In recent years, market competition has increased significantly, with Romania ranking 10th among European countries for the most startups, having 402,428 companies registered between 2015-2019, according to a study by Paymentsense.

In the growth and development process of a company, a good mix of marketing and communication will include the right strategies and tools, used at the right time to enhance visibility, attract leads, customers, and partners, and strengthen relationships with existing ones. As part of this mix, the PR strategy is one of the ways a company can achieve measurable and sustainable results over time, increasing visibility, consolidating brand image, and ultimately contributing to generating sales leads.

Mogo, a member of the Eleving Group, specializes in providing financing for individuals to purchase used cars, and soon also consumer loans, and has been operating in Romania since 2016. Over time, the company has strengthened its customer and partner portfolio and diversified its lending product offerings, recording steady growth. However, for more rapid growth, in 2021, it decided that an investment in increasing brand visibility would bring medium and long-term benefits for acquiring new customers and partners, as well as attracting valuable candidates at all levels of expertise and seniority. In this process, the natural action was the selection of a PR agency specialized in the fintech startup and small and medium enterprise segment, agile, creative, and eager to generate impact, and June Communications met all these standards.

"Competition never weakens, and finding the right niche to serve with competitive products and solutions, constantly changing and adapting to new contexts, is a modus operandi. Strengthening the brand and open, constant, and relevant communication with the audiences that build a company's ecosystem can be a differentiating factor. We quickly integrated into Mogo's business as an external mobile unit for PR and communication, allowing us to operate agilely and mold ourselves according to the company's rhythm and needs. The PR & Comms strategy created for one year was periodically updated and adapted to the dynamic evolution of the company. However, we have always stayed close to the business plan and the delivery of expected results," says Iuliana Floricică, CEO and co-founder of June Communications.

How communication contributes to positioning the brand in the market among competitors and potential employees

Applied to the company's business plan, June Communications developed an integrated communication strategy that combined traditional PR tactics, digital PR, and marketing, such as media relations - press releases, interviews, and opinion articles with various team members, partners, and customers, monitoring profile media, and identifying PR opportunities, as well as managing and creating content for