The Annual Report season is soon among us and often elicits a moan and a sigh from Finance Directors of major companies around the world, sometimes filling them with dread and trepidation.

While the rules are clear for what has to be disclosed to satisfy regulatory requirements and inform shareholders and analysts, there is a very clear rationale for using the Annual Report in a more creative way as part of your marketing communications.

At grow, we believe that the Annual Report should reflect your company’s identity. It plays a vital role in communicating your company’s strategy, objectives and performance, but it also conveys its values and culture, long-term factors which influence investors’ sentiments.

Your Annual Report is an important opportunity to strengthen your identity and reinforce brand values before an audience that covers the entire stakeholder base – shareholders, employees, analysts, community groups and business partners. It’s about the only document that crosses the divide reaching so many different people who have a vested interest in your company’s performance. So why would you not invest in it and produce a communications piece which reflected your company’s vision, energy and dynamism.

The formula is really simple. Identify where you are in your business strategy, obviously outlining achievements in the last year but also looking forward to next year. What is your focus? Is it performance, is it teamwork, is it growth or results? This will establish the keywords to outline the positioning and enable your agency to develop the creative style and visual language to reinforce your message.

by Rico De Guzman

I know of a magazine editor who, after deciding that ‘enough is enough’, took it upon herself to educate one of her old-school writers to use a computer.

How could she not do so when for one article, she would have to spend for two because an additional hired hand was needed to encode the writer’s typewritten submission? It turned out that the grizzled veteran did own a Mac and knew the concept of word-processing, among others. But the only thing is that he could not complete a decent piece because, as he put it, he needs to hear the sound of a typewriter in order to churn his best pieces.

As we speak, the editor is persuading the poor soul to try a new software that mimics the sound of his Olympia each time he taps his keyboard. Amusing story, but this anecdote is so real, it gives us an insight into the comparison between the traditional and the digital way of doing things as we talk about visual art. Because, the fact is, there is a digital congestion and confusion out there in the backdrop of the teeming number of tools available for visual design. And so, some designers are yearning for the simplicity and satisfaction that came with designing the old fashioned way.