• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 21, 2004

Much to the chagrin of some broadcast industry players, the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau generated considerable buzz with its pre-upfront positioning that cable is now part of a "One TV World." But its next round of positioning might well be dubbed, "We Are The World."

In a report the CAB quietly began circulating to top advertisers and agency executives over the past two weeks, the ad bureau is extending its one world concept into the so-called "multicultural upfront," a period following the general market upfront when advertisers and agencies have turned their attention to buying time on TV outlets that reach minority viewers, mainly Hispanic and African Americans. Importantly, the report makes no reference to the biggest players in the multicultural TV marketplace - Univision and Telemundo - but focuses on the contribution that more than a dozen cable networks are making to that marketplace.

Undoubtedly, some of the networks being pitched by the CAB - such as Hispanic networks, Casa Club, ESPN Deportes, and La Familia, or new African American channels like TV One - are still unfamiliar to many major marketers who are increasingly looking to tap the multicultural marketplace.

"I would encourage all that are attempting to enter the market to pursue it and use the insights and the demographic segmentation," said James Speros, chief marketing officer of Ernst & Young, and chairman of the Association of National Advertisers, who is among the top marketing executives that have been thumbing through the 50-page report, which is a companion to a new multicultural area of the CAB's website, a site, which by the way has recently been redirected from www.cabletvadbureau.com to www.onetvworld.org as part of the CAB's overall repositioning in that area.

Both the report and the site are chockfull of Census data, as well as media research information that are expected to help shape Madison Avenue's thinking as it allocates millions of dollars toward multicultural media buys for the 2004-05 TV season.

"What we decided to do was bring multicultural to the forefront during the upfront," says Cynthia Perkins-Roberts, director of marketing development at the CAB and author of the Multicultural Marketing Guide. "If you're thinking Hispanic and you're just thinking Univision, you don't understand what's going on."

In effect, Perkins-Roberts says the CAB is taking an old play out of its game book - that cable is essential for delivering audiences under-delivered by broadcast TV outlets - and extending it to the multicultural marketplace. "In the one TV world, when you're using Hispanic TV, you can't just buy broadcast anymore. You have to buy cable, as well," she says. Profiles on ten Hispanic cable networks, including Univision's own Galavision, are included in the report, along with three channels aimed at African Americans.

What are not included in the report are any outlets targeting other multicultural audiences, including Asian Americans, or the gay/lesbian marketplace.

Perkins-Roberts says that might change in future editions of the report, but that currently the multicultural upfront is primarily an African American and Hispanic phenomenon.