IT IS TIME TO THINK ABOUT ANNUAL REPORTS and then to think again. While an Annual Report must include content required by the Corporations Act and the ASX listing rules, that doesn’t mean we should limit our thinking to just meeting that objective. It is right and proper for the compulsory materials, such as the Directors’, Remuneration and Financial reports to be standardised. It makes it easier for them to be analysed and compared with a company’s performance in prior years, relative to its peers and to others in the market. The numbers are the numbers after all, but just knowing the numbers does not give a complete understanding of the potential value of a company as an investment opportunity.

It is in the non-compulsory material, the Chairman’s and Chief Executive’s reviews, the overview of the business or the Sustainability and ESG content where a company has the opportunity to communicate their investment case, to differentiate their business and really tell their story. And design, whether absent or embraced, will be central to how well received, understood and influential that story is.

Transforming corporate content into memorable messages

The power of design and visual storytelling is its ability to make a company’s story easy to access and understand. That is the value that FIRST Advisers’ in-house design studio, FIRST Creative, adds to clients’ Annual Reports, in particular, and market communication more generally. We know that when we work closely with our clients to integrate the design sensibility of the FIRST Creative team, we can elevate an Annual Report from being a statutory document into a powerful communication tool.

Good design is the difference between telling someone and showing them; between informing an audience and convincing them. It can convert worthy content into memorable messages.

Annual Report trends

The FIRST Creative team develops bespoke creative executions for each client, which incorporates current Annual Report best practice.

Some of the key elements that help to bring an Annual Report to life and make our clients’ investment cases more accessible include:

• • Infographics — Turn complex information into simple visually appealing graphics. Infographics are great for making data more interesting and easier to understand.
  • Tell a story — Use compelling copy and visuals to communicate through a visual narrative that is easily understood and embraced.
  • Add personality — Show the staff or use testimonials to ‘humanise’ an Annual Report while also highlighting the “Social” aspect.
  • Brand consistency — Align the creative execution across an Annual Report, Sustainability Report and Investor Presentation to build a consistent and professional corporate brand.
  • Simultaneous release — realise production efficiencies by releasing the Annual Report to the market on the same day as the Full Year Results. FIRST Advisers analysis of corporate reporting reveals the trend to same-day reporting rose to 71% of ASX300 companies in 2023.

Tell a story – FIRST Creative’s simple use of typography turns data into easily digested ‘grabs’

Infographic’s – Making key financial metrics accessible and bold use of colour in Cyclopharm’s (ASX:CYC) 2023 Annual Report

Brand Consistency – FIRST Creative maintained alignment across Webjet Limited’s (ASX:WEB) 2024 Annual and Sustainability Reports

Cutting through the noise

While technology is accelerating the publication cycle for Annual Reports and increasing the sophistication of the content companies can generate internally, it cannot as yet, replace the creativity of a designer. If a company loses sight of the importance of good design in the hurly burly of producing an Annual Report, it will be at risk of producing a document that adds to the noise rather than communicating effectively.

FIRST Advisers combines deep investor relations experience, in-house design capabilities and the corporate story telling skills to give Annual Reports a value and relevance that extends beyond the immediate presentation of a company’s historical financials. Our in-house FIRST Creative design team is integral to achieving this by leveraging over 20 years of experience supporting companies with well-conceived, creative and professionally executed communications to bring to life a company’s story and investment case.