Producing Winners
They Won a Telly Award for Their SIC Tourism Ad, Hope to Win Another
The 2021 Telly Award winning Sea Isle City television spot.
When you see that a television commercial for Sea Isle City, which has a year-round population of about 2,000, won a prestigious international award for excellence against the likes of powerhouse tourism destinations including Las Vegas, Orlando, New York, and Dubai, it seems pretty impossible.
But when you learn who has been producing Sea Isle City’s commercials, it all starts to make sense.
Seven Mile Publishing & Creative, working in conjunction with longtime partners Atlantic Coast Productions and Take One Productions, are the talented teams behind the 2021 Sea Isle City commercial that won a Telly Award, an annual honor that showcases the best work created within television and across all mediums of video.
Those companies have not only created commercials and marketing concepts for Sea Isle City, the 76ers, Flyers, HBO, NBC Sports, the U.S. Postal Service, and Foot Locker, but they have worked with everyone from Allen Iverson to Don King to Mike Tyson to Alf. That commercial featuring the ornery yet lovable plush alien won an Emmy Award.
The secret to success? Maybe three decades of creativity, camaraderie, and, most important, friendship have something to do with it.
And the good news is that they feel the 2024 Sea Isle City commercial has a great chance of bringing another Telly to Cape May County when the awards are announced this summer.
“Hopefully we’ll do it again this year,” says Dave Coskey, the leader of the operation who has worked as a marketing guru for Trump Plaza, the House of Blues, Borgata, Ocean Casino, and the 76ers. “There were 13,000 entries last year, so to be recognized with a Telly is a pretty big honor.”
The 2021 Telly winner for Sea Isle featured a creative campaign created by Sea Isle Tourism titled “Reconnect in Sea Isle City,” featuring a collection of familiar static and video shots of the city that came to life on postcards. Iconic treasures from our past.
Charles Barkley waits on Alf and then-76ers general manager Billy King in this 2003 television spot for the Sixers.
The 2001 in arena video produced for the 76ers using graphics and studio elements from Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
This year’s commercial reunites Coskey with his partners Jake Glassey and David Pashuck, along with music by Frank Gorgo, and plays on Sea Isle’s happy water-tower greeting – “Smile … You’re in Sea Isle” – for the commercial slogan, “There’s Always a Reason to Smile in Sea Isle.” They are competing in the “Tourism Destination” and “Best Use of Original Music” categories.
The new commercial starts with a group of children in the water, their arms around each other and, of course, smiling. Scenes fade in and out like memories of visiting the Jersey Shore town with images of the Promenade, the beach, and the bay, as well as people kayaking, doing yoga, fishing, shopping, and enjoying the latest fitness trend of pickleball. It concludes with “Looking for smiles? Then you should plan a visit to Sea Isle City, New Jersey,” accompanied by Gorgo’s catchy Sea Isle-themed song.
Whether or not Seven Mile Publishing & Creative brings home another Telly to Sea Isle City is a question mark at this point. There is no question, however, when it comes to the quality and effectiveness of the commercial regarding appealing to potential tourists. There’s also no question about the three production companies’ passion for video marketing and their loyalty and respect for each other.
Teaming Up
The entire relationship began when Pashuck, who lived in Ocean City at the time, showed up as a videographer for Philadelphia’s 6abc for a Mike Tyson workout at Trump Plaza, where he met Coskey, then the vice president of marketing for the former casino. Both had a strong belief that video and television would be a critical part of the public-relations business, so they began to work together after Coskey left the Plaza and co-founded Media Works Communications, a marketing and public relations firm. Pashuck then introduced Coskey to Glassey, a videographer and production expert who worked at Sammons Communications in Atlantic County.
Since meeting more than 25 years ago, the three men have reached millions of people with their work and even revolutionized the industry when they pioneered satellite media feeds and live distribution of satellite television interviews, distributing video highlights via satellite and producing live television interviews for local stations and network television.
Dave and Monica Coskey (left) of Seven Mile Publishing & Creative, the parent company of the Sea Isle Times, present Chris Oney of Sea Isle City Tourism and Mayor Leonard Desiderio a Telly Award for Sea Isle City’s 2021 tourism television commercial, “Reconnect in Sea Isle City.”
Media Works’ quality attracted top names from around the world to their little office in Linwood. Clients included HBO, Main Events (Evander Holyfield’s promoter), and Merv Griffin, the television talk-show and game-show legend who owned Resorts Casino Hotel. Griffin hired Media Works to produce an annual national New Year’s Eve event on the Atlantic City casino’s rooftop with David Spatz, a well-known local journalist who worked extensively with Coskey, Glassey, and Pashuck until his passing last year.
“It was always a pleasure to watch Coskey wheel and deal; he was always developing the next project,” Glassey says. “He is truly one of the pioneers in the industry. We would video Merv Griffin with the Atlantic City skyline as his background with us sitting in a satellite truck offering TV stations around the country five-minute interviews with Merv. They got the interview for free, and they loved the content. Merv and Resorts got the exposure. It was a win-win for everyone. It was all about the logistics. Logistics was our special sauce.”
“And we did it with a lot of duct tape,” Coskey adds with a laugh.
Media Works was one of the first companies to take advantage of satellite capabilities and worked with NBC Sports, the U.S. Postal Service, HBO, iconic boxing promoters including Dan and Kathy Duva, Bob Arum’s Top Rank and Don King and even the members of The Who to deliver on-demand content. And if you remember the “Miss Howard Stern New Year’s Eve Pageant” in 1994, Media Works was part of that, too, Hank “The Angry Dwarf” and all.
