Beats by Dre: Beats Pills on Miley Cyrus and Twerking
After Miley Cyrus’ controversial performance on the Video Music Awards, Beats, who sponsor the singer, released a taunting ad featuring their new product, Beats Pill speakers. In the video, the speakers mock Cyrus’ performance, saying things like, "Don't you need ass to twerk?"
The ad aired after Cyrus’ act, but before the VMAs had ended. A quick turn around? No, most likely prearranged multi-platform advertising. After the ad aired on TV it was posted online and the next day re-tweeted by Cyrus, who seemed to love the video.
Did the Beats expect a shocking performance and hope to ride her wave of controversy? Maybe. If so, it was good planning on its part. In the end, Beats provided great engaging content, got exposure on many platforms and proved to be a reactive brand.
The video is humorous and definitely shareable. It stuck to the style of previous ads promoting the product and kept the same mocking tone, which seems to work well with their audience.
One thing that could have been done better is the long term distribution strategy; the heat around the shocking performance is now cooling down, and not all the Beats and VMA audience are Cyrus’ fans. The brand needs to now focus on delivering the content in wider environments.
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