Kamala HQ is a social marketing masterclass

Kamala is Brat. Charli XCX said so herself.

It started as an organic movement online in support of Vice President Harris’s potential presidential run earlier this month, featuring fan edits of Harris set to songs from Charli XCX’s Brat album and from other popular artists like Chappell Roan. Now, the memes are officially part of her campaign after President Joe Biden announced he would no longer run for a second term.

Harris’s campaign, which has been live for about a week, quickly embraced the font and chartreuse green of Brat on its Kamala HQ social accounts, and has made references to Harris’s now-viral quote in which she recalled her mother asking, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” There are memes referencing everything from infinity auras to certain rumors about Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance. On TikTok, Kamala HQ used a trending audio from creator Brooke Schofield to joke about Trump’s fundraising, which racked up 19.5 million views and more than 2.5 million likes since it was posted three days ago. Another TikTok, a clip of Trump noting the Democratic campaign’s strategy and appended with Harris’s approval message, has nearly 3 million likes.

It’s a vastly more online campaign than Biden’s was—and so far, brand experts told us, it appears to be working in the VP’s favor, particularly with young people. But can the online momentum hold until November?

You think these memes fell out of a coconut tree?

When it comes to memes, “timing is everything,” Lynne Field, head of strategy at experience and design agency FutureBrand, told us, and the Harris campaign “jumped in at just the right time” before the memes and edits felt too mainstream.

With less than 100 days until the election, Field said Harris’s team has been tasked with building her brand at an “accelerated pace,” and engaging with online communities has helped them make serious progress.

“If they’re managed well, memes can be an incredibly powerful tool for building a strong brand as part of a connected ecosystem,” she said.

Molly Barth, a senior cultural strategist at the consultancy sparks & honey, told us that in the short time it’s been live, the campaign seems to have “broken through that [election] fatigue among young voters” by tapping into youth culture and establishing Harris as an alternative to some of the older presidential candidates of recent years. She compared Harris’s campaign to President Obama’s ’08 campaign with its emphasis on hope, calling it a “new-age play” on the concept.

While Trump’s TikTok account has more than three times as many followers as Kamala HQ’s does, Barth noted Harris’s engagement is “so much higher” already because of the strength of the posts themselves.

“With a lot of political social content, it feels like a super PAC created it or there’s big money throwing their weight behind it,” she said. “This really feels like a person has created it, which is why it’s been so resonant.

Barth said that so far, the Harris campaign has engaged with trends that make sense for the campaign without stretching to make a connection, a strategy Field applauded.

“The memes are striking a chord because they feel true to who Kamala Harris uniquely is,” Field said.

Existing in the context

Field says it will be crucial for the campaign to toe the line between engaging with, but not trying to direct, future memes related to her campaign.

“So far,” she said, “I think they are getting the balance just right and using a light touch to engage but not to try to own it too much [in a way] that will make the magic disappear.”

It’s a lesson social marketers may already know well. Internet discourse moves fast, and Field said the campaign will likely conduct social listening to track what’s trending and the messaging that’s resonating.

“It needs to be that right balance of agility so that people sense that you are just ahead of the moment and not behind it,” she said. “It’s going to be critical to maintain that step ahead.”

Barth agreed, adding the campaign already seems to be positioning itself well by activating on multiple trends. “Meme culture moves very quickly, so this will die out soon,” she said. “I think they definitely need to be thinking about what’s coming after Brat girl summer.”

Another challenge the campaign may need to contend with is balancing the silly and playful tone of today’s posts with a more serious tone as November approaches, Barth said. Field said using Kamala HQ for memes and the other official accounts for more traditional communications can help appeal to a broader base of voters.

“We’re seeing a brand become real in real time,” she said, adding that the Harris campaign is “doing the best of what modern brands today need to do: be true to who they are, but also relevant for changing times.”

Barth put it even more simply: “They need to promote or give a raise to whoever is managing her accounts,” she said. “It’s really great.”