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| THE CHALLENGE |
In 2009 JML won a contract to write and manage the year end communications for a NZX Top 50 company. The assignment involved a full suite of investor communications including:
- Profit announcement
- Briefing to market analysts – presentation and scripting for Chairman and CEO
- S209 letters, notice of meeting and proxy forms
- Annual report
- Annual General Meeting – presentation and scripting for Chairman and CEO
In keeping with the economic recession the client was looking to change the look and feel of its annual report. The measures adopted included reducing the number of pages in its shareholder review, doing away with full page “hero” photographs, reverting to a more restrained colour palette, and using black and white photography for director and management team photographs.
This meant that as an important communication tool for the investor brand, the annual report had to work harder than ever to communicate the company’s performance, and future strategy. This called for an accessible writing style that clearly and concisely told the important stories of the year, while framing the company’s performance in the context of the global financial crisis and domestic recession.
It seemed that this assignment was tailor-made for JML consultant Brenda Newth. As an experienced public affairs professional and uniquely a former financial accountant, Brenda was easily able to bridge the gap between the communication and finance teams, quickly learn about the business honing in on the important issues, interpret the financials and write about the business in an engaging manner.
As you might expect, completing this contract involved a lot of co-ordination and relationship building skills; working closely with the finance team ensuring that deadlines were strictly adhered to, with legal counsel to make sure that all reporting deadlines were met from a compliance perspective, and of course with the external designers to deliver a finished report that met the objectives of its brief and the expectations of the CEO, Chairman and board.
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| THE RESULT |
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Our client was extremely happy with the annual report, and with the service, professionalism and insight that JML provided. Compared to the previous year, the 2009 report showed a definite progression in overall design - being much crisper and cleaner - and also in the writing style, by using more everyday language and less jargon. All deadlines were comfortably met, and anecdotal feedback was “things were much smoother this year”. We have been engaged to deliver the 2010 interim report for this client and have also expanded the scope of services provided into other areas.
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