Merchantcantos corporate reporting brochure 2012 by Barry Dunne

10 things you should know about corporate reporting

Richard Carpenter Managing Partner rcarpenter@merchantcantos.com Amanda Alexander Business Development Director aalexander@merchantcantos.com

London 20 Lincolnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Inn Fields London WC2A 3ED United Kingdom Tel: +44 20 7242 1336 Dubai Level 5 Gate Village Building 10 PO Box 506691 Dubai International Financial Centre Dubai United Arab Emirates Tel: +971 4 446 6270 Paris 10 Boulevard Haussmann 75009 Paris France Tel: +33 1 53 96 83 83

merchantcantos.com Associated offices in Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Dallas/Fort Worth, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Milan, Munich, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Stockholm, Vienna and Washington, D.C.

MerchantCantos is one of Europe’s leading creative communications companies. For over 20 years we have been helping our clients define and communicate their brand, positioning and strategy to their key audiences — from investors, journalists and suppliers, to employees, NGOs and customers. Our clients come from most business sectors and across a wide range of the world’s markets — in Europe, the Americas, the Gulf States and Asia — and they range from the largest multinational to smaller and mid-cap companies. This challenges us to deliver practical and bespoke solutions that work hard to engage those audiences wherever they are, in whatever language, at the right time and through the most appropriate channel — be that in digital, print or video.

MerchantCantos is a full-service creative communications agency. As well as our reporting expertise, we help clients in a range of specialist disciplines outlined below. Advertising

We’ve been running game-changing advertising campaigns for over 20 years. We specialise in critical communications and reputation management campaigns.

Branding

We help clients understand their brand issues, design inspired solutions, and develop practical guidelines for implementation.

Digital

Our digital experience stretches from corporate websites through to online video, social media and email campaigns.

Regulation… communication

Film and video

Whether you want to talk to investors, launch a brand or motivate your employees, we’ll listen to what you need, help you shape your story, and come up with the right creative solution.

Internal communications

We help our clients deal with a wide range of internal communications challenges — from updating employees on results, through to engaging them on brand issues, to detailed campaigns and cascade programmes.

Marketing communications

We produce a range of supporting literature as needed in a campaign — from fold-out maps to posters and direct marketing materials, in print, digital and video.

Sustainability

From integrated reporting to material impacts, we have been producing sustainability campaigns and materials for over 15 years. We advise on content, structure, approach and then devise simple, yet effective, communications for your audiences.

Webcasting

Robust delivery from an experienced operator. We have been webcasting for over 11 years — audio and video, live and on-demand, for external and internal audiences.

In this brochure we highlight ten of the key things you should know about corporate reporting in 2012. From new disclosure requirements, to that old favourite: making the process work for you. And from best practice trends in narrative reporting to common sense principles in good communication. We’ve also included some examples of our projects this year so you can see how we’re putting this into practice.

1 Content is king 2 Reporting is a conversation 3 Branding brings it together 4 Good reports communicate 5 Action now… 6 ...Change ahead 7 The future of online reporting… 8 Formats are changing 9 Sustainability — in or out? 10 Process is key

2 4 5 6 8 9 10 12 13 14

Content is king Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the first rule of all good corporate reporting. Ensure the structure and content is right first â&#x20AC;&#x201D; then worry about how you present it.

What we do Mission/vision at a glance

WHY WE DO IT Marketplace discussion/ context

HOW WE PLAN TO DO IT Strategy/priorities/ business model and resources

STRATEGY

Good content and a sound structure are key. There’s no point in having a cracking looking report if the content is poor and your story doesn’t hang together. Forming a coherent narrative from market context, through strategy, business model, KPIs and resources, to risk and uncertainties is crucial (see below). Even more so if the UK Government presses ahead with its proposals for the strategic report, with the addition of remuneration as a logical conclusion at the end of the chain. Once the strategic narrative is in place then the operational narrative needs to follow suit, demonstrating how the operations contribute to the corporate strategy, with their own contexts, strategies and objectives as appropriate. But critically, to report operational performance against strategy. Don’t forget that final link in the chain with a discussion of how the strategy is managed in the governance section. For a properly joined-up narrative, there has to be a clear understanding of the core storyline and theme by someone with the capability — and clout — to make the elements coherent.

