The 2023 upfront will be a tipping point for TelevisaUnivision, said Donna Speciale, the media company’s president of U.S. advertising sales and marketing. Since joining the company in 2021 (prior to Univision’s merger with Grupo Televisa last year), Speciale has considered herself an educator for the industry on the value of the Hispanic audience, which TelevisaUnivision specializes in.

As Speciale’s third upfront presentation with the company draws near, the sales chief said efforts to transform TelevisaUnivision’s salesforce and build its measurement and data capabilities have finally reached a level playing field with the legacy TV companies that make up the rest of the upfront week. Speciale will come to the negotiations this year touting the reach of TelevisaUnivision's streaming service ViX, which hit 25 million users on its free, ad-supported tier. The company did not reveal subscription numbers for its premium subscription ViX+.

On May 16, Speciale will take the stage of New York’s Pier 36 to deliver what she jokingly called a “one-hour hoo-ha” to advertisers. But more than revealing TelevisaUnivision’s content slate, Speciale said the upfront presentation is of particular importance to the company because “the majority of the people we do business with are not Latino. They’re not living and breathing it. So, this is our opportunity to bring it to life for them—to feel the passion and the culture for them to understand it.”

Keep track: 2023 TV upfronts and NewFronts calendar

Ad Age spoke with Speciale to discuss TelevisaUnivision’s strategy for this year’s dealmaking, its advantage over legacy TV competitors and how the economy will impact the market. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

As you’ve been on the ground talking with agencies and marketers for this year’s upfront, what common themes are rising to the top?

I think marketers are definitely leaning into where the consumers are—obviously, the consumer behavior has been leaning towards streaming. So a lot of the dialogue is about the streaming platforms, which obviously puts us at the forefront.

There are many streaming services that have entered the marketplace, with more now leaning into advertising messaging that weren’t before. But our audience is unique. When you put all the streamers in line, we have a unique audience and unique offering that all the other streamers don’t have and I think that’s what marketers are looking for: the uniqueness of what all the different streaming companies are bringing.

How do you approach selling TelevisaUnivision’s streaming inventory when brands can also go to everything from Netflix to YouTube to TikTok to also get a Spanish-speaking audience?

They can, but it’s not the same. We have a different audience. There’s a loyalty and a love and a passion and a connection that when a brand speaks to our audience, in their language and in their culture, it resonates very differently. These are all new consumers that they haven’t been speaking to in their language, and that is resonating a lot and they’re seeing the business results very quickly.

With advertisers being particularly budget conscious this year, plus competition from streaming, social and digital video platforms, how do you pitch ViX competitively?

The one area that marketers need to take a step back on is they’re oversaturated with the other media companies and English-language [programming]. The social platforms definitely have a benefit, but the key is what are marketers trying to do. Social can only go so far. They do want a balance of broad reach, which is why they’ve always leaned into broadcast and streaming and all the targeting capabilities. That’s where TelevisaUnivision comes in—we are a very unique, influential audience that basically serves a very different purpose for [marketers] in getting them their growth objectives that they haven't been getting before.

You mentioned advanced audiences. Is that a bigger push this year than it has been in the past?

We were building our capabilities when I first got here and now it’s basically up and running and at full capacity. Now with ViX being in its mature stage, we’ve been able to go cross-platform across the board, which is why obviously I’ve been leaning into [OpenAP’s Joint Industry Committee]. Cross-platform measurement across the board is critical—it’s critical for the marketers to really get that standardization across the board. But yes, we have been seeing a lot more marketers leaning into our audience capabilities across all the platforms.

Read more: How to transact on alternative currencies this year

What are you hearing from marketers and what are your expectations for how the economy is going to impact the upfront this year?

I think everybody is being very prescriptive and very choiceful on where they’re going to place their dollars. Timing will be key, because we all are seeing the economy just be volatile. Volatile, to me, doesn't mean that it’s down. Volatile means people are just cautious.

The one thing I can tell you so far this year, is that we had been the last place that marketers had been cutting if options were needed. That is a very different story than it was in the past. Hispanic is now going to be a very strong priority for these clients and these marketers in the upfront and scatter, and I’ve been seeing it in scatter.

What's your prediction for the conversation we’ll be having in a few months when these negotiations are wrapping up?

Marketers now are realizing the importance of the Hispanic audience, and you're going to see a shift of dollars and mindset into this audience and leaning into the culture and the storytelling. I have been watching the evolution over the past two years, and I truly, truly believe that marketers are just starting to see the results and are going to lean in more. We've added over 200 brands and clients over the past two years. That number will increase dramatically after this upfront, I can guarantee it.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing either you specifically or the sell-side in general heading into the season?

The volatility of the market. One day you read one headline, the next day read another. The headlines cause havoc sometimes. I think they’re headlines and not necessarily reality. The banking situation probably didn't help, but it calmed itself down.

The volatility is making everybody be a little cautious, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not spending. We’re having very successful scatter markets, the difference is the scatter is coming in later. Usually the scatter market happens in advance; scatter market now is happening closer to air, which is why I think the [upfront] timing might be a little slower. I don’t think that is a bad thing. [Marketers] are going to look at opportunities and where to place their money where they truly believe that they’re going to get the biggest bang for their buck.