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ASX announcements: 5 tips on keeping it real (simple)

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Anthony Fensom

Getting the good news out to potential investors and shareholders has never been tougher. With some 2,200 plus companies currently listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the competition for attention is intense, particularly at the smaller end of the market.

Add to this the problem of our increasingly time-poor, information-rich society where we are constantly flooded with information, whether from so-called “old media” of newspapers, TV and radio, email or social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

Making your ASX announcements stand out from the crowd is difficult, but by using the right methods it is possible to get attention. Here are five tips for announcement writers on keeping it real (simple) for the benefit of investors:

1)    Keep it simple, stupid (KISS).

It’s the old KISS principle and if it works for US presidents like Bill Clinton, then it certainly works for you and your company. Assume your readers have average intelligence; don’t assume they are all geologists, biologists or nuclear physicists for that matter.

Express the facts in a clear and concise fashion. Use plain English and cut, cut and cut again until you have condensed the information to two pages or less.

Eliminate repetition wherever you find it. Some words or phrases that can be eliminated straightaway include “in order to”; “that” from “said that”; “in conclusion”; “as a result of”; the list is endless.

If you really want to spell out details, include a reference to more information being available on your company website (a great form of cross-promotion!).

2)    Facts upfront

Getting the attention of readers requires putting the key information upfront. Lose them in the first paragraph and they likely won’t wade through the rest of the text.

Think of writing announcements like newspaper articles, where the key facts come first and the less important details later.

It is recommended to include a highlights section at the start of your announcement spelling out the key points in dot point form (one line per highlight, and no more than five).

3)    Pictures tell 1,000 words

It may be an old saying, but it also happens to be true. A picture does tell a thousand words and while your writing may be excellent, sometimes it’s far easier to show the progress of a project or new product with photographs.

However, if the project is technical, such as a mining project, then it might be best to put the relevant maps and photos in an appendix (and at least from the second page) so to not clutter the key points on page one.

4)    Maps & charts

If you are planning to include maps and charts, make them understandable to non-experts in your field. Unfortunately, many companies include diagrams and graphs which no doubt their technical experts swoon over, but leave many investors scratching their heads.

Technical diagrams should be explained in simple terms using minimal jargon. Used properly, they can be a valuable addition to the announcement.

5)    Jargon

Another barrier to telling your story. Jargon and acronyms have a place and that place is when you are discussing issues with those in your industry, whether it’s geologists, lawyers, accountants or doctors.

By all means include jargon where it is required, but explain what you mean and keep it to a minimum when you are putting out an announcement or media release to the general community.

Avoid acronym soup – while you and your directors may understand terminology like ASX, EBIT, EBITDA, NPAT, NPV, PJ or 2P etc, not every reader will. Spell out the term on first reference and avoid excessive usage.

These are just five basic areas among many others open to improvement. Ultimately, the payoff is in increased market value for your company, making an investment in better writing well worth the effort.

Posted in Investor Relations, Media Relations | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Communicating with Asia – is English really the “global language”?

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Anthony Fensom

“English is the global language” and other countries should learn our tongue, or so goes the argument. Why then should native English-speaking communicators in Australia and elsewhere bother learning about other languages or cultures when engaging in international communications?

The reality of course is somewhat different, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region to which Australia calls its home. According to UNESCO, the region is home to about half of the world’s spoken languages, including Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean, with more than 3,500 spoken languages employing a variety of writing systems.

In Australia, the reality of our multicultural society quickly becomes apparent simply by walking down any major city street. While English is the only language spoken at home for an estimated 80 per cent of the population, Chinese, Italian, Vietnamese and Greek are also widely spoken along with indigenous languages.

Public relations is loosely defined as the practice of engaging with publics, and this core principle does not disappear as soon as the plane leaves the airport tarmac for foreign shores. This article will attempt to examine some of the differences in practises between Australia and Asia, particularly Japan, and how Australian communicators might seek to close the cultural gap.

It’s all about trust

Australian PR and media professionals used to suffering from a poor public image may be surprised to learn that this is not always the case in Asia.

In Australia, according to 2010 Roy Morgan Research, nurses and doctors were the most highly trusted among Australian professions at some 89 and 79 per cent, respectively. Politicians were trusted by as few as 16 per cent, while newspaper journalists gained just 11 per cent, advertisers 8 per cent and car salesmen only 5 per cent.

While PR was not specifically addressed in the survey, it presumably would place around the same level of advertisers or journalists.

Yet in Asia, the situation is very different for media/PR professionals, at least according to surveys done in newspaper-dominant Japan.

According to a 2008 Yomiuri Shimbun/Gallup survey, Japanese polled on their trust in organisations actually placed newspapers above doctors and teachers. A majority 53 per cent rated newspapers as more trustworthy institutions than hospitals (48 per cent) and schools (37 per cent).