The current trend for taking copy from other communications, such as preliminary announcements, straight into reports undoubtedly helps to reduce workload. However, it can make it easy to lose sight of the core narrative — and multiple authors can further exacerbate the problem. So how should you ensure that structure and content rules the roost? Map out the flow of your story early on in the process and then continue to refer back to that plan as you progress. By all means take content from other sources, but check that it all fits back into the main narrative. After all, if you want to convince investors that you know where your company is going, you should at least be able to structure the story cogently.

/For a properly joined-up narrative, there has to be a clear understanding of the core storyline and theme/

LINKING NARRATIVE REPORTING

HOW WE MEASURE IT

What COULD KNOCK US OFF COURSE

KPIs

Risk management information

KPIs

RISK INFORMATION

Reporting is a conversation Reporting isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t about moving markets. Good reporting should be more about explaining strategy, giving insights into where the company is going. More like a one-on-one meeting with an investor. High quality annual reports provide the detailed thinking behind the material information released in a prelim. Yes, there will be a lot of crossover in the material (if there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a much bigger problem...) but they should not be wholly the same material or you are missing a trick in presenting your story. Some companies wonder why their annual reports are not being read by their investors, yet they continue to fill them with exactly the same material as that released in the prelim. Hardly a

surprise that people give them scant attention if they have received all the same information just a few weeks previously. To make them work well, you need to use your report to provide the colour in your story; the strategic detail behind the headline numbers released in your prelim. Get it right and investors will value your report throughout the year. And they will also likely place a higher value on your management team, too.

To help make your report speak with your unique voice consider the following:

Colour

The first element audiences recognise and associate with a company’s brand. Colour alone can brand a report but colour used effectively can aid navigation, highlight important content and bring pace to what can otherwise be a very dry document.

Font

Your typeface is your voice. Typography should allow the reader to clearly read information in a number of ways. Strong headlines to set big picture themes. Pull out quotes for sentiments. Body copy for granular detail. Together they create a cascading structure to your messaging that is easier for the viewer to read and remember.

/The best reports leverage their brand to create truly memorable and informative pieces of communication/

Imagery

Photography is still one of the easiest and most powerful ways of explaining what you do and how you do it. Try to include people in your pictures as it brings context and reality to what can sometimes be quite benign environments. Think also of the style in which you are shooting. Reportage has an active and inclusive feel. Still life is more formal. And remember, your phone isn’t really a camera so commission a professional photographer who knows what they are doing. We believe the best reports leverage their brand to create truly memorable and informative pieces of communication... which is still the true function of the annual report.

Branding brings it together The visual parts of your brand — colour, font and image — are still the most recognisable elements of your company. When used effectively the result is not just coherence, but personality. 5

4/ 4/

Good reports Good reports communicate communicate Which version of this company’s Group strategy would you rather read? Good design, good typography, good graphics should all combine to make your words sing. Group strategy The objective of our strategy is to deliver long-term value to shareholders, excellent service to customers and rewarding careers to our employees by being the leading global provider of what we do. Our strategy is founded on the belief that in our market sector, it is possible to create competitive advantage by building a truly global business — i.e. one which operates the same way around the world and can use the same model everywhere, the same processes, the same skills, and the same infrastructure. This homogeneity means that significant operating advantages and efficiencies accrue to those who have global scale; the focus of our efforts, therefore is directed towards building global scale and securing these advantages and efficiencies for ourselves. The strategy was developed following an in-depth review of Nonspecifico’s business, and has been consistently applied for the last seven years; it continues to be the basis of our business planning, and we believe that consistency of purpose has been a major contributor to our success. 20% compound growth in revenues and 33% compound growth in trading profit over the last seven years indicate that the strategy is the right one, and we continue to work relentlessly to implement it. The strong growth over recent years was only made possible because, over the preceding 40 years, Nonspecifico’s management and owners had patiently built a foundation of outlets in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia; had spotted that using our own bespoke technology and processes had major advantages; had created a hard-working, entrepreneurial and customer-focused culture; and had built a brand. The lesson we see every day is that it takes decades to achieve the sort of global scale Nonspecifico now has, and there are no short cuts. Nonspecifico’s strategy is developed by the senior management team, led by the Chief Executive, and involves internal and external research, much of it proprietary. We seek to develop a deep understanding of the drivers of demand, changing customer requirements, the competitive environment, as well as developments in technology and regulation. We look at our own strengths and weaknesses, and at the opportunities and threats that are likely to face us. From this analysis, we develop a list of investment and operational options, and analyse their relative risks and rewards, bearing in mind the capabilities and resources of the Group. We regularly test our strategy which keeps it fresh and relevant, and enables us to spot and react to new opportunities. Having conducted a root-and-branch review in 2004 we re-examined our conclusions in 2006, 2008 and 2010. The conclusions from the 2010 review, which were communicated to investors in March 2011, are summarised below: • The strategy we developed in 2004, and re-affirmed in 2006 and 2008, is working well. • Our Local business continues to offer attractive opportunities for growth, both from growing our density and footprint in existing markets, and expanding into new countries. • The factors which have driven the growth of our Global Projects business will continue to provide plenty of headroom for this business for the foreseeable future; the world faces serious shortages of supply which will last for many years and which should sustain demand for our services. In our 2010 review we stepped up the work we are doing on sustainability and planning the enhancement of our performance across the Group. • In all our businesses, there are opportunities to improve the efficiency of operations, whilst maintaining our prized agility. There are plenty of things we can do better. • We plan to start the next review of our strategy in 2013; our next formal strategy update to investors is likely to be in early 2014. • Our strategy for each of the business lines is set out below and, at the end of this section, we reflect on some of the future trends that we believe may come to be important to our business in the years ahead.

