Greg D'Alba, president, CNN News Networks and Turner Digital Ad Sales and Marketing
We anticipate the upfront market to be stronger than last year. This is largely driven by the census and the growing importance of the Hispanic market to advertisers.The categories that have been drawn more revenue include: Automotive, Telecom, Insurance and Financial. Weve seen increased activity across all categories, contributing to our double-digit revenue growth year-over-year. CNNE has attracted new advertisers like State Farm, Hyundai & Volkswagen.For CNNE, categories such as telecommunications, soft liquor and social networking categories are performing very strongly. This is due in part to the new programming line up which offers both lifestyles and entertainment content which are popular in the Hispanic Marketplace.Cross network synergies have been vital in helping us reach the bilingual side, two key examples to note include: CNNs Election Coverage – During the Florida debate, Wolf Blitzer had CNNE bilingual anchor, Juan Carlos López ask a question to the candidates from the Hispanic community in Miami. Our coverage has drawn clients such as Nissan to sponsor our election coverage on CNNE.Red Carpet coverage The sponsorship of the Red Carpet event on both HLN and CNNE has also drawn bilingual viewership and advertiser opportunities. This has brought clients such as VW to sponsor our Red Carpet events on both networks such as the Grammys.
