BrandLogic designed and implemented the 2010 CFA Institute annual report. This report is the first-ever interactive annual report published by CFA Institute, designed to take full advantage of the functionality offered by the Web, mobile and tablet devices. A print version is also available.
From the outset, CFA Institute was eager to break with convention and develop an annual report that would appeal to its members across the globe. "We learned early on that many new CFA Institute members are located outside the U.S. and use mobile devices as their primary means of accessing the Internet. It seemed natural to recommend an approach that would meet their needs," said Hampton Bridwell, CEO of BrandLogic.
BrandLogic started by designing the report for the Web, then adapting the design for print, as well as for mobile and tablet devices. "While most companies are happy to put up a page-turning website that simply replicates the print experience online, CFA Institute wanted to provide a more dynamic experience so we at BrandLogic rethought the process from top to bottom," said Larry Roth, President of BrandLogic Interactive.
"Knowing that more and more executives and analysts are using tablets, we wanted to create an immersive experience, not just report the numbers. We also wanted to communicate the essence of the CFA Institute brand - an important attribute for any annual," added Roth. Video also needed to be included, as did shareable content that could be easily linked into social networks to allow true two-way communications.
Roth and his team brought a wealth of user experience design expertise to the assignment. "Once the decision was made to target mobile, and knowing we would support the iPad and other tablet devices, we knew we had to create an interface that worked with touch input as well as a mouse. We also knew we didn't want to create extra work proofing multiple versions of content, so we created different interfaces for each device type, all sharing the same content."
"We had heard several horror stories about how CEOs call up their Web development team demanding to know why their corporate websites don't work on their new iPhone. We believe annual and other corporate reports will be next in line for this kind of multi-device design approach," said Roth.
The 2010 annual report has delivered compelling results for CFA Institute. "We were thrilled to see the positive feedback about the report from our members. We have experienced well over 600% increases in visits to http://annualreport.cfainstitute.org/ since last year as a result of the innovative design BrandLogic created for us," said Raymond DeAngelo, managing director, stakeholder services, marketing and communications, for CFA Institute.