1 White space

A much over-looked commodity when it comes to helping text breathe on the page or on a website. 2 Navigational devices

These are crucial to help guide readers around documents. There is no point in having the best content if no-one can find it. 3 Sub-heads

Should be used to guide the reader and break up huge swathes of text. 4 Pull-quotes

Drive the reader to the messages you want them to capture by pulling out key information into quotes. Ownership will give them greater resonance. 5 Charts

Readers access numerical information in lots of different ways but putting it into graphical formats will help the vast majority of readers. 6 Keylines

Help break up the page and clarify the boundaries between different levels of information.

2 4

Action now... What should you be dealing with now that is new on the reporting front? Business model

his is a new requirement for all listed companies T as part of the revised UK Governance Code. There is still considerable confusion among companies as to how to apply it, with much discussion of organisational structures, operating processes and rearticulation of strategy. The business model should actually show how value is created, delivered and captured for your stakeholders — a combined text and infographic treatment works best.

Corporate governance

The new code aims to improve communication by reducing boilerplate, demonstrating how the strategy and performance of a company is managed — and how remuneration is linked. Some handy hints to bear in mind: ●● Large chunks need writing from scratch every year, rather than simply changing the date. ●● Your report should clearly state what judgements were made, and what actions were taken — a list of remits is not sufficient. ●● Clear explanations and context for any non-compliance should be given. ●● Chairman and committee chairmen should report personally, to demonstrate accountability and ownership, at the start of each report. ●● The process, actions and outcomes of board evaluation should be disclosed and any advisers identified. ●● Aid communication through graphic devices such as charts, graphs, diagrams and panels to draw the reader’s attention to key points.

Boardroom diversity

A topical focus from politicians and NGOs alike. The revised UK Governance Code states: ●● “A separate section of the annual report should describe the work of the nomination committee, including the process it has used in relation to board appointments. This section should include a description of the board’s policy on diversity, including gender, any measurable objectives that it has set for implementing the policy, and progress on achieving the objectives.” ●● “Evaluation of the board should consider the balance of skills, experience, independence and knowledge of the company on the board, its diversity, including gender, how the board works together as a unit, and other factors relevant to its effectiveness”. While disclosure is ‘voluntary’ before October 2012 it is highly encouraged. It will be a key agenda item and focus for directors over the next couple of years.

Executive remuneration

In January 2012 the Secretary of State announced that remuneration reports will be split into two sections, one detailing the proposed future policy for executive pay, the other setting out how pay policy has been implemented in the preceding year. Proposals are being discussed in Parliament. The proposed content of the future policy section of the report includes: ●● The composition and potential level of pay for each individual director. ●● How proposed pay structures reflect and support company strategy and KPIs, with the caveat that this could compromise commercial interests and will need to be balanced against the need for greater transparency. ●● What the performance criteria are, how performance will be assessed and how this will translate into total level of reward for each individual under different scenarios (e.g. on target and stretch performance). The use of TSR and EPS as appropriate measures has been called into question. ●● How and why the company has used benchmarks and other comparison data to inform pay levels and structures. ●● How employee pay and views have been taken into account. ●● How shareholders’ views have been sought and taken into account, including the results of the previous year’s votes on remuneration.

