Annual reports: helping win the PR war
By Craig on Mar 31, 2010 in Blog guests & critiques, interviews, Communication tactics, Public relations | View Comments
In this, the final of a two-part series on how PR pros can leverage an annual report to achieve business objectives, Laura Fayers-Pooley argues that it is up to each of us to determine whether the annual report should be a used as a prime strategic weapon in the first place. Her first post discussed at building the right foundation for an annual report.
The most crucial decision for PR professionals in the annual reporting process is to determine how you’re going to view the task and what its endgame will be for that year.
This is just like elite tennis players, who understand the necessity of winning the mind games before they can translate their game play into points on the scoreboard. As a runner, I’m aware that I often run more with my head than my legs.
PR professional Laura Fayers
Strategic communication questions
- Is it a tedious obligation of your role or department, or an opportunity to engage with your stakeholders and reach new target audiences for the first time?
- How does it fit with your broader communication strategy and tactical action plan over the next 18 months?
At a practical level your decision will obviously depend on how well resourced your communication department is in terms of staff and budget. But, ultimately, it should be driven by what you see as the purpose of your report. Is your communication objective to:
- inform stakeholders about the challenges and achievements faced by your organisation that year?
- establish the credibility of your organisation by providing new audiences with an introduction and overview of your business?
- persuade investors that your company is a robust and attractive option?
- justify your current levels of funding as a government agency?
- communicate an important cultural change, such as a corporate merger?
- influence donors, supporters and corporate philanthropists to support your not-for-profit financially?
Or do you merely want to comply with regulatory requirements by producing an acceptable report, and focus your communication efforts elsewhere (i.e. on other channels and tools)?
To extend my last post’s military metaphor, we’re all busy communicators and need to pick our battles in order to win the strategic PR war for our organisation. So if you want to fight the good (PR) fight using the annual report (AR) as a key weapon, read on. But if you’ve already decided there are better and more effective uses of your finite resources, share them with us in the comments field below.
Overarching theme and messaging
If you have the ability, resources and commitment required to leverage the AR as part of your broader communication strategy, have a good hard think about what your key message and overarching theme for the report will be.
Regardless of whether your organisation is publically listed, a government agency or a not-for-profit, your AR will be much more cohesive if you have an overarching theme.
One of Fenton Communications’ partners is FareShare, a Victorian-based NFP that seeks to rescue food and fight hunger. (They provide free, tasty, nutritious meals to the hungry and the homeless using donated food not needed by markets, caterers, and retailers around Melbourne.)
FareShare’s latest annual report clearly articulates their response to the global financial crisis, and how they backed up frontline welfare agencies working with Victoria’s homeless and hungry.
The report has really strong messaging that:
- showcases FareShare’s environmental and social impact
- demonstrates their responsible custodianship of financial resources
- acknowledges their individual and corporate supporters.
It also boldly and appropriately provides a call to action for readers in the form of a donation slip.
Other not-for-profits may consider their organisational overview brochures to be their key piece of hard copy collateral. They should remember, however, that many big-ticket donors or potential corporate supporters consider the AR genre to be from the school of more credible documents.
As former colleague and NFP communication specialist Lea Carswell commented on the previous helping relations with publics post, ARs have a much longer shelf life than many other pieces of communication collateral we produce. As such, she sees them as intrinsic to building successful organisations.
She said, “I can really see the value of a good and well-targeted AR for the not-for-profit sector, and more so now that social responsibility, sustainability and governance have such a profile and can say so much, in practical measurable ways, about the kind of organisation it is.”
Telling stories through reporting
In a Public Relations Professionals group discussion on LinkedIn, PR academic Gregg Feistman shared that he once used the annual report to communicate a significant cultural change to internal and external audiences. After a major acquisition, his CEO wanted to make a statement that the new company was more about its people than its products.
Gregg used a black and white photo of people from the two organisations as a cover wrap. The employees wore shirtsleeves or suits, depending on which organisation they’d been originally employed by.
For Greg, the message was both clear and effectively communicated: despite our history, we’re a new organisation now and if you can’t make the adjustment there’s no place for you here.
When I worked at ANSTO we used the AR to showcase the upcoming commissioning of OPAL, Australia’s new nuclear research reactor and the country’s largest single scientific investment ($300 million in mid-noughties Australian dollars). The chronologically ordered highlights section enabled us to highlight key scientific, operational and research achievements from across the organisation.
Combined with case studies and staff profiles, the report told the organisational story for that year.
Using the AR as a forum for story-telling, therefore, is the secret to leveraging it for your broader communication strategy.
In addition to writing major sections, Susan Proulx also served as lead editor for five annual reports for a Fortune 100 firm.
She said in an IABC group discussion on LinkedIn that the comms team ensured the reports adhered to their communication and investor relations strategies. Based on employee and shareholder feedback, Susan believed the reports were a success because they “improved audience views of the company’s challenges throughout the year”.
Susan’s ARs told stories about the company through the use of case studies about employee initiatives and stories explaining how prominent clients used the organisation’s technology.
Pamela Vozza concurs with the story-telling function of ARs, describing her passion for ARs that tell stories about staff and customers and, “give you a feeling for the heart of the organisation and what drives it”.
Summary of annual report communication
If you can win the heart of a senior executive and get them onside in your desire to elevate the AR to the strategic communication arsenal, your job will be easier. But it will still be a mammoth effort on your part. You need to decide if it’s worth the investment in terms of financial investment and employee hours, or if your focus should be on engaging stakeholders through another publication, tool or communication channel.
However even if your budget is small and your internal resources stretched, I believe you can always use a simple report to tell a really powerful story about your organisation. And if you don’t get it right first time around remember that you’ll get another chance next year…
Do you agree with what Laura said? Do you view the annual report as a strategic communication tool or a waste of time? Have you taken an innovative approach to your annual reporting? What does your market research says about its utility in achieving communication and business objectives?
Laura Fayers-Pooley is an account manager at Fenton Communications. She manages clients across Fenton’s sustainability and infrastructure, justice and professional services specialisations. She knows about annual reporting because prior to joining Fenton she was Public Affairs Coordinator at ANSTO, where she managed the production of publications including the annual report and corporate social responsibility report.
PS from Craig: I’d welcome you joining networks with me through my LinkedIn profile. Send me an invite!
