As publisher of data-driven research, our team here at Euromoney Institutional Investor Thought Leadership often faces a particular challenge: how to present reports full of numbers and charts in a way that keeps the audience engaged and leaves a lasting impression.
More and more often we advise our clients to move away from PDF-only publications and opt for a clear-cut screen first approach, featuring design optimised for on-screen consumption above all.
This approach allows us to build reports that are interactive and truly engaging. We aim to constantly activate our readers’ curiosity: what’s coming next?
Communication with a Difference
“Balancing the Books”, which we prepared for Deloitte, examines the impact of an incoming accounting standard on the aviation finance industry. It is based on a detailed global executives survey and relies on the interpretation of a huge amount of data.
This piece of research covers a “dry” (Shorthand’s words, not mine, although it’s hard to disagree) topic that — despite the importance of its findings — doesn’t necessarily keep readers glued to the screen.
To present our analysis we developed visual language that reflects the aviation industry. We animated planes to fly across screens, built interactive charts that resemble cockpits, flight radars and plane seating maps and created graphs that gradually reveal data as the reader scrolls down the page.
More than 100 publications were considered for this year’s Shorthand awards.
The jury, including members of the BBC College of Journalism, The Guardian, the Economist, OglivyOne, and Columbia University, voted for “Balancing the Books” for “digital storytelling at its best”.
“This is thought leadership brought to life,” they wrote. “It really keeps you engaged.”
We feel honoured to see our work being recognised by our colleagues from the global publishing world.
It has been a great experience to manage this project and work with the team and our partners to develop and bring together high-quality content and great design.
Our thanks go out to Deloitte for teaming up with us to produce “Balancing the Books”, and to Airfinance Journal for their invaluable expertise.
Here’s our promise: Euromoney Institutional Investor Thought Leadership will continue to strive to produce best-in-class content, in 2018 and beyond.
Shorthand Awards — The Jury
Scott Manson, director of content at OglivyOne UK
Jora Gill, chief digital officer at The Economist & non-executive board member at Quality Care Commission
Sasha Koren, editor of the mobile innovation lab at The Guardian
Jonathan Albright, research director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University & faculty associate at Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
Vin Ray, founding director of the BBC college of Journalism & chair of the board of trustees at Ockenden International
Charley Sutton, deputy head of editorial at Barcroft Media
Robb Montgomery, author & teacher specialising in mobile journalism
