Romanian PR agency DC turns 20: Euro 2.5 investments and continuous adjustment to stay in sync with the times

Romanian PR agency DC Communication just turned 20 years since its emergence on the local market. The agency was launched by Teodor Frolu and Crenguta Rosu and it started its activity in a one room apartment in Bucharest.

Agency’s first clients were ING Bank and European Commission’s Delegation in Bucharest. The first projects were the launch of the Multibanking from ING – the first electronic banking service in Romania – in march 1995 and “Townsquares of Europe”, itinerant exhibition of European Commission’s Delegation.

In its 20 years on the market, DC Communication developed over 2,000 projects for 120 clients in 20 industries and sectors.

DC Communication’s team is the key to all projects and transformations the company underwent. There is a DC Communication spirit which is a combination between seriousness and beautiful madness which DC people built and which produces well anchored projects, generating expected results. We support efficiency and we were always honest with the promises, with the chances to make it happen and with the expected results. We are our clients’ team, that’s how we see ourselves, not outsourced or providers, but colleagues. Their objectives are also ours. And that is why our motto is “Vision comes true”, because our purpose is to support their objectives

Teodor Frolu,

Founder DC Communication.

In February 1995, when DC launched, there was only one another PR agency on the Romanian market and, by the end of the same year, another 2 appeared. In 20 years, the market of the agencies increased 32 times, to 128 PR agencies in 2015. In total, on Romanian market, there are in present 939 entities – companies and independent contractors – which offer PR services, according to the official data from Commerce Registry.

In 20 years, DC Communication evolved also from a financial point of view: from a turnover of Euro 90,000 in 1995 to almost Euro 850,000 last year, with a peak of activity in 2005, when agency’s turnover was of over Euro 2M. The financial peak of the agency corresponds with Romanian PR market’s boom period, 2005-2008, when the average turnover for big and medium agencies was of Euro 1.8 – 2.2M. On the other hand, according to a market evaluation made by Biz in the end of 2014, the value of Romanian PR market was of around Euro 30M last year

DC assisted to the birth of an entire industry and worked, since the beginning, on big project, such positioning on the market exigent clients, mostly international companies that already made the decision to invest in expanding on Romanian market. For those clients, the agency insured services like internal and external communication, advocacy, CSR, institutional communication.

 In 1995, there were no local experts in the field. So we had to try harder than in a market with formal education and understanding for specific business mechanisms. Sometimes, we were in the situation to reinvent the wheel, but we learned hard and intense to answer properly to our clients’ problems. The culture of courage when facing novelties is kept even today as part of our identity

Crenguta Rosu,

Co-founder DC Communication.

As the business kept developing and the team grew, the agency moved its headquarters 3 times and decided, in 2005, to invest in its own headquarter, a symbol building – former Merchandise Exchange of Bucharest. In total, in its 20 years of activity, DC invested over Euro 2.5M in development projects (equipment, trainings, headquarters).

Over the time, DC modified five times its structure and operation methods in order to anticipate the transformations of the market and the needs of the clients. From internal monitoring services to analyze and work with providers, from social media services department to increase the competencies of the entire team so it would be social media ready, from account teams to working with specialized departments and than adding new competencies – those were all internal transformations, little visible, but essential when it comes of team’s capacity to adapt.

For the future, the agency intends to develop new projects and work with new clients who focus on strategic integration, and coordinate internal and external communication projects on all channels.