Coming soon to a small screen near you – a telenovela that helps you learn how to be a better parent or caregiver!
Actually, that’s already aired on Univision, but thanks to a new partnership with The Children’s Trust and other funders, you will see it again! If you watched La Fuerza de Creer, then you might have noticed some storylines that coincided with valuable parenting and life lessons. That’s not by accident. The Spanish-language network has purposefully used the popular telenovela medium to integrate early brain and language development and positive messaging tips for parents. And now, The Children’s Trust is partnering with Univision to make sure that happens again and even strengthen the messaging geared toward positive interactions between kids and their parents.
At its January 21 Board Meeting, The Children’s Trust approved a funder collaboration contract with Univision for the 2020 “Pequeños y Valiosos” (young and valuable) campaign of early childhood and education-related programming. “The partnership is a new way to scale the impact of The Children’s Trust, not only using traditional communication channels, but leveraging storytelling for impact,” said K. Lori Hanson, Ph.D., chief of research evaluation and strategic planning.
Communications Director Ximena Nunez said using telenovelas was a creative way to reach the Hispanic market, an important goal considering they are the group that is often least aware of the services offered by The Trust.
“Telenovelas are a huge part of the (Hispanic) culture, and it’s an important piece of content marketing for the work The Trust does,” Nunez said
As well as working with television writers to make sure appropriate messaging makes its way into the telenovela episodes, Hanson said that a series of related marketing events would surround the series to make sure parents are aware of it, including local news segments and a forum where parents can watch show and talk about its messages.
“This is an amazing opportunity. The Trust gets to sponsor something that Hispanic parents listen to and watch and to provide modeling for those parents and children,” Nunez added.