Is Iran winning social media war?

For all of America’s military might and technological dominance, the online narrative tells a different story, as memes posted by Iran and pro-Iran networks have often looked sharper, more emotionally intelligent, scoring far more points with viewers. This is not necessarily because Iran is more truthful, or a more righteous state than the US, but rather with which side is better positioned to understand framing, audience psychology and social media platform culture. At the moment that side is Iran. Everyone has seen at least one Iranian meme firing at Donald Trump, while the vast majority of us who have seen a response from the US president, may have been left wondering over the message of a “call of duty” style meme. According to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a global “think-and-do” tank headquartered in London, two coordinated pro-Iran X networks generated more than 1 billion views, about 16 million likes, and 3.5 million reposts in the first month of the war. The ISD accompanied the data with a remark that their success had more to do with social media culture, with users responding better to memetic and snarky posts, rather than traditional state propaganda. By contrast, the response from the Trump camp’s war content drew big reach, but on a different register. According to a Reuters report, the White House “Call of duty” style video had been viewed 8 million times, an “Operation Epic Fury” clip had more than 18 million views, while a SpongeBob-themed reel generated more than 9 million views across two platforms (X and TikTok). The news agency had quoted critics and communications experts dubbing the campaign as “gamification” of war and as demeaning victims, while the administration struggled to articulate a clear case for the conflict. The latter point not only matters, but is the core issue. Iran’s posts have the emotional high ground. Just like in art form or field, the attacked party almost always has more room to move than the attacker. Iran is foregrounding civilian suffering, destruction, grief, sovereignty and defiance. These are powerful ingredients that are visual, immediate and morally eligible. Ingredients that make their messages resonate with a wider audience, as they are also easily connected to injustices carried out throughout the world, from Palestine, to our own home island of Cyprus, and even President Trump’s home country, the US. Spectacle, swagger and militarised entertainment On the other hand, the Trump administration has, as a rule of thumb, leaned into spectacle, swagger and militarised entertainment. A tactic that could score points amongst the die-hard MAGAs, but is a poor fit for global audiences, already weary of war, and are cynical about US motives. Narges Bajoghli, an Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, argues that the social media conversation has effectively been hijacked by Iran. Bajoghli argues that Iran has done this by giving room to a “younger, savvier” generation of creators who have transformed how Iran and its allies talk to the world, by producing highly shareable, social media-ready content that spreads virally. Iran is behaving like a digitally fluent challenger brand. Furthermore, platform native communication is not about who posts better content. It is about understanding tone, irony, symbolism, remix culture, and emotional timing. The LEGO-themed videos from Iran appear to be well crafted for American audiences. They are accompanied by, one could say terrible but, oddly catchy hip-hop songs. These are creative qualities that are killed off when the communication is dominated by the need to justify force, project strength, and maintain a hard-core narrative. But Trump is also faced with a classic brand problem, and that is the message-product mismatch. The US president had built his election campaign on anti-establishment energy, a rejection of traditional foreign policy, and a promise of “no new” and “endless wars”. A positioning that requires restraint and a break from the status-quo. A military escalation means the exact opposite of what he had promised. Instead of restraint, his audience was presented with aggression and bombast. Trump’s messages lost their credibility. In marketing terms, the brand’s message no longer aligns with the product delivered. As a result, even when content achieves high visibility, or even goes viral, it often is the recipient of mockery, backlash or outrage. Attention is amplified, but not trust towards the brand, in this case the Trump administration. Classic marketing from a modern conflict This is where classic marketing wisdom steps in to explain modern propaganda. Philip Kotler, widely regarded as the “father of modern marketing”, dubbed marketing as “the creative use of the truth”. Marketing guru Seth Godin has long argued that effective storytelling matches the worldview of the people they are told to. These principles are in play here, as Iran’s message fits the emotional worldview of audiences who are anti-war and are sickened by acts of cruelty, especially those targeting civilians. As reported by the Washington Post, US veterans have criticised the White House for using memes to promote the Iran war, saying the approach trivialises casualties and the realities of conflict. In an interview with the Post, retired US Army Colonel Joe Buccino stated that after witnessing war footage mixed with videos from Call of Duty and SpongeBob SquarePants, the White House communications team was treating the conflict like “a big joke.” Takeaway The takeaway here regarding to why Iran is outmarketing a global superpower, both in militaristic and economic terms, is that in the age of algorithms you can dominate the battlefield, but still lose the narrative. You can generate millions of views and still fail to convince. What wins at the end of the day, is the persuasiveness of your storytelling, which side feels more human, more wronged, and is more in synced with the emotional pulse of the audience. The social media war, playing out in real time in front of us, is a collision between two fundamentally opposite approaches to communication and marketing. On the one hand you have one built for modern platforms, and one still anchored in the protection of traditional power. And in this arena, the advantage is clearly increasing.   Kyriacos Kiliaris is a marketing strategist specialising in brand positioning and digital storytelling, with over a decade of experience across media, real estate and corporate communications. The post Is Iran winning social media war? appeared first on Financial Mirror.