ESPN tomorrow will launch the “first Spanish television ad for the network’s signature news program,” according to Amy Chozick of the N.Y. TIMES. The ad, known as “Handshakes,” follows Yankees 2B Robinson Cano “as he makes his way around ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., headquarters giving high-fives and elaborate handshakes to staff members while unknowingly spreading a cold.” The ad’s debut coincides with MLB’s Opening Day and “is the first time the network will show a Spanish ad on both ESPN Deportes, its Spanish-language sports channel, and its English-language sister channel ESPN2.” A “slightly modified English version will be broadcast” during ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” program. ESPN Deportes GM Lino Garcia said that the “preponderance of Caribbean and Latin American baseball players like Mr. Cano, who is Dominican, also prompted ESPN to operate on a more bilingual basis.” ESPN Senior VP/Marketing Carol Kruse said that “rather than dubbing or adding Spanish subtitles … it was important to make an entirely new commercial targeted at Hispanics.” The “Esto es SportsCenter” ad, via Wieden & Kennedy, N.Y., comes as ESPN Deportes “faces increased competition in delivering sports programming to the growing Hispanic audience.” Univision Communications, parent company of “the most-watched Spanish language network, will introduce Univision Deportes” on Saturday. The soccer-driven sports channel “will make programming available in and outside the home via Dish Network.” Comcast’s NBCUniversal also is “ramping up sports on its Spanish-language network Telemundo. Tomorrow, Telemundo will “introduce an Olympics promotion with the tagline ‘Vivimos Juntos el Sueño Olímpico’ (‘Together We Live the Olympic Dream’) alerting viewers to the channel’s coverage of the London Games this summer” (N.Y. TIMES, 4/3).
