Creating a Construction Company’s First-Ever Annual Report

CLIENT: Superior Construction is a fourth-generation family-owned and -operated heavy civil contractor specializing in complex infrastructure and transportation projects. Initially founded in Gary, Indiana, the company has since established a significant presence within the states of Florida, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Illinois. In 2021, Reputation Ink became Superior’s full-service agency of record, handling all aspects of public relations, creative design and marketing services. 

As a result of Rep Ink’s efforts so far in just two years, Superior has: 

• Been featured in 30+ national, regional and trade publications 
• Garnered 80+ media mentions
• Won 25+ industry awards
• Landed 10+ media interviews for its leadership team

In 2022, Superior tasked Reputation Ink with a complete company rebrand. The objective was to develop a new, modern identity for the 85-year-old company to carry it into a new chapter of success. The project included updating Superior’s logo and iconography, refreshing its website, amending all existing marketing materials, producing photo/video shoots across multiple job sites, and creating a comprehensive annual report that would impress stakeholders and “knock their socks off” to quote Superior’s CFO.

CHALLENGE: Reputation Ink needed to compile a massive amount of company data and financials and turn it into a well-designed, easily digestible annual report that could be shared digitally and in print. The annual report also needed to be a statement piece for the company, announcing its shift to a more modern brand identity. The goal was to create an overview of Superior that would set it apart from the competition and establish it as a principal player within the industry. 

OUR SOLUTION: Upon identifying the key points of contact across the company’s two business units, Reputation Ink began collecting the necessary data for the report. We then developed a framework that easily identified critical areas of success for each division across the company’s entire portfolio. Once that was established, Reputation Ink worked closely with Superior’s leadership team on wordsmithing the document and designing the overall layout. 

We set out to do the following:

• Assist in developing a theme for the 2022 annual report that centered on adaptability
• Produce visually impactful ways to represent leadership’s introductory messaging to its audience
• Establish focus areas across all of the divisions and create a hierarchy system for consistency throughout, along with drafting introductions for each of these areas
• Update hundreds of existing spreadsheets with elements of the rebrand, including fonts, colors and design
• Create dashboards for all eight regional divisions to serve as brief, two-page overviews of their annual financials
• Design highly detailed maps that accurately highlight all active projects for each division, utilizing open maps software and Google Earth
• Employ new, updated imagery throughout the report to enhance the visual impact of its design
• Execute a final document that can be easily read online, on mobile and in print.

THE RESULTS: As Superior’s established agency of record, Reputation Ink was already intimately familiar with the company’s mission, vision and values. (In fact, we helped develop the messaging to codify them formally.) As marketing experts in the AEC industry, we’re also well-versed in construction terminology and trends. And we knew how to visually convey this messaging in a way that honored the newly formed brand standards and guidelines. Finally, we were set up for success from the jump because of our close, established relationship with the client. 

We ultimately produced a 156-page report for Superior in only ten weeks. The report immediately garnered praise when shared with internal and external stakeholders. Superior’s leadership conveyed that no competitor in the industry was producing reports of this caliber. Socks were indeed blown off.
EPILOGUE: A project like this was a massive undertaking for both Reputation Ink and the client. Along the way, we identified learnings that were applied to the following year’s annual report. For instance, Reputation Ink developed a streamlined system for information gathering — a branded PDF form that division leaders can easily fill out with relevant data and submit at their convenience. We have also created layout and chart design templates that are easily replicated and increase overall efficiency. In addition, we’ve established a process for scheduling additional future photo shoots to ensure each report features fresh and engaging imagery for years to come.