ir best practice online november 2014

Trends in Online IR

Scott Payton, 20 November 2014

© Bowen Craggs & Co. 2014

This presentation will cover…

• What investors and analysts really do – and don’t – want online

• Good practice online IR – and bad

• Broader trends in online communications

• A crucial argument that IR teams must win


IN THE BEGINNING…


2014: 25 years of the web

• The investor relations section is the Great Rift Valley of corporate websites

• The evolution of corporate sites began when, two decades ago, IR teams were among the first to grasp the huge potential of the web to disseminate results information instantly, cheaply and globally

•  It at a stroke solved the regulatory problem of how to distribute announcements simultaneously and everywhere


2014: 25 years of the web

• Online corporate communications has evolved much since the 1990s

But…

• Has online IR adapted in response to what fund managers, analysts and private investors really want – or what IR departments and senior management think they want?


ANNUAL REPORTS…


Proliferating formats


• 25 years of web evolution has led to great diversity in breeds of report

• Static PDFs

•  ‘Enhanced’ PDFs

•  ‘Page turners’

• Hybrid reports

• Full HTML

• Tablet apps

What formats do investors and analysts really want?


How private investors prefer to read annual reports

Ranked first

Ranked second

Ranked third

Ranked fourth

Average rank

Print 21 11 7 16 2

PDF 15 22 11 7 1

Online 12 14 21 8 3

App 7 8 16 24 4

What formats do investors and analysts really want?


• How does the buy-side and sell-side prefer to read documents?

Nestlé survey, investor seminar, Boston, May 2014

IR teams are moving to PDF-only reports


•  “The number of views to the online version has been rather small compared to the cost and time it takes to make. And nobody is complaining – as long as they can find the PDF online”

•  “In 2008 we produced an HTML report, but the cost versus readership did not justify continuing”

•  “We have produced an HTML site but this year – given the low levels of unique users and page views – we will only have a landing page with a PDF and signposts to other content elsewhere on the site”

Online managers taking part in Web Effectiveness Network survey, 2014

Recommendations

•  Interactive PDF, and standard PDF, probably adequate

• Our research shows that private investors, institutional investors and analysts read PDF material on-screen – so hyperlinks are useful

• Avoid ‘page turner’ PDFs: they tend to be less easy to use than a ‘standard’ PDF featuring hyperlinks and bookmarks

• Better to put rich narrative content on the website rather than in an online annual report – higher visibility, longer shelf life

•  If you do create an HTML version:

integrate it with your main website – avoid report microsites

Make it easy for users to compare data with the previous year: this was top of our survey respondents’ list of additional features


THE IR SECTION


What to investors and analysts want in an IR section?

• Webcasts/presentations

• Archive information

• Events updates

• = info they can’t get easily elsewhere


Good practice

• Good practice webcasts – Barclays

Users can listen to calls and view slides within main site, without being transferred to a third party site – a rare and welcome feature

Registration not required – another plus


Good practice

• Good practice archives – Citigroup, Vodafone

Comprehensive results materials – HTML announcement, detailed docs in PDF, financial data in Excel, webcast

Prominently signposted formats

Clear aggregated table

Deep archive


Good practice

• Good practice archives – Siemens

Tailored packages of document downloads


Good practice

• Good practice IR events calendar – Nestlé

• Prominently signposted

• Clearly presented

• Add events to digital calendar in one click


Bad practice

• Lack of clear signposts to results materials

• Separating releases from presentations

• Shallow archives

• Lack of signposting of formats

• Opening PDFs in the same window

• Cumbersome webcasts

• Poorly integrated third-party IR section


APPS & SOCIAL MEDIA


IR Apps: don’t bother

• Many firms seeing low use of / interest in their IR apps

• Time/costs of keeping apps updated outweigh benefits

•  If site is mobile optimized, added-value of an IR/Media app is reduced

• Our surveys show very low interest in app versions of annual reports

• Numerous companies with IR/Media apps are now considering discontinuing them


Social media: pockets of innovation


MOBILE OPTIMIZATION


Getting mobile right

• The best mobile optimized sites don’t mess with desktop navigation


Getting mobile wrong

• Many sites put mobile ‘first’ – neglecting the 80% of users who still access via a desktop


BEST ONLINE IR 2014


Top performers 2014: Overall online IR effectiveness


Overall online IR effectiveness

Score (out of 32)

Shell 28 Vodafone 28

BP 27

Eni 27

Sanofi 27

Nestlé 26

Unilever 26

Barclays 26

Statoil 26

BASF 25

BAT 25

SAP 25

Siemens 25

Top performers 2014: Service for analysts who know the company


Serving analysts who know the company Score (out of 12)!

