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"Evidence"
KWD Webranking researchers have long known that there is a gap between investor desire for clearly stated corporate goals and corporate readiness to publish them. Now, it is confirmed that this is indeed true and matters. As the Financial Times reported on 14 November, super-famous investor Warren Buffett recently bought 5.5 percent of IBM. The FT quotes Buffett:
The yearly KWD Webranking research involves both a survey of demand for information by capital-market professionals and an investigation of the content of corporate websites. The research shows that investors want what Buffett liked about IBM’s communication: a clearly stated investor proposition, well-defined goals, and openness about future risks and opportunities. Buffett’s action shows that provision of this information not only gives investors what they expressly want but can actually affect major investment decisions.
Willingness by listed companies to provide this crucial information to investors has, however, always been rare. If the recently published Portuguese results are to be taken as an indication, the situation has not improved for 2011.
Stay tuned for more hard facts, as KWD Webranking 2011 results for additional countries are published in the near future.
As a country, Portugal dropped one place in KWD Webranking’s 2011 survey of 950 websites in 40 countries. Except for Portugal Telecom, the scores of Portuguese companies slipped – some of them badly. Results show, however, that Portuguese publicly traded companies have improved their communication of corporate responsibility. Findings also evidence that strategy falls short, financial goals are rare and the display of stress scenarios seems to be a concern for one company only – Galp Energia. This is all the more worrying as this is the kind of information financial markets are looking for in these troubled times.
For the fifteenth consecutive year, KWD has surveyed corporate websites of the largest listed companies to evaluate how they address the online information needs of their diverse institutional audiences. Previously known as H&H Webranking, KWD Webranking includes the FT Europe 500 and the 100 largest companies in FT Global 500.
Overall scores fall
As a country, Portugal went down by one notch, from 12th place in 2010, and its average score slid 4.64 points to 37.58 out of 100 points.
Online reporting is at an early stage
Across Europe online annual reports are ubiquitous as 71% of market participants now find them important or very important. However, no ranked company in Portugal provided an annual report in HTML to its target groups. EDP Renováveis, Jerónimo Martins and Portucel delivered Flash-based annual reports, which focus on design rather than navigation or functionality.
Attracting talent is not a concern
At least, if career sections are to be trusted. The traditional application form is the rule rather than the exception and engaging content about opportunities is all but lacking. Testimonials from employees are a virtually unknown feature. This is all the more worrying as 44% of students or job seekers between 18 and 44 years old find short interviews with or statements by employees important or very important. BCP did not score at all and Galp Energia, otherwise a good performer, did not deliver more than a job application form.
Investment case: An unknown concept
Investors look for the rationale for investing in a given company and Portuguese companies seem to be unconcerned about that. Among the surveyed companies, Galp Energia is the only one to provide online an investment case. Key items such as strategy, business model or risk management – let alone forward-looking guidance – seem to be out of scope for Portuguese corporate websites.
Content is an issue
Content in Portuguese websites does not generally take account of the web medium’s specific needs. Because people scan rather than read when they face the screen, clear and concise web copy is an absolute requirement. But what we see instead is content which has been written for the printed media, itself consisting of long and dull text. Video messages are on offer from just a few companies – BCP, EDP and Galp Energia.
Quick facts are missing
People such as journalists who look for useful, condensed information, have a hard time when trying to find at-a-glance data in Portuguese websites. Two-page fact sheets that provide instant information about the company are virtually non-existent – only Banco Espírito Santo offers one. This is hardly in line with user aspirations as 45% of market participants view a fact sheet in PDF (about the business, the stock, the management and the owners) as important or very important.
How rankings have changed over the year
For the fourth year running, Portugal Telecom is the winner in 2011; it has also been the only company to improve its performance year on year. Following a 20-point rise in 2010, Galp Energia lost steam, dropping 0.25 points to 50.5. In spite of a 7.5-point fall, EDP slipped one position to 3rd place. Jerónimo Martins, which plunged 8.75 points from 47.25 in 2010 to 38.5 in 2011, was the steepest faller and slid to 5th place, Banco Espírito Santo climbed to 4th after it could contain scoring losses. Portucel, the only newcomer to the survey, landed on the 8th place.
