Adriana Cisneros: “We are Living the Latin American Decade”

October 10, 2012 World Screen Top Stories

CANNES: During the LATAM Global Dealmakers Networking Lunch at MIPCOM, Adriana Cisneros de Griffin, the vice chairman and VP of strategy of the Cisneros Group of Companies, talked about how digital media and an emerging middle class are transforming Latin America’s television landscape.

“We are living the Latin American decade and the greatest challenge will be to capitalize on the opportunities that are right before us,” Cisneros said in conversation with Cynthia Hudson, the executive VP and general manager at CNN en Español and Hispanic strategy at CNN/US.

Cisneros noted that Latin America’s middle class is adding 70 million people a year. “Today, 51 percent of the population of the region’s largest economies is currently part of the middle class. This emerging segment of the population is more connected and informed, is increasing its investment in entertainment, and demanding a much more complete experience. In cases such as Colombia, where the middle class nearly doubled in a year, or Peru, where today 56 percent of its urban population belongs to this segment, demonstrate how the region is being transformed.”
 
The conversation then shifted to digital and the activities the company is working on in this arena. “We launched our digital thinking and strategy and new way of producing in Venezuela. Eva Luna was the first telenovela for the U.S. Hispanic market that had the support of a digital platform.” Expanding on the digital aspect, Cisneros commented on the launch of RedMas, a digital advertising network. “The digital advertising market in Latin America is already at $4 billion and it’s growing at 20 percent a year. That’s a very large increment.”
 
Corporate social responsibility was another important topic discussed. Cisneros emphasized that the key factors to improve the quality of life in Latin America are education, empowerment and sustainability.