09/08/2024 – 10:01
The influence of social media in this year’s municipal elections has transformed the landscape of electoral campaigns, although it is not yet enough to replace the central role of radio and television. Experts interviewed by Political Broadcasting consider free electoral broadcasting to be a format capable of validating the party narrative constructed on the internet, but not only that.
Free electoral propaganda in traditional media outlets began on Friday, the 30th, and will run until October 3rd, in a first stage before the first round of voting, scheduled for October 6th. Parties and candidates will have 35 days to present their proposals in two mandatory insertions in the broadcasters’ programming. In the last election, this period was 45 days.
Experts point out that the reduction may be related to both the arrival of new campaign formats and the reduction in resources, as social networks have proven to be a more economical, practical and far-reaching medium. Even so, they say they do not believe that one will replace the other in the medium term.
“TV gives us an image of trust in relation to what is on the networks. Social media is known for delivering everything and also of everything, and sometimes this space ends up being confusing, while TV is [o conteúdo] exactly as it is stated, without much interference”, analyzes the professor of Public Administration at the State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC) Daniel Pinheiro.
Replacing one format with another is not possible because they tend to complement each other in terms of audience and content, according to Pinheiro. This is due to the fact that there is still a traditional audience that does not have broad access to social networks or that prefers more conventional communication.
“TV provides the possibility of democratizing access. We need to avoid looking only from our own perspective, because it still plays a central role in Brazilian families. We cannot give it up, but we can change the format, as we did this year, for example,” adds political scientist Magno Karl.
Karl also sees that the reduction of the electoral period is disadvantageous to “lesser-known” candidates, who have little engagement on social media and, as a result, less time to present themselves, especially due to restrictions outside of campaign time.
João Finamor, a professor of Marketing at ESPM, analyzes the scenario as a “crossmedia” opportunity for the campaign. He notes that some traditional candidates still adopt older marketing strategies and have difficulty dealing with the so-called digital natives, who, with their specific positioning, are gaining ground in this electoral race.
One example is the candidate for Mayor of São Paulo Pablo Marçal (PRTB), who was born on the internet and uses a format as a brand positioning, including marketing and sales strategies, according to the specialist.
“Today we live in a 360 marketing environment. The main strategy is to link content across all platforms, with everything being transactional. Using TV is a brand awareness strategy and networks are the top of the funnel, the acquisition process, so television is just one moment in my entire strategy,” he says.
Finamor believes that candidates are products and need to see voters as customers to create a narrative based on their journey during the electoral campaign. There are three stages, he explains: top of the funnel (being known), awareness (awakening intention and connecting with values and proposal) and conversion (votes).
According to Professor Daniel Pinheiro, many politicians have already understood that an electoral campaign is not limited to the official period, but is built over the years. The candidate for reelection in Florianópolis, Topázio Neto (PSD), is an example. During his term, he gained more than 600 thousand followers on social media. He was even called the “Tiktoker mayor” due to his numerous appearances on the internet. He rode the wave of memes and developed videos specifically for this audience.
Marçal, for example, built his profile on the basis of a corporate narrative and was called a coach on the internet when he published motivational videos. Tabata Amaral (PSB) and Guilherme Boulos (PSOL) focused their profiles on a more institutional language and did not “know how to use the power of the internet”, according to marketing specialist Finamor.
This year, electoral propaganda on the internet has some new features, such as rules for the use of artificial intelligence and an absolute ban on deepfakes, under penalty of the candidate’s impeachment. The resolutions approved by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) also create more obligations for digital platforms, which must act proactively against the dissemination of hate speech and content that constitutes a crime against the rule of law and disinformation that affects the electoral process.
For the upcoming elections, however, Finamor says it is necessary to implement regulations on social media, especially with regard to fake news. According to him, identifying the origin of false content would be the central point of the discussion.
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