It’s not difficult to chart the diversification of MTV’s output over the last decade. Tune into the channel today and you’ll be more likely to catch an episode of Geordie Shore than the latest Shakira video.
After the launch of YouTube in 2005, music fans were no longer forced to sit through a three minute performance by an animated, singing amphibian just to listen to the stereophonic perfection of Oasis’ Lyla. An archive of the world’s music (or one big enough to satisfy most of our musical appetites) was suddenly available at the click of a mouse - and with it MTV’s USP was gone.
A quick glimpse at an MTV schedule tells the tale of its departure from music well: Cribs, Friendzone, My Supersweet 16 and Teen Mom. The same demographic that used to soak up chart toppers is now fed an addictive diet of reality TV. So how does this output square with MTV’s other more high-minded diversification project?
The social responsibility arm of MTV started out life in 1998 without much fanfare. Georgia Arnold, then assistant to MTV’s managing director, was asked how the broadcaster could make the most of their small charity budget. She invested the money in what was to be a one-off documentary called Staying Alive, hosted by George Michael, about the lives of six young people living with or affected by HIV.
The success of the documentary triggered a series of media campaigns to raise awareness of the disease, including a teen drama called Shuga. Now in its third series the drama is syndicated freely to 88 channels (44 of which are African) and has a global reach of over 500 million.
It is difficult to imagine a better example of a legacy media organisation loosing its original purpose and repositioning itself than MTV. Arnold, now senior vice president of social responsibility for Viacom International Media Networks (MTV’s parent company), argues that the two apparently very different departures from music – from Shuga to the Shores – are not at odds.
Arnold says that MTV’s output appeals to the different occupations of the teenage mind and that Shuga, focusing on relationships and sex, reflects “a piece of the puzzle of that person’s brain”.
Her next challenge is using tech to encourage better sexual health. A survey of 1,000 young Kenyans in 2010 found that 60% had watched Shuga and that viewers were more likely to get tested for HIV, less likely to have concurrent relationships and had improved attitudes towards people living with HIV.
Now Arnold wants to go further: “How do we incorporate SMS and Skype [...] to genuinely change behaviour? We’re working with a mobile aggregator in Nigeria so if you text a number you can become a part of the Shuga club. It will become a two-way conversation. We can do polling questions. We can also push information about when and where to watch Shuga and when to get tested.”
At Activate 2010, Arnold said: “I still think social media is too young to be the most prevalent or influential agent for social change.” Four years later, does she still believe that? “I think it has grown up in the last four years. It is part of social change. We have 100,000 Facebook fans for Shuga. I don’t think you can ever do anything without digital. It’s very much central to what we do but as a standalone it’s still to get to that stage where it changes behaviour.”
So TV is still the biggest influencer for Arnold’s team? “For us, yes. The BBC might say it’s radio.” Despite her team’s ambitions, Arnold warns media organisations not to try to “reinvent the wheel”: “It’s about adding value. It’s about layers and layers and having breadth and depth.”
“I think over the last decade companies have realised that a they have a moral responsibility to be involved with issues that affect customers and the client base. Arnold adds: “It’s also good for business. They love that we get involved with issues that aren’t commercially driven.”
Georgia Arnold will be speaking at the Transformational Media Summit in Washington, DC. For more information on the Transformational Media Summit and to register follow this link.