BBB 24: How companies and Globo use web engagement to make millions

Especially since 2020, when it started to have famous people in its cast, Big Brother Brasil has become an advertising revenue cannon on Globo. For BBB 24, revenue from sponsorships alone broke a historic record, reaching R$1 billion.

For this year, the audience leader obtained 20 sponsoring and supporting brands, 15 of which were quota holders and five dynamic participants, selling everything before the attraction even debuted. This fact always draws attention because, at the beginning of the year, advertising investments are rare on TV.

The market’s concentration on putting its money on the BBB is frequently complained about by other TVs, which hold back their news until March or April. This year, this is the case of SBT and Record, which scheduled reruns during the reality show period on air.

But why did so many companies pay so much and decide to focus their advertising efforts at the beginning of the year solely on the BBB? That was the question I asked representatives of Mercado Livre and Seara, two sponsors of the Globo reality show.

“As a brand, we chose to sponsor BBB for the second year in a row because we understand that this is a very assertive channel to connect even more with users who already know and use our platform, but also to reach a new audience”, says Cesar Hiraoka, marketing director at Mercado Livre, who spent R$105 million to be on the reality show.

Hiraoka says that the investment in 2024 was made due to the good results of the brand’s debut on the program, in 2023. Even with an edition considered lukewarm, BBB gave above-average returns for a company in the period.

“Accesses to the platform during actions in the program grew approximately 30% compared to days when there was no brand activation. At our Leader’s Party inside the house, with DJ Pedro Sampaio, the gold jacket he used was sold out in less than 24 hours on the platform, and the audience on the BBB page on Mercado Livre grew no less than 520%”, reports the executive.

More veteran companies make no secret of the fact that they have the longest period of exposure for their brands in the year at BBB. This is the case of Seara, which has sponsored the reality show since 2020, and which also paid R$105 million to Globo for the space.

Tannia Bruno, marketing director at Seara, says that the company’s social networks have their best results with the BBB on the air in terms of engagement. Because of this, the company ends up running out of stock of some products due to the interest.

“BBB, for us, directly affects two main metrics: conversion and desire for the brand; Desire, which we measure via purchase intention and preference. Conversion increased by 90% during the program, leaving some supermarket chains without stock at times,” he says.

“In addition to being an extremely diverse program, which allows us to talk about the most different subjects, we have come across, over the five years of sponsorship, a significant return in relation to our business”, concluded the executive.

In addition to being able to raise money from sponsors, Globo realized a new revenue model with the reality show: anonymous participants who become popular on social media thanks to the reality show.

Seeing agencies doing well with popcorn in recent years, such as Gil do Vigor, the company decided to commercially manage BBB participants on social media starting with the current edition.

The project is part of the expansion of the management area that Globo has been carrying out with several artists since 2022. Before the ex-BBBs, names like Patrícia Poeta, Maria Beltrão, Galvão Bueno and Tadeu Schmidt himself signed commercial contracts with Globo’s intermediation.

To be competitive with other agencies that perform this type of intermediation, such as Play9 (owned by YouTuber Felipe Neto and executive João Pedro Paes Leme) and Mynd8, Globo has lower commission rates, which helps to close deals.

The broadcaster has asked for 10% of the value of each signed contract. The market practice is between 20% and 30% passed on to the intermediary. The anonymous participants of BBB 24 have exclusive contracts with Globo for commercial advertising on networks with the broadcaster until the end of this semester.