Scoring for the 76ers
When Coskey eventually helmed the 76ers’ marketing team, its opportunities and production work evolved to a whole other level as it produced in-arena videos and television commercials for the NBA franchise, as well as a weekly magazine-style program for the team that aired weekly on Philadelphia’s CBS affiliate KYW3 and NBC SportsNet, hosted by news anchor Ukee Washington.
“[Sports broadcasting great] Bob Costas actually said that the Sixers had the best in-game presentation in all of the NBA at the time,” Glassey says. “[New York sports broadcaster] Mike Breen was working for the NBA and on ‘Imus in the Morning,’ and he went out of his way to say how he was blown away by the atmosphere created by us in the arena. There was a lot of crazy, spur-of-the-moment stuff that we did over the years.”
The highlights were plentiful.
Pashuck fondly remembers filming Iverson playing a game of H-O-R-S-E with Gumby, but he is most proud of a spot they produced based on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” that featured Regis Philbin asking Iverson questions. The trick was to replicate the popular game show’s set for Iverson in a small 76ers office so that it would look like he was sitting right across from Philbin, a difficult task when technology wasn’t what it is today.
“Regis was hot at the time, and we pulled off a miracle there to make it look so real,” Pashuck recalls. “We got the video from the ‘Millionaire’ team and had to shoot Iverson here in Philly and put them together so that it looked seamless. And it did. We even got to fill in the ‘Family Member’ seat with [coach] Larry Brown, and Iverson and Brown weren’t the best friends at the time. ABC sent us a graphics package and everything to replicate the studio and what you see on screen.
“When we screened it, 20,000 people in the arena went nuts. We had people tell us they were watching Channel 6 and saw Iverson on ‘Millionaire’ and wondered why he got such easy questions. We pulled it off in a big way.”
Glassey remembers working 80 hours a week when the 76ers won the Eastern Conference and went to the 2001 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers. One of the finest pieces of work jabbed at Lakers fan Jack Nicholson, and after it prematurely aired on a Philadelphia news channel before one of the games, NBA commissioner David Stern happened to be watching and banned the 76ers from showing it at the arena.
“We were in a groove,” Glassey says. “Every time we had a video on the board, it seemed like it was a hit. We were firing on all cylinders at that time. And then we were completely exhausted when it was over. It was such a roller-coaster ride of us cranking out all of this great work from this tiny studio. The lights were always on Atlantic Coast Productions and Media Works.”
The 2024 Smile You’re in Sea Isle commercial.
Coskey enjoyed working with another broadcasting legend, the late Tim Russert, who was working for NBC as the “Meet the Press” host.
“He actually did the 76ers’ introduction when we were honored by the Philadelphia Public Relations Society because he was such a fan of our work,” Coskey says. “We worked with him a lot, including on ‘Meet the Press.’ He had a famous white-board thing when we had a winning streak going on. Russert started off with a white board, and then we rotated celebrities as the streak continued. When we got to eight wins, Dick Van Patten said, ‘Eight is not enough,’ and when we got to 10, Bo Derek said, ‘It will be a perfect 10.’ They were some good times.”
Although their roles seemed interchangeable at times, the Coskey-Pashuck-Glassey team all have their strengths. Pashuck primarily serves as the camera operator – “Dave is as good as you can get when it comes to camera operation,” Coskey says. Glassey’s forte is producing and editing – “Jake is so creative and talented,” Coskey adds. And Coskey was the big-picture guy when it came to the business, relationships, and coming up with concepts. “Dave is our fearless leader, and his imagination and work ethic are unparalleled,” Glassey says.
All Smiles In Sea Isle
The trio’s creativity is once again front and center for the 2024 “Smiles” campaign for Sea Isle City.
After overcoming some weather issues as well as trying to uniquely capture real-life moments with real people having fun in Sea Isle City, they decided great photos were the best assets they had to engage an audience. How better to capture smiles than with great photos?
“When you visit the Jersey Shore, it’s all about memories,” Glassey says. “And photos of people smiling and enjoying their vacations in Sea Isle City making memories was just a natural fit.”
Coskey is particularly proud of the commercial’s conclusion.
“Jake did a nice musical edit there, and when the music starts and it says, ‘Smile … You’re in Sea Isle City,’ it just leaves you with this great impression, sticks in your head and drives you to want to come here,” Coskey says. “The song sticks in your head along with all of these positive images of people enjoying all of the things that make Sea Ise City great.”
Winning another Telly won’t be easy as Netflix, A&E, ESPN Films, Disney, NASA, National Geographic, and other big-budget companies will compete against a small town like Sea Isle City.
“We competed against very tough competition last time, too, and we won,” Coskey says. “I think this commercial paints such a feel-good moment … it’s as good as anything we’ve done before.”
Full Circle
As time changes, circumstances at Atlantic Coast Productions and Take One Productions change, too.
Glassey moved to Kansas; Pashuck now lives in Delaware; and Gorgo, a former casino lounge singer who lived in Richland when they all met, is writing and recording his music from Harrisburg. Coskey is holding down the fort in Avalon.
While they miss being around each other like the good old days, technology allows them to continue the successful relationship they started, and this is a long-distance relationship that works better than most.
“I was so lucky to meet these guys and do the things we did together and develop the deep friendships we have … I am truly blessed,” Coskey says.
“The secret sauce for our long-term success is dedication and loyalty,” Glassey says. “There was never a project too big or too small. We always dedicated the same amount of energy and attention to every project, no matter who it was for and how much we were paid. We always took the attitude that we have to always put out the best at all times because everything we do ultimately represents us. We would do anything for each other. We are colleagues, but first and foremost, we are family.”