In an increasingly digital world, companies reporting on their progress toward sustainability are starting to turn toward electronic delivery. While such moves make business sense, they come with a new set of challenges.
Computer chipmaker AMD has reported on corporate responsibility for 17 years. This year, it reached out to Caliber Creative and challenged us to rethink the delivery method for its latest report and capitalize on the best communication technology trends. In essence, AMD wanted to create an app for its Corporate Responsibility Report.
How we did this provides a template other companies can draw from when turning their own CRRs into mobile-friendly products.
First, Caliber and AMD identified the project objectives and goals for both the print and interactive formats of the report. Proper planning, a realistic timeline and well-defined deliverables are the keys to success.
Next, the team gained alignment regarding the interactive form of the report: an iPad application. As soon as this was determined, we applied for developer status with publishing software and digital media outlets, such as iTunes.
Third, the team began to gather and finalize the hard-copy corporate responsibility report content, similar to the way it was done in the past. At this stage, we hired a professional writer to help. By approaching the content from a layperson’s perspective, the writer was able to present AMD’s corporate responsibility efforts -- which can be somewhat esoteric to a general audience -- in approachable, easily understood language. Simultaneously, the team designed the report, ensuring that the key messages and themes were captured stylistically. It was important to engage AMD’s branding representatives early on for this portion of the work.
Once the report was in place, the team took a fourth step, condensing the report into a 24-page summary. This summary still delivers an overall picture of performance at AMD, but by comparison, is 75 percent shorter in length than the previous year’s report.
After the design was complete, we focused on step five: programming the companion apps for both Apple (iOS) and Android operating systems. Each format of the content (html, iOS, Android) required custom manipulation and back-end (html) or tablet app development to ensure that both forms utilized the interactive features on both operating systems.
Next page: Updating the app throughout the year
