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Meet the National Education Association’s Director of PR and Video, Andy Linebaugh
No one knows the importance of education like the leaders of the National Education Association, www.nea.org.
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Andy Linebaugh, a man on the go as the organization’s PR director. He has a been a client of Crews Control for more than a decade and knows the value of good video—and good relationships. Following is our Q&A:
Andrea Keating: Tell us how the NEA uses video as part of its outreach program.
Andy Linebaugh: We use video for a variety of purposes, including paid advertising, and especially for our advocacy programs. In fact, one of the beauties of posting video on the Internet is that we don’t have to cut our footage to 30 second or 1 minute to fit the time slot of a broadcasting or commercial format. This gives me the opportunity to let Crews Control’s videographers be as creative as they want. That is exciting from our point of view.
Andrea Keating: Do you also use video for training and educational purposes?
Andy Linebaugh: Absolutely. And because we are a union, our primary purpose is to advocate for our members and unite the nation to fulfill the promise of providing a great public education for everyone.
We have 51 affiliates and in addition to creating national videos, we craft individual videos to help them provide information to their communities and members. We do this for a variety of programs, including political action and policy issues (such as the latest and best practices as they relate to teacher evaluation).
We produce video for our NEA Academy, which informs our members about best practices in education. Our members can find a great amount of information about continuing education classes, Master’s degrees, credits to advance their careers, and other cutting-edge learning opportunities:www.neaacademy.org.
Andrea Keating: Do you believe that video is becoming increasingly important as a way to communicate your mission, vision, and program information?
Andy Linebaugh: Definitely. This is the era of smartphones, tablets, and people constantly being on the Web. As a result, video will continue to become even more popular and important in the years ahead because it’s so easy to disseminate and absorb information through this medium. Just look at the popularity of YouTube. The number of videos posted, and the number of people who watch them, seem to increase every day.
I’m a newspaper man at heart, and it saddens me to realize that print is all but dead. But this is the new reality, and as the largest education organization in the country, we need to stay on top of the trends, and respond accordingly. Fortunately, Crews Control helps us do that by being a great outsourcing partner.
Andrea Keating: Do you think the demand for high quality video will also increase?
Andy Linebaugh: I do, and the reason is simple: Good video is easy to spot, but not always easy to create. We are so inundated with videos by amateur shooters who fancy themselves directors and producers. Clearly, not everyone with an iPhone can make a good video.
And again, that’s why we regularly come back to Crews Control. Our team of six in our video department can’t handle the volume of work that we need to keep up with. In fact, just last month I had 18 hours to turn around a project and my first call was to Crews Control. It wasn’t a problem. A crew was onsite, just as we needed them to be, and the footage was spectacular. I couldn’t ask for a better video partner.
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