On August 9, 2018, it was all anyone talked about. The year's first presidential debate, on Rede Bandeirantes, was divided into five segments with questions from voters, journalists, and rival candidates. Eight pre-candidates were present, all from coalitions with at least five congressional members.
But how have changes in the way we use technology transformed things from the 2014 debates to this one?
To start understanding this shift, let's go back to the 2016 US presidential election. The debate between then-candidate Donald Trump and his rival Hillary Clinton broke records in Twitter interactions, and the official video of the event had already racked up over 124 million views in less than a week. Compared to the TV audience of 63 million, YouTube had nearly double the viewers.
Back to our reality, YouTube views on the morning after this year's debate in Brazil reached 2 million 229 thousand viewers. On TV, the audience was over 4 million, which still didn't surpass traditional media, but represented a very significant share of people who followed the program.
A new element in the broadcast format was Bandeirantes' partnership with YouTube. This generated a record number of visits on the network's official page. By 11:55 pm, the number of live views had already surpassed 377 thousand.
Google also partnered with Band, revealing that the most searched pre-candidate was Jair Bolsonaro (PSL), followed by Ciro Gomes (PDT), Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB), Alvaro Dias (Podemos) – the candidate with the fastest growth in the polls –, Cabo Daciolo (Patriota), Marina Silva (Rede), Guilherme Boulos (PSOL), and Henrique Meirelles (MDB). Google also compiled a roundup of trending names by minute during the debate and by state. In addition, an interactive Google Data Studio panel was produced showing search interest for each candidate and the topics searched in relation to the event.
On Twitter, the hashtag #DebateBand made it to the Trending Topics in Brazil and worldwide. Besides this tag, some candidates' names were also among the most talked-about terms nationally and globally. Not to mention the flood of memes and jokes made by users, generating even more content about the debate.
A new era, in which the major trend is to get informed and generate information, is here. And the communication giants have already noticed this. We look forward to seeing the next steps of this advance.
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