Plain English Awards

celebrate New Zealand's clearest communicators

Winner: Best Plain English Annual Report 2014

Mercer (NZ) Limited

Sponsor Kathryn Asare, Business NZ with Tatiana Mes, Mercer (NZ) Limited


Document name

Annual Report


Judges’ comment

The judging panel unanimously agreed that this was the category winner.
This one stands out for its strong use of plain English via:

  • speaking directly to the general public audience
  • clear, consistent voice throughout
  • short simple sentences, avoiding jargon
  • good use of pullouts, Q+As focus messaging on reader interests
  • excellent data presentation choices throughout.

In addition, it is not often we praise a CEO message in one of these documents, but the Mercer CEO message was friendly, informative, and in accessible plain English. It communicates a great deal very concisely. We congratulate Mercer for setting a very high standard for the Annual Reports category.


Media statement

Put simply, we believe communication is fundamental to improving the retirement savings of New Zealanders.

We believe effective and simple communications can improve the financial understanding of our KiwiSaver members, and improving their financial understanding will help improve their retirement savings and therefore quality of life in retirement.

Hence, we work very hard on our communications to members and are very proud to be a winner at the WriteMark Plain English Awards for the Mercer KiwiSaver scheme Annual Report.

Martin Lewington
Country Leader