Virality or Values: What Tilted the Scales for Mamdani
Communications strategy has to start with messaging. Just focusing on the medium is a short-term fool’s errand. It’s candy without vegetables. It’s sales without brand. It’s… hype.
This week’s Social Signals was written to Lazerbeak’s new EP, To Be Tubing.
I got the most fun tech gadget, and I’m debuting it next week. My family HATES IT, and it is absolutely delighting me. I’m not saying more. You’ll see.
This week we’re talking about the Mamdani win, about my excitement to learn Reddit may be using my iris scan for logging in soon, about our latest podcast episode at The Cave Project, and all of those wonderful Social Signals you can rely on each week.
Let’s get into it! -Greg
Virality or Values: What Tilted the Scales for Mamdani
New York City mayoral primary upset winner Zohran Mamdani is getting lots of buzz for his ultra-authentic social-media game crafted by two-person shop Melted Solids (Adweek; AdAge).
I’m not going to talk about his policy at all. I want to look at the comms strategy.
Because it’s likely every 2026 campaign manager is screenshotting this playbook. Melted Solids’ lean, vertical-video approach showed Mamdani simply walking NYC streets with guests like The Kid Mero, a polar-plunge stunt, and an end-to-end Manhattan trek. It was social-first at its core.
No slick graphics. Shaky cams welcome. Short and shareable content was the goal.
Already this week, folks are trying to parse out how Mamdani used social to win and what to take from it. Stuff like…
3 brand lessons from the win (via Ad Age):
Relinquish control. Let creators be themselves; rough edges, mild profanity and minimal branding feel truer—and travel farther—on social.
Mine the comments. Treat replies as instant focus groups; recurring themes guided video topics and edits.
Entertain first. Even serious subjects get traction when the content is genuinely fun and ruthlessly distilled.
But this wasn’t Mamdani’s first use of social media to win an election; in 2020 he toppled a ten-year incumbent for the Queens Assembly seat with selfie-shot Instagram Stories, Twitter explainers and scrappy volunteer phone banks coordinated in Zoom and Reach, proving that low-budget authenticity could outmuscle traditional field work.
The 2025 mayoral run simply scales that proven formula: a resonant message delivered with that same handheld intimacy, now amplified across TikTok, Twitch and creator crossovers, refreshed every 24 hours by comment mining and real-time analytics that widened the conversation gap over Cuomo to fourteen-to-one.
Some things that stuck out to me about the role of social in this primary via this WaPo story:
His internet-fluent posting set him apart from Cuomo, whose $25 million campaign invested in TV ads and mailers while maintaining a relatively buttoned-up presence on social media.
His digital presence felt savvy and authentic, Democratic strategists and voters say, with a message that resonated with young New Yorkers and blue voters tired of milquetoast platforms and personas.
His Instagram engagement rate was 14 times that of Cuomo during June, and across social media during the same period, conversations about him outnumbered mentions of Cuomo more than 30-to-1, according to analytics company Sprout Social. (note: #client!)
I know in the week prior to the election my own social feeds were filled with Mamdani content, including my friend Kareem interviewing him on Subway Takes. It’s charismatic. Shareable. And the comments are on fire.
The Social Media Election Wave Hype Cycle Continues
Remember last Fall when Kamala was crushing it on social and had all kinds of buzz and media was writing it would help her win the White House?
Coconut tree memes, BRAT, and clever, social-first content was everywhere at the time. I did an entire segment on DriveTime with
about BRAT.For some, it seemed like Kamala was everywhere and doing it all so well. Was she? Yes. Yes, she was.
As I wrote back in July (The First Truly Social Media-First Presidential Election)
Although this isn’t the first time social media has fueled and perhaps impacted an election, it’s the first time social-first has moved to its rightful place at the front.
And then in August (The First Social-First Election: Do It Live, But Make It Shareable — ahem… paid subscribers to Social Signals have access to the full archives), as the DNC was cut into snippets, quotables, and shared all over social:
From President's Biden's withdrawal and endorsement of Vice President Harris to the meme-fueled energy and excitement around Governor Walz (aka #BigDadEnergy) and now the creator-stacked DNC with speeches designed to create instantly shareable soundbites for all different audiences, what we're seeing is a glimpse into the major parties finally shifting perspective and priority of social media strategies. And there's no going back now.
