EDITOR’S NOTE: Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Chris LaPlaca, shares his observations after visiting ESPN’s new corporate offices and production facilities in Mexico City. Español
MEXICO CITY – The first thing you notice is the energy.
Not the four new studios, or the four shiny production control rooms that each connect to any of those studios, or the open, collaborative office space, or the beautiful view of the city out of the large windows that permeate the 14 floors of the building.
No, the very first thing that greets visitors to ESPN’s roughly year-old headquarters in Mexico City is the energy and pride of the people who work there.
It comes honestly and without reservation. Prior to moving into their new offices last fall, our colleagues in Mexico worked in two different locations on opposite sides of the city. The production facility only had one extremely overworked studio in older, cramped conditions.
– VP and GM of ESPN Northern Latin America, Gerardo Casanova
Still, those colleagues built a strong multiplatform business and a vibrant brand that today, buoyed by their new surroundings, structural government reforms to spur greater competition in Mexico’s media sector and tremendous recent success, is poised for further growth.
ESPN enjoyed its highest-rated year ever in fiscal 2016. Also in the past year, ESPN rose from No. 5 to become the No. 1 digital sports brand in Mexico, a rapid ascent largely fueled by the company’s early and prescient focus on producing mobile content. The mobile market in the region is robust, and 70 percent of the people have smart phones, up from just 42 percent two years ago.
ESPN is fully penetrated in the cable TV landscape with a variety of television networks in the Latin North region’s nearly 22 million homes, a number that is growing…along with the content ESPN is producing – 4200 hours with the expanded studio capability. And it’s clearly not just about quantity for our Mexican networks: SportsCenter recently won its second Emmy.
For Vice President and General Manager of ESPN in Northern Latin America (covering Mexico and Central America), Gerardo Casanova, a veteran leader of ESPN’s business in Mexico, his team’s new headquarters have meant a huge difference.
“The greater collaboration afforded us by our new environment is driving tremendous progress,” he said. “Now, a salesperson can walk one floor and share an idea with someone in production. People are happy to come to work, and they’re working harder and more creatively. I’m very excited about where we are headed.”
Enjoy the slideshow above produced from photos taken last week during the lead-in to the Monday Night Football game between Oakland and Houston from Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.
