Latino cooking show looks for wine

UNIVISION PROGRAM WOULD INTEGRATE LABELS WITH CELEBRITY CHEFS

July 23, 2007
BY JEFF QUACKENBUSH

Spanish-language U.S. media giant Univision Communications is looking for wineries to plug their labels on a new gourmet-cooking program directed at young Latino women.

At the same time, the wine industry has been discovering the depth of largely untapped markets among younger, Latino and female consumers.

The New York-based company launched "¡Qué Sabor!" — "What Flavor!" in Spanish —on Univision's 5-year-old sister network TeleFutura at the end of April. Already, TeleFutura has the second-largest television viewership among Latino Americans ages 18 to 34, according to the Nielsen Station Hispanic Index.

The show is targeted at affluent Latinas in that age group with demonstrations by guest chefs on adding a Latin flavor on international dishes and interviews related to nutrition and food. The program launched in 15 markets nationwide and in Puerto Rico — Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Boston, Raleigh, N.C., Sacramento, Bakersfield and San Francisco — many of which are key wine markets.

The program airs on Bay Area affiliate KFSF 66 on Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. All or parts of the program are also rebroadcast on Univision's network of radio stations, including four in the Bay Area.

In May Nielsen figures, "¡Qué Sabor!" captured more young Latina viewers than daytime Saturday programs and beat out top mainstream primetime programming such as "Dancing With the Stars" and "CSI: Miami" among young Latino adults and Latinas ages 18 to 49, respectively.

Not surprisingly, given its food-and-wine orientation, "¡Qué Sabor!" has attracted more viewers in the Bay Area than in the other initial markets, according to Melanie Wellbeloved, marketing and research director for KFSF and Univision affiliate KDTV 14.

However, she said wineries have a huge opportunity to reach local buyers, with Latinos representing 18.3 percent of Bay Area beer purchases, 10.5 percent for spirits but only 7.5 percent for wine, according to research the stations commissioned from Global Insight Hispanic Market Monitor.

Wine slow to move to TV
Thus, TeleFutura plans to reach out to the wine industry with "product integration" into the show. The 13-week sponsorships can range from product and recipe mentions of a wine to having host Maggie Jimenez tape segments with a wine or come out for live product demonstrations. 

"Wineries are not the traditional television advertiser, so there are great opportunities for wineries to reach an untapped market," Ms. Wellbeloved said.

Part of the dearth of TV time for wine was a long-standing industry understanding to avoid such advertising. Getting more product integration sponsorship revenue is something television networks are exploring as digital video recorders make it easier for viewers to skip commercials, Ms. Wellbeloved said.

While cooking shows naturally lend themselves to product integration and wine is a perfect fit with gourmet food, wineries themselves can be a hindrance for Hispanic media, according to Ms. Wellbeloved.

"Sometimes, wineries are well-intentioned, but they do not have marketing collateral in Spanish to follow through with consumer inquiries or have distribution to stores Spanish-speaking shoppers frequent," she said, adding that the translation of collateral must be not only lingual but also cultural.

Robledo leader now consulting
That's where TeleFutura's quest to bring wine to their masses intersects with the 10-year passion of Vanessa Robledo, formerly president of Robledo Family Vineyards in Sonoma Valley and now in a marketing consulting role.

Her 31-year-old brother, Everardo, is now acting president of the 4-year-old winery. They both described her departure in May as a chance for her to use her marketing skills on a bigger stage.

She did that just a month later by opening her own wine marketing firm, The Vineyard Worker's Daughter, focusing on connecting wineries with Latino media.

"One of the roles Univision wants to play is educating their viewers on the types of wines out there," Ms. Robledo said.

Besides assisting the family winery, she is helping the Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers Alliance put on its 15th annual Sonoma Valley Wine Auction set for Labor Day weekend. The Univision company is considering sponsorship of the event to help make connections with wineries.

St. Helena-based Wine Market Council has been working toward the same goal for the past few years, according to executive director John Gillespie. That's based on recent research that indicates that wine consumption among Hispanics is growing faster in the U.S. than in the general population, although a third of the wine they drink is imported mostly from Chile and Argentina.

At the most recent Super Bowl game in Miami, the council hired local chef Douglas Rodrigues to demonstrate how to make food-and-wine feasts at home for the game. The group also has approached Univision about opportunities in the industry.

"Hispanics always have had a friend-and-family focus at the table, and that is a natural opportunity for entry into the wine segment," Mr. Gillespie said.

Source: North Bay Business Journal