Check out Olivet Nazarene University’s interactive online annual report.

Back in the day, annual reports were dry, tedious documents filled with all kinds of numbers–ideally high ones. Although investor relations remain a primary purpose of an annual report, this handy communication tool can help you achieve much more.

Financial updates aside, annual reports give businesses an opportunity to share their recent success stories and garner support for future goals. Today businesses realize that numbers alone aren’t nearly as accessible as the people, goals and values contributing to the numbers. They also realize that numbers can’t reach people the way a pleased client, a successful graduate, a fellow supporter or an enthusiastic consumer can.

Annual reports that connect with constituents on a personal level strengthen a business’ brand in a way that numbers can’t. In this way, an annual report can be a powerful marketing device rather than simply a financial update.

So how does an annual report successfully achieve “marketing tool” status?

Most importantly it should have a solid concept, or overarching theme, that reinforces the brand. This concept should be carried throughout the entire report: success stories should reflect last year’s goals and next year’s goals should enforce consistent values.

An accessible annual report also includes a clean, consistent design and readable text–nobody connects with a bunch of jargon.

Quantitative Services Group, a company that provides products and services to help guide the investment decision process, asked Cultivate to design their 2008 Annual Report. Chris created a beautiful, professional-looking report that carried their “Bridge Over Troubled Water” concept from start to finish. His knowledge of printing and manufacturing led him to suggest a Spot UV that makes the glassy, liquid imagery pop.

Print Annual Report vs. Online Annual Report

There’s something to be said about a collection of printed reports lined up on a shelf, one for each year of a company’s life. A tangible history seems timeless.

Yet preservation is important in other ways too, and the abundance of paper necessary for printing hundreds, or even thousands, of annual reports for constituents year after year is a downfall.

One option is to print on recycled paper; an alternative is to create an online annual report, the route Olivet Nazarene University took for their 2008 Online Annual Report. Olivet’s annual report microsite features web videos, photo slideshows, interactive charts and graphs, links to articles and much more. It requires no paper and is available to anyone with access to the Internet.

Whether in print or online, an annual report can all at once review financial performances, connect to current or potential donors on a personal level and strengthen a business’ brand.