A Motel trends report · FY24/25
The annual report has two readers now. Only one of them is human.
A 62-page Motel trends report on what the FTSE 100 changed about annual reports in the FY24/25 cycle — and what the next brief needs to do differently.
To build this trends report we reviewed a cross section of FTSE 100's FY24/25 annual reports — Tesco, HSBC, Burberry, Sage, Howdens Joinery, Coca-Cola HBC, Vodafone, AstraZeneca and others — and pulled what's worth paying attention to into one place.
What we found is a market that has quietly split. Some companies are still designing the annual report as a print artefact in a different orientation. A few have recognised that the next reader is a machine — and that the format, the structure and the discipline of corporate reporting needs to change to meet them.
This report sets out where the FTSE 100 is on that shift in three chapters — strategic narrative, design, and the format/digital/AI layer underneath it. It names the reports doing it well, the patterns worth borrowing, and the four moves we think every FY25/26 brief needs to carry.
What's Inside
— Three chapters across 62 pages: Strategic Narrative, Design, and Format/Digital/AI
— The patterns and reports defining FY24/25
— Tesco, Halma, Burberry, Howdens, Coca-Cola HBC, Sage, Dr Martens,
Auto Trader and more
— Motel's view on the digital-first / microsite shift, with the regulatory and legal evidence for why print-first is over
— A working hypothesis for the next FTSE 100 brief
— A six-step framework for designing an AI-ready annual report