Citigroup! 11!Vodafone! 11!Shell! 10!BP! 10!

Eni! 10!

Barclays! 10!

Nestle! 10!

Unilever! 10!

BAT! 10!

Intel! 10!

Commonwealth Bank of Australia 10

Vale 10

Comcast 10

Telefonica 10

Top performers 2014: Service for analysts who know the company


Serving analysts who know the company Score (out of 12)!

Citigroup! 11!Vodafone! 11!

Top performers 2014: Service for analysts researching the company


Serving analysts researching company Score (out of 12)!

Eni! 11!Shell! 11!BHP Billiton! 11!

Vodafone! 10!

BP! 10!

Sanofi! 10!

Nestle! 10!

Statoil! 10!

BASF! 10!

SAP 10

Siemens 10

Total 10

Bayer 10

Petrobras 10

Vale 10

Top performers 2014: Service for analysts researching the company


Serving analysts researching company Score (out of 12)!

Eni! 11!Shell! 11!BHP Billiton! 11!

Top performers 2014: Service for private investors


Serving retail investors Score (out of 8)!

Sanofi! 8!

Shell! 7!

Vodafone! 7!

BP! 7!

Barclays! 7!

Statoil! 7!

Unilever! 7!

Siemens! 7!

Cisco 7

Total 7

BG Group 7

Chevron 7

Commonwealth Bank of Australia 7

L’Oreal 7

Top performers 2014: Service for private investors


Serving retail investors Score (out of 8)!

Sanofi! 8!

BROADER TRENDS


Trends


• The best corporate websites are increasingly employing journalistic techniques –

Engaging headlines

Magazine-style articles

Focus on compelling narratives – text and video

The role of the website editor has grown in importance as a result of the rise of corporate ‘storytelling’

But…

The word ‘story’ has become a cliché – best avoided!


Trends


• Lots of sites are going responsive – but those that keep the ‘desktop’ experience conventional, e.g. by keeping left-nav menus, are more successful than those who try a ‘mobile first’ approach

Trends


• Companies that have gone through reputational crises often now have strong online estates – because corporate comms is now taken more seriously at board level

Trends


• The right balance of strong central governance and appropriate localisation is crucial to an effective network of country sites

• Unilever has it. Shell has it. Most technology companies don’t

• Complete decentralisation = disastrous online estates

Trends


• Channel proliferation – Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter etc – continues to cause problems for companies seeking to ensure coherence across all online communications

•  It’s crucial that all channels are managed in an integrated way

Don’t let web fashions ruin your IR section


• Turning the corporate website into a magazine/TV channel is trendy

• But this mustn’t happen at the expense of the crucial role the corporate site plays as a filing cabinet

• Web technology has evolved a great deal in the past 25 years. But core the needs of investors & analysts remain the same

What should I do next?

Access research that will improve your online strategy

• The world’s deepest analysis of corporate online estates. Constant audience research across all stakeholder groups. A trusted and growing global knowledge-sharing network. These are the cornerstones of our research reports and bespoke consultancy.

• Email [email protected] for a free copy of our latest report

Explore the word’s most powerful resource for global web managers

• Receive an exclusive pass to the Web Effectiveness Database – the engine for the Financial Times Bowen Craggs Index.

Read our weekly insight and analysis

• For regular commentaries on all aspects of online corporate communications, subscribe to our newsletter www.bowencraggs.com/subscribe/

Trends in Online IR

Scott Payton, 20 November 2014


ir best practice online november 2014

Investor Relations