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This reporting style has been received by hundreds of brands with great success. It’s efficient in both how long it takes to produce and how long it takes to read.

When you deliver a regular (i.e., weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or post-event) report to a stakeholder, if they can’t read it in 5 minutes or less, it’ll get left on their desk and the next one will come along and get placed on top of it. No one wins.

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Adopt this approach to status reporting and you’ll find more people will read about the work you’re doing.

Best Practices for Developing Stakeholder Status Reports

This guide provides a simple, one-page format for effective status updates. It’s designed for regular reporting (weekly, monthly, post-event, etc.) and can be easily shared with various audiences, from Brand Managers to C-level executives.

The format focuses on Consumer Reach and Marketing Impact, aligning with the PortMA methodology. To keep it concise, we’ve excluded ROI reporting, which will be covered in the Recap Report (see below).

Stakeholders read a report differently depending on their learning style. If you mismatch a stakeholder’s style with what the report provides, it won’t get read.

There are three learning styles:

1. Visual These stakeholders need to grasp key points quickly. Incorporate visual elements such as pictures and graphs into the report; incorporate concise text and bullet points for these visual learners.
   
   
2. Auditory learners often move their lips while reading as they process information internally through sound. To effectively communicate with them, create a clear, concise narrative that flows like a story.
   
   
3. Taciturn This hands-on learner prefers tangible information. They’ll scrutinize numbers, cross-reference data, and take detailed notes. Ensure visuals and text-align precisely.
   

2. Campaign To Date

Immediately following the Executive Summary, include a “Quick Facts” box highlighting essential program metrics. This should include a concise comparison of planned versus actual campaign progress and a snapshot of key distribution metrics aligned with program quotas.

1. Percent complete is calculated by dividing event days by the total number of planned days. This helps track schedule progress and evaluate progress towards the goal.
   
   

3. Consumer Reach Frequency

1. Segment key metrics (in this example, we use “engagements” and “samples”) based on market and venue type to make them actionable. Similarly, display the most critical metrics as “Last Period” and “Year-to-Date” to identify if variations by market or venue are unique to the last reporting period or represent a trend up or down over time.
   
   
2. Run Rates can be calculated by multiplying your daily average by the planned days. PortMA’s Performance Projection Calculator can assist with this analysis.
   

4. Consumer Reach Quality

• Average Age vs. Generation: Both of these age presentations can be useful. We recommend recoding the generation based on the following age groupings:
  • Generation Z: Born 1996 to 2002
  • Millennials: Born 1977 to 1995
  • Generation X: Born 1965 to 1976
  • Baby Boomers: Born 1946 to 1964
  • Silent Generation: Born 1945 or before
• Customer Status is a measure of a consumer’s past experience with the brand. You can learn more about how this aligns with the purchase cycle by viewing Lesson 6 of Course 1 titled, “Identifying Customers vs. Non-Customers.”
• Bonus: Consider identifying your target consumer by venue type for a more comprehensive presentation of your reach quality.

5. Marketing Impact

1. High Purchase/High Recommend: This is the ideal scenario. It indicates that consumers internalize the brand value and are active in the category. This is referred to as a “Message-to-Market Match.”
   
2. High Purchase/ Low Recommend: This is a dangerous place for a brand. It indicates a lack of competition in the category. While engaged, consumers are likely to switch to an alternative solution.
   
3. Low Purchase/ High Recommend: This outcome represents a consumer population that has internalized the brand value proposition from the marketing but does not engage in the category.
   
4. Low Purchase/Low Recommend: This is a pure miss. These consumers neither believe in the value proposition nor engage with the category. This might also represent a brand experiencing an active or recent crisis.
   

6. Activation Summary

7. Insights and Observations

1. Review the performance trends by market or venue type and analyze their implications for future activation strategies.
   
2. Address how you are tracking against target quotas and what is being done to prevent exceeding them (thus controlling costs) or increasing the pace to ensure on-target completion.
   
3. Identify how effectively you are reaching the target consumer, determine where this reach varies, and report on how you will capitalize on successes or make improvements.
   
4. Review the trending of purchase intent and recommendation intent and compare or contrast. To better understand the current trends, consider inputting these figures and the projected engagement counts into PortMA’s ROI model.
   

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