But was it real? Yes. Was embracing social and viewing it as a primary comms vehicle contained solely to the Democrats? Absolutely not.
And was it a filter bubble that wasn’t reaching everyone? Certainly.
We Can Argue Both Sides, and We Do
So when things don’t go as everyone wants, social also can find itself on the losing end of credit for elections, too…
Post-election last Fall we suddenly had clarity through stories like: How Harris won at TikTok but lost the election..
Maybe Harris accounts were preaching to the choir on TikTok, reaching only the voters they’d already won. Or maybe the videos were resonating but the message wasn’t, Wilson, the political strategist, said.
To that point, I can’t neglect to share this piece penned from my friend and colleague David Krejci about PresidentObama’s win in 2008: Obama fully grasped the potential of today's new media to spread his word, about how yes, Barry and his team used social masterfully, but also, there was substance and messaging that transcended the medium:
Obama made brilliant use of social media to connect with millions of supporters, and he gave them the tools and words and widgets to connect with millions more. But to suggest that it was mastery of the medium, and not the power of the message, would be a disservice to Obama and an insult to those who voted for him.
Within the social-media environment, the message still carries the day even as the Web carries the message. With relentless adherence, Obama brought a message of change that resonated -- whether in his promises to act in contrast to the prior administration or in his history-making speech on race.
I love this point so much and think about it all the time.
Trump's social-first approach to winning in 2024 included domination of alternative media like podcasts and streaming, his own Truth Social posts, and the overrun of X/Twitter.
But most importantly, it included a message that resonated with the right voters in the right states (ahem, electoral college conversation is a different discussion) to win.
Communications strategy has to start with messaging. Just focusing on the medium is a short-term fool’s errand. It’s candy without vegetables. It’s sales without brand. It’s… hype.
Now there’s a takeaway for marketers.
Social-first elections? That's standard now. No credit for effort or bubble buzz here.
So let's go back to this line from the WaPo story:
"National Democrats eager for an edge in the internet era are taking cues from Mamdani as they approach the midterm elections."
This is obviously true. Social media is 20 years old.
Here’s a timeline I put together of elected leaders from both major parties using emerging technology to reach consumers directly dating back to the 1900s (e.g., FDR’s Fireside Chats, JFK vs. Nixon TV debate, Obama’s blog)
The conversation shouldn’t be about if social media is now the blueprint to reach voters. That’s a given. Instead, the effort should be around what a candidate, party, and our elected leaders stand for and if they have the integrity to follow through.
History says the message still beats the medium. -Greg
💬 Quote of the Week:
“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is; it is what consumers tell each other it is.” - Scott Cook, co-founder, Intuit (circa 2012)
📈 Study of the Week
Snap’s new Snapchat Generation Report goes deep on the behavior of the 900 million monthly active users who favor lo-fi, in-the-moment connection. Stuff like grainy snaps, voice notes, AR lenses, and nonstop Snap Map check-ins. Key takeaways for brands: authenticity > polish; show up with spontaneous AR, creator collabs, and real-time chat if you want to ride Gen Z and Millennial culture. Download it here.
🎧 THE CAVE PROJECT: Why tech needs more whimsy, with guest Dr. AnnMarie Thomas
What if the real innovation strategy your team is missing… is whimsy? 🥳
In the latest episode of The Cave Project, Jenny Swan and I interview AnnMarie Thomas on why play isn’t a distraction from serious work. It might be the key to doing it better.
We chat with the notable engineer, educator, LEGO consultant, OK Go curriculum-builder, and deep sea explorer on:
🛝 Why most “playful” office perks totally miss the point
🛝 What Minecraft can teach adults about collaboration
🛝 How redefining technology changes everything
🛝 And why doing the same thing over and over might be the real risk
AnnMarie is one of the most joyfully brilliant minds we’ve met, and this conversation may just shift how you think about creativity, leadership, and learning. Key quote: "It’s fiction that it’s riskier to do things differently than to do them the same. I don’t think it’s always riskier to do things differently."
⚡️ Social Signals
Turns out the chrome Orb that read my irises on Melrose last month might soon be staring down 70 million Redditors: Semafor says Reddit is negotiating to plug World ID’s iris-scan tech into its sign-ups, swapping “I’m not a robot” checkboxes for blockchain-backed proof-of-personhood that can satisfy age laws and swat away AI sock-puppets without sacrificing anonymity. This means the eyeballs I volunteered for science (and a whopping $42 in crypto) could become the default passport for the internet’s biggest meme machine.
