Elevating Investor Relations: Driving IR excellence with data storytelling

Welcome to Elevating Investor Relations, Bloomberg’s series on the evolving role of corporate investor relations.  

Investor Relations (IR) teams are responsible for transforming complex data into a compelling narrative that reflects their company’s vision and performance, provided they have access to high-quality information as highlighted in the previous article of this series.  

However, truly engaging a broad range of stakeholders, not just investors, requires more than simply assembling numbers. In this article, we explore how to elevate disclosures through data storytelling and how it can drive excellence in an IR strategy. 

Competing for attention

Investor relations teams are facing a growing challenge: capturing and retaining the attention of increasingly distracted audiences. As attention spans shrink, institutional investors are signaling a clear preference for brevity. A survey by financial analytics firm Coalition Greenwich highlights this shift, revealing that investors favor information delivered in shorter, more digestible formats. 

Based on conversations with 173 institutional investors globally in 2023, the research found: 

• 79% still rank written content above all other formats. 

• 17% prefer webinars as their top delivery method. 

• 8% prefer videos. 

• 3% prefer podcasts. 

Among those who prefer written content: 

• 90% want materials like reports or white papers to be under five pages. 

• 56% prefer content that is less than three pages. 

The case for concise storytelling 

Investors also want non-written content to be much shorter. Where a video or podcast may have once been an hour-long run-through of slides or a product demonstration, 53 percent of institutional investors now want these content formats to be digestible in less than 15 minutes. Not a single respondent expresses a preference for a video to run beyond 30 minutes. 

In response, IR professionals should make communications as razor-sharp and focused as possible. Focusing on the story IR teams want to tell helps investors identify opportunities that align with their particular criteria much more easily. Conveying that story succinctly means communicating as much as possible through the limited window available. By mastering storytelling, IR teams can deliver information that is both concise and compelling. 

The three key elements of data storytelling 

Data storytelling can be defined as the process of presenting data using a clear narrative and compelling visuals in a way that resonates with the audience and drives them toward action. There are three critical components: 

• Data: This is the foundation. It includes the numbers that underpin the narrative, providing an objective basis from which the story operates. For IR professionals, this means the company’s financial fundamentals and operational metrics. 

• Visuals: These are the charts, images, and other elements that help illustrate and simplify the data, making it easier to consume. For IR professionals, these might include key infographics, investor roadmaps, or performance dashboards. 

• Story: This is the narrative that ties the data and visuals together in a cohesive way, guiding the audience to a clear impression. For IR professionals, this involves making a business case for the company and conveying its unique value and market position. 

Data instead of opinions 

Each of these components supports the others. But IR professionals must always start with the data. As U.S. statistician and academic W. Edwards Deming famously put it, “Without data, you’re just a person with an opinion.” As discussed in our last blog, data quality is essential to successful storytelling. Questions IR professionals should ask when preparing content include: 

• Is this data accurate? 

• Is the information timely and relevant to the story being told? 

• Are the numbers free from bias and objective? 

The next element, visuals, must help render the data into a more understandable format. We’ll dive deeper into visual strategy in a future post, but for now, it’s critical that visuals simplify the message rather than complicate it. 

Crafting a cohesive story from these three elements, data, visuals, and narrative, takes deliberate work. A useful process involves defining the takeaway for the audience to remember, drafting a clear storyline to guide them, displaying the data intuitively, refining the visuals for clarity, and directing attention to the parts of the story that matter most. 

How can we help? 

Ultimately, the storytelling process starts with data. Bloomberg equips IR teams with the high-quality data needed to navigate today’s complex market landscape. By delivering real-time access to financial, market, and alternative data, Bloomberg empowers IR teams to monitor shareholder activity, benchmark against peers, and get a timely read on market trends. This depth of data enables IR teams to support executive decision-making with precision and credibility. 

In addition to robust data access, Bloomberg provides powerful tools to analyze and integrate information across the IR workflow. From preparing earnings materials to identifying shifts in investor sentiment or tracking capital flows, Bloomberg helps IR teams uncover actionable insights. With a consistent stream of accurate, timely, and relevant data, IR professionals can strengthen market communication and enhance their strategic impact across the organization. 

To learn more about how you can elevate your investor relations strategy, click here.