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Home , Get After It Media, Telemundo, TeleXitos

#43 BEST SINGLE NEW SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY

CREATING MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN BRANDS AND PEOPLE 1a. INTRODUCTION & DESCRIPTION OF MAIN EVENT

The McAllen Holiday Parade 2017, the largest illuminated and helium balloon holiday parade in , is envisioned to become one of the top 10 parades in America. Held on December 2, 2017 with a “The Magic of Christmas” theme, the event attracted over 250,000 people from Texas and , and spanned 1.5 miles of McAllen streets. According to the University of Texas , the event has had an average economic impact of $13.9 million over the past 4 years of immediate and identifiable benefits to the region. Additionally, the event fostered an awareness of McAllen as a premier travel destination and boosted civic pride. Guided by a mission of enhancing the quality of life of residents and visitors through a large-scale parade of lighted floats and Macy’s style balloons, the parade Showcased 53 illuminated floats, 40 giant helium filled balloons, 14 marching bands and featured appearances by major athletes & television stars. Created in 2014, the parade was a collective effort between City of McAllen departments, sponsors, and community volunteers to bring this uniquely memorable, holiday-themed celebration to Texas. The 2017 parade included school floats contributing to over 1,000 community volunteers. Despite the magnitude of the event, this involvement resulted in a uniquely hometown feel to individual floats as students and residents developed their own ideas and participated in building the floats themselves. The event attracted local residents from across the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, and Mexico. Event elements appealed to the entire family from children and teens to parents and grandparents, starting a new regional holiday tradition for generations to come. In addition to the audience of over 250,000 from Texas and Mexico, an additional 25,974,149 people viewed the McAllen Holiday Parade from the comfort of their homes on television.

2017 Television Broadcast Locations 1b. NAME OF OPPORTUNITY AND SPONSOR

THE ACTIVATION 1c. DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE OF NEW SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY

In the interest of creating a new element that would attract past & new attendees, our media partner, /TeleXitos worked with the City of McAllen to bring a new element to Christmas in the Park. Christmas in the Park is the annual kickoff event of the McAllen Holiday Parade festivities beginning on Friday with a carnival, food vendors, musical entertainment, and sponsor activation areas. The 2017 musical entertainment line-up included community performers and Grammy award winning Tejano artists. When it came to sponsor activations our partners supported BIG. The activations included the Official Cowboy Hall of Fame trailer and Pro Shop, the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, and Texas Lottery and Dave & Busters pop up locations among others. When it came to the Telemundo/TeleXitos activation the successful partnership between the McAllen Holiday Parade and Telemundo/TeleXitos was evident.

THE CASO CERRADO ACTIVATION consisted of: • A Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to kick-off Christmas in the Park with the Mayor Jim Darling presenting the Key to the City of McAllen to one of the McAllen Holiday Parade celebrities, Dra. Ana Mario Polo of Caso Cerrado • Telemundo/TeleXitos held a Meet & Greet with Dra. Polo-who has a huge following in the RGV. 1d. DESCRIPTION OF THE TARGETED SPONSOR FOR THE OPPORTUNITY AND WHY THE SPONSOR WAS TARGETED

Telemundo is an American Spanish-language network owned by through the NBCUniversal division NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises. The channel broadcasts programs and original content aimed at Hispanic and Latino American audiences in the and worldwide, consisting of , , , news programing, and films — either imported or Spanish-dubbed.

Their reach to the 25 largest Hispanic Markets in the USA, through their sister network Telexitos made them an ideal partner for the McAllen Holiday Parade.

LANGUAGES ndLargest provider of Spanish –language content nationwide COUNTRIES 35 2 behind competitor 100 1i. EXPLAIN THE SYNERGY BETWEEN THE EVENT AND SPONSOR

Although it is an established partnership, the new activation on Friday night allowed the City to enhance the relationship through: • A presentation of the Key to the City of McAllen by the Mayor to the partner’s sponsored celebrity • The creation and implementation of a ribbon cutting ceremony on the first day of Christmas in the Park specifically for Telemudo and Dra. Polo 1j. OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS / SUCCESS OF THE PROGRAM • The execution of a meet & greet opportunity attended by hundreds of fans at the main entrance of Christmas in the park • The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, key to the City Of McAllen of McAllen presentation and meet The success of the above highlights the true partnership between and greet resulted in a record breaking attendance for Christmas in the Park Telemundo and the City of McAllen.

• Telemundo was able to maximize their engagement with their viewer by providing an amazing experience; a once in a lifetime opportunity for fans of Dra. Polo to meet and get to see her up close and take a picture with her

• The new element added to Christmas in the park was not only a success for Telemundo, but for all other sponsors that able to engage with those attendees that were there to see Dra. Polo

• Dra. Polo herself has over 15 million followers on that she reached out to before, during, and after the McAllen Holiday parade- garnering over ______impressions mentioning the McAllen Holiday Parade SUPPORTING QUESTION What challenges/ obstacles did you forsee/ encounter in creating the program, and how did you handle them?

All of the elements of this new sponsorship opportunity were uncharted territory, therefore many details needed to be defined. The largest obstacle that we encountered was the high probability that there would be a very large crowd for the ribbon cutting and meet & greet due to the amount of promotion done by Telemundo and the popularity of Dra. Ana Maria Polo.

The timeline was very tight for us to the traffic control area after the ribbon cutting and remove it as soon as the meet & greet concluded. We knew that we had to maintain the safety of those in attendance, the comfort and safety of the celebrity, and the turn key execution for the sponsor.

We created a staging area adjacent to the meet & greet tent for the barricades needed and had a staff of 10 on standby to place the barricades the moment the ribbon cutting was over. Our team successfully placed 40 barricades in less than 5 minutes to create the necessary traffic control area. SUPPORTING MATERIALS

EXPERIENCES ARE THAN THINGS