About two years ago we set out to develop a new social responsibility program for Venevision, our TV network in Venezuela. Cisneros Group, our parent company, has been “giving back” for over 35 years through the educational programs of the Fundacion Cisneros and as a network, Venevision has always been a responsible company, helping the schools in the area, running a yearly telethon to raise money for the “Hospital Ortopédico Infantil”, and organizing food, blood and toy drives during hard times.

This time however, we wanted to do something different, something that would be transformative at a national level and that would correspond to the DNA of our company. We gave Maria Ignacia Arcaya, our then newly appointed head of CSR, the task. She began by bringing together a multi departmental, multi disciplinary team of key people within our company to brainstorm ideas. Six months later, the “Somos lo que Queremos” campaign was born, which translates into “Walk the Walk”. Somos lo que Queremos is a TV campaign that promotes good citizenship and shares inspirational stories of individuals who have overcome great obstacles. The messages themselves are simple, but powerful. One of the strongest underlying goals of the campaign is to inspire change from within, which is the genesis of the slogan “Porque nada cambia si tu no cambias”.

This campaign has not only been a success at a national level, but has also been transformative within our company. The original team of brainstormers continue to work together to produce new versions of the campaign. We have telenovela stars working alongside our news anchors, talk show producers, and our technical staff, all collaborating in all aspects of the production. This level of engagement has made the “Somos lo Que Queremos” campaign a project that all of our employees feel proud of and want to be a part of. As of today, Venevision has aired nearly 30 spots, and has dedicated close to 20 hours of airtime to the campaign.  According to the October 2011 study by Datos Survey Company, the network audience overwhelmingly supports the campaign and its values, which it considers to be a great contribution to the well being of the country.

And of course, this being the digital era, the campaign can be found on our Corporate Social Responsibility YouTube channel.