The Farmand Award 2020 – this year’s best digital annual reports:

1.     Ruter

2.     Norwegian Pension Insurance for Seamen

3.     Bane NOR

Gold for Ruter

Ruter has invested heavily in the development and revamp of its annual report and, with the help of Design Container, completely digitised its annual report in 2018. Winning the Farmand Award shows that this has paid off. Ruter’s digital annual report reaches a wider audience, and the digital medium offers enhanced tools for communicating the critical social role that Ruter plays as a future-orientated public transport company. The Farmand jury highlighted the fact that this year’s winners and nominees all produced reports of exceptional quality.

Annual reports are mainly used for reporting a company’s financial situation and development, but also offers an invaluable platform for celebrating all the successes achieved over the year and thanking customers, shareholders and employees for their fantastic efforts.

“Our partnership with Design Container and the cross-disciplinary contribution from all departments and technical areas have been decisive in our work on our digitalised annual report,” says Eirik Andersen, communications manager at Ruter.

“We produced our first digitalised annual report last year – we’re proud of the fact that we won gold on only our second attempt at this kind of report. We’ve worked methodically and purposefully on identifying the elements that lead to improvement and higher quality. We’re now sure that the digital platform works and that it’ll provide us with outstanding opportunities for showcasing the way in which Ruter contributes to sustainable mobility in our region going forward,” continues Andersen.

In the eyes of the jury, the report was also successful in communicating Ruter’s new vision of ‘sustainable freedom of movement’.

Kaia Gulsvik from Design Container adds that one of the challenges of annual reports is the sheer volume of information and a context that is perhaps not always that attractive to the general reader:

“Our job is to make the material more engaging and more accessible to readers by using digital tools and interactivity, for example. Annual reports are also time-critical so planning for a more streamlined process for everyone involved is a key factor. Public transport in Oslo and Viken has undergone extraordinary developments. At Ruter, the customer is always in focus. The annual report has been a tool for building knowledge and understanding of these developments.”

Silver for the Norwegian Pension Insurance for Seamen

The Norwegian Pension Insurance for Seamen (PTS) has had an exciting year in which a great deal of communication material has been required in order to explain new changes to the law that greatly impact the scheme’s membership. The annual report has been key in this communication – both to politicians and members.

“It’s been fun, and we’re very proud of our win. We’ve always wanted to find a format for our content that means that it’s interesting and easily accessible to our customers and members – it has to arouse interest! We have a fantastic partnership with Design Container who are both flexible and solution-orientated. We’ve benefited immensely from having such a creative and strategic partner who is an expert in communication. We’ve been able to communicate our content in a very effective way. We’ve made good use of the assessment made by the Farmand Award and worked systematically on the feedback we’ve been given. It’s great to see that our efforts been noticed,” says Catherine Nicolaissen from the Norwegian Pension Insurance for Seamen.

“It’s incredibly motivating to see our clients prioritise and understand the digital interface as well as our team providing the best digital solutions in Norway! We have worked on investor communication, reporting and digital solutions for many years and always work closely with our clients. This shows that our close client relationships, tried-and-tested methods and cross-disciplinary skills generate great value for our clients,” says a proud Linn-Cecilie Linnemann, managing director of Design Container.

The Farmand Award for Best Annual Report was launched in 1955 and has been presented every year ever since. Design Container has worked with Ruter since 2018 and the Norwegian Pension Insurance for Seamen since 2016.