Turning complex research into an engaging story: we worked with the Atlantic Council’s Freedom and Prosperity Center to launch their 2024 Indexes.
Editors bring it all together: Thinking beyond a single output
From scrollytelling embeds to print and social assets, our editorial and design work brought clarity, coherence and visual punch. The result? More readers, higher engagement and a research launch that really lands.
Often, we are all guilty of focusing on a single piece of work at a time – assuming that this research paper, this website, or this presentation we’ve poured our efforts into will be the be-all-and-end-all. It will reach everyone it needs to reach, say everything it needs to say, solve all the problems it needs to solve.
But of course, effective communication is rarely so simple. Most projects need to be communicated through two, three or multiple channels if they are to land properly with our audiences.
This is why we were excited when the Atlantic Council – a leading international affairs think tank in the US with whom we have worked on several high-profile projects in recent years – approached us about their plans for a major forthcoming launch.
The Freedom and Prosperity Indexes are an ongoing, 30-year project from the Council’s Freedom and Prosperity Center, aiming to track these goals worldwide. With the launch of their 2025 report approaching, the Center knew it needed a full suite of outputs that would build a coherent and joined-up campaign. This would include a full online/HTML research report, an interactive online summary, interactive charts and graphs, a printed summary document, presentation slides and social media assets. With several successful collaborations behind us in recent years, they turned to Soapbox for our strategic input and design support.
Editing as oversight
Our editorial services were vital to the success of this project, providing a single point of responsibility for engaging with the content and bringing the various elements together.
The process began with a copyedit of the full report – the cornerstone of the Center’s research findings, analysis and recommendations surrounding the Freedom and Prosperity Indexes. Working closely with the Atlantic Council team, our editor gained a thorough understanding of the messaging and nuances in their findings.
From that starting point, we were able to suggest a coherent structure: a “data story” that would run through the required outputs. The editor, designers and client worked closely together to jointly develop the narratives and copy, visual style and data visualisations, all to a tight timescale. We made use of overlapping elements wherever possible – for instance, some charts would be created for the full report, and used again across the interactive summary document and the presentation slides, with adjustments for each to the commentary, description and tone. And we created new visualisations alongside, if we needed to tell the story in a slightly different way or focus on a specific part of the story for one specific output.
We couldn’t have done it without your professionalism, creativity, and flexibility. It was truly a pleasure working with you and the team— turning our ideas into a final product we’re proud of was such a rewarding experience. You are all truly incredible at what you do!
A full suite of materials
The result was a highly successful, integrated launch.
The “scrolly” summary – built using Flourish and embedded at the top of the report webpage – introduces the report’s key findings and narrative arc in an easily understandable, step-by-step format.
The “topline” document performed a similar role, but as this was to be printed for the launch events, space and length were much more limited. We wrote and designed a document that covers the key beats of the data story, as well as vital recommendations for policymakers, and some engaging or surprising tidbits from digging down into the research findings.
Our interactive graphics were heavily used to support the report’s launch presentations, and – adapted alongside some light animation – also drove strong engagement on X/Twitter. For instance, here, here and here.
Visitor numbers to the report website – and reader engagement – were significantly improved over previous years’ reports, reflecting a strong combination of highly effective messaging and clear design.
Want to find out more about how we can help your work travel further? We’d love to talk. Get in touch with us at [email protected]