INTRODUCTION
Environmental departments at ports don't always get the recognition they deserve. At the Port of Longview, our environmental department is also our planning department, which means they cover a lot more ground than your normal environmental team.
This group of professionals is tasked with keeping the Port in compliance with local, state and federal regulations, managing projects, testing water samples, permitting and much, much more.
We created a video for our community to learn more about our planning and environmental team and help generate a better understanding of what some of our dedicated Port staff do on a daily basis.
1. What are/were the entry’s specific communications challenges or opportunities?
Many people don't know the environmental regulations ports face or that ports have environmental and planning departments. Often, regular people who work and live in our community are unaware that ports are very regulated.
We realized having a video representation of our hard-working planning and environmental team would help educate our community and stakeholders about the important role our environmental team plays in keeping us compliant and on track with environmental goals.
Other challenges included finding the right producer to help make our vision come to life, working with a limited budget, conflicting schedules and making sure our video was impactful and engaging in a time of short attention spans.
Briefly analyze the major internal and external factors that need to be addressed
Internally, our staff had a good deal of fun making this video. We held two meetings to discuss our vision for the video, the elements and shots we wanted to include and how this video would align with our branding and the Port's voice.
Externally, our producer was the best thing that could have happened to us. We were able to hand off our vision and within weeks, we received a storyboard that captured the right feel and look of our new video. Our producer and their crew were great to work with and offered a fun and engaging style of filmmaking.
2. How does the communication used in this entry complement the organization’s overall mission?
The Port of Longview's mission is "to promote commerce and economic development through strategic public investments for the benefit of the community."
We feel our video demonstrates our mission by showcasing a group of the dedicated individuals that make the Port successful and keep the Port running.
This video allows our community to understand what our environmental team does and know that without their knowledge and day to day tasks, the Port would not be able to handle cargo. The community is able to see the people behind the curtain that are working hard to stimulate commerce and development, reinforcing our mission statement.
3. What were the communications planning and programming components used for this entry?
To stay on brand, we wanted to show our audience the many facets of our environmental and planning team's work. We could have simplified our script and made the video 30 seconds, but we wanted to use our time wisely and create a longer (but not too long) video that showed all of our hard work.
Environmental work isn't always exciting, at least not for everyone. We wanted our video to stand out, be fast-paced to where we weren't a total bore and add a little fun in the mix by including other staff members in our video.
4. What actions were taken and what communication outputs were employed in this entry?
Creating a departmental video meant having a strong communications plan and creative vision. Working closely with terminal operations staff, we coordinated when dock access would be clear or have an operation working for filming. We obtained necessary permissions to film crews on Port docks and fly drones over the Port.
We held several meetings with our producer to edit and review the work we collaborated on. Performing this work with a producer who understood our vision and the Port's brand not only kept our video professional, but it gave our video a more fun and up-beat feel.
5. What were the communications outcomes from this entry and what evaluation methods were used to assess them?
Since uploading our video to Facebook, and evaluating our results through their respective metric systems, we have received nearly 500 views and reached more than 800 people.
Below are some of the few comments we've received from the public:
"Very informative! Most people do not realize all of the important work that goes on behind the scenes. Good job!"
"The Port’s Enviornmental Team rocks! Keep up the good work and the Port and the environment will benefit!"