“We bring renown to financial companies and their leaders,” – states Valentina Drofa, the CEO and Co-Founder of Drofa Comms, a leading global PR agency for finance and fintech firms. In an exclusive interview, we sat down with Valentina to talk about how much financial companies need the reputation that comes with PR, how it helps achieve business goals, and whether working on communications can bring clients, partners and promote company growth.
Active since 2011, and covering a wide array of services, including executive communications, investor relations, brand building and strategic PR consulting, Drofa Comms has supported hundreds of companies, both startups and fully established ones, on their journey towards global recognition.
The agency was ranked among the top-5 UK-based PR agencies by PRovoke Media, a leading intelligence platform in the PR industry, and has also been acknowledged multiple times as one of the best consultancies for companies in the field of finance on the international stage.
Valentina, here’s a question that you probably get asked a lot: why do financial companies need public relations at all? It is often said that money loves silence, but PR seems to be about doing the exact opposite and going loud. So how is this paradox resolved?
These days, I rarely find myself hearing such a question from our clients. In fact, I feel that the question itself has lost its relevance by now.
I have been involved in the financial industry for 17 years now. Early on, I observed that it had indeed been necessary to explain why PR is needed, what companies can achieve with it, and how it differed from marketing and advertising. However, over the last 3-4 years, these questions have almost completely disappeared. PR has become almost as integral to financial companies as sales or accounting departments. It is now a fundamental component of any company that has long-term plans and ambitions for operating in this market.
It is possible that my experiences show a case of “survivorship bias,” as our agency only encounters firms that already understand what PR is and know of our experience and capabilities. As a result, these clients already come to us mentally prepared – we do not need to convince them of our usefulness, because they already recognize how our services can benefit them.
As for the idea of ‘money loving silence,’ I would say that it greatly depends on what stage of development the company is going through. It is often the case that silence can be detrimental to a business rather than helpful. And this is precisely where Drofa Comms’ expertise comes into play. Part of our role is to assess how and to what extent PR can be of use in addressing the business needs of a company at any given stage of its development.
PR in the financial industry is often treated in a very utilitarian manner. A brief press release for new products and a quick statement during crises. Then, the focus shifts back to what is considered the ‘real’ work. Is this level of effort truly sufficient for effective PR?
It is important to understand that public relations is not optional; it is not a game that you can simply choose to play or not. It’s an essential component of your company’s existence and operations, going beyond just crisis management.
PR is what allows a company to build and maintain its brand, and it lasts as long as your business does. The intensity of communication efforts may vary depending on your needs at any given moment, but forgoing PR altogether is simply not a viable idea.
At Drofa Comms, we believe in a comprehensive approach. We don’t work, and will not work, in a format where someone hands us a press release and says, “Let’s do something with this.” To me, that’s not PR. True public relations is about engaging with the audience, managing the company’s brand and fostering relationships with its partners. Simply filling the Internet with a bunch of press releases and links is not the right way to approach communications.
If a company wishes to stand out, it needs to talk about its strengths and unique advantages, find ways to connect with its target audience and integrate communications into a comprehensive strategy for brand development and promotion. This is something that our agency excels at. We can help businesses come up with a sensible course of action that leverages a variety of tools and ultimately serves as a way to enhance their operations. This is PR.
As for crisis communications, they effectiveness can also be maximized if a solid foundation has already been prepared in advance. This means comprehensive, well-planned work from the very start.
Let me share a recent example from our practice. A client came to us, and we began working together by developing a strategy, selecting company spokespersons, and launching regular PR activities. Then the client suddenly faced a crisis situation. Because we had done our homework, our team only needed two hours to prepare everything necessary to address the situation in the media and steer the narrative in the right direction.
We already knew our client’s team, their product, the specifics of brand positioning, and so we didn’t lose precious time. Had things not been like that, it would have taken much longer to build up a crisis response, and the outcome could have been completely different. Instead, our client came out of the whole situation with enhanced loyalty from journalists, clients, and the community.
Could the situation have been resolved as effectively if most of the work had not been done by us well before the crisis? It would have definitely taken much more time to address it, and the whole thing could have become far less manageable from a communications standpoint. And in the financial sector, as we’ve seen from various crises – both global and corporate – panic and ignorance never work in your favour.
