It’s a valuable engagement tool in many a corporate IR calendar but new technology, post-pandemic expectations and a fluctuating business priority landscape mean the investor day is ever-evolving. <I>Sarah Welsh</I> explores how to stand out from the crowd
IROs are fast becoming used to holding investor days either wholly virtually or as a hybrid virtual and in-person event. But virtual engagement is no new concept. Long before any of us had even heard of Covid-19, many companies’ earnings updates saw them share financial news in phone call meetings, and ‘down the line’ one-to-ones with key investors were, and continue to be, a regular occurrence in the C-suite diary.
But there is certainly a big difference in terms of the budget, organization and content required for a virtual or hybrid investor day compared with a phone call. So what are the vital elements IROs need to be mindful of during their planning and execution?
Daniel Cravens is vice president of global IR at Alcon, a US-Swiss medical company specializing in eye-care products. ‘I think the key is knowing you’ll need to be flexible in your planning,’ he says. ‘Given the large transition to virtual meetings because of the pandemic, people got really comfortable with using platforms like Zoom to carry out meetings that were traditionally done in person. It was a great substitute for face-to-face meetings and was fantastic from an efficiency standpoint, but it also came with a lot of limitations. For example, you couldn’t read the body language in the room.
‘So as we plan our own capital markets day for 2023, we intend to offer a hybrid event, knowing that a certain small number of investors will opt to listen in remotely. Those investors will get all the same rich content presented but they will miss out on the experiential part of the day, including things like a plant tour, an opportunity to use some of our equipment in a lab setting and even a happy hour with our leadership team.’
Brian Lantz is vice president of IR and communications at multinational plumbing and heating products distributor Ferguson. ‘I have created eight investor days,’ he says. ‘Most of these have been in person with some hybrid participation. The last one I held in January was totally virtual.’
Investors expect more than a traditional PowerPoint deck from the CEO and CFO
Ferguson’s fully virtual investor day started at 9.00 am EST/2.00 pm GMT, ideally timed considering the company’s US and UK corporate bases. ‘Make sure you consider all time zones you will draw from when you plan an event time,’ advises Lantz.
Today’s technology offers any company the ability to boost its virtual and hybrid investor day reach and engagement to increasingly elevated levels. Many events are now hosted by technology partners, but IROs still need to be aware of potential technology pitfalls as, for all its merits, technology can suffer a glitch.
‘Technology is critical so don’t take anything related to the execution for granted,’ Lantz warns. ‘Plan and test your technology multiple times – check and double check.’
Cravens agrees. ‘Be flexible,' he says. ‘As good as the technology is today, it’s still not perfect.’
‘Compress your content’With a variety of virtual and hybrid events on offer to the investor, how can IR teams make their engagements stand out from the crowd? ‘I think investors expect more than a traditional PowerPoint deck from the CEO and CFO,’ observes Cravens.
‘One of the real benefits of investor days is that they are an opportunity to showcase the whole management team. Topics like culture, employee relations and IT strategy may not be as sexy as other common investor day topics, but they are critical to the long-term success of the company. And if you can let investors/analysts interact with leaders [other than the CEO and CFO], they can get a more holistic view of the company.’
Virtual and hybrid events can enable companies to deliver more concise content through the use of videos and shorter presenter time slots. As Cravens outlines above, they can also offer the opportunity for a greater number and variety of speakers to feature on the agenda.
Perhaps, for example, a company might want to showcase a relevant ESG topic to investors, and therefore feature the ESG lead, rather than just the usual C-suite speakers. Going virtual or hybrid opens up a range of possibilities for both company participants and spokespeople and investors, with neither constrained by geographical locations or travel time.
But time is money, as the saying goes, and this is certainly true for the notoriously time-poor investor. With this in mind, brevity is essential and there’s also the issue of keeping participants engaged to bear in mind.
While there’s no doubt the pandemic has accustomed us to sitting in front of screens for meetings and events, there’s no getting away from the fact that – whether working at home or in the office – interruptions can be more frequent, and concentration spans shorter than during face-to-face interactions.
Be much tighter about getting your message delivered as the entire audience will be prone to multi-tasking
‘Compress your content as much as possible,’ advises Lantz. ’Be much tighter about getting your message delivered as the entire audience will be prone to multi-tasking so you will have less focus and attention. Do more video and make your slides more visual.’
Questions answeredPerhaps one of the most vital opportunities for two-way investor engagement, the Q&A session is crucial to the success of any investor day, regardless of its format. IROs need to ensure that, within the digital engagement of videos, slides and presentations, this fundamental IR tool isn’t left by the wayside.
‘Make sure you leave plenty of time for your Q&A,’ advises Lantz.
As well as allowing enough time, ensuring that all participants are well versed with responses to key topics – particularly those in any areas where there are investor concerns – is imperative given the potential for digital sessions to be recorded by virtual/hybrid attendees, and then replayed (and shared) at their leisure.
Looking to the future, it is arguably hybrid events that present the greatest opportunity for IR professionals to engage with investors, offering the best of both worlds by taking advantage of all of the benefits of the virtual toolkit, while satisfying the preferences of those investors that still favor an in-person approach.
‘The appetite compared with more traditional in-person events has been mixed, in my experience, but I feel many investors appreciate the efficiency,’ says Lantz. ‘In the future, I believe investor days will all be hybrid, with some investors still wanting them to be in person.’
Cravens agrees but highlights that IROS need to be mindful of the loss of the personal touch that traditional face-to-face events offer: ‘I believe the hybrid option is going to be the best approach but, due to the pandemic, there is still a huge pent-up demand for in-person meetings. Being flexible and offering different options is key but, ultimately, people like to connect with other people – and that is hard to do on a computer screen. If you aren’t out there talking to your customers and investors, somebody else will be.’