The proposed content for the section on how pay policy has been implemented in the preceding year includes: ●● A single figure for the total pay of each individual director (currently under consultation with the FRC’s Reporting Lab). ●● How pay awards relate to company performance and the policy agreed by shareholders at the start of the year. ●● How spend on executive pay relates to other dispersals, such as dividends, tax, business re-investment and general staffing costs.

Split reporting

In March 2012 The UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) issued proposals suggesting a radical change to reporting format. If implemented, the business review and directors’ report will be replaced by a highlevel strategic report backed-up with an annual directors’ statement. Overlaps of company law, the listing rules, IFRS and corporate governance will be reconsidered for deletion. Strategic report ●● Format to be flexible enough to allow companies to tell an integrated story in their own words, starting with their business model and strategy, covering their risks and performance, with a forward-looking orientation. ●● Inclusion of key remuneration information. Annual directors’ statement ●● Content requirements not yet clear but focused on regulatory disclosures. ●● Companies will be expected to include voluntary disclosures (for example of social and environmental issues) in the annual directors’ statement.

...Change ahead Which areas of reporting are likely to change in the near future in response to the UK Government’s proposals? 9

The future of online reporting... A good online reporting presence can be crucial, especially if you are in the technology sector. However, many key annual report audiences still prefer the PDF format, so it is probably here to stay for the foreseeable future, too.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) got a fairly frosty response to its proposal for a presumption of online-only reports in the summer of 2011. Some private shareholders wanted print as they had no access to digital, some respondents felt that printing prevented any after-the-event modification of the document by the reporter and others expressed preferences for hard copy in any event. The FRC has now dropped the proposal. The UK Government remains wedded to some sort of digital provision for at least part of its revamp of reporting, but its plans are not clear yet and online-only is now unlikely. So what is the market telling us? Clearly, there remains a lack of conviction as to the value of full HTML reporting with many companies opting to ‘downgrade’ their online reporting in recent seasons (see research figures below). This is partly to do with the costs and effort needed to produce a duplicate report in alternative formats, when PDF and print meet the statutory and regulatory requirements. While progress is being made to simplify the process, in the end, each version has to be created, proofread and signed off. The other factors are the increasing use of analytics to determine how the online versions are being used, and also research with key audiences to determine what they want. Often the cost per reader of a full HTML document turns out to be higher than that for the print and PDF version. Furthermore, having got readers to an online report, they just don’t seem to stay very long — a handful of minutes spread across a handful of pages is typical, and that usually includes downloading the PDF. Interactive features — with the possible exception of video — aren’t helping stickiness much.

While all companies still produce some form of online reporting, over the last three years the number of full HTML reports more than halved from 49% to 24%. They are being partly replaced by HTML hybrid versions (up from 19% to 29%) and, more significantly, by PDF-only versions (more than doubled from 18% to 37%). Flash-type technology Pageturners remain quite low in appeal — possibly as they are not accessible on iPads or other Apple technologies.

Reviewing these in detail

●● There is one new full HTML report produced

by ITV which has replaced its Pageturner.

●● Three companies (Lloyds Banking Group,

Rio Tinto and Xstrata) have migrated from full HTML to some form of HTML hybrid, with Rolls-Royce doing more of its report as hybrid. ●● Ten companies have moved to just providing PDF; three from Pageturner, three from full HTML and four from HTML hybrid.

Rounding out the stats

●● How hybrid is hybrid? One report starts

the PDF element early in the narrative section, six at the start of governance, five at the financial statements, and three at the notes. ●● Serco now produces an interactive, or ‘smart’, PDF, joining eight others using this technology from last year. ●● In this sample, there are 14 annual reviews; three are full HTML and 11 are PDF. ●● Despite the hype, there are just two Reporting Apps (iPad only), from BAE Systems and Legal & General. Both did the same last year. The other FTSE 100 report app, again iPad only, is from Vodafone.

Who’s doing what?

