Deutsche Bahn AG leads in corporate communication against right-wing extremism

Since 2016, UNICEPTA, one of the world's leading providers for media intelligence, has analyzed the media impact of the 250 German companies with the highest turnover on important social debates over the past twelve months. The companies with the greatest impact are honored with the Thought Leadership Award in cooperation with the German Public Relations Association (DPRG). In 2024, the prize will go to the communications team that has succeeded in positioning its organization particularly clearly against the rise of right-wing extremism.

While last year's Thought Leadership Award examined the ESG spectrum and analysed the related topics of sustainable commitment in the areas of corporate governance, the environment and society, this year's focus is on a particularly moving and polarizing social issue. After analyzing a total of more than 28.8 million contributions from editorial and social media as well as depictions in the company's own communications, it is clear that Deutsche Bahn AG was able to position itself particularly effectively against right-wing extremism, both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Deutsche Bahn scores with early and sustained commitment.

The three-stage evaluation process assessed five key success factors in the qualitative evaluation: In addition to direct communication, the analysis recognizes a particularly early positioning, the persistence of the commitment, the courage to have a clear and therefore contestable opinion and the consistent demonstration of one's own positioning with concrete initiatives and relevance for one's own business.

Quantitatively, the companies with visible communication measures against right-wing extremism in all publicly available German-language online and social media content in Germany were measured as part of a big data analysis. All articles and posts on the campaigns were identified. The 19 companies that achieved a particularly large potential reach in the topic area "Opposing right-wing extremism" formed the short list participants. The respective company-owned channels were then also evaluated - on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. In addition to the number of different articles and posts, the potential reach achieved was also included in the overall ranking.

"Today, customers, business partners and employees expect companies and their decision-makers to take a clear stance on important social issues. It is crucial that well-formulated commitments are followed by corresponding actions - even if there are clear headwinds. When it comes to the battle against right-wing extremism, Deutsche Bahn AG has done this particularly well. It is also pleasing to note that the company was already very active in this area before the so-called Remigration Summit became known at the beginning of January 2024. The Deutsche Bahn communications team was able to make its corporate values clear at a very early stage. And they did so very decisively and with a lot of creativity and humor, especially on social media," says Wolf-Dieter Rühl, Head of Research at UNICEPTA.
 

Tolerance is part of Deutsche Bahn's DNA

As a mobility service provider with a broad target group, Deutsche Bahn has been committed to social diversity, diversity of opinion and tolerance for years, positioning itself not only as a particularly responsible company, but also taking a risk. Deutsche Bahn is repeatedly attacked for this, especially on social media. However, building a strong community - and this is only possible with a clear and consistent stance - makes it easier in the medium term to deal with abusive criticism or hate speech and thus minimize the damage to the organization.

Volkswagen, Deutsche Bank, the specialty chemicals company Evonik and the hardware manufacturer Würth also scored in the top 5 of the Thought Leadership Award.

The "Thought Leadership Award" will be presented at the DPRG International German PR Awards ceremony on May 16, 2024 in Hanover.

The results of the analysis and background information on the Thought Leadership Award were exclusively published in Frankfurter Rundschau (only available in German) and in KOM Magazin (only available in German). You can also download the analysis with all the insights on the award free of charge here:

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