Pictures55 wins Award of Excellence

Pictures55, along with partner agency Derby Communications, has won an Award of Excellence at the Institute of Internal Communicators (IoIC) Central and North Awards 2017 held at the National Railway Museum in York on Thursday evening.

AirTanker Services based at RAF Brize Norton is responsible for delivering Voyager, a cutting edge air-to-air refuelling platform and the largest aircraft in the RAF fleet.

The business has grown from 30 people to 650 employees in a period of eight years. It also has an unusual mix of RAF regulars, civilians and Sponsored Reservists working side by side as a single team.

Creating a sense of community and shared purpose is a key challenge. AirTanker also wants to be able to tell the ‘real life’ story of what it takes to keep the RAF fleet in the air around the world. One channel for this is the publication for the Voyager community called Fuel4Thought which is published quarterly.

The brief for this Fuel4Thought photoshoot was to bring to life the teamwork and 24/7 nature of preparing Voyager for flight. Although there are many employees who are familiar with the refuelling activities, others have less exposure to the ‘front line’ and the airside environment.

We arranged to photograph ground crews in action – a wet and windy winter evening providing the perfect backdrop to capture both the scale of the aircraft and the co-ordination needed to ensure the hoses are prepared in a safe and proper way. The image provided the ideal centrepiece for a feature detailing how Voyager’s safety in the air is governed by diligence and professionalism on the ground.

Pictures55 also won a Certificate of Merit with Partner Agency 44 Communications and the Vodafone Internal Communications Team for a film featuring the Vodafone CS&O team.