Seven tips for hosting a successful Investor Day

Hosting an Investor Day provides a public company with an opportunity to efficiently communicate important and meaningful information to shareholders and analysts in a setting of the company’s choosing. An Investor Day can articulate company goals and vision and provide greater insight into the company’s strategic advantages and the areas in which it excels. Done right, an Investor Day can have a positive impact—both during the event and in the weeks and months to follow.

However, a successful Investor Day requires careful planning. Even the most narrowly focused analysts have full schedules. Without thoughtful preparation the event could have sparse attendance. Even worse, if the event isn’t executed properly, it could send a poor message and have the opposite effect to what was intended. An Investor Day should always reinforce the company’s brand.

Having a successful Investor Day often depends on the quality of information that is communicated and how that information is presented. If analysts feel that the information provided is compelling and helpful, they’ll likely have a more positive feeling about the event—and the company hosting it.

The following tips can help any public company take their Investor Day to the next level.

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Poor attendance is one of the biggest challenges companies face when organizing an Investor Day. Should you host it at corporate headquarters, at one of your facilities or at a hotel in a financial hub? The decision will impact planning and budget but most importantly, attendance.

Inviting analysts to meet at one of your company locations will allow you to showcase a new facility, large products or intricate processes. Analysts appreciate immersive experiences and tours but if the facility is hard to get to it will be harder for them to justify the time and expense of getting there. Many times, a video, or interactive or VR display can serve the same purpose without sacrificing attendance.

Hosting the event at your corporate headquarters can keep the budget lower but will also limit attendance if you’re not in a major city.

Boost attendance, awareness, and participation by hosting the event in a convenient, attractive destination such as a hotel in a financial hub like New York or London.

If you want to really ramp up attendance, consider piggybacking on a big industry conference or trade show. If analysts will already be in town for the conference, it’s easier for them to stay an extra day for your event.

1. Location, location, location

You should only hold an Investor Day when there’s new or exciting information to share. Holding an event annually just to keep to a prescribed schedule can instill a negative perception among analysts.

Hold an event when the timing is right and the information is relevant. That could be annually, but it could also be every other year or every 18 months. Make sure the event is relevant to the investment community. Present stale information too often and investors will stop wasting their time coming to your events.

2.Annual vs biennial

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If you have a complex story to tell, opening the event with a film featuring your senior executives, highlighted with graphics, can help make sure the narrative unfolds without a hitch. Film can also be a window into your global facilities, operations and diverse, dedicated work force.

An infographic can help make complex business structures and strategies easy to grasp. Hand out a hardcopy with your presentation book, and distribute a digital version as part of an event app or microsite.

If you’ve opted to host your Investor Day at a remote facility and expect light attendance, expand the exposure of your Investor Day by filming the event itself. This is particularly effective for tours of a new facility, when dealing with large equipment or to demonstrate an innovative new process.

3. Film and infographics

Many companies limit their Investor Day’s reach by simply announcing the event on their Investor Relations website. Promote the event online with an Investor Day splash page, microsite and app including the agenda, speaker bios, and check-in info.

A customized Investor Day app can include event locations and schedules, speaker bios, presentations and live QA feeds that attendees see on a big screen behind the presenters.

When the event is over, attendees and the broader investment community can reference the microsite to listen to the audio of presentations, watch videos or download slide decks and other relevant information, such as transcripts.

All digital platforms should be on brand and coordinate with all of the other collateral for the event, including the microsite, app, email invitations, save-the-dates, and presentations, to create a cohesive, on-brand package that captures the Investor Day theme.

4. Going digital

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If you are hosting your event in a hotel and want to build excitement around a new company facility or product, treat attendees to custom, interactive demos and video kiosks.

These can range from actual product demos, to videos, to VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) experiences, so attendees can interact with the company’s products and get sneak peeks into new innovations.

Staff each interactive exhibit with at least one person who understands the business and can demonstrate the products themselves.

5. Make the event interactive

C-suite executives are the default speakers for Investor Day events. However, many analysts want detailed information from those who are involved in day-to-day operations. Provide that detail by having general managers, vice-presidents, and other non- C-suite executives present. If an executive doesn’t have experience presenting in front of an audience, they should build in plenty of rehearsal time and consider working with a speaking coach so that they make the best impression possible.

Showcase a handful, if not all, of your division managers. The CEO, CFO, and COO presentations can be followed by Vice Presidents and General Managers presenting on their respective divisions, covering your major markets. In this way, you’ll highlight your bench strength and give first-hand accounts of what your managers have been involved in, as well as where they are taking their piece of the business.

6. Think beyond the C-suite

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Not every company is up to speed on the power of social media. However, your attendees probably use these channels regularly. You can live stream the full event on Twitter or YouTube, or deliver live tweets or posts as the event happens. This serves two purposes. It relays information to those who can’t make it and builds a buzz around the event. It also provides a documented transcript of the day’s happenings.

By live streaming or creating an event-specific hashtag, the company can monitor and review all feedback and comments surrounding the event. These can provide critical information about how the day was received and what information should be communicated better.

7. Amplify the event

Take your Investor Day presentation to the next levelRemember, less is more. This applies to everything from templates to tables, colors to copy. It can make the difference between dense presentations that are difficult for audiences to follow, and presentations that are engaging and memorable.

Investor Day presentation templateCreate a bespoke Investor Day presentation template that incorporates the event theme into the design. Provide all presenters with the template well in advance of the event so they can use it to develop their individual presentations.

Stay on brandYour Investor Day presentation should capture the event theme but should still adhere to your company’s brand guidelines.

Don’t overload slidesBreak up content into several, lightly populated slides rather than trying to fit as many points as possible into a single slide. Summarize and reinforce what you will say, don’t write in complete paragraphs. Even for post-event downloads, shorter, more easily digestible bullet points will be easier to understand or quote from.

Replace words with graphics when possibleUse a chart or graphic instead of a sentence to help drive your points home at a glance.

Don’t overuse bullet pointsPage after page of bulleted lists will put your audience and readers to sleep. Find other, creative ways to break up your content. It will make for a better looking, more memorable presentation.

Design should complement your content Add flair, but don’t overwhelm or distract from important content. Graphics, photos and other design elements should complement and support key points, not be distracting.

Limit your style selectionsUsing tints of a few colors rather than a multi-color palette will keep the audience focused on the presentation without being distracting. Choose one or two font families for the entire presentation, limit the variety of text sizes throughout and make sure the title on each slide is in a consistent position from slide to slide.

Add photos and videosHigh-quality photos and videos can bring new products and business initiatives to life. Poor quality visuals can do more harm than good – if the quality isn’t there, don’t use them.

Well-designed, on brand, themed presentations can transform your Investor Day from “good enough” to “outstanding” and will help you, your company and your ideas be remembered in a positive light.

Kev’s Design TipsTips for designing engaging Investor Day presentations from MerchantCantos Creative Director Kev Cheah:

Kev Cheah, Creative Director, MerchantCantos

8 9 MerchantCantosSeven tips for hosting a successful Investor Day

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Want to know more?If you would like to discuss how MerchantCantos can help you make your Investor Day a success, please contact Nina Eisenman atneisenman@merchantcantos.com

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