A little humor goes a long way when it comes to driving the need to impress crane safety on contractors, vendors, building crews, and others on a job who are involved in complex lifts. “If you work humor into a short video they can watch almost anywhere, anytime, you’ve got them learning about important crane safety issues,” said Dean Sims II, vice president of marketing for Tampa-based Sims Crane & Equipment. “We are all visual learners, but if you use humor as a hook, the learning is just more effective.”

Sims began producing video shorts on a wide range of safety topics and posting them on YouTube and other sites in May 2012. To date, the company has produced and posted a total of 33 videos in an initiative called “The Sims Crane Minute” (the videos actually average just under two minutes each).

Sims says the positive response he has received to date has been overwhelming after releasing the latest humor-based video, a retro black-and-white thriller entitled, “Citizen Crane.”

“Unfortunately, we found that most of the videos that are out there now are about crane accidents, they are long and boring, and you have to pay for them,” said Sims. “Using the YouTube platform, we can very quickly reach end users such as the construction managers and the teams of people on work sites where our cranes are operating.”

The videos are designed to present enough information to clients so that if they identify a particular safety concern, they can conduct follow-up research to learn more about it or ask Sims’ experts for more information on why precise safety standards must be met and exceeded. Also, they can help inform jobsite workers and managers about safety laws and regulations that must be observed.

“Safety education puts everybody on the same page,” said Sims.

Source: Crane and Rigging Hotline