I’m begging you not to miss the point of Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign.

(The lesson is not “use social media.”)

I’ll start with some full transparency: I was happy to hear of 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani’s historic victory in the mayoral primaries, even though I don’t live in New York. First, because I think it’s nice to see some fresh, young blood amongst a litany of politicians who’ve been feeling (at the very best) increasingly stale. Former Governer Cuomo mocked his "27-minute" political career, but among a roster of lifelong bureaucrats, Mamdani's newness feels more refreshing than anything else.

Second, because I love a good underdog story.  

But even if you’re not thrilled about the results, I hope you won’t scroll away just yet. Love Mamdani or hate him, any campaign that performs 15 points better than every single estimate deserves to be examined – at the very least, as a piece of successful marketing that we can learn from.

And as a marketer, I have to say it: Zohran ran a hell of a campaign.

His branding colors and fonts paid homage to both old Bollywood titles and classic NY deli signage. He had special branding for each of the five Burroughs. He showed up on TikTok and Instagram daily, sometimes multiple times a day. He finished the primary race with a full day’s walk across the city, high-fiving constituents and some of the over 50,000 volunteers who’d canvassed for him.

But as the online and media discussion on Zohran balloons this week, I fear we’re losing the real reason his marketing was so effective. CNN and establishment democrats mused that rival Andrew Cuomo would’ve had better results if he’d had Mamdani’s TikTok presence. Fox News, deep in predictable racist panic, worried that the bright colors and branding had pulled the wool over voters’ eyes. Ezra Klein spent nearly all of his Zohran-themed podcast episode speaking about the brilliance of short-form video.

As your resident CMO, I’m here to remind you: one viral TikTok account (or one excellent logo) does not a successful brand make. 

None of Mamdani’s online tactics are the real reason he was able to deliver the left its first real victory in at least eight months (and arguably, 10 years.)

He won because he had the exact right message for his audience, and he repeated it simply, loudly, and clearly. Over and over again.

Free, fast buses. Hold bad landlords accountable. Childcare for all. Halal inflation.

It doesn’t matter whether you like it. You know what it means, and you know who wants it and why.

That’s it. That’s the magic. And that’s what great campaigns do.

Back to Basics

What I’m trying to say is that Mamdani’s success was ultimately BECAUSE of his politics, not in spite of them. His tactics worked because they flowed out of such a solid foundation.

Compare this to last summer’s Harris/Waltz campaign, which leaned heavily on social media in a fun, gen-z friendly way, but ultimately became shaky when, in the final days of the electoral race, Harris and Waltz were suddenly courting conservatives with changing messaging. The Brat Summer of it all suddenly seemed a little forced when both admitted to open carrying guns. It wasn’t clear what they stood for anymore, and that uncertainty bled into the brand.

The social media-native marketing was there for Harris and Waltz: the TikToks, the memes, the fast-paced media appearances. Something about the foundation wasn’t.

In branding, CMOs like me go to great lengths to emphasize that brand starts way, way, way before the logo and color palette. It begins with a deeply-held vision about who you are and what you stand for. You have to get this foundation right, or you risk a disjointed team, vacant and vague messaging, and ultimately the kind of mediocre marketing that no amount of money can fix.

The brand’s foundation is the real magic. Great marketing takes that foundational message and connects it to the right audience—repeating the message loudly and clearly over and over and over.

What Zohran Did

1. He knew his audience. While other politicians were trading theories about why Democrats keep losing working-class voters, Mamdani actually asked them. He showed up. He listened. He understood their pain points. Meanwhile, Cuomo rarely made a public appearance. One campaign treated voters like a focus group. The other treated them like collaborators.

2. He spoke their language. Not just rhetorically, but literally. His campaign ads ran in Bengali, Hindi, and Spanish. He referenced Muslim holidays and immigrant housing realities. And notably, this was true of his TikToks, too. The reason his videos stood out was that he was fluent in the language of TikTok, familiar with the etiquette and language of the platform.He started with about 25,000 Instagram followers and mushroomed into the millions by Primary Day—growth that came from consistency and clarity. He wasn’t pandering.

3. He kept it simple. “Free, fast buses.” That’s a sentence a 12-year-old can understand and a 72-year-old can repeat. It feels relevant, and it solves an immediate need. The rest of his messaging followed suit. His campaign posters read “A New York City You Can Afford”. No vague proclamations of “Hope” which Might have work in Shepard Fairey’s 2008 poster for Obama (but not enough for Harri’s “Forward” in 2024), but it wasn’t enough for today. You have seconds to capture a passerby’s attention. Compare his messaging to the usual political jargon soup (or lines of questioning about trips to Israel) and you’ll see the difference.

4. He harped on a common pain point. Andrew Cuomo’s name functioned like a dog whistle for a specific kind of local resentment about housing, transportation, abuse, and corruption. Mamdani didn’t waste time trying to be neutral or diplomatic. He went straight for the pain point and he stayed on message

5. He repeated himself. Over and over again. Free buses. Bad landlords. Childcare. The message didn’t change depending on the platform or the day of the week. That consistency built recognition, and recognition built trust.

6. He made his audience participants. This was a campaign of invitation. Over 50,000 people canvassed for him. That doesn’t happen unless people feel seen, spoken to, and activated. It’s real community-building, the kind brands have been trying to grab on to for years.

What Zohran Didn’t Do

1. He didn’t copy the other guys. There was no centrism cosplay, no last-minute attempts to woo moderate donors. He stayed in his lane (even though it pissed people off). And because of that, people could trust the direction.

2. He didn’t try to impress the establishment. Which is exactly why the establishment is so obsessed with dissecting his win. When you’re not playing the same game, your rules get a lot more interesting.

3. He didn’t overcomplicate the message. There were no 16-point policy PDFs floating around Instagram stories. Just the clearest articulation of a few powerful ideas, repeated until they stuck.

What It Means for You

1. Listen. Really listen. Ask better questions. What do your people need? What are they fighting for? What are they sick of hearing? And when you figure it out, say it. Loudly. Again and again. On every platform. In every room. In every language your people speak.

2. Start with substance. Marketing is the loud part, but it only matters if what you’re shouting is something people want to hear. People are exhausted by the bs. They can smell the performance. They’re looking for clarity, for values, for something they can actually hold onto.

3. Don’t miss the point. Yes, his TikToks were good. But if you walk away thinking the lesson is “be on TikTok,” you’ve wasted an opportunity to understand what actually makes campaigns (and brands) work. His policies were the ones people wanted. It would be naive to ignore that.

Invite your people in. Make the message theirs. Not everyone will come. But the ones who do will be ready to spread the word for you.

The Bronx of it All

It will be interesting to see what happens in the November race. Media outlets throughout the country are now digging into the specifics of Mamdani’s plans (“Can he do that?” “How will he pay for it?” “What exactly is a democratic socialist?”). Competitors Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams have both announced that they’re still running as independents, a move that hints at the wider panic not just of conservatives, but also of the Democratic establishment. We’re experiencing a shift that feels new.

I’m not an expert in politics, but I’ve overseen one or two successful campaigns in my day. And what I can tell you is that this zero-to-hero campaign was successful because it nailed the foundational pieces that no one can fake. If you nail these same pieces in your own work, there’s no reason you can’t make wins as historic as Zohran’s.Know who you are. Know who you’re for. And give them your message loudly, clearly, and often.

Even (and especially) if it pisses people off.