The lead up to the end of financial year is often a signal for companies to gear up to produce the most boring yet important piece of corporate communications for the year.  Some may even torture themselves by producing one for each department of their business.

Companies every year can spend millions each year protecting their reputation, building their brand visually and through their social interaction with their audience yet still produce major pieces of work outlining corporate strategy or policy which makes watching grass grow look fascinating. If you've ever been sent a copy of someone's operating charter, their whitepaper or their policy, you may have asked yourself, "Why on earth would I read this?"

Corporate strategy and policy is an important part of the overall information and communication of any business. It's vital for investors and shareholders, members of the Board and anyone effected by its outcomes. Why it is relegated into the 'let's make it as stodgy and boring as ever' is beyond me, particularly when we have so many opportunities to capture people's imagination with this type of material.

Think of the typical A4, portrait, numerous pages (sometimes heading towards a ridiculous number), lacking in any compelling, right now, real-time information, using stock photos and the pouring out of numerous tables, case studies and fast facts.  Yes, maybe it does have a great cover and it follows the brand guidelines.  Maybe they have used a nice typeface and taken some of their own photos to suit the information.  But  ask yourself, honestly, who reads these things?

Why do we continue to engage people in this manner?  Why do we snigger and laugh at how long it has taken to write the thing, let alone get it designed (used loosely) and then wonder why these type of documents play such a large role in meeting our recycling quota?

Besides the fact that people vary in their learning styles - as the most basic example - auditory, visual or kinetic - who decided that the tome was the way to go when it came to sharing important information with shareholders, stakeholders, consumers, constituents or the general community?

People are already adopting new and exciting ways to communicate with one another. Look at the growth of social media. Look at the creativeness of pop-up art exhibitions with visitors discovering their location through word of mouth.  And how about the good old podcast.  Ever handed someone a video camera to see what they can come up with?

Creativity seems to go out the door when people sit down to undertake the release of major business information.  Those companies who begin to invest in innovative and user-friendly information campaigns, using a variety of methods and channels, will move streets ahead of their competitors because their audience will know, understand and respond to the things they are doing.  Why it's remained a mystery for so long, I am unsure.

For more information about capturing your audience with the supposedly most boring piece of information your company has to release, please contact Libby Fordham on +61 411 473 938 or by email libby at libby fordham dot com dot au.