Wednesday, July 1st, 2015

The Evolution of Miss Venezuela: From Beauty Pageant to 360° Content

Jonathan Blum

When Cisneros bought the broadcasting rights for Miss Venezuela, the executives realized they had to modernize the contest. They got to work and have converted this pageant into a true school for world class Misses. More than beautiful women, it produces well-prepared women who are associated with values such as excellence and discipline and who are 100% committed to social responsibility activities. Aspiring Miss Venezuela candidates are now doctors, engineers, physicists and even athletes. They take part in social responsibility programs that are in line with their interests.

Venezuelans know the Miss Venezuela beauty pageant perfectly well. The national beauty contest has been carried out since 1952 and could be considered an equivalent of the Super Bowl in the United States. It is produced by Cisneros Media through Venevision and has not only placed Venezuela into the Book of Guinness Records for the most titles achieved (7 Miss Universe, 6 Miss World and 6 Miss International crowns) but is has also become a business and content development model which reflects the spirit we are currently experiencing at Cisneros.

We only need to give some examples such as the Gala Interactiva, which gives audiences the option of supporting their preferred candidates; and the reality show “Todo por la Corona,” carried out in conjunction with Sony Entertainment, which shows the preparation process candidates go through. Until then, this had been one of television’s best kept secrets. Not only did this format achieve local audiences, but also regional and North American audiences. At its peak, it captured 57% of the national share and 118 million counts of the #TodoporlaCorona hashtag.

Following this show’s success, we decided to go one step further by migrating the content development to our own three platforms: free-to-air television with “La Mágia de Ser Miss”, pay TV with “Más Allá de la Belleza” and digital with exclusive capsules that were broadcasted through the Miss Venezuela Portal. This highlighted the fact that we have repeatedly managed to become a trending topic in Twitter.

In this way, Miss Venezuela has become an integral option for audiences and advertisers. The contest was even one of the IESA case studies, a leading business school in Venezuela.