posted by Nicolette Beard @ 3:20 PM
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2.10.2010
posted by Paige Hebert @ 1:10 PM
In July of 2009, Savage design director Doug Hebert and brand strategist Robin Tooms were invited by Graphis to participate in an article regarding the increasingly popular migration of annual reports from print to digital format. In the article, “AR 2.0” – the buzzword moniker given to the new report medium – is revealed as a tool that is not out to replace the printed books from which they were spurred, but to enhance information accessibility and connect with investors in ways that print is not capable – such as video and animation.
Savage was an early pioneer of the online annual report, designing them as far back as 1999 for Kodak and General Motors and has recently created award winning print and online investor campaigns for companies such as Sysco and Baker Hughes.
The article was included in the recently printed Graphis 2010 Design Annual. To download and read the insightful article, please visit our marketing communications website.
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1.25.2010
posted by Nicolette Beard @ 2:34 PM
Digital media has turned traditional news sourcing on its head. Journalists now set up news alerts and RSS feeds to track industry news, companies and subject matter experts.
So when a journalist visits your online press room and discovers a plethora of PDF-downloads, what do you think his/her reaction might be?
1) Exit stage left. One extra click is not worth my time.
2) I’ll download the document and may write about you, but I’ll make my displeasure known. (“Hey, I’m only human.”)
3) This is so 90s. Is there a more cutting-edge company worth investigating?
The above imagined scenarios can be measured in higher bounce rates, fewer downloads and infrequent news stories and/or interviews in major news outlets.
When you make your content less accessible, you want to factor in “lost opportunity” costs.
From a technology viewpoint, while it’s true that search engines can now “read” news releases, presenting your news only in PDFs is making a search engine work too hard. If you must post PDFs, be certain you have an HTML version, an RSS feed and submit to newswire services.
If you assume that your audience is accessing your site on a computer or Smartphone equipped with the necessary software to decode the document, you could be right. You also could be wrong.
Key influencers and early adopters are increasingly using mobile applications. You don’t want anything to impede deadline-driven news or to dissuade a potential investor.
If you make your content hard to find, you may find yourself victim of The Law of Unintended Consequences. In other words, you don’t want to overly frustrate your key constituents, whether they are journalists or investors, by making them work, search, click, download and read, over and over again.
Good user experience isn’t a concept limited to ecommerce sites.
Resources: 5 Reasons Why Your Press Page Should Lose the PDFs
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12.12.2008
posted by Bethany Haley @ 1:52 PM
John Palizza, a colleague and consultant in the world of Investor Relations, sent me a link to the ENI Website last week (www.eni.it) noting that it had an impressive investor section. I do have to admit that it is, without fail, the best IR site I have seen to date.
More importantly, the entire enterprise site is not only well thought out but strategically designed to communicate with a variety of audiences – all with differing needs. Based on the extensive “best practice” research Savage conducts on websites, we find that European companies are light years ahead of American companies in leveraging content design and interactive web technology to display and communicate company information. It is not as if companies in Europe have better or newer technology – they just seem to be adopting it more quickly. Why is that?
Areas to note while exploring the ENI Site:
Products and Services: Flash driven product search
Company: “Catalog” Overview of Important Company Aspects
Investor Relations: Great Architecture, Interactivity and Balance of Financial & Contextual Information
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8.01.2008
posted by Robin Tooms @ 7:38 AM
This week, the SEC noted that information posted to a company’s website or blog should be recognized as adequate disclosure to meet Reg FD requirements. This is not only good news for IR professionals, but for the practice of investor communications too. As stated in this transcript from the IR Web Report:
“Indeed, one of the key benefits of the Internet is that companies can make information available to investors quickly and in a cost-effective manner. The use of electronic media is arguably superior to providing company information the old way. It’s a better way to provide information to most investors since today it can be presented in interactive format that allows each individual to click through or drill down to the level of detail that’s appropriate to him or her.”
-SEC Chairman Christoper Cox
The guidance outlined in the SEC meeting benefits corporations since it reduces the cost of disclosure, will improve the ability to communicate with investors and clears up some previous confusion on Internet usage in investor communications. Additionally, they addressed the issues of liability on external links and the nature of presenting information in an online format – information can be formatted for the screen and not for paper. All of this is important since it acknowledges the benefits of the web (hyperlinks, etc.) and will allow for companies to use more interactive elements to present information in a dynamic way.
It’s also very interesting that the SEC itself is now using Twitter to distribute its releases too.
