Annual reports: Creating a digital experience

Your Annual Report is more than just an annual compliance. It is a vital communication tool for your business. It is the opportunity to celebrate your company's successes, showcase your company’s culture and deliver your key messaging to all your organisation's stakeholders. Digitally, your Annual Report becomes far more engaging.

To ensure you're optimising your report as a strategic marketing tool, consider our insights on Getting the Most Out of Your Annual Report.

The rise of digital annual reports

It's no surprise that traditional, printed annual reports are quickly being overshadowed by digital, interactive versions that are not only more engaging, but are an avenue to rapidly increase your readership and overall ROI.

More businesses are now investing in creating digital annual reports as more readers turn to digital platforms to consume their content. With digital, annual reports can be dramatically transformed to become digital marketing assets that come with all the added benefits that digitalisation offers. This transition has been captured in our article Revolutionising the Future: Digital Annual Report Trends for 2023.

Organisations are in favour of digital annual reports as they give your asset more accountability. By going digital you can track and report more easily on your report's performance. This gives you the power to see who is reading your report content, when and from what device. This data is invaluable if you wish to continuously improve your reports performance year on year.

Dipping your toe into digital annual reports is a big step - we've got some tips on selling the benefits of a digital annual report to teams and stakeholders which could help you get others on board.

To learn more about measuring the success and ROI of your digital annual report, you can refer to our guide on how companies measure the success and ROI of their digital annual report efforts.

How to transform your annual report with digital

Digital Annual Reports deliver an entirely different user experience (UX) for the online reader. It creates a platform to captivate, surprise and intrigue your readers with the latest digital functionalities. It seems every year companies are getting better and more innovative in this space.

To ensure you are keeping on trend, my team and I have listed a few ways that you can optimise your report for digital:

1. Dynamic content:

You can embed videos, create audio elements, use animations and interactions as an alternative way to show your story as opposed to telling it in slabs of text. This makes it easier for your reader to digest what you have to say. It also keeps your reader engaged for longer.

To further improve reader engagement, consider these five strategies to make your annual report stand out.

See how we used video to capture what digital Annual Reports can do:

View our Annual Report Mini-Site

2. Data visualisation:

Turn your data from static to dynamic with data visualisation. Your digital report allows you to bring to life the data that matters, highlighting it to your readers eye in an engaging way. Digital also allows you to bring depth to your data with links to inspiring blog posts or other related content. Learn more about creating a dynamic and engaging digital annual report here.

Thirst's work with FVREE - visualising important information:

FVREE Annual Report 2021-22

3. Create movement:

Movement is a big trend in the online space already. Your Annual Report can be made more fun to consume with subtle movements that drive your reader to explore your entire report. See how we used movement to create interest for IPC Health.

If you’re like me you’ll find it hard to stop scrolling and exploring this report:

IPC Health 2022 Digital Annual Report

4. Boost interactivity:

Use of side menu - This is the ability to create a long one page version of the report, split into sections. The reader can navigate through the report's sections easily by clicking the dots on the side menu, and it will auto scroll up and down, making the report more user friendly.

Thirst's work with healthAbility is a perfect example of use of side menu:

healthAbility 2022 Annual Report

5. Mobile responsive:

Whether your report is single-page or multi-page, the key is to make them highly mobile responsive. With the trends of mobile usage also going up, make sure your Annual Report is ready to be displayed optimally on mobile.

To learn more about digital annual reporting trends, check out our article on the future of digital annual report trends for 2023.

See how WWF Australia's Innovate to Regenerate Report integrates seamlessly on mobile:

WWF-Australia's Innovate to Regenerate Report

A little goes a long way

While there are endless ways you can present your report with digital, it's important to remember that often less is more. There is a real science into capturing attention and it's important that you find the balance of keeping your audience engaged without distracting or overwhelming them. You still want to ensure your key messages are easily interpreted and received.

To ensure you get the most out of your annual report, consider our insights on getting the most out of your annual report.

The digital rewards

Beyond the functionality of digital reports, taking your report digital can kick more goals for your company:

• It’s environmentally sustainable: By taking your report digital you not only save on print costs but you are producing this project in a more environmentally friendly and sustainable way.
• You create an accessible report: With digital you can ensure you’re meeting the AA compliance and deliver a report that is equally accessible for all to consume.
• You increase your reports availability: Your Annual Report can be optimised to be read on multiple devices. No need to lug around heavy tombs of paper to your next meeting.
• You have created another marketing asset: It's no secret that Annual Reports are increasingly being used for marketing purposes. But with digital your readers can share your content with hundreds within an instant.

Creating Annual Report templates

Providing an annual report template will save cost and time over the duration of the project because it allows for greater flexibility to be able to reuse the template each year efficiently and can update the information in a quicker manner.

Looking for more design inspiration? Check out our article on annual report design inspiration.

Thirst's Annual Report template for CarersACT:

Need more inspiration? Take a look at some of our annual reports here:

• The University of Melbourne Annual Report
• Carers Act Annual Report
• IPC Health Annual Report
• NCHS Annual Report