|
Seaside Heights, NJ had its MTV for the second
time in four years, an unheard of accomplishment,
through the efforts of Redpath and Associates.
MTV’s Shore Thing was based in Seaside Heights
throughout the summer of 2002.
While Director of Public Affairs for Seaside
Heights in 1998, Michael Redpath recruited MTV to
base its summer programming in the town, and acted
as liaison with the Viacom music channel. Prior to
its return to Seaside Heights in 2002, MTV had
never returned to a community for its summer
programming due to the challenge of staying fresh
creatively.
According to Redpath, “We worked in partnership
with MTV in a way which they had never experienced
in a community before. That literally established
a new model for how MTV works in communities. Our
approach was strictly a partnership with quality
TV production as the benefit for MTV and economic
development the benefit for the community.”
The general public tends to think strictly of the
music and music videos they experience on MTV and
see that as what their presence in a community is
all about. Redpath changed the focus to the
audience, the audience demographics, and how that
could be leveraged to the economic benefit of the
community. “This is the music of the teen to
young-adult population,” Redpath explains. “With
that in mind, we look to the long term benefit;
putting our shore resort message before youngsters
who influence their parents now, and will
themselves be heads of families in several years.”
According to Redpath, the median income of
households watching MTV is $41,555 and the channel
has an average of 541,000 at any given time. The
summer programming amounts to approximately 750
hours of exposure on national television, plus all
of the media attention created by MTV’s presence.
The media value alone of MTV being present in
Seaside Heights is in the millions of dollars.
Redpath and Associates was retained by Seaside
Heights to encourage MTV to return for a second
summer stay. Michael Redpath spearheaded the
negotiations and acted as the town’s liaison
with MTV throughout the summer. |
