Stanley Black & Decker launches video annual review

Apr 26, 2010

Not your father’s tool company

As Stanley Black & Decker sends its first annual report as a combined company, it is backing up its story with video, interactive charts and slideshows. The online ‘annual review’, launched today, is a first for the tool maker and security company.

‘One task management gave me when I was hired was to assess if we were communicating with investors in the most effective way possible, and one of the first things I looked at was the annual report,’ says Kate White, director of investor relations.

The result of White’s assessment is a new microsite with nine short videos alongside heavily linked text and other visuals.

The Stanley Works had always put out 40 glossy pages with its 10K bound in the back, and as White recounts, thousands of copies rotted away in the corner of her office. She started planning a revamp last year, not knowing Stanley would merge with Black & Decker. Now she looks to have been prescient. ‘It makes even more sense that we did video and an interactive website this year because twice as many people are thirsting to learn about the company,’ she says.

White entertained pitches from four different firms before settling on Suka for the project. Based among the galleries, shops and media companies in Manhattan’s Soho and led by Susan Karlin, Suka’s expertise has mainly been in doing annual reports and other corporate literature for financial services companies. For Stanley Black & Decker’s videos, Suka teamed up with Chatham, New Jersey-based Tribe Pictures.

White had hoped to use notice-and-access to replace the print annual with an online version, but given the recent merger and important proxy votes at the combined company’s first annual meeting next month, Stanley Black & Decker decided to mail a traditional 10K wrap and to call the interactive website an ‘annual review’. The print report has just eight introductory pages instead of 40, including the letter to shareholders.

In future years White hopes to use notice-and-access and only send print copies upon request. 

The introduction to this year’s print annual references the online annual review, listing the environmental savings and cost savings and recommending it to shareholders. On the site, an introductory video from president and CEO John Lundgren recaps the benefits: ‘We’ve created the site to give you access to information in a way that’s more interactive, cost effective and better for the environment. As you travel around the site, you’ll learn about Stanley’s performance in 2009, and you’ll hear from some of our leaders about our exciting future as Stanley Black & Decker.’

The other eight videos feature more from Lundgren as well as the company’s COO, CFO, major business heads, and co-head of integration. There is also one devoted to the ‘Stanley fulfillment system’, which management sees as a competitive advantage.

‘I didn’t want this to be just a brand piece,’ White says. ‘I wanted investors to see the 10K brought to life, to see the numbers and the charts and the graphs, and to see the people who really drive it all. That’s what investors want time after time – to hear from the people who run the business day to day.’

By Neil Stewart