DLR wins a prize in the Digital Communication Awards 2023

Dirma van EckDirma van Eck
  5 October 2023

We are proud to announce that the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) won the Digital Communication Awards 2023 in the category ‘Campaigns from Associations and Institutions’ … with a little help from us. The award was presented during the online award ceremony last Friday, 29 September 2023. DLR shares first place with Helmholtz Munich’s ‘Kids are Heroes’ campaign.

DLR’s MARE communication campaign featured a Twitter takeover by two female mannequins aboard the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis I mission to the Moon. The campaign had previously been shortlisted for the German Online Communication Award 2023.

The award recognises the notable results of the Artemis I Takeover. The campaign shed light on the critical issue of high radiation exposure to humans beyond Earth’s protective magnetic field, particularly during long-term missions to the Moon and Mars. The Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE), led by DLR, marked a significant milestone by measuring radiation exposure to the female body beyond the International Space Station (ISS) orbit.

Under contract to DLR, we manage their primary English-language social media accounts on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook. The narrative of the two mannequins, Helga and Zohar, unfolded on Twitter through dialogues with the crew on board the Orion spacecraft – NASA’s mannequin Commander Moonikin Campus and ‘baahstronaut’ Shaun the Sheep, with Helga communicating via @DLR_en, Zohar via @ILSpaceAgency and Campos via @NASAArtemis. The ‘Luna Twins’ also engaged with accounts from other space agencies and industrial partners involved in the Artemis I mission, such as @esaspaceflight and @AirbusSpace.

Through the takeover, DLR provided insights into the experiment, its goal to address the gender data gap, and the historic journey to the Moon and back. The jury evaluated the campaign based on consistency and appropriateness of tactics, tools and channels as well as strategy and target audience.

Related links