"Will you have been with us ..."

Bremen, June 17, 2019. The tweets of the German astronaut Alexander Gerst from the ISS, the new race to the Moon in the year of the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, the plans for a crewed mission to Mars - all this has created a new fascination for space among the general public. The space industry booms and as a result skilled workers and engineers have become scarce.

To counter this effect, Bremen-based space technology company OHB SE launched a large-scale employer branding campaign under the slogan "Will you have been with us...". The backdrop to the campaign is the Paris Air Show, one of the largest international aerospace trade fairs, which begins today.

The campaign, which was developed in close cooperation with the Bremen-based brand agency moskito, plays with the idea of a distant future in which future OHB employees were part of a technologically outstanding solution to challenges in space. Stories were conceived on the basis of this central idea, which were to serve as the basic framework for the campaign and are told from the future.

"The continuing boom in the space industry has intensified competition for the best candidates. Human Resources departments must therefore be more creative today if they are to attract the best people to their companies," says OHB Chief Human Resources Officer Klaus Hofmann. "We are undoubtedly an attractive employer. Nevertheless, we must make every effort to remain attractive for the next generation in the future. I am therefore very pleased that we are addressing potential space pioneers with this campaign, which focuses strongly on visionary topics".

For a start, the campaign makes use of two motifs:

One deals with the topic of asteroid defense. The danger of asteroids that could potentially be on a collision course with Earth is vastly underestimated by the general public. OHB is already working on such defense systems on behalf of the European Space Agency. With the claim "Will you have been with us when we saved the world through foresight", OHB is positioning itself as an employer that has jobs to offer that can contribute to the existential protection of the Earth.

The second motif emphasizes the future role of the Moon for human space flight. With the "Lunar Orbital Gateway" a space station in lunar orbit is to be created, from which not only the descent to the Moon is to become routine, but also journeys further out into space could become easier. The claim "Will you have been with us when other planets were explored from our base on the Moon?" refers to OHB's contribution to the development of the Gateway.

OHB, like the industry as a whole, is currently benefiting greatly from the public’s renewed enthusiasm for space. The industry is booming and companies are growing. This creates opportunities for specialists and experts. In 2019, more than 200 engineers will be hired at the OHB's two largest locations alone, Bremen and Oberpfaffenhofen, mainly in the areas of software development, systems engineering and AIT.