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Cognex Corporation

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2012, Click to Enter The 2013 American Business Awards

Company: Cognex Corporation, Natick, MA
Company Description: Cognex is the world leader in machine vision and industrial ID, designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing devices that can "see." Our products are used around the world for inspection, identification and guidance applications in manufacturing and logistics. We have shipped more than 700,000 systems, representing over $3 billion in cumulative revenue, since the company's founding in 1981.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign/Program of the Year - Investor Relations

Nomination Title: Vote B.I.G.! Cognex 2011 Annual Report

Tell the story about this nominated investor relations program or campaign since January 1 2011 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

“Funny” and “annual report” don’t usually go together, but machine vision company Cognex has published satirical annual reports since 1992, spoofing high school yearbooks, coloring books, “Dummies” instructional guides and publications including the National Enquirer, Martha Stewart Living, Mad Magazine and TIME.

Cognex annuals are the antidote for homogenous publications with interchangeable text and pictures. They reflect our iconoclastic culture. Employees (called “Cognoids”) love them, shareholders collect them, and analysts notice them.

Annual report competitions do too: 2010’s “Born in the U.S.A.” album spoof won five gold LACP Vision and ARC awards, and was #39 on MerComm’s list of the world’s best annual reports. But Cognex does not rest on its laurels, so the annual report team had to outdo itself in 2011.

It started with one conversation. Chairman and co-founder Robert “Doctor Bob” Shillman was upset by the vilification of American business. There are bad apples in every barrel, he said, but the vast majority of American businesspeople are hard-working and ethical. Businesses employ people who plow their salaries into families and the economy. Businesses support cities and states with taxes and charitable giving. And that’s good!

So with an election upcoming, Doctor Bob and president Robert Willett launched the “Business is Good” (or B.I.G.) Party, extolling hard work and free enterprise. B.I.G. has two meanings. First, businesses are good for America. Second, Cognex broke revenue, net income and earnings-per-share records in 2011. For Cognex, Cognoids and shareholders, business really IS good!

Nothing represents elections more than campaign buttons, so Susan Conway, director of investor relations, and Matthew Bauer, manager of corporate communications, worked with PointOne Marketing and Design in Peabody, MA, to create an almost perfectly round book that resembles a big B.I.G. campaign button. Photography by David Shopper evokes political iconography. The printed piece was mailed in an envelope marked “Your B.I.G. Party Campaign Kit,” along with the Form 10-K and a campaign bumper sticker. Online we incorporated videos and an interactive feature showing how protesters benefit from Cognex products.

Challenges

First, after managing the project for 23 years with Cognex, Ms. Conway handed the project to Mr. Bauer, who had 11 weeks to prepare for kick-off.

Second, it’s really hard to produce a perfectly round book! After tests with grommets and hidden binding, we selected the innovative “tab” approach which balances durability with the appearance of a round book.

Finally, there’s much truth in satire. Doctor Bob wanted to make a point about the erosion of American competitiveness. But we had to walk a fine line between delivering business perspective and allowing a political message to overshadow our good news.

Outcomes

Overall we’ve succeeded: polls show that shareholders love the report, with pro-B.I.G. comments outnumbering negative four-to-one. Cognoids’ reactions are more mixed, but if the many B.I.G. bumper stickers and buttons around our offices are any indication, the returns are very favorable!

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Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that carried out this campaign:

Cognex has a reputation for consistently publishing creative, topical and even funny annual reports. Working together for the first time, Susan Conway, director of investor relations, and Matthew Bauer, corporate communications manager, teamed up with long-time collaborators PointOne Marketing and Playback, Inc., to bring the B.I.G. Campaign to life. Members of this team worked on previous Cognex annuals, including the multi-award winning “Born in the U.S.A.” parody in 2010. Ms. Conway is a 23-year veteran of Cognex. Mr. Bauer spent 11 years with Fidelity Investments in Boston, and joined Cognex in August 2011.