The table below details the type of online reports produced by FTSE 100 companies with 31 December year ends that have been continuously in the FTSE 100 for three years. Definitions are in the side panel. % Full HTML HTML hybrid PDF Pageturner

2009 49 19 18 14

2010 33 31 18 18

A few definitions:

2011 24 29 37 10

Full HTML: full web-based reports… like a website HTML hybrid: part web-based/part PDF only Pageturner: Flash or other technology that allows the user to turn the pages like a book PDF: the traditional Adobe PDF format App: a mobile application format downloaded onto a tablet or smartphone

Formats are changing Our review of reporting suggests a growing and wider use of communication tools and channels.

So what works and what doesn’t out of these new reporting channels?

Video

Some 25% of FTSE 100 companies now include video in their reporting — that’s up from 12% in 2009. Eight of these embed it in their HTML annual reports, two have it in their HTML annual reviews, and three in their reporting centres. Our own analytics suggest that, when done well, video remains one of the ‘stickiest’ solutions for online reporting audiences.

Tablets

Despite the proliferation of iPads in boardrooms, the provision of reporting apps has not yet gathered momentum. Only three companies produce dedicated reporting apps (and these are for iPad only) although there are many more companies providing, or developing, wider corporate investor relations apps. These include Shell, Unilever and Kingfisher.

Reporting alternatives

International Power has an annual report site, but it is actually a navigational aid with a series of summary pages and download buttons for the corresponding PDFs. This could be thought of as the ultimate hybrid — it has all the clicking of a big website, yet little of the interactivity and links, with multiple downloads to receive the information. G4S has a couple of key pages from the annual report available from its reporting page, with a link to the full PDF. Reckitt Benckiser did this last year, and others are contemplating taking this route this year, too.

Reporting centre

A good reporting centre is probably the most elegant and cost-effective solution for online impact in corporate reporting. It combines the benefits of high interactivity unimpeded by statutory limitations, and simple navigation that draw on a clear understanding of user journeys and requirements. Just over a quarter of the FTSE 100 now provide reporting centres in some shape or form. These range from simple navigation pages, providing access to the reporting suite, to sophisticated interactive devices. ARM, Old Mutual and Pearson have created interesting reporting centres that provide access to a wide range of content. Pearson’s is more like an HTML hybrid as it has most of the narrative section in it, but by calling it a reporting centre the potential restriction on the use of video is neatly sidestepped. Conversely, Barclays and G4S seem to have dropped their reporting centre since last year despite the fact that Barclays was one of the best in the market.

/A good reporting centre is probably the most elegant and cost-effective solution for online impact/

Sustainability — in or out? Should you include a detailed sustainability section in your annual report, pull it all out into a separate document — or put it all online? Maybe a bit of all the above is best.

These days the claim that investors don’t want to see information on corporate responsibility in annual reports is almost a non-starter. Yes, some investors are still sceptical about what they see as ‘softer’ reporting elements but many others have also had their fingers burned by not being aware of reputational issues that end up hitting the bottom line. For the extractive industries, in particular, sustainability information is verging on crucial these days — and many other sectors are playing catch up too.

Legal requirement

In any case, UK legislation makes it mandatory. And that’s the key. The business review legislation requires companies to include information about environmental matters, employees, and social and community issues. It even suggests ‘where appropriate’ to include KPIs on environmental matters and employees. There is also a need to discuss the main trends and factors likely to affect the future development, performance and position of the company’s business. No company can seriously consider fulfilling the requirements above without some form of sustainability or corporate responsibility coverage in their annual report.

But that doesn’t have to mean you include every bit of data that every NGO has ever requested from you on the subject. That’s where a bit of balance and common sense will help. Include the material information on sustainability within your annual report that is key to your strategic thinking, your business, and performance. Put the rest into a separate sustainability report or simply publish it in a portal on your website. But beware if you take the portal approach. Once you leave the discipline of a formal reporting process — whether annual report or sustainability report — pulling in updates and information from around your business becomes that much harder. So manage any transition carefully. And that means…in our view…sustainability is in AND out.

10/

Process is key Simply put: a well thoughtthrough process is a framework for managing risk effectively; from approval on key messages and the brief at the beginning of the project, to sign-off for publication at the end.

Failure to manage process effectively can lead to escalating costs, delays to the schedule and failure to meet the brief. It’s all about team effort: identify your project leader, core team members, key internal stakeholders and other contributors. Senior management buy-in early in the project and their engagement throughout is vital. ●● It’s all in the planning. It gives you sight of key milestones, lead times and critical impacts. Understanding them early on can help make your life much easier during those dark days near final sign-off. ●● If necessary, start early as it is very hard to collect new data once the reporting period has started.

