For three straight years, Southwest relied on thinkParallax to produce the company’s annual One Report, which highlights the company’s economic, environmental and social performance, communicated through the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Performance. Key to our effort was striking the right balance between substance and storytelling in the report, which targets a broad audience of Southwest stakeholders.
Ultimately, we shifted the focus of the One Report from WHAT the airline was doing in terms of CSR efforts to WHY it matters. The information we gathered from a cross-section of employees, volunteers, partner organizations and suppliers—combined with our knowledge and expertise in corporate reporting trends and best practices—allowed us to develop a solution to simplify content from previous reports and focus our creative energy on telling the compelling stories behind the numbers. We also challenged the company to rethink its overarching communications strategy, previously informed by the One Report at the center (i.e. what had already been accomplished), and embrace a more forward-looking approach.
Our team delivered a dedicated One Report microsite, including a series of animated videos, infographics, and an interactive PDF report with a custom report-builder tool. Equally important, we helped shift the internal mindset on CSR communications to realize an audience-focused, integrated strategy that makes a clear connection between sustainability goals and overall business objectives.