Turning stats into stories: How we helped the Environment Agency engage anglers through creative reporting
Annual Reports.
What’s the first thing that pops into your head? Data? Charts? An inspiring one-pager that offers a “view from the top”? Yawn…
Let’s face it, while there are plenty of businesses bucking the trend, as a piece of marketing collateral, annual reports do still carry a reputation of being a bit dry.
Four years ago, we were asked by the Environment Agency if we could help make their Fisheries Annual Report a bit more interesting. The brief came with some good headlines.
- Every penny from fishing licence sales gets reinvested back into the sport.
- Anglers legally need a licence to fish but in doing so, they are contributing to a whole raft of projects that improves fishing for everyone.
- The benefits of this reinvestment are broad and rooted in strong principles of sustainability.
But for many anglers, a licence is just a necessity. So here was the challenge:
How can we turn this functional transaction into something more emotional that could potentially increase retention, inform and inspire, and ultimately help anglers feel a bit of pride?
We knew a data-dump wouldn’t cut it. Anglers didn’t want corporate speak – they wanted connection.
So we turned to storytelling.
Why? Because storytelling is how humans make sense of the world. It’s how we learn, remember, and crucially – care. And that’s where marketing magic comes in. We hooked anglers into the storied that we knew they would resonate with.
For example… in 2023/24 over £22.5 million was raised from licence income. But rather than just stating that, we showed the impact. Nearly 480,000 fish were restocked, rivers revitalised, habitats restored, young anglers catching their first fish. Suddenly, it’s not just a massive number – it’s a narrative.
Casting a wider net: Attention and Emotion
Storytelling got us so far. But let’s dive deeper into the psychology.
One of the neuromarketing principles we love is attention – that elusive, expensive resource everyone’s fighting for. People don’t read reports; they skim, scroll, and skip. So we designed content that stood out. Vibrant visuals, digestible layouts, and emotional cues helped to direct the reader’s attention exactly where we wanted it.
We supplied our client not just with a downloadable pdf of the full report, but bite-size ready-to-use social media graphics, ready-made for sharing with the data sliced and diced for easy digestion.
We also tapped into emotion. We wanted the readers to feel something. Pride in how they were supporting conservation. Joy in seeing young people take up angling. Even a bit of outrage at environmental damage, followed by hope when the narrative showed how the Environment Agency was able to respond.
This emotional engagement is key because we know that people’s behaviour isn’t based on logic alone. Emotions move us. And that’s exactly what we wanted – not just awareness, but affinity.
A wonder-fin project collaboration
We enjoyed a wonder-fin collaboration on this project. Keystone crafted the messages and told the stories, while Slade Design created the striking visuals. We knew that their team’s design prowess would help bring our words to life, in a completely unique and powerful way. Three consecutive editions of the Fisheries Annual Report have been produced since that initial brief. We must be doing something right!
A word from our client…
Keystone Marketing provided us an excellent service in helping produce our Fisheries Annual Report. They completed the works efficiently and with care and attention. And ahead of schedule!
Tom Sherwood, Senior Advisor, Environment Agency
Can we help you reel in your audience?
If you’re a brand or public body with a story to tell — especially one that risks being overlooked in a sea of content — we’d love to help you reel in your audience. Whether it’s through storytelling, neuromarketing insights, or just a boatload of good ideas, we can help you unearth that magic hook.
