Secom chooses four agencies to manage government social networks for R$ 197.7 million

BRASÍLIA – The Presidency’s Social Communication Secretariat (Secom) announced this Wednesday, 24th, the winners of the R$ 197.7 million tender, opened in January this year, to hire four advertising agencies that will manage social networks of the federal government. The move by Minister Paulo Pimenta’s team to improve the digital presence of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) administration was revealed by Estadão.

The winners of the competition were the companies Usina Digital, Área Comunicação, Moringa L2W3 and the Consórcio BR e Tal, composed of BRMais and Digi&Tal. Among the five winning agencies, two of them never signed contracts with the federal government, according to data from the Transparency Portal. Each agency must pocket around R$49 million each for contracts lasting one year, which can be extended.

The only winning agency that has a consolidated history of contracts with federal bodies is BRMais, which has already received R$ 145 million for services provided to the Union. The companies Moringa L2W3 and Digi&Tal received around R$ 202 thousand and R$ 94 thousand from federal government, respectively. Usina Digital and Area Comunicação are among the newcomers on the list of winners.

The change in the government’s digital communication is the Palácio do Planalto’s new bet to increase the Lula government’s popularity ratings, which have fallen in all surveys carried out since the beginning of this year. The president has complained on several occasions, including publicly, that he does not see the government’s good actions having an impact on the population.

The Lula government adopted the “best technique” as a criterion for choosing agencies instead of the lowest price. The winning companies had to present technical proposals that proved their ability to perform tasks such as mapping the Ministries’ digital presence and podcasts. 24 companies participated in the dispute, including some important agencies with a historical relationship with the federal government.

Secom justified in the notice that the hiring “aims to comply with the principle of publicity and the right to information, through digital communication actions that aim to disseminate ideas and principles, position institutions and programs, disseminate public initiatives and policies, inform and guide the general public.”

Companies will be responsible for creating, implementing and developing “innovative forms of digital communication aimed at expanding the effects of government messages and content”. As shown by the Estadãoone of the Lula government’s main bets to expand the PT member’s presence on social media, the weekly podcast “Conversa com o Presidente”, failed in audience ratings and was discontinued.

Agencies will also have to use “techniques of machine learning and AI (artificial intelligence) to carry out sentiment analysis of news of interest to the Federal Government”. Another requirement for selection was the ability of companies to carry out “high-intensity” research on social media on government-related topics. These actions map, for example, the reception of the actions of President Lula and his ministers in the digital environment.

The contracts in the area of ​​communication and advertising signed by Secom are historically high and are in the three-digit million mark. The department currently has agreements with four advertising agencies that coordinate the media campaigns of the government’s first level. Each of these companies earned at least R$450 million in the initial one-year contract in 2022.

O Estadão revealed that one of these companies contracted by Secom during the Bolsonaro government and which had contracts renewed by the Lula administration is being investigated by the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) for fraud in a tender carried out during the administration of former president Michel Temer (MDB). The National Communication Agency currently has more than R$920 million in contracts with the federal government, even under the supervision area. The company’s president partner has already been convicted of corruption in advertising campaigns that were allegedly overpriced in Rondônia.