Advise

Design

Deliver

Business/industry analysis Best practice advice Communications strategy Content audit Deliverables required Logistics

Design concepts Pagination plan/site map Content drafting Functional specifications Technical requirements

Photography/illustration Typesetting Web build Filming and editing Testing Sign off Launch/hosting Print

ANNUAL R E 2013PORT

Support Debrief Post-project research Monitoring Analytics Recommendations Understanding

/Start early as it is very hard to collect new data once the reporting period has started/ 15

Our in-house services in corporate reporting include: Best practice advisory Design and creative l Information architecture l Typesetting l Digital development â&#x20AC;&#x201D; including websites and apps l l

Video production Print liaison l Webcasting l AGM backdrops and stage presentation l Project management l l

Theoryâ&#x20AC;Ś practice

The rest of this document details how we put our corporate reporting thinking into action. We work for a wide range of organisations â&#x20AC;&#x201D; from the very largest FTSE 100s through the FTSE 250 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and their equivalents on an international scale.

Ladbrokes Henderson Old Mutual Sorouh TNK-BP Derwent London BAT URENCO Access Bank BBC Worldwide Royal Mail Shell Executive interviews Dixons Retail

18 19 20 22 23 24 26 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 17

Ladbrokes Game on! The UK-based betting and gaming group gave us a challenging brief for this year’s annual and sustainability reports. It asked us to produce a slightly toned down version in terms of imagery and to address the need to 'cut the clutter' as far as content was concerned. This was reflected in the design of the annual report, which harnessed the call out style of their new print and advertising campaigns. We used the ‘Game on!’ theme throughout the report to help explain the new operational structure and to emphasise the consistency of the product across all channels. Hence, the Chief Executive’s Q&A became ‘On track’, ‘Switched on’ applied to the group overview and 'On Line' to the Product group. The final reports are definitely less image-heavy than previous years but still have the personality and brand messaging needed for a group of the calibre of Ladbrokes.

Henderson Expect something special Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and London Stock Exchange, Henderson is one of Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest asset managers. This year we helped Henderson improve its report with a range of best practice and design features to ease navigation and aid user experience. These included the introduction of more personalised reporting from the Executive Committee members and the use of infographics, charts and tables to bring the statutory information to life. Key messages of trust, client focus, energy, passion and team work linked in with the Olympics and the latest advertising campaign were surfaced via dynamic imagery to further lighten the typographic load and create an engaging report for the end user.

Old Mutual Strategic thinking Old Mutual is an international long-term savings, protection and investment group, with South African origins, and now headquartered in London. We created a whole reporting suite for the group designed to bring its strategic story to life in a variety of formats, one of these being customer case studies. This involved print and online reports for both the annual and sustainability reports, including a video interview with Julian Roberts, the Chief Executive. We also advised its in-house digital team to help create a Reporting Centre that would house all of the new documents and formats.

/We created a whole reporting suite to bring the strategic story to life/

Sorouh Building the story Abu Dhabi-based Sorouh Real Estate is one of the UAE’s leading property companies. Having worked with us before, Sorouh were keen to move this year’s report forward in terms of international best practice. Various options were proposed and we helped them develop an ‘At a glance’ section including key moments during 2011 and timeline of the company’s history. We also worked with Sorouh on a strategy section, illustrating key objectives in an infographic style. Finally, a summary governance report reduced the size of the printed report — with the full version available on the website. The report was produced in English and Arabic.

/Providing best practice reporting in the Middle East/

TNK-BP Slick data TNK-BP is a leading Russian oil company â&#x20AC;&#x201D; among the top ten privately-owned oil companies in the world. We were hired by TNK-BP early in 2012 to deliver its annual report in English and Russian. The report is absolutely packed full of data, charts and tables so the challenge was to bring this to life in a format that would make it easy to read and accessible to a very wide international readership. We achieved this by designing a flexible reporting structure that could easily accommodate a lot of text and data â&#x20AC;&#x201D; while also working well in the two different languages.

