A Motel trend report
Human + Machine. One Annual Report. Now.
After three decades aimed at one human reader, the FTSE 100 annual report has a second audience now, and it isn’t human. Our study of the FY24/25 cycle covers what changed, what stood out, and what to brief next.
What's inside
Three lenses on the FTSE 100 reporting cycle.
All 100 constituents, reports published broadly between April 2025 and March 2026. Written for senior IR, comms and brand leaders sitting down to plan the next cycle.
01 · Strategic narrative
The four moves that defined the cycle: the turnaround spine, AI as an operating-leverage story, purpose sharpened rather than dropped, and sustainability moved inside capital allocation. Plus twelve reports worth borrowing from.
02 · Design
Why the best craft came from outside the expected sectors. Typography finding its voice, the retreat of the staged shot, accessibility becoming a brief-stage decision, and where the award winners took their structural calls.
03 · Format, digital & AI
Landscape went from outlier to majority in two cycles. Why the microsite is next, how the buy-side now reads your report through AI tools, and six steps to an AI-ready annual report.
It ends with six actions for FTSE comms teams and a working hypothesis for the FY25/26 brief.
Who it's for
Group Reporting Directors, Heads of Investor Relations, Heads of Public Affairs, Heads of Brand and Communications, and the CFOs, CCOs and CSOs who sponsor the brief — at global companies thinking about their next reporting cycle.
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