25TH GATHERING, ZURICH 8 APRIL 2014

BEYOND THE BUZZWORDS:

MAKING SENSE OF TRENDS IN DIGITAL

&

LESSON LEARNED FROM

KWD WEBRANKING SWITZERLAND 2013 Zurich, 8 April 2014

HOW TO TELL YOUR INVESTMENT STORY TO

INVESTORS AND JOURNALISTS

SARA RUSCONI

#DIGITALBITES

@SARARUSCONI

WHAT IS THE MAIN AUDIENCE OF A CORPORATE

WEBSITE?

Investors and

analysts

Business

journalysts

SRI investors and CSR

professionals

2014-04-14 | 2

ARE YOU SURE YOU KNOW WHAT THEY NEED?

Annual and

interim reports

Financial presentations

Financial results

and key data

Press releases

2014-04-14 | 3

IR #1: INVESTORS DO NOT READ YOUR ANNUAL

REPORT

34

36

27

29

26

18

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Corporate reporting is too complex

Discount company with corporatereporting lacking clarity

Annual report no longer a useful tool forinvestors

Agree Agree stronglySource: ACCA survey (300 investors in UK and Irleand)

63% Reports are too complex

62% Unclear reports penalise the company evaluation

45%

Annual reports are not an effective tool for investors

2014-04-14 | 4

IR #2: INVESTORS EXPECT MORE FROM YOUR

INVESTOR RELATIONS SECTION

Shareholder Confidence 365 di PR Newswire

The IR section needs to evolve from a content archive to a

space used to communicate our investment story

2014-04-14 | 5

50,4

28

5,6

16

0 20 40 60

Tangibles: fundamentals, SECfiles

Intangibles: BoD information,corporate governance

Never visit an IR website

Other comments (mostly both)

What is the main reason to visit an IR site?

Most important information (in descending

order):

1. Strategy and financial targets

2. Growth drivers

3. Debt information and financing strategy (liabilities, bond, debt key ratios)

4. Investments and divestments (to assess the company strategy)

5. Information about risk management and about probability and impact of each risk type on the company

6. Rating information (rating agency information)

7. Investor propositions

KWD Webraranking Questionnaire (>240 professionisti)

JOURNALISTS: INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF

DIGITAL SOURCE OF INFORMATION

Digital Journalism 2013, Oriella Network

Journalists are attributing increasing importance to multimedia

content and the role of bloggers is increasing

The website should become an authoritative source of information

going beyond the press release

0 5 10 15 20 25

Interview with spokepeople

Newswires

Other media sites

My press release in tray

Corporate website

Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn

Third party blog

2013

2011

2014-04-14 | 7

Most important source of information

CSR PROFESSIONALS: NOT ONLY REPORTING

Lundquist CSR Online Awards Questionnaire

The CSR section of the corporate website cannot be a mere replica

of the CSR report but must present the vision of the company and

clear examples of what it is doing to achieve it

84

61

49

50

33

93

72

60

51

44

0 20 40 60 80 100

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013 Corporate

Non corporate

TOP PRIORITIES IN 2013

(NON-CORPORATE)

• Read about CR strategy

and objectives (57,1%)

• Get detailed information

on specific topics

(37,5%)

• Read case studies

(37,5%)

• Access performance data

(35,1%)

2014-04-14 | 8

Downloading the CSR report is your top priority when visiting a CSR section

HOW CAN WE REACH OUT TO ANALYSTS AND

INVESTORS AND TELL THEM OUR STORY

9

DEVELOP A NARRATIVE REPORT ONLINE

10

• Do not just replicate the annual report online but use

the interactive version to present thorough

information about the business, the market situation,

the strategy and the investments of the company

• Disclosure of information can be presented in PDF and

the online version can be focused on telling the stories

PLUS MINUS

• As usually the annual report is more

focused on the past, the online version

should focus on the future and on the

investments (storytelling)

• It is usually easier to develop a different

online version than to radically change

the printed report

• The online version can reach out to a

larger audience (eg retail investors)

• Risk of developing a superficial

document, with commendable stories

but not very linked to the business

• Risk of not having a smooth navigation

between the PDF and the interactive

version

• Difficulties in developing a different

company language and to change the

report culture

+

ADDRESSING A LARGER AUDIENCE FOR A PUBLIC

COMPANY

11

BRIEF

PROJECT

• Develop a document (both printed and online) that

is addressed to retail shareholders and clients

• Explain the updated company business plan and

what the company is beyond the numbers, as well as

its role in the development of the country

• Create an ongoing project of storytelling

• Focus on the main areas of everyday life that are

changing thanks to ICT ant TI technologies

• Presentation of company’s projects and stories to

concretely present how TI is working on innovation

and CSR

• Presents projects in an ongoing manner and links

them to the websites

PROBLEMS

• Develop a company language

• Gather information from several departments

• Approval process

TELLING THE NEW COMPANY POSITIONING

12

BRIEF

PROJECT

• Develop an online report that tells the new

company positioning (new management and

strategy) and link to sustainability

• Develop new content not included in the annual

report, and present them in an attractive way

• Development of an interactive report focusing on 6

main areas

• Write ad hoc content, based on internal materials

as well as interviews with top managers

• Gather pictures and videos to present the business

main facts and events

PROBLEMS

• Approval process

• Company language (mix between corporate

language and one that is easy to understand)

TO SUM UP

• Professional users are not satisfied anymore with just reports

and press releases: they need to know more about the future of

the company and how it is investing to grow

• Reports and press releases are still a vital source of information

but they need to be complemented with information about the

vision of the future and investment story

• On the website, it is imperative to work on the quality of the

content by avoiding the mere cut-and-paste of texts from the

reports and adding what usually is not in the reports: the stories of

everyday business and innovation of the company

• Put your efforts in renovating the annual reports. Interactive

reports should not be a mere replica of the printed document but a

crucial place to tell your story

2014-04-14 | 13

Via San Maurilio, 23 | 20123 Milano

Website: www.lundquist.it/

Blog: www.lundquist.it/blog/

Sara Rusconi

Lundquist partner

Sara.rusconi@lundquist.it

@sararusconi

LUNDQUIST SRL CONTATTI

SOCIAL PRESENCE

Lundquist company page

@Lundquist

Lundquist page

Lundquist channel

Slideshare account

2014-04-14 | 15

2014-04-14 | 16

25TH GATHERING, ZURICH 8 APRIL 2014

BEYOND THE BUZZWORDS:

MAKING SENSE OF TRENDS IN DIGITAL

&

LESSON LEARNED FROM KWD WEBRANKING SWITZERLAND 2013