In 2022, during the presidential election campaign, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was running for reelection at the time, claimed to have been harmed by radio spots that were not broadcast in some regions, mainly on stations in the North and Northeast.
During the period, the company hired for the service was Audiency Brasil, a startup from Santa Catarina created and designed to meet the demands of checking advertising campaigns broadcast on radio stations.
The requirements for the contract were: retroactive checking (generation of reports of broadcasts already occurred, including the first round); capture of broadcasts in real time; and generation of reports by station russian phone number whatsapp by spot, by date and by time (detailing hour, minute and second) with total security and proof against editing or tampering.
But how is this check carried out?
“First, we capture the audio from the monitored stations,” says Anacleto Ortigara, CEO of Audiency. “Then, we collect and create a database in our system, which then reads this data, identifying everything that occurs within these captures. With this identification, we generate the reports extracted from our platform. Through mirroring, what is in our records – the stations’ audio – is compared with the campaigns being checked. This sequence of actions is media checking ,” explains Ortigara.
Presidential case
According to the company, this programming control is carried out and can be verified in real time by users of its platform, who are not only political figures or parties, but also advertisers, advertising agencies, and even radio stations themselves, which use the system to receive audio and texts that will be broadcast. In addition to these segments, artists and artist offices also use the platform to monitor musical performances and strategically monitor the evolution of the most played songs on the radio. However, the work for the 2022 presidential candidate was what truly gained the greatest national projection.
“It was the first time in the history of presidential elections. And for us, it was a fantastic, successful experience. First and foremost, because it highlighted the great value of radio, an extremely valuable medium, listened to by millions and millions of people,” says the CEO.
For Ortigara, the distribution system needs to be modernized to benefit both the candidates and the broadcasters themselves. “What was missing in the campaign we ran was to also make available the broadcasters that are registered and authorized to broadcast the electoral campaigns. There was no availability of the list, number and name of the broadcasters that were authorized to broadcast the campaign. Therefore, some operational issues may require improvements.”
According to the executive, “it is undeniable that this event generated an unprecedented experience in the political history of Brazil.” He continues his argument by emphasizing that “radio takes the candidates’ message to the most remote places, without discrimination and without distinction of social classes,” but that, even for logistical reasons of distributing the audios , inserting them into the broadcasters’ programming schedule and effectively executing the campaigns, it is essential that each campaign has a checking system or platform so that everything happens as planned.
“Without this control, there will always be some doubt,” he says. “On the other hand, this way the law is complied with, the value of radio is restored and each citizen will make their own choices regarding the information they receive in fair and well-distributed conditions. This is what they say in the radio industry: ‘there is valuable content on the airwaves.’”
Audiency offers media checking to advertisers in national retail, pharmacy chains, supermarkets, local retailers, national credit unions , fintechs and public agencies, as well as to musicians and composers of various musical genres, explains Ortigara, highlighting that the company's delivery contributes to the investment made in advertising campaigns on the radio.