Communicating what (really) matters

Having the trust of your stakeholders (investors, customers and others) is the key to making every business grow. The new study .trust: communicating what matters aims to measure how the digital communication of the most listed companies in Italy succeeds in fuelling this trust by leveraging two fundamental pillars: "distinctiveness", in other words a strategic narrative that includes the involvement of your customers, and "substance" built on concrete data and examples.

Starting with over 110 companies, only 35 were part of the study by the consulting company which has been supporting large and small companies in Italy and Europe to help them improve corporate communication for 15 years. Their corporate sites, web channels and social media were analysed, as well as their entries on Wikipedia in a protocol that includes over 170 evaluation criteria and assigns over 100 points. Among the "narrators", in other words, the companies that present complete contents with a coherent narrative supported by a proactive involvement of the user-stakeholder, also through stories and social media, Terna emerged as the "gold standard" with Acea, Eni and Generali, ranked number one for "substance".

“Terna, in particular, is the company that has been best able to consistently communicate its role and the activities currently under way to fulfil its strategic goals and has therefore obtained the best results in terms of substance", as quoted in the reasons behind the study by Lundquist. Analysts believe that an effective way to understand how effectively the mission is part of the company is to understand its connections with the business and sustainability strategy. This is where Terna distinguished itself.

“Terna’s role in the energy transition is the central theme behind all of its communication on its website and on social media. To solidify its business strategy, the company ties it to the group’s projects that are described in detail in the magazine Lightbox", which is mentioned in the study as a "virtuous example" of channels used by companies to communicate complex concepts directly, to spread awareness on specific business issues and to describe specific initiatives in detail.

On the topic of transparency in digital communication, Terna moved from fifth to fourth place in the Webranking Europe 2019-2020 classification this year as one of the 500 largest capitalisation companies in Europe, as compiled by the Swedish consultancy firm Comprend. The reason: "Terna's communication is successful because it puts energy transition and sustainability at the heart of its strategy, not in general terms alone, but rather relating it with concrete aims and actions. Furthermore, Terna is able to project itself into the future and provide comprehensive information on its innovative projects and how emerging trends are influencing its business".

It’s been a change of stride for the the Italian edition of Webranking 2019-2020 (Lundquist analysts), which this year chose to release its results not as a ranking but based on progressive levels of transparency, which divided companies into various classes based on their performance. A mere 7 companies out of 112 earned the highest rating (five stars): Terna was one of them. The high-voltage electricity transmission grid operator also gained recognition for the completeness of the sustainability section of its website, as well as for the transparency of the finance and investor relations sections.