/The challenge was to bring this to life in a format that would make it easy to read and accessible/ 23

Derwent London Before and after The FTSE 250 central London office real estate specialist approached us to design and produce its report having worked with us a year earlier on a best practice reporting project. We developed designs from the previous incumbent, taking the report to a new level in structure and best practice. The challenge from Derwent was to explain how it delivers value on its new and existing real estate projects. We did this via â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;before and afterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; visualisations and photography and allowing readers to dip into the report via messaging and typography hierarchy. Finally, we created an innovative online wrapper so that online users could access the reporting content in an interactive fashion.

00 25

BAT Delivering to fit British American Tobacco (BAT) is the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second largest quoted tobacco group by global market share, with brands sold in more than 180 markets. We were engaged by BAT to develop an online-led solution to deliver a best-in-class FTSE 100 annual report. Our response was to create a new content management system that would fit with the way BAT wanted to work while also delivering print and online reports in a unified fashion. The editing system automatically filtered content into the reporting site at the touch of a button and then flowed copy back into the printed report. The online design allowed users to navigate the report in a variety of ways â&#x20AC;&#x201D; depending on the level of analysis they needed. Best practice recommendations and strategic direction combined with effective design to improve the overall reporting strategy. Finally, we produced a range of video content to populate the online report.

/The online design allowed users to navigate the report in a variety of ways/

Urenco Enriched story Urenco is one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading uranium enrichment providers and plays a crucial role in the nuclear fuel industry. Urenco asked us to help improve its best practice reporting model. We advised on a new structure and helped Urenco articulate its strategic story and business model. The result is a bright, engaging book that clearly explains Urencoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission and vision â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and how it puts it into practice.

/We helped Urenco articulate its strategic story and business model/

Access Bank Integration story Access Bank is one of the top ten largest banks in Nigeria — and one of Africa’s leading financial institutions. Following its integration with Intercontinental Bank, Access Bank asked us to produce its annual report and sustainability report, both of which involved working to tight deadlines and with constantly changing parameters as the integration progressed. The reports were designed to spread the message of ‘Sustainable banking for a sustainable future’ — something that was absolutely key to the original integration rationale. We produced both reports in under four months from the project kick off.

BBC Worldwide Entertaining the world A private company and subsidiary of the BBC, BBC Worldwide has been actively moving towards reporting best practice â&#x20AC;&#x201D; looking to tell its story more clearly, and make its business accessible and easy to understand. As part of a longer journey towards best practice reporting, we advised the organisation on a range of structural, regulatory and content matters. Based on this structure we provided design concepts and an approach that BBC Worldwide could put into practice using its own design and production teams.

Royal Mail Word up Following the arrival of a new chief executive, Royal Mail engaged us to help design and typeset its annual report and accounts, having produced it in-house for a number of years. With an eye to a tight budget, the accounts section was produced using Microsoft Word templates while we typeset the front end of the report and supplied templates for the online version. The final document was published on its website as an interactive PDF.

/With an eye to a tight budget, the accounts section was produced using Microsoft Word templates/

/The live webcast was fully functional with downloads and slides/ Shell Mobile view Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies. With internet usage on tablets and mobiles growing at a dramatic rate, Shell asked for our help to support live webcasts on these devices. The live webcast was fully functional with downloads and slides, and optimised for both wi-fi and 3G connections. Close collaboration with all the key stakeholders was crucial to provide a stable, high quality end product.

Executive interviews Direct talking We pioneered the in-depth online executive interview back in 2001. It was the original offer behind our video and webcasting success. Today, we remain Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading provider of this form of focused results interview service, and have also expanded the offer into other areas like strategic announcements and internal communications. Our services range from scripting and question advisory through to conducting the interview, filming, editing, bespoke digital delivery and content syndication; all managed by our in-house team of skilled, compliant broadcast professionals. And when the interview has been published we provide audience analytics and feedback so that you can measure its success.

Dixons Retail plc Customer focus Dixons Retail is Europe's largest specialist electrical retailing and services company. We were charged with creating a best practice report around its customer-focused messaging. The design used a range of customer stories, product and service experiences to bring the breadth of the offer to life. It was crucial to convey to investor audiences that the new Dixons Retail was more about service and expertise than simply selling products. We used photography of customers in real-life situations to illustrate their interactions with the company at various stages of the customer journey and as well as after sales support.

/We used photography of customers in reallife situations to illustrate their interactions with the company/

Our clients From across the globe