Yawn-Fest Reports? 12 Ways to Make Your Annual Report Fun

Annual reports can be quite on the boring side. I mean who hasn’t slept through one of those?

Here are twelve things you can do to make your annual report a little more fun for shareholders and employees. All you have to do is get a few enthusiastic people on your staff together and spend an afternoon brainstorming ideas.

The result could be a memorable annual report that separates your company from competitors and makes it stand out in the minds of potential investors.

1 . Consider sending out a fake annual financial statement.  

Include tongue-in-cheek disclaimers such as “The information in this report was accurate as of April 1, 2013” or “Please disregard this notice if you’re reading our actual 2013 Annual Report.”

Be careful with this one though and make sure everyone will get the joke right away.

2. Pajama party 

Have everyone on staff wear pajamas to work on the day when the annual report is produced. This will give your presentation a more casual and relaxed vibe instead of a stiff aura.

3.  Gala annual statement meeting

Dress up in costumes and have a theme for your annual meeting, such as “Ancient Olympic Games.” Let your employees’ imagination run wild, this will surely wake up those sleepy parts of the report!

4.  Open house in your next target annual report

Have an open house at the corporate office on the day when your annual report is sent out to shareholders. Invite people from the community who are interested in meeting company staff members and learning more about what you do. Bring in some experts to talk about various aspects of the business, if possible.

I mean, who wouldn’t love an idea such as this one?

5 .  Donate report proceeds   

Have everyone donate their pay on that day to a charity or cause that’s relevant to your business or its customers’ interests.

6. Make the annual report of a company into a game

Have employees and management keep track of the number of times they’ve said “annual report” during staff meetings in the year leading up to your annual report. Then, on the day when the annual report is sent out, have a contest to see who can stretch their words or say awkward phrases such as “in-house reports” instead of just saying “annual report.”

7  Get free publicity for your company

Send out copies of your annual report to media outlets or bloggers with press contacts. Let them help you spread the word out with their social media reach and network. This is a great way if you don’t mind the details of your annual report to be seen by the public.

8.  Hire actors at shareholder’s meeting        

Hire several well-known local actors to join your management team and present at this year’s annual meeting. Get them to engage in witty banter with each other and come up with creative ways to introduce your company managers.

Getting actors isn’t that difficult, you can search your local directory for quality actors that are looking for side gigs. You will be pretty glad you did this one!

9  Target annual report origami        

Incorporate paper folding into this year’s report. Instruct your printer to create special perforated pages that can be folded into origami-type figures or stand-up posters.

If you are looking for an easy way to make fun reports, then just go to Venngage, this robust report and flow chart maker will have you making an amazing and head-turning report in no time!

10. Have fun reports                          

Have a contest among employees, management, and customers for reporting on something in their day-to-day life using only emojis such as the ones used frequently in text messages.

Be a little hipper. Add some fun music and even some of the latest memes!

11. More games!

You can never have enough games when it comes to spicing boring old annual reports! Here are some more ideas

Create games that are modeled after your annual report, such as “Catch the Annual Report in the Boardroom” or “How Many Times Can You Use the Word ‘Annual’ Without Losing Your Job.”

12  Group work!                     

Have your employees get together with their families and friends to help design this year’s annual report. This is a great way for your employees to feel that the annual report has its very own personal touches.

Ask everyone to brainstorm ideas for different features of the report, such as titles for headlines, themes for feature stories, etc. This is a great way to make your employees feel integrated with the report.

Conclusion

After these ideas are put into action, investors will be eager to see what you have in store for them next year. That doesn’t sound right, does it? Employees looking forward to sitting through a report filled with projections, numbers, and other data.

But with these tips in mind, you will have them buzzing about when the next one will be!