The document provides an overview of the Corporate Reporting Awards organized by CICA and partners over almost 60 years. It discusses trends seen over the years in electronic disclosure and online reporting, including more web-based disclosure, better organization and navigability of sites, and recognition of the web as the primary vehicle for disclosure. It outlines best practices common to the top 10 award-winning sites, such as standard navigation, dedicated investor sections, use of multimedia, and push technologies. Judges look for more innovation, interactivity, and clear investment propositions. A future CICA study will examine use of the internet in corporate reporting based on award winners.
68. CICA Study Usability And Navigation 1. Search and Navigation Tools 2. Practical Tools (Tool Box) 3. Interactive Data Tools
69. CICA Study Social Media and Web 2.0 1. We Will Reach You 2. We Want You To Reach Us 3. We Want You To Share About Us 4. We Want You To Participate 5. Listen To Us At Your Own Pace And Time
Can an investor understand why they need to invest in this company without having to click and search at length.
We’re seeing too much of the norm now. Use of new Web technologies – Facebook etc.
Standard navigation – consistent throughoutDedicated Investor section – often with Investor landing page Significant use of relational links to bring key content forward
Dedicated Investor section often with an Investor Landing page that provides quick entry to all key content. You can see how all 3 panels are used to provide quick access to relevant content and in this case, some attempt has been made to provide access by profile
In some ways more difficult for a large company, which often has a Investor Section within the About Us/Corporate Content
Editing, repurposing and creating content in web-friendly formats – layered so users can drill in to access more detail. We’re seeing a lot more of this as issuers get more comfortable with the use of the web. Here’s an example of Nexen’s Director Bios – they’ve taken things one step further and created a skills matrix so you can have a better understanding of the board as a whole.
Much greater effort in helping investors understand the company & it’s operations as BMO begins here. They also offer a Peer Group Comparison.
In this area Potash really excels - here, as before, they have repurposed their interactive annual report and have pulled from it an excerpt on the 6 keys to understanding their business.
More information about fertilizer and the role it plays in world food production.
Extension information on global markets pertaining to their business.
More issuers are putting together snapshot information on their companies as TransCanada has done here.
And we’re seeing more explanation and animation to describe specific processes such as Suncor has done here.
Another trend we’re seeing among many of the top companies is the inclusion of a Why Invest? Section which pulls together the key points of the investment proposition. Here Agnico has used an embedded video to tell the story – by embedding it other users can share this information across the web. We’ll talk more about that in the innovation section.
Here we see comparitive annual financials presented in HTML format with a pull down to access previous years. Segemented PDFs are provided in the right rail.
A number of the top 10 sites offered content in tidy aggregated views – here we see Nexen’s webcast and presentation information with all associated assets.
All of the top companies offered emails alerts – many of them included universal or highly visible links on their sites to make it easy to register. Here Domtar offers segmented alerts for events, news and filings. They also have a an area on their site called ‘Analyst Corner’ and they provide alerts specific to that audience as well.
Only 50% of the top 10 companies integrated RSS feeds, which is higher than average across all issuers but still disappointingly low when you consider the value and convenience this can have for your audiences. Here Potash provides segmented RSS feeds for all the usual plus information on markets, sustainability and more.
Seeing a much greater use of Flash to help convey important messaging and make better use of real estate. Less superfluous than it was in the past.
We’re seeing a much greater use of video to familiarize investors more with management – this is happening both North & South. Here’s a great example with Cameco’s CEO corner, which includes a full video, audio, presentations, downloads.
Cameco has been a forerunner in the presentation of it’s quarterly reports – here this page provides a summary of the report and aggregates all associated assets in a single view, an audio of the conference call, a podcast, downloads in both PDF and Excel format.
Seeing a much greater use of online annual reports – most provide summary information with links to PDFs, segmented by section. All provide animation and interactivity to make it much more engaging. Here we see the front page of the Telus report.
The Telus report lets you choose downloads from a Table of Contents to ‘build your own report’ – we’re seeing more of this technology as well – the ability to compile your own downloads.
Enerplus offers a different format where you can actually flip the pages. You can view in single or double spreads and zoom in at any time to full size. You can also use the Table of Contents to access specific content.
We’re seeing a much greater use of tools that allow users to sort & filter information such as News, Events, Webcasts etc by date, topic and speaker.
Agncio-Eagle has done a good job of integrating Web 2.0 social media features into their site. For example, here we see an embedded SlideShare presentation. For most companies, following a live presentation, their PowerPoints go the website to die. Using embedded SlideShare provides a highly visual, inviting format that permits key messaging on the first page, and provides immediate access to the user without downloading a PDF. Presenting this as a visual, rather than a link can significantly increase readership and Agnico benefits from that both on and off the site. In fact, we’ve seen companies get up to double the views off site on Slideshare In addition, it allows users to share Agnico’s presentation across the web, while preserving the integrity of the content.
Barrick Gold was highlighted for its use of Twitter in broadcasting its press releases and earnings reports. It’s important to note that this information is previously released through traditional channels, so they are not using Twitter to release material inforamtion. An early adopter of this technology for IR, Barrick has been able to establish its voice of authority in social media channels, which has served them well when they’ve needed to counter or be proactive in managing activist messaging. Using Twitter enables Barrick to broaden their online footprint and provide content where some audiences prefer to source it – through social media channels. Barrick links website users to their Twitter account at the same point that they provide RSS & email alert registration. This could be more visible on their site.
Seeing the incorporation of more calculators and analytic tools.