The logistics company’s communications team wins the category “Product and Service PR” at the Austrian National PR Awards.
Gebrüder Weiss on Mars? Not just yet. But the logistics company is indeed helping scientists at the Austrian Space Forum with their maneuvers on Earth so that mankind’s dream of sending a manned expedition to Mars may one day be realized. The aim of these missions is to simulate conditions on the Red Planet as realistically as possible, and to prepare both man and machine for these demanding challenges.
The last undertaking of this kind took place last year in the Israeli Negev desert. Not only was it a resounding success for the scientists involved, but it also resulted in the team of communication experts at Gebrüder Weiss, who were responsible for providing vivid coverage of the mission, being awarded the Austrian State Prize for PR in the category “Product and Service PR” for their outstanding communications work.
The prestigious award was presented in Vienna on the evening of Wednesday, February 22 by the Minister of Economic Affairs, Martin Kocher. Frank Haas and Vanessa Hafner from Gebrüder Weiss were there to accept the award: “As the world’s most experienced logistics company, Gebrüder Weiss is committed to the future of mobility. We want to help science find new ways and means. This is something we can achieve both with logistics, of course, but also with communication,” says Frank Haas, the person responsible for international communications and marketing at the logistics company.
Global communication offensive
Gebrüder Weiss was on hand to provide continuous reporting on the progress of the scientific mission across all communication channels. The company’s magazine ATLAS published a Mars special edition, which included an in-depth interview with the head of the Austrian Space Forum, Gernot Grömer. The Gebrüder Weiss apprentices involved in providing the logistics for the project reported on their experiences under the hashtag #marsmonday. This also resulted in a dedicated documentary being made about the mission. The international media also responded very positively to the commitment shown by Gebrüder Weiss. Frank Haas: “Supporting a Mars mission is an undertaking that generates a lot of interest around the world, which is why we had press coverage in almost all Gebrüder Weiss markets. Even Chinese and American media were very interested in what we have been doing.”
The Mars campaign has incidentally resulted in a kind of “space competence cluster” being formed at Gebrüder Weiss. This is because the Stockholm-based Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) now also relies on the logistics expertise of the orange logistics company, with Gebrüder Weiss on hand to help the Swedish project engineers in any way it can. The logistics provider also transported the complete set of research equipment to Sweden, in addition to providing logistics consulting services. More about this can be found in the current online special of ATLAS magazine.
About the Austrian National PR Awards
Since 1984, the Public Relations Association Austria (PRVA) and the Austrian Federal Ministry / Labour and Economy have been recognizing exceptional communication campaigns with the National PR Awards. From the 140 applications submitted, 25 communications experts select the winners in six categories.
