Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

How Best To Carry Out An Annual Report Theme.

Posted by Anonymous on 3/12/2009 at 3:02 PM ET 250 Points
I am preparing my agency's annual report and am stumped by a "theme" related issue. I have what I hope is a solid theme but am not sure how to carry it out throughout the copy.

Briefly, I have chosen a three-stage or tiered theme focusing on (1) Planning, (2) Working (or working the plan) and (3) Success. My agency supports people with disabilities so the planning phase will focus on the various ways we help the people we support to plan their own goals and activities. (i.e. showing pictures of staff meetings, training meetings etc. The second or "working" phase will show the children and adults working in their classrooms, their jobs etc. And the third phase will show success through pictures of smiling faces, etc etc.

I am fine with the pictoral components. My question - how important is it for the actual text to also concentrate or describe the 3 phases. I can handle the graphic design and the letter from the CEO - but other than describing our programs and services - how in depth do I need to go in the actual writing to support the theme.

Thanks for any help! I love my theme but it's starting to feel more complicated than I may have time for!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by lathans on 3/12/2009 at 3:20 PM Accepted
    The writing is the reason for the report. These are stockholders you're creating this for, so you'd better tell them something. "What do you want to say" comes first, then "how do I want to say it" comes next. If you already have pictures you have to work with, try to find a commonality. Better yet, show someone who is not familiar with your project at all and ask them what's common among the images? This may lead you down a creative path you hadn't thought of.
    Off the cuff, maybe the theme is "steps", because one tier leads to another...tiers could be sectioned and actually labelled "planning", "working", "rewarding" (instead of success) to bring in the feel-good aspect. "Steps" also refers to the literal support your organization provides these disabled people to be able to make their own steps. Good luck!
  • Posted on 3/12/2009 at 4:33 PM Author
    Thank you so much for your feedback. I think your point about deciding what to say first - and then allowing that to determine the theme and format is good advice. Unfortunately I ended up doing just the reverse this year for some reason. Not sure why or how that happened. I will take a step back - I do think there will be a commonality that I can pull from my photos. Hopefully that will lead to some creative writing on my part.

    And I actually love the idea of showing them to another, objective or uninvolved person. I've done that in the past and it has worked well for me.

    Thank you. I appreciate your ideas.
  • Posted on 3/13/2009 at 9:42 AM Author
    Thank you very much for you thoughts. I seem to have gotten off track this year with this particular project. I got so caught up in my theme and graphics that I overlooked the message and did not do a layout or outline. Now I am crunched for time. Lesson learned.

    I am happy to at least say that my photos are action laden and do clearly depict our message and mission. So hopefully I should be able to go back and form a general outline of our message around them. Once I have the outline, hopefully the rest will fall into place.

    You also raise a good point - my report needs to look forward and address future strategies. Given the current economic climate. it is critically important for all nfp's to clearly show we are being good stewards. I need to make sure this comes accross clearly in my report.

    Thank you for your time, I appreciate your thoughts and direction.
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