Focus on people: Rittal wins award for best PR picture of the year

11.11.2016. A total of 1,500 entries and 8,000 votes: A photograph from Rittal, the enclosure and system provider based in central Hesse, Germany, has won has the PR image award from the dpa subsidiary “news aktuell”. Most votes for an image in the “Corporate Communications” category went to Rittal’s Global Distribution Center in Haiger. The photograph was taken by Michael Koch from “Digital Photo Group”.

The PR image of the year comes from Haiger. Most of the 8,000 online votes in the “Corporate Communications” category went to a photograph from Rittal. In his award-winning picture, photographer Michael Koch impressively displayed the structure of the Global Distribution Center (GDC) – the image is filled by rows of shelves, 32-m high and 24-km long. The length, width and height of the steel skeleton is shown brightly lit. However, the most important aspect is that the focus is on a human being: In glaring light, Manuel Hennings, the GDC’s Safety and Fire Protection Officer, can be seen far away in the distance. The title “1,000 tonnes of responsibility” can be understood literally. This impressed both the jury of “news aktuell” (a subsidiary of the dpa news agency), as well as the public relations experts who cast their votes. The Rittal image was judged the best of the 1,500 submitted.

“Images are an extremely important element in our brand identity. In our communications, how could we better articulate what Rittal counts for: in other words, innovation, quality and responsibility”, says Regina Wiechens-Schwake, Head of Corporate Communications at Rittal.

The photo was taken during a photo shoot for RUNDBLICK, the Friedhelm Loh Group’s employee magazine. “Photo shoots at Rittal are always exciting,” added photographer Michael Koch: “The GDC’s architecture is impressive. For one thing, simply in terms of its size. One special challenge was to highlight 1,000 tonnes of steel and one man.”

At the time, the GDC was only a shell, in which the global player had invested around €40 million. Officially inaugurated in August this year, the state-of-the-art logistics centre is a fully automated part of the Rittal operation, next to another large construction site. Over the next few years, Rittal will be investing another €250 million in the region, including the Haiger site, with the construction of the world’s most modern production plant for compact enclosures, in other words enclosures that protect the control electronics of machinery and equipment from unwanted influences, and do so in almost every sector of manufacturing. New and spectacular photo opportunities are almost inevitable here.

The PR Image Award is presented annually by “news aktuell”, a subsidiary of Germany’s “dpa” press agency, for outstanding photography from companies and PR agencies. Wellknown German TV presenter Jule Julia Gölsdorf, from the north German NDR channel, together with Jens Petersen from “news aktuell”, handed over this year’s prizes in eight different categories.