Every earnings season brings a fresh wave of commentary about the future of investor communications.
This quarter, much of the media attention centered on Salesforce’s highly produced, “vodcast”-style earnings event and Marc Benioff’s increasingly media-centric approach to investor engagement. The implication in some media coverage was clear: the traditional earnings call is outdated, and companies that don’t innovate risk being left behind.
It’s true that some companies are experimenting with new formats, broader distribution channels, and – in a few cases – even creating AI avatars of their CEOs. But the conclusion that the traditional earnings call is dying fails to consider the core purpose of the call and the needs of its primary audience.
The earnings call is not dead. Nor is the traditional format likely to disappear anytime soon.
Earnings Innovation Isn’t New
It is tempting to frame recent “vodcast” experiments as a dramatic departure from the past. In reality, companies have been evolving their earnings processes for years.
For example, Netflix has long used a recorded earnings interview format in place of a traditional live management presentation. This video-based format is aligned with the company’s brand as a media and streaming company and allows for greater efficiency and message control. Several other companies now publish detailed shareholder letters that carry more substance than the earnings press release itself, and some post prepared remarks to their website rather than taking the time to read them on the earnings call. Tesla, Robinhood, Coinbase, and others solicit investor questions online in the week leading up to earnings, reflecting the growing influence of retail shareholders and social platforms.
Technology and social media platforms have changed how earnings are distributed and consumed. Webcasts are now standard. Replays and transcripts are available almost instantly. Social amplification has accelerated.
But the core purpose of the earnings call has not changed. It exists to help investors and analysts assess performance, update assumptions, and revise financial models. That objective still favors clarity, consistency, transparency, and comparability over production value.
Investors Are Trying to Update a Model, Not Watch a Show
This is the point often missed in discussions about the future of earnings communications: the primary audience for an earnings call remains investors and analysts.
During earnings season, these audiences are consuming enormous amounts of information in compressed timeframes. A portfolio manager covering dozens of companies is not looking for a cinematic experience (nor do they want companies to waste their capital delivering one). An analyst building or revising a model is not asking for studio production.
Instead, they are looking for guidance updates, margin commentary, capital allocation priorities, demand trends, and pricing dynamics. They are evaluating management credibility, both in what executives say and how they respond under pressure.
That is why the most valuable portion of many earnings calls is the least controlled part: live Q&A. Investors listen carefully not just for answers, but for tone and transparency. Direct access to management still matters.
Video may modernize the process, but it doesn’t necessarily improve it. In many cases, highly produced formats can create the perception that management is prioritizing spectacle over substance, causing investors and analysts to tune out.
Most Companies Are Not Technology or Media Companies
Another reason the “death of the earnings call” narrative is overstated is that the companies driving the conversation are not representative of the broader public company universe.
Salesforce, Netflix, Tesla, and similar companies operate with highly visible executives, globally recognized brands, and sophisticated in-house content capabilities. Their earnings calls attract attention far beyond the investment community.
Thousands of public companies across sectors and market caps operate in a very different environment, with different priorities and stakeholder expectations.
For most companies, the traditional earnings call remains effective because it is efficient, repeatable, and familiar. During busy reporting periods, investors and analysts value consistency. Predictable structures make it easier to process information quickly across periods, companies and sectors.
The conventional format of prepared remarks followed by a live, engaging Q&A persists not because companies lack creativity, but because it continues to serve its audience well. It also achieves the company’s main objectives: inform the investment community of recent performance, provide an update on near- and sometimes longer-term expectations, and discuss plans to achieve them.
Modern Stakeholder Engagement Extends Beyond the Earnings Call
The earnings call is fundamentally an investor event. Its purpose is financial disclosure and investor engagement.
That does not mean companies should ignore employees, customers, or policymakers. It simply means those stakeholders are often better reached through other channels and at different moments.
Rather than reengineering the earnings call itself, companies have more options than ever to meet stakeholders where they are: social media, employee townhalls, media interviews, podcasts, short-form video on owned channels.
Companies can – and should – modernize their communications strategies. That doesn’t mean they need to transform the quarterly earnings call into an expensive and time-consuming multimedia production. Instead, they should think about how relevant earnings content can be repurposed and distributed afterward.
Many of our clients are already doing this today. Quotes, clips, charts, and commentary now travel instantly across social and financial media ecosystems in ways that did not exist a decade ago. Leveraging new channels represents meaningful evolution, and it doesn’t require replacing the earnings call altogether.
The Future Is Evolution, Not Replacement
Companies will continue to experiment with video-first formats, retail investor engagement, and crowdsourced questions. For some, those approaches may provide real advantages.
However, for many public companies, the traditional earnings call continues to fulfill its core purpose remarkably well. Investors still need standardized disclosure, analysts still need direct access to management, and markets still reward credibility, clarity, and consistency.
That doesn’t mean companies should take their quarterly call for granted. It continues to serve as a critical opportunity to update the Street on strategy, execution, and expectations. We’re all for innovation, but in the end, performance will always outweigh production value.
By Hunter Stenback, Managing Director, Special Situations & Investor Relations and Jordan Fisher, Executive Vice President, Special Situations & Investor Relations