Similarly, the same survey found that 60 per cent considered newspaper information as the most credible, well above television at 17 per cent and online at 11 per cent. Importantly for advertisers, the survey rated newspaper ads as having 34 per cent credibility, versus 31 per cent for TV ads and only 7.5 per cent for online advertising.

While this survey was conducted on behalf of the nation’s largest newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, it does indicate the difference in attitude towards the media and its institutions, with journalists and other media professionals seemingly held in much higher esteem in Japan.

Yet contrast this situation with India, with polls conducted in December 2010 showing the majority considered journalists were “covering up” to protect themselves and failing to fulfill the public interest.

China’s media also face particular restrictions due to government control, although growing commercialisation has reportedly led to increasingly open criticism in the press of the authorities. However, reports of PR companies handing out envelopes full of cash to reporters in return for media coverage highlights some different ethical considerations to those of the West.

Know your market

It may be a truism but engaging with Asia and Asian audiences does require a different mindset than handling Western audiences.

For example, given the previous data on Japan’s media trustworthiness, communicators would appear to best target newspapers ahead of TV and online, whereas in Australia the strategy might be completely reversed.

China has its own social networking systems, such as Renren, as does Japan, where Facebook is still relatively small compared to the domestic, mobile phone-based networks of Gree, Mobage Town and Mixi.

Yet Twitter has been embraced in Japan, with the country recently posting a new global record number of tweets for an event during the women’s FIFA World Cup final between Japan and the United States.

Similarly, planning your PR in an overseas market may require a slightly different approach from communicators than just sending out a media release to all and sundry.

In Japan, for example, the press club system dominates the major media with some 1,500 of such clubs attached to ministries, courts and major companies. Anyone wondering why Japan’s top newspapers tend to run the same stories on a particular day need look no further than the press clubs, which act to control certain information.

According to Japanese PR practitioners, the usual practice is to deliver the media release with two days’ notice to the relevant press club first, which will then distribute the release to the press club members accordingly. Such a system would seem to limit the “exclusives” beloved of Western media!

Similarly, there seems to be some confusion over the difference between advertising and PR, with online ads having the “PR” tag above them. Educating the audience on the role of public relations may therefore be another important task for the communicator.

Get into their heads

Similar to practises in Australia, communicators need to pitch from the target’s viewpoint and not their own. For example, why is your product or service particularly compelling for the targeted audience?

In a developed country like Japan, there may already be a number of competitors and the audience will need some convincing that the foreign product matches up to what is already available.

Another common mistake made in entering Asian markets is employing staff who relate to the Western hirer’s personality rather than the target market. Japan is famously “unique” with its own particular language and culture, however the same may be said for a number of other Asian countries including China, South Korea and Thailand.

Too often a Western company makes their selection of local assistance based on their English ability and ability to relate to their own Western culture. Yet while comfortable in a Western/Australian environment, such staff may be less suitable in dealing with their own target market and this ultimately is where the foreign company needs to be pitching.

Similarly, banging on the front door demanding entry rarely succeeds in Australia and it may not succeed either in an overseas market, unless of course your company is already well known and regarded.

There are numerous examples of Western companies who have succeeded in Asia – for example IBM and Nestle, and in Australia’s case, Meat & Livestock Australia and BHP Billiton – however, there are many others who found it all too hard and walked away.

California’s Sunkist Growers is one example of a Western company which took a gradual approach to entering the Japanese market, rather than demanding its entry through lobbying lawmakers at home. By building relationships with the Japanese industry and customers, demonstrating value and doing all the things good public relations practitioners embrace, the company was able to build up a large market share over time.

Meanwhile, its US competitors reportedly continued complaining to Congress about Japan’s “unfair” trade practices.

By finding the key influencers, using the connections provided by the Australian Government, particularly Austrade, and demonstrating value with the target audience, communicators can achieve a winning position in overseas markets.

In Japanese, the expression “nanakorobi yaoki” (fall seven times, stand up eight times) would seem to indicate the required attitude, although in Australia we might just say “keep trying”. Viva la difference!

Posted in Investor Relations, Media Relations, Social Media, Stakeholder and Community Engagement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Annual Report design – be bold or toe the line?

Posted on June 6, 2011 by John Bayly

Great annual report design has been a personal passion for over 20 years.  As a ‘frustrated designer’ (my natural creative talents lie more with the written word), I’ve pored over all those fantastic report books which showcase the very best of Annual Report design from around the globe.  Occasionally the odd report from Australia is included, but to my knowledge I’ve never seen one included for a Queensland based company.

