media. We have lots of partnerships with other inventory owners, and we’re creating those partnerships all the time to direct their inventory with our data to find Hispanics even outside of our portfolio.”Aversano said the company “recognizes that other data owners and vendors are struggling right now,” adding that “we’re just starting to scratch the surface on this concept of data enrichment.” TelevisaUnivision's data could ultimately help improve representation of Hispanics across U.S. marketing and among TV measurement currencies specifically, he said.

Subscribe to Ad Age now for the latest industry news and analysis.

TelevisaUnivision should be applauded for being among the first media companies to use Truthset to validate its Hispanic audience data for accuracy, said Wes Waterston, head of partnerships for Truthset. “It’s a huge step forward in their commitment to multicultural representation and data quality,” he said.

While TelevisaUnivision is happy with what it’s done so far, Aversano said it also will continue to work to improve the reach and accuracy of its data.