If Reddit flips the switch, “proof-of-personhood” could fast-track from fringe to table-stakes: ad-fraud math changes overnight; brand communities get a built-in bot shield; age-gating becomes as simple as a wallet ping; and the big blue check morphs into a multichain iris hash controlled by third-party gatekeepers.
And remember, World isn’t the only contender. Whichever system shows up first at everyday checkouts wins the adoption war. Whichever one helps us solve the coming identity crisis may even win by default.
And if this tech really does integrate with your credit cards and is important to help you order a pizza, I bet you’ll sign up. I don’t think the trade-offs will be as dire as folks think if the practical use cases are security protections are there. Blink once if you agree. -Greg
⚡️ Social Signals
Meet the guy who hasn't clicked a mouse in 7 years using keyboard shortcuts.
Snapchat’s looking to become even more important to teen social life, by acquiring calendar-based social app Saturn, which enables users to share their schedules, and arrange meet-ups in the app.
Have you talked to your teams about this? How Zohran Mamdani won on social media—3 lessons for brands to know.
After a day of “cringe” blowback, Apple quietly yanked its long-form“Parent Presentation” Mac-pitch ad from YouTube and buried the campaign on its website. But you can watch it heeeeerreeeee.
Internet Archive leveled-up nostalgia that sweet GIF nostalgia with GifCities 2.0, unleashing CLIP-powered semantic search, size filters, paginated results, and shareable “GifGrams” so we can all sprinkle authentic ’90s sparkle across our next digital experiences. Like this:
I am absolutely obsessed with this lip syncing trucker guy who backs up huge semi trucks and then performs in his cab.
Students outsourcing their assignments to AI and cheating their way through college has become so rampant, so quickly, that it has created a market for a product that helps professors ChatGPT-proof school. As it turns out, that product already exists. In fact, you’ve probably used it. You might even dread it. It’s called a blue book.
Congrats and kudos to Jason DeRusha on three years post-TV and the success of
. It was a big move, and its paying dividends. Good push here for all of us. Key quote: I’m learning everyday, and I’m so glad I took the chance. A lot of us hit the point in our late 40’s to mid-50’s: we aren’t really growing at work.Brand That Already Exists of the Week: New Yorkers have re-christened plain-old happy hour as the “Daycap,” a peach-smash-powered, Angel’s-Envy-sponsored pause between 4-7 p.m. that proves even knocking off work now needs a marketing hook.
Cannes Tech Takeaway of the Week: every big platform is suddenly shouting, “We’ve always been an AI company,” repackaging years of behind-the-scenes machine learning as their fresh new storyline to court marketers.
Cannes Quote of the Week: Tubi CMO Nicole Parlapiano: “You just have to be programmed to strip fear from the equation…. As we’re seeing now—across so many areas of our life—fear can really be a motivator for some negative things. So trying as best you can to not lead with that when you’re thinking of creative work.”
She went on to say that it’s just marketing. The worst that can happen is losing your job. And you’ll get another one. “Either way you go, you could lose your job. If you’re not doing enough fearless work, you might lose your job. If you’re doing fearless work, you might lose your job. The outcome is the same. So you may as well operate from a place of hope and imagination.”
TED Talk Clip of the Week: Social media is a polarizing mess, says Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie, but he shared a vision for a new media “garden” that’s already taking root and how talks about how platforms are giving power to creators to build communities based on trust rather than metrics. “Every subscription, every share and every minute of our attention is a vote for the culture we want to flourish.”
Stat of the Week: 87% of Gen Z sports fans follow athletes before they follow teams. (Source: Morning Consult, 2024) via Authenticated by
.TikTok of the Week: The Methaphone is a clear slab of smartphone-shaped acrylic that is just the glass - no phone. Sign up for the waitlist here.
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserGood Read of the Week: My Couples Retreat With 3 AI Chatbots and the Humans Who Love Them via Wired.
Video of the Week: Andrej Karpathy: Software Is Changing (Again) (via
)Change Management Video of the Week: Every leader needs this AI strategy | Ethan Mollick explains
Jenny Swan Shoutout of the Week: Are you a wife guy? I am.
Reel of the Week: This guy discovered you can find audio book transcripts at the library. It’s a joke. It’s funny.
Keep going! 🚀✨
Greg