Most companies understand the value of innovation, or at least they say they do in the research and development part on their website…
We often come across businesses with a great research and development story that don’t share this online, or don’t do it particularly well. By talking about innovation, a company can reach out to key stakeholders, and also promote core messages about their business. For these reasons, an increasing number of companies include at least some R&D content on their websites (although some do it better than others).
So what’s the best way to communicate this online? Well there’s nothing wrong with having some innovation pages with well-written text, accompanied by nice images and maybe even some video. But let’s be honest about this, although this approach is far better than having nothing at all, it isn’t a very innovative way of talking about innovation.
What’s the alternative then?
Well we’ve looked at some current best practice and come up with 5 innovative ways of sharing your innovation content online:
1. Read all about it
There’s something rather sad about R&D webpages with lots of old content. A good R&D section must show that innovation is an active and current part of a business, and not just something the company has done in the past. One way to ensure that visitors get a fresh hit of innovation content is to follow the example of Airbus Group, and include a regularly updated Innovation News page.
2. Keep a date with RWE
RWE are also obviously aware of the need to include fresh content in their excellent Innovation section. Their innovation calendar is a great way of illustrating their ongoing commitment to R&D while at the same advertising clear opportunities for stakeholders to engage with RWE in person.
3. Get in touch
There is so much to like about RWE’s Innovation content – I just wish I could tell them how much I like it! The good news is that I can, thanks to RWE providing contact information for their innovation team, including the head of R&D. Joking aside, by providing R&D contact this way, not only does it offer stakeholders a great way to engage directly, it also reinforces just how important RWE views innovation and opportunities to collaborate.
4. Graphics are good. But interactive graphics are even better!
It’s another goodie from RWE. We’ve talked about how effective infographics can be on a corporate site in the past, and interactive infographics can be even better. If your innovation strategy includes a diverse range of projects in different parts of Europe, how would you illustrate this? RWE have come up with a great way of describing their diverse innovation portfolio with an interactive map.
5. An innovative approach to describing innovation
The new ideas and technology of R&D can be hard to convey online, without resorting to uploading lots of text. Roche have used graphics again to breathe life into their innovation content, but we’re not talking graphs and pie charts here. Instead, Roche have used cartoons and concise text to explain the science behind their latest R&D, and it works very well indeed!
