“la Caixa” : Reporting enrichment

Web-enabled new dimensions enliven a report.

The Site

“la Caixa”, Spain’s largest savings bank, has added new dimensions to its annual report.

“la Caixa” heads the investors introduction page of its corporate site with a link to the current (2008) annual report. The report launches in a new window in a version matching whichever of the three languages (Catalan, English, Spanish) the corporate site is being viewed in. Launch triggers an ‘easy listening’ soundtrack featuring a female vocalist; this continues to play throughout browsing but can be muted by clicking an ‘audio ON/OFF’ button at top right of all pages.

The report’s left navigation menu includes a Video heading which offers two titles on click: “la Caixa” and Welfare Projects. Both are Flash-driven professional corporate productions featuring, respectively, a profile of the bank and examples of its work in the community.

The Takeaway

“la Caixa”’s twin-barrelled deployment of audio and video is an innovative addition to the annual reporting toolkit, exploiting the web to literally add new dimensions to the format. While video has become a familiar element on company websites, the full integration of films with the annual report has so far taken second place to clunky page-turning effects as a way of animating the publication and engaging general readers. “la Caixa”’s experiment feels and looks a more natural use of the web.

Its use of ambient audio, on the other hand, feels more like walking into a shopping mall and seems unlikely to set a mood most readers will find conducive to concentration on the content. The ‘on/off’ button is a wise inclusion for those irked by the music. However, it may be unwise to turn off the idea itself – the use of sound on websites is still in its infancy and “la Caixa” is not the only one exploring its possibilities. We are unlikely to have heard the last of it.

First published on 09 June, 2009