But if PR takes so much commitment, how prepared are the companies themselves to put in the work necessary to sustain it?
Far from all of them, that much I can tell you. Being ready to go public with your company, to be open about your work and accomplishments, represents a certain stage of development that both the business and its owners must achieve first. Working with us, engaging with journalists, participating in events and activities – all of that takes a lot of time and energy. And committing to these efforts requires the owners to have the right mindset.
If a company is prepared to take this step and commit to long-term PR, it demonstrates the seriousness of its intentions. It shows that the owners are confident about the prospects of their business and intend to remain in the market for many years to come.
Yes, we will take on much of the work involved in communications, but this doesn’t mean that our clients can simply sign the contract and then forget about it. From our extensive experience, I can confidently say that the companies and managers who are actively engaged in the process and work with us in an open and accessible fashion get the best results. In these partnerships, we operate as parts of the same team. It’s not like buying a football club and expecting it to win championships on its own.
For 80% of our clients, we build PR strategies with a long-term perspective in mind. We essentially become part of their team, gaining insight into their plans for the upcoming year. This vision allows us to craft strategies that maximize the effectiveness of their brand communications.
As for the remaining 20%, they typically start working with us on a case-by-case basis, focusing on specific projects such as launching a new product or entering a new market. However, once they see the results we deliver, many of them come to appreciate the value of sustained PR efforts and end up signing long-term contracts with our agency, as well.
What, then, can a business ultimately gain with such PR efforts? As an agency, what results can they expect from your work?
I would love to say that working with us will bring in new clients, investors, partners, or employees. However, setting all of those as specific KPIs right from the start can be risky. If a client comes to us expecting such direct results right away, I have but one thing to say to them: to get these results, you need consistent PR efforts that never stop.
The kind of growth we’re talking about here happens to clients that we have been working with for several years. It’s when their internal processes are integrated side by side with our PR efforts that we can truly get transformative results.
We get to see in real time how our clients change and evolve along the way. When creating brand positioning and communication strategies, we don’t just base it on where the company stands today. We also consider where it will be in the future – 3, 5, or even 10 years from now. This long-term view determines what we do in the present, ensuring that our actions align with the company’s growth trajectory.
Most importantly, we empower our client companies and their leaders to dream big and support them in their ambitions. “Let’s take it as a given that you are already leaders, and proceed with that mindset,” – this is what I tell our clients when we start working together because it helps instil confidence.
And what do clients usually say to that?
Usually, clients start wondering why they haven’t partnered with Drofa Comms sooner. Through our collaboration, they discover a new approach to PR that they hadn’t considered before. It opens up new possibilities and helps them quickly recognize the value we bring to the table.
What is that approach?
We are deeply specialized in the finance sector. The questions we ask of our clients are never superficial, reflecting our in-depth knowledge of the market. Sometimes, even during the initial onboarding stage, we can already point out new development vectors, products and possible partnerships for our clients.
As a business, Drofa Comms has been around for 13 years, and I can already make the claim that we are a well-aged, classic agency in the best sense of these words. We prioritize meaningful work, putting in the effort to make each company and each spokesperson truly interesting for journalists, instead of just relying on paid publication.
We fully immerse ourselves in what our clients are doing, but we are also flexible, capable of adjusting our methods in response to how deep the company is ready to let us in. We can integrate ourselves fully into their team, working together towards shared goals and becoming deeply entrenched in the company’s operations. Or we can remain at a distance and work on specific requests, if our client prefers it this way.
Having worked with companies for many years and experienced their journeys at different stages – rebranding, crises, growth – we understand what PR needs a business faces at each and every stage of its development.
We set fixed KPIs for our work and always advocate for delivering the best possible results. Our favourite question is ‘Why?’ Why does the client need this particular publication? Why are we offering him an interview or podcast in that specific media outlet? How will this reflect on the business?
If we recognize that the situation has changed, and the client needs a new direction, we don’t offer a solution just for the sake of it. Instead, we propose strategies that will help the business continue to grow.
I believe that our approach – selling the result, with the process already built in by default – is exactly what the financial sector needs.
