Study,
Digital reporting: hybrid report has prevailed over full HTML report
Hamburg, 12 June 2024 – PDF is still the most common format in reporting and only a third of DAX160 companies also publish a digital annual report. This means that the potential of digital formats often remains untapped. In digital reporting, hybrid reports, i.e. mixed formats consisting of subpage or microsite and embedded PDF documents, have prevailed over full HTML as the reporting format. The number of full HTML reports has remained at the same level for ten years. This is the result of an analysis of 160 reports for the 2023 financial year from the DAX40, MDAX and SDAX by Kirchhoff Consult.
“We have been supporting our clients in the digitalisation of their reporting for over 20 years and regularly examine the use of various formats and media,” says Jens Hecht, Managing Partner at Kirchhoff. "For a long time, the market assumed that the HTML report would become the standard format in digital reporting. However, this did not yet happen. Instead, intelligent mixed formats, hybrid reports and reporting suites have developed. By efficiently combining storytelling with a comprehensive range of information, interactive elements and moving images, we believe that these formats will become the gold standard in the future. “
More and more companies are using interactive functions in traditional PDF reports: 76 per cent publish a so-called interactive PDF. At 85 per cent, this is the clear majority of companies in the DAX40. A total of 36 per cent have opted for a screen PDF, i.e. a landscape format with improved screen readability.
Unused potential: only a third publish digital annual reports
Only 30 per cent of all 160 DAX40, MDAX and SDAX companies surveyed published a digital annual report for the 2023 financial year – either an online annual report programmed entirely in HTML or a so-called hybrid report. 50 per cent of DAX40, 32 per cent of MDAX and 17 per cent of SDAX companies did so. Ten years ago, these rates were significantly higher. At that time, our survey showed that more than half of the DAX30 (63 per cent) and MDAX companies (52 per cent) published a digital report. However, the flash-based report formats have since disappeared.
Number of full HTML reports at the same level for ten years
Around 14 per cent of the companies surveyed produce a full HTML report, including a quarter of DAX40 companies, 18 per cent of MDAX companies and just under 6 per cent of SDAX companies. Our survey revealed a similar picture ten years ago. In 2014, it was 23 per cent of DAX30-listed companies and 14 per cent of MDAX companies. HTML reports have therefore not become ‘state of the art’, as some market participants predicted.
Overall, more hybrid reports are published than full HTML reports: 16 per cent of all companies surveyed published a hybrid report for the 2023 financial year. In the DAX40, this figure is 25 per cent, in the MDAX 14 per cent and 11 per cent in the SDAX. In fact, there are twice as many hybrid as full HTML reports in the SDAX.
Hybrid reports offer an optimal cost-benefit ratio
“The trend is clearly moving towards efficient, less time-consuming and cost-intensive formats,’ explains Fazilet Polat, Senior Consultant Online at Kirchhoff. "Hybrid reports offer greater user-friendliness and a versatile platform for storytelling. The strengths of the interlinked media formats are utilised as efficiently as possible.“
Companies are increasingly focussing on videos and moving images
This year's analysis of report formats also shows that moving images are becoming increasingly important as a medium in reporting. More than half of the companies (56 per cent) that publish a digital report also use videos: for example, in the header of the microsite (just under 38 per cent) and/or in the CEO statement (33 per cent). This trend can also be attributed to more active marketing and use of reporting content in social media or at IR events.
ABOUT KIRCHHOFF CONSULT GMBH
With around 70 employees, Kirchhoff Consult is a leading communications and strategy consultancy for financial communications and ESG in German-speaking countries. For more than 30 years, Kirchhoff has been advising clients on all aspects of financial and corporate communications, annual and sustainability reports, IPOs, investor relations and ESG and sustainability communications. 'Designing Sustainable Value': Kirchhoff combines content expertise with excellent design to create sustainable value.
Kirchhoff Consult is a member of TEAM FARNER, a European alliance of partner-led agencies. The common goal: to build the European market leader for integrated communications consulting.
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Janina Schumann
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