Observed Signal · Apr 16, 2026 · Industry Presentation · Source: Adweek · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Mamdani Team Breaks Down Viral Social Video Strategy
At ADWEEK’s Social Media Week, members of the creative team behind Zohran Mamdani’s successful New York City mayoral campaign — the Melted Solids creative duo (Anthony DiMieri and Debbie Saslaw) and Donald Borenstein, the campaign’s director of video — explained why the campaign’s social videos broke out. They emphasized a consistent social-first video strategy, allowing the candidate to riff on camera, sourcing content from on-the-street interviews, and shooting in local settings like food trucks and bodegas. The team described tactical choices such as filming horizontally for Instagram Reels to establish place, centering the candidate for eye contact, and coaching to build learnable charisma. Melted Solids said it hopes more political candidates will adopt authentic, repeatable social video approaches.
Provides practical creative and production lessons for social-first video that are relevant to agencies, brands and political advertisers but does not introduce major platform, policy or technology changes.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Speakers at ADWEEK’s Social Media Week included Melted Solids co-founders Anthony DiMieri and Debbie Saslaw and Donald Borenstein, director of video for the Zohran for NYC campaign.
- Zohran Mamdani’s campaign used a sustained social-first video strategy rather than one-off posts.
- Campaign creative favored authentic, on-the-street interviews and location shoots (food trucks, bodegas) to illustrate policy impacts.
- The team intentionally filmed horizontally for Instagram Reels in at least one bodega video to better convey a sense of place.
- Melted Solids advocates coaching candidates on performance and direction to create repeatable, authentic social video content.
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