I suspect that as we have far fewer ASX listed companies based here in Brisbane, than in Sydney or Melbourne, that there’s less inclination to stand out from the crowd through truly innovative and cutting-edge design.  I also think that there’s maybe still an inherent conservatism in our local market (from the client perspective that is) that again inhibits Queensland designers from stepping too far out on the ledge.

So do you be bold, but possibly bereft? Or do you simply toe the line, to keep the client?

To be honest, I think the commercial reality may, like many difficult decisions in life, be bit of a compromise.  In other words, each year try and progressively push the design radar a little further out, in an effort to extend your clients’ design horizons, and the degree of innovation they will ultimately demand of you.  Challenge them to set the bar a little higher every year, with the ultimate reward of them sharing in the creative journey.

An example were two reports we designed some years ago for the Bank of Queensland.  Traditionally, their reports featured smiling customers (yeh, a pretty stock standard ‘happy snap’) on the front cover and a relatively conservative approach to internal page design and layout.

In our first year designing and producing the report, we did push the limit by presenting a design concept featuring a front cover shot of a field of sunflowers, that was directly relevant to the theme we developed.  The next year, it was a still life of numerous green apples, surrounding a single red one under the theme line ‘We are different!’  And you know what, even though both represented radical departures from the prior year’s conventional approach, BOQ’s comms staff whole heartedly embraced and championed the concept of creating a bank report that was legitimately different.

If you are after a bit of creative inspiration, check out the following link, which to my mind contains some truly great report design.

http://dzineblog.com/2011/02/105-best-annual-report-design-inspiration.html

Posted in Investor Relations, Print, Motion and Web Design | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Is the media release dead in a new age of social media?

Posted on April 29, 2011 by BWH

With online media and its shortened form of communication taking centre stage, the question has been asked whether the traditional media release is dead? The simple answer is no. There are still thousands and thousands of print publications worldwide and journalists that rely on receiving solid information from credible sources relevant to their specific readership.

BUT…and it’s a big BUT….it is time to rethink structure, targeting and audiences to ensure your message is tailored specifically for the publication, and more importantly, prepared with the wider world of media channels in mind.

In the past, if you wanted print, television and radio coverage, you had to prepare your story in at least two ways: a longer detailed version for print and a short version, concisely capturing only the key points for radio and television – reflecting their need for just the headlines.

With the advent of social media there is now a third format to consider that requires a total rethink of structure, content and value for the reader.

In fact, social media users are just not interested in traditional media releases and, more often than not, consider them to be spam. This does nothing for your reputation and at worst it can affect how people perceive you, your company and your products or services.

Think about it. A traditional media release focuses on “selling”, while social media users are more interested in “value to them”. They are looking for something that is interesting, outwardly focused and not filled with hyperbole and marketing speak. Instead, information provided through social media channels needs to be sharing, caring, straight to the point and optimised to reach your target audiences.

Build your reputation as a contributor with something important to say – something that is of genuine benefit to your followers – and you are on the way to becoming a valuable part of the growing social network. Your return on investment is loyalty (company and brand), a growing group of followers who are keen to hear from you, trust and ultimately an improved reputation.

So now is the time to factor social media into your marketing and communication strategy – from media releases through to internal and external communication. This is where BWH Bold can help. Our team of social media savvy specialists, will craft a comprehensive communication strategy that helps you take the right steps, beyond (but still including) the traditional and into the new dimension of real-time information and news.

Find out more: BWH Bold (07) 3368 2355 – Anthony, Trudie or Robyn

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Promoting your business – Australia, Japan and everywhere

Posted on March 7, 2011 by BWH

Building a profile for your business in a competitive media landscape can be a challenging prospect. It doesn’t get any easier when trying to penetrate a foreign market, particularly one as famously unique and competitive as Japan. What are the do’s and dont’s, and how can you get bang for your (limited) marketing bucks?

On March 2, 2011, BWH senior client manager Anthony Fensom shared some of the lessons of his experience in media and public relations in Australia and Japan, with a presentation at the Queensland Japan Chamber of Commerce & Industry entitled: “Getting bang for your marketing bucks”. An attentive audience of around 80 businesspeople were on hand at Brisbane’s Tattersall’s Club for the event, which was generously sponsored by Chamber members, leading accounting group BDO and UniQuest.

Among some of the interesting points from the evening were the fact that Japanese prefer Mixi to Facebook, and trust newspapers more than they do schools and hospitals; that Google is worth more than Ford and General Motors combined; and that Japan’s top-selling Yomiuri newspaper has a circulation of 14 million – the biggest in the world and well ahead of Australia’s largest, Herald Sun, at around half a million.

For more information on promoting your business, whether in Australia, Japan or anywhere, contact BWH.

To view Anthony’s presentation, click here.

Posted in Investor Relations, Media Relations, Social Media | 1 Comment
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