Miley’s Branding Genius

I liked it.

Well, I liked the idea of it and I certainly love the conversation it is fueling across all media, from business to consumer to conventional and digital, broadcast and print, blogs and all things social.  Love her, hate her, Miley Cyrus has struck a chord, and whether that turns out to be a sour note or a choir of harmonious profits, only time will tell.

Why did I like this performance?  Not because of her tongue, or because of her outfits, such that they were, but because in my new world of branding and messaging where we bill and bill and bill and brainstorm and create and test and message and market to come up with something that resonates, Miley tested the bounds of taste, some will say dispensed with them all together, and in a few short minutes, completely re-invented her own personal brand.

 We’ve seen bits and pieces of Miley trying to recreate herself, ditch Disney and her Hannah Montana persona and become an edgy, well-toned, sexually dynamic performer.  Argue whether she can sing, argue whether she can perform, argue whether she has anything to offer above and beyond “celebrity,” but you can’t argue that we’re all talking about her, trying to “figure it out,” understand why she did it and where she goes from here. 

Where does she go from here?  Anywhere she wants, actually.  Some might say she mortgaged her future with the VMA stunt, but I’m of the school that it’s more an investment than a mortgage.  Outrageous?  Yup.  But let’s not forget what Britney Spears used to do (and from what I understand, Miley is being advised by Britney’s former team); or what Lady Gaga has done (remember the meat suit?); or go back a bit and think about how crazy Madonna used to seem.  Does Miley measure up to them, talent-wise?  Probably not, or maybe it’s just too soon to say, but she does command the cameras, she does manipulate the media, she is in control of her own brand, and she is self-determining what it all means and where it takes her.

We can be disgusted, or we can turn the channel.  We can be puritanical or prurient.  But what we can’t seem to do is ignore, and Miley and her Hollywood publicity machine know this better than just about anyone.

Don’t think for a second that her performance wasn’t scripted, rehearsed, and maybe even market tested before she went live with it with MTV.  Don’t think for a second that performances like these aren’t choreographed, not just the dance itself but the likely fall-out it would generate.  None of this was improvised.  All of this was by design.

In the olden days, as my kids like to hearken back to the time I was their age, the media covered stories of interest.  By its definition the news was about what was new, interesting, unusual.  Over time, and certainly since the blogosphere became of age, so much news has evolved into covering the weird, the off-beat, the bizarre.  One of my Zeno colleagues today wrote something interesting about the fall-out from Miley that caught my attention:  Josh Anisfeld wrote that 10, 15 even 20 years ago people talked about what the media was talking about.  “Now,” he says, the media is talking about what people are talking about.”

Miley certainly gets this.  Some companies and PR media strategists are getting it too.  Me?  Miley’s performance was entertaining if only because of how outrageous it was, and it was a not so gentle reminder that the US Constitution is a great document because it protects all kinds of expression, Miley’s not withstanding.  I liked it, but maybe not just for the reasons you might think.  Miley’s a brand.  She’s using the media to keep her brand alive, and in the process, she’s fueling a discussion whether by design or not, about expression, speech, messaging, media and how and what we communicate.  Is Miley crazy?  Crazy like a fox.