Lavonne Zdunich, Keyera Corp.
Walk around your office and you will see the blue recycle bins and confidential shredding boxes everywhere. Did someone say print was going away? It doesn’t seem to be but I think we would all agree that there has been a shift away from prin
t and towards online publications. Just as there is peer pressure to jump on the social media bandwagon, there is pressure to move everything online but is this the right approach? The answer is – it depends, so before you hit the delete button on your next print job, consider the following.
What is the emotion of the communication? Who doesn’t smile when receiving a birthday or thank you card in the mail? There is something about the paper, the colours and the writing that warms our hearts. Print ignites a different emotion than online publications. It’s more personal and, therefore, at times it is more appropriate. Take e-vites, for example. While we are all familiar with these, has anyone ever received or sent an e-sympathy card? Likely not, as when we want to be sincere we choose print. To apply this to business, if you were hosting a community event to develop relationships, a printed document profiling your company, your operations and your good citizenship would likely be more effective in creating a connection than an online publication. Therefore, consider if there is a certain emotion you are trying to achieve with your communication when deciding if you should print or just post online.
What are the regulatory requirements? Remember the days of late, late nights scrambling to finish the annual report to make the printer’s deadline in order to meet your regulatory mailing requirement? It is heartbreaking to think of the countless hours that went into these publications and the cost incurred to produce them when many of the reports ended up in the garbage as soon as they were opened. Thanks to regulations allowing shareholders to opt out of quarterly and annual mailings, annual reports have become a thing of the past for many companies. However, this is not the case with all publications (e.g. Management Information Circulars and Proxies) so before hitting the delete button on your print job, double-check the regulatory requirements.
Fact versus perception. Like many things in life, there are a lot of misconceptions out there. I think most of us assume that the younger generation, the 20-something-year-olds, know nothing other than the online world. However, this isn't true. Each year, I meet with more than 100 young, smart portfolio managers and almost all of them still take a hard copy of my company’s investor presentation. Only a few, and my guess would be less than 20%, work exclusively from a laptop computer or iPad. I don’t have a good explanation for this but it is what I have observed. Sorry IROs, but for the foreseeable future I believe you will continue to be the Sherpa on the road lugging around investor presentations.
Not everyone is online. In a world bombarded with instant access to information via the Internet, emails, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., it is almost shocking to believe that there are people who know very little about these sources or choose not to engage in them. Hard to imagine, but not everyone has a smart phone or a computer or access to Wi-Fi. No, these people don't live in straw huts. They simply live ‘off the grid’ but may be part of the audiences that you want to communicate with, including shareholders, customers, or neighbours where your company operates. Therefore, before posting everything online, consider if this approach will reach the majority of the audience you are targeting.
Eliminating print does not necessarily lower costs. I recently met with a friend who owns a communication design company. While she will admit that her company has seen a decline in the printed reports it is producing, her business continues to prosper. For an online publication to be effective you must have an effective design and a strategy to drive your audience to the online posting. These two factors should not be taken lightly, as an online publication without any hits is like no communication at all. Therefore consider using the money you save from not printing to bring in the experts to ensure your online communication is effective and attracts your intended audience.
Lavonne Zdunich is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years of finance and investor relations experience in Calgary and abroad. She is currently the Director of Investor Relations and Communications at Keyera Corp. in Calgary, Alberta.