Does Your Brand Need a Miley Moment?

MTV’s Video Music Awards (VMAs) happened weeks ago. But people are still talking about the night’s major event: Miley Cyrus’s twerking performance with Robin Thicke.

It was the most news-worthy performance of the award show, one of the most reported on occurrences of the show, beating out Lady Gaga’s opener, Justin Timberlake’s Video Vanguard award, and the N’Sync reunion.

The daughter of country star Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley got her start on the Disney channel. She is now 20 years old. The provocative and often inappropriate twerking during her VMA performance forever shattered her previous innocent, good-girl image.

Many reactions were overwhelmingly negative. But people are still talking about the performance, weeks after it happened. Miley herself has said she wanted to do something that people would talk about for years to come. During her performance, it appeared as though she was out of control and didn’t realize how big of a hit her image would take. But it was totally calculated. She meant to shake up her market position, to get (and keep) people talking.

So how can you apply Miley’s latest marketing move toward your own brand? While her feedback was largely negative, you don’t have to stir up controversy to adopt her strategy. Shake things up, get out of your box, get noticed, get people to start talking.