Staffan Lindgren, Managing Director International at KWD, said:
“Portugal Telecom was the winner once again, yet it is nearly halfway to the top and very distant from European peers such as Telecom Italia or TeliaSonera”.
“Portuguese companies still have quite a way to go towards meeting information needs from the investment community. No company discloses its financial targets and banks do not provide information on the outcome of stress tests as expected by investors”, adds Staffan Lindgren.
In corporate responsibility, though, Portugal scored big after moving up by 11 positions to 5th place. Nevertheless, Lindgren cautioned: “Given the current economic uncertainty, investing audiences tend to put a premium on financial rather than sustainability information.”
Weak spots continue to be employer branding (14% of full score on average), social media (16%) and press rooms (30%).
Read the full article or short snippets on Jornal de Negócios’ website.
The Swedish results in KWD Webranking 2011 (formerly conducted under the brand H&H Webranking), were published today in the Swedish financial newspaper Dagens Industri. SCA wins the annual ranking of corporate websites in Sweden, receiving 80.5 points out of 100 points. SCA is also the only company among the Swedish top tier to improve its performance. Last year’s winner Swedish Match settles for third place with 73.5 points. The silver medal goes to SKF with 73.75 points.
For the fifteenth consecutive year, KWD Webranking has surveyed corporate websites of the largest listed companies to evaluate how they address the online information needs of their diverse institutional audiences.
Previously known as H&H Webranking, KWD Webranking includes the FT Europe 500 and the 100 largest companies in FT Global 500. The corporate websites of the 100 largest listed companies in Sweden are included in the survey.
SCA’s strengths
One of several strengths in SCA’s corporate website is the section dedicated to the credit market covering the company’s risk management. SCA also publishes important corporate events every month giving the visitor not only an historical retrospect but also the possibility to evaluate the company in the long term. They’ve been doing this since 2008. Furthermore, SCA excels in social media and search.
Swedish scores fall overall
This year, Sweden receives as a country, a lower average score and slips down by two notches to a seventh place, from last year’s fifth place. Sliding from 51 to 43.5 points, the average score drops 7.5 points.
A clear majority of the Swedish companies, 76 of the 91 comparative companies, have received lower scores compared to 2010. Nine companies have increased their scores whereas six remain unchanged.
The ranked companies are ranked based on the expectations investors, analysts, business journalists, young professionals and jobseekers have on a corporate website. In this year’s ranking, emphasis has been placed on websites responding better to target group needs and providing English content on the corporate website (English content is now a requirement and a standard for Swedish companies as well).
On average, Swedish companies perform well in the IR and Corporate Governance sections of the survey but receive lower scores in the Press, Career and Corporate Responsibility sections. Other challenges they are faced with, is providing information regarding branding, future targets, research and development. Descriptive data regarding company peers and market shares is also inadequate.
Finland remains unchallenged
The trend with high performing Northern European countries in the top is unchanged. Finland continues to surpass with the highest average country score in Europe, followed by Germany, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
Byggmax is the best climber
Byggmax, the supplier of building materials in the Nordic region, recently launched its new websites and is this year’s best climber in Sweden, rising with 11 points. Steel manufacturer SSAB is in second place in the climbers’ list followed by the property company Fabege. Social media and corporate applications Elekta, SAAB, Stora Enso, SCA and Trelleborg outshine in social media. 33 out of the 100 Swedish companies have English corporate applications available on Appstore and 24 have applications on Android Markets.
- Article in Dagens Industri, October 31 2011, sid 11
- Article in Resumé, November 3 2011, sid 19
- Pressmaterial H&H Webranking 2011 (In Swedish only)
- Results Sweden
About KWD Webranking
Existing since 1997, KWD Webranking is the established international yardstick for companies that want to benchmark their corporate website performance both nationally and internationally.
950 corporate websites in more than 40 different countries have been included in the 2011 survey KWD Webranking. In Sweden corporate websites of the 100 largest listed companies have been ranked.
The survey is based on a protocol consisting of 120 criteria. The protocol is adjusted every year based on an annual study finding out what the capital market; business journalists, students and job seekers expect from a corporate website. The study includes 500 respondents.
In recent years IR, social media, CR, Employer Branding and management of company brands have increased in importance.
Contacts for more information
KWD
Staffan Lindgren, Managing Director,
International Telephone + 46 8 407 22 12
E-mail staffan.lindgren@kw-digital.com
Hallvarsson & Halvarsson
Marcus Eriksson, research
Telephone + 46 8 407 22 17
E-mail marcus.eriksson@halvarsson.se
Analysts and business journalists – two of the most important target groups for corporate websites. So how do they use your website?
The last few years have seen important changes in behaviour of all audiences. Corporate information is now available on a multitude of formats such as laptops, mobiles, iPads and other devices and from an array of channels such as blogs, Twitter and Wikipedia. It’s not just on the corporate website. So where do your key audiences go and when?
Analysts and business journalists – two of the most important target groups for corporate websites. So how do they use your website?
The last few years have seen important changes in behaviour of all audiences. Corporate information is now available on a multitude of formats such as laptops, mobiles, iPads and other devices and from an array of channels such as blogs, Twitter and Wikipedia. It’s not just on the corporate website. So where do your key audiences go and when?
Target groups say they use the websites
According to our research undertaken in May 2011, analysts and business journalists said they use corporate websites to find specific information about a company. But as we all know, what people say and what they do is sometimes different.
Our analysis reveals that corporate websites are increasingly important as a factual information source because they are the single point of reference for verified information. In a multi-channel environment, they are the one place where companies can present all information about the company and its performance to different audiences in a structured way.
Our approach
Step 1 – Identify and analyse key visitor groups: analysts and business journalists
To find out how analysts and business journalists behave on corporate websites, KWD analysed the traffic from several major financial institutions as well as major business dailies such as Financial Time and news sources such as Reuters and Bloombergs. We created a key visitor analysis metric based on where users are coming from and tracked their movements around sites.
Step 2 – Select websites to analyse
Our study covered six large websites that scored strongly in the KWD Webranking 2010. The companies were based in Sweden, UK and the Netherlands and all were December year ends. We used the combined total traffic of the sites and extracted the site behaviour of the analysts and business journalists.
Step 3 – Analyse the data
With the data from the target audiences logged, we were able to identify their behaviours and analyse the trends. The business journals and financial institutions we tracked visited the sites frequently throughout the period and consumed a significant amount of content.
There are several other interesting trends we can observe from the data just by looking at the usage patterns.
Fact 1 – Financial reporting drives traffic to website
Traffic gradually increased towards the reporting dates and peaked on the actual day the financial information was published. There was a rapid drop of traffic after publication.
Traffic patterns:
Full year reports coming out
Annual General meetings, annual report as well as Q1
Q2 report is published
Christmas holiday
Full year reports
Annual General meetings, annual report as well as Q1
Q2 report in the middle of summer
Q3 end of October
Fact 2 – 50 % of the traffic consistently returns
Whilst traffic levels dropped by approx. 50 % between the more intense periods, as shown by the red lines below, these sites were still retaining 50 % of the target group who consistently returned. During the quieter periods investor relations sections, whilst not updated, still provided an important source of corporate information.
As a result, there are two communication opportunities:
- focus on developing the precise messaging of your website a week before, during and after a reporting event as these periods are when the target audience will visit your website most frequently
- continue to review and refine your messages during non-peak periods as a significant proportion of the audience continue to return
Fact 3 – Traffic is on average higher during Q1
It’s no surprise that traffic on average is higher during the first quarter of the year. The first three months of the year for companies with December year ends are an intense period with full year reports and a considerable focus on their corporate and financial performance. Although it is also the period with least time available for content managers, it is also the period during the year when companies get the greatest exposure and highest return on their website communication.
Summary
I interpret this as evidence supporting that our key audience for Investor Relations and corporate websites really use and appreciate the websites in their professional work. Our key facts in summary are:
Financial reporting drives key traffic to the site
50 % of the traffic consistently returns, even during slow seasons
Traffic is on average higher during the first quarter
You should leverage these findings in your planning of communication activities to best meet your target group needs as well as making your communication as efficient and effective as possible.
A majority of the companies intend to improve the Investor and CSR sections and most also believe the website will become even more important during 2011.
The companies also believe that the most important factor for a successful corporate website is a constant flow of new content and updates. This reflects the importance of making the corporate site the main communication channel for the company.
All of these findings are available in this year’s KWD IR and web manager survey. The report is published as open research under a Creative Commons license.
- KWD Webranking Forum, London
