The guru behind the prime minister’s exponential online growth explains how a mix of pop culture, self-irony and coherence has struck a chord with millions of followers. When the narrative is authentic, it is difficult to get tired…
Seize the moment. Like that day in Matera, when Giorgia Meloni was late for a rally, stuck in traffic. An Apecar approaches, one of those that take tourists around, the driver recognizes it: “Get in, I’ll take you.” She is perplexed but someone understood everything: «The scene was so beautiful and absurd that I pushed her to get on it. We found ourselves driving around Matera in a stranger’s Apecar, with an improvised Facebook live broadcast, a dancing connection, an incredible view and spontaneous jokes between her and the driver. The arrival in the square was memorable. Inside that scene there was everything: spontaneity, humanity, politics, unexpectedness, story.”
Thus was born the image online of the first female prime minister in the history of Italy. And so Tommaso Longobardi, web and social strategist of Palazzo Chigi, tells it in the book Senza maschera (Guerini e Associati editore), which explains the rise of the Giorgia brand beyond the institutional curves, beyond the international crises, beyond the parliamentary controversies, beyond the macumbas of the opposition and the gastritis of Lilli Gruber. With exploits such as «I am a woman» and «Call me Giorgia», they entered the history of communication. Like the «#Melodi» phenomenon with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi which, last May alone, reached 266 million views on Instagram with 12.7 million likes. A boom enough to send backyard social addicts like Carlo Calenda or Matteo Renzi to crazy people. With one peculiarity: the success supported by numbers (18 million followers with a national record for political leaders) does not start from numbers and does not have its center of gravity in numbers.
This is because eight years ago, when he arrived to tame the algorithms from Casaleggio Associati at just 27 years old, Longobardi grasped a decisive detail: digital is not just a place to appear, practically a balcony, but a place to build. «Then that field was dominated by the 5 Star Movement, with an almost obsessive narrative, which allowed it to transform social anger into a political force. And from the League, capable of shaping folklore into an identity brand, making Matteo Salvini a recognizable product even outside Italy. I had something else in mind: building a communication not based on anger or excess but on coherence and authenticity. If it is true that every narrative needs an audience, it is also true that every audience needs to believe the speaker. If the rumor is false, sooner or later the bond is broken.”
At that time Meloni was in opposition and Fratelli d’Italia was floating, an island in the current. The scenario is favorable for trying to build on communicative identity, on spontaneity. Longobardi underlines: «I explained to her that I wanted to work not only on form, but on substance. Every post, every video should have reflected its nature, its coherence. No written content, no coaxing. The social live broadcasts would have allowed Giorgia to be herself.” The response of the (today) prime minister is in the preface of the book: «I have always been frightened by politicians who use social media to chase after society and publish posts with the words that are the most popular; they chase moods instead of indicating the route.” She likes Tommaso Longobardi for two reasons. «He’s a perfectionist like me, he doesn’t settle, he doesn’t wait for someone to tell him what to do. And then he’s not a yes man. When he doesn’t agree he says so. He argues his point of view and tries to convince you, he doesn’t just nod.”
Volcanic symbiosis from Apecar to the West. With Oscar-worthy peaks such as «I am Giorgia», the synthesis of «I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am Christian» started as a catchphrase by those who wanted to ridicule the message and arrived as the blue identity badge par excellence. The author of Without a Mask explains: «There are moments when you don’t plan communication, it explodes in your hands. “I am Giorgia” was a perfect short circuit between politics, the Internet and pop culture. When the remix made its appearance I wondered whether it would be a positive catchphrase or a harmful ridicule. The intent was clear: to transform coherence into caricature, but the Web never works the way you imagine it. I noticed it one evening in a pizzeria: a group of kids, who perhaps didn’t even know who Giorgia was, were using the words like a viral piece of music. The slogan had entered common language, it had become pop culture.”
This ability to repel attacks with deadly Jannik Sinner responses remains a hallmark. Does the opposition thunder against the non-existent TeleMeloni? Longobardi launches the social format «Gli Appunti di Giorgia», the only real TeleMeloni. Does the left mock Meloni for the gaffe on sea courgettes? She posts a video in which she catches a courgette with her rod. They say it’s too self-referential? «Here is the real Apulian mussel (the small one in the photo)». Message: play the game, self-irony. And then coherence, authenticity. A trait that becomes even more successful as prime minister, with the video that shows her with the “Thank you Italy” sign, with the social walks of “gli notebook”, in which she talks about the government’s work without intermediaries. Many journalists accuse her of thus bypassing press appointments, but they are the same ones who didn’t need Mario Draghi to open his mouth to applaud him.
Spontaneity also becomes a factor abroad. The feeling with the Indian Prime Minister Modi materializes with the hashtag #Melodi (a portmanteau of the two names), with the gift of Melody sweets which drives Asian social networks crazy. The one with African leaders thanks to the discourse on the West “which has plundered resources”. Piano Mattei follows. In Japan he hits the mark by relying on empathy with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, but also on the manga version of the selfie and on the magic word “ganbaru”, giving his all. Among the most original posts is the one riding the dragon at Romics to highlight his predilection for fantasy. Among the most self-desecrating, the one with the melons on the eve of the policies that were then won by a landslide.
Then we move on to the sacred, to the family, to the message of a prime minister who does not abdicate her role as a mother. Longobardi has no doubts: «There arose an entirely Italian, rather hypocritical, contradiction. On the one hand here is the first female Prime Minister, on the other the same woman judged as a mother. Some of the controversy has been ungenerous. Especially those related to international travel, as if a mother leading a nation had to justify the way she keeps her work and children together. Yet, on those occasions some of the strongest and truest images were born. I think of the photo of the return from Washington, with Ginevra in my arms. Powerful but very simple.”
Seize the moment, even when it isn’t fleeting. A peculiarity of Longobardi’s communication is its long duration. His “carpe diem” can last for years. And after a period of silence it can come back renewed, ready to give new life to the message. The most lasting examples are «I am Giorgia» and «Look at me!» ordered to Debora Serracchiani. To the PD parliamentarian who accused her of bringing women back to the rear, she replied: «Look at me. Does it seem to you that I am one step behind the men? Speaking of carp, we are reminded of the long-term concreteness of Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s legendary spin doctor, who at the dawn of the Green Deal gave his prime minister the advice: «Don’t spend millions of pounds on green marketing. To win the challenge, limit yourself to something simple: return the carp to the Thames.”
Eight years of work in a book that smells like a manual. Legitimized by a guru like Alec Ross, former advisor to Hillary Clinton. «Meloni’s communicative architecture is based on three pillars: identity, normality and “institutional pop”. In short, it is itself. It didn’t happen with Hillary. It frustrated me that the person I knew in private – funny, witty and empathetic – appeared in public as a tough lawyer.” Moral: «It is essential to allow your identity to emerge in an authentic way». Thanks to the maskless Lombards, Giorgia succeeded where Hillary failed.
