We turn statutory reporting into real stakeholder engagement by telling stories of the work that companies do and the solutions they bring to society.

Like any corporate reporting agency, we know that it’s essential to stay up to date with evolving best practice. But that’s just the first step in effective communication and we work with clients to make an emotional as well as a rational connection with their investors and stakeholders.

That’s because investors, analysts and regulators are people too. They may not buy a company’s products, but they buy (or influence others to buy) its shares. This point is core to our stakeholder communication offering. We use storytelling to turn disclosure into real communication. We help clients not only meet their regulatory requirements, but also tell their stories confidently, appropriately and persuasively for all stakeholders.

Storytelling in effective communication

In so doing, we create storytelling assets – such as infographics, key facts and case studies – that bring an annual report or sustainability report to life for stakeholders and can be used for other communication activity as well. Recently, these assets have included interactive maps and interactive videos that present a corporate story in new and compelling ways for diverse stakeholders.

From these assets to the simple written word, we focus on the heroes, villains and plot of a client’s story. If the hero is the company itself, the villain might be a difficult economy, climate change or competitors, but it is a story like any other. We explain the twists and turns and hoped-for outcome in a way that is compelling for every key stakeholder and meets communication needs.

And as we tell these stories, we do so within the frameworks set down by regulators. We are careful to follow the requirements of the UK Companies Act 2006, and the recommendations of important bodies, such as the Financial Conduct Authority and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

Planning and good project management are vital in all areas of our work, but nowhere is this truer than in the world of corporate reporting and stakeholder communications. Deadlines here are fixed by government regulation. We pride ourselves on helping clients deliver every project smoothly, using the project management tools that are right for them and their communication style.

Stakeholder engagement strategy

We can support a client’s stakeholder communication plan in the following ways:

Advice on best practice

When it comes corporate reporting there is a right and a wrong way to tell your story. We have to reach the heart as well as the head of the audience while making complex issues clear and bringing unfailing clarity to meet stakeholder needs. We closely follow the Financial Reporting Council’s advice when it comes to creating reports that tell stakeholders what they need to know. And we recommend the most appropriate communication channel for every stakeholder engagement.

Annual reports in print and digital formats

Annual reports take a great deal of planning and know-how, ranging from smart project management to digital and print expertise. We do everything for our clients, from interviewing the management team and writing the text to creating highly engaging print and digital assets, delivering printed versions and managing the whole process. We have successfully created many reports and have won awards for our achievements.

Sustainability and impact reports that meet stakeholder expectations

With everyone from regulators to shareholders paying ever closer attention to sustainability, our clients need reports that explain their actions, their plans and their results in a way that avoids greenwashing.

Every company’s journey to sustainability is different and we tell their stories in interesting and engaging ways, but we also pay close attention to guidance such as the UK Stewardship Code. For one company, for example, we recently enhanced stakeholder engagement with an interactive infographic showing their efforts to support specific UN Sustainable Development Goals.

AGM material

Stakeholder communication is all about getting the detail right. We support our clients, for example, by creating a range of materials that supports their annual general meetings, including the Notice of Meeting and voting letters with proxy voting forms for those who can’t make it to the meeting. We handle not only the design of these documents, but also production and delivery where needed.

Video shoots of the leadership team

Leadership teams are the face of the corporate strategy, and we frequently help these leaders to tell their company’s stories on video so that they can speak directly to different stakeholders. Our video team is at ease working with the people at all levels of an organisation and can create face-to-face video and, where required, add b-roll footage and animated facts and stats on screen.

Creation of assets for investor relations presentations

Investor relations presentations are a chance for the leadership team to tell their story directly to the audience but a presentation that hits the right notes and reflects the professionalism of the organisation goes a long way to making it a success. Our designers can create spectacular presentations to impress investors and support the stakeholder communication strategy.

Social purpose

Regulators, and large-scale investors such as BlackRock, have made the social purpose agenda ever more important in corporate communications. We have great experience in helping clients show that they are working to the benefit of all stakeholders, not just shareholders. In part, this comes from our work on corporate reporting materials for purpose-led organisations such as the Church of England.

Strong storytelling is incredibly important here as a way of showing how a corporate strategy has an agenda that more than ticks the boxes on subjects such as:

• responsible business/investment
• corporate citizenship
• environment
• business and society
• responsible supply chain
• ethics
• wellbeing
• education.

In fact, we find that with communication becoming ever more complex, clients now trust us to tell their story across all of their stakeholders, from shareholders to the general public and even employees, rather than hire a separate internal communication agency.

We imagine that stakeholder communications will become even more complex in the near future as regulation and societal norms around everything from climate change to diversity become increasingly important to every stakeholder group. Our offering can help to spread the messages from key documents like the annual report across channels in ways that remain consistent while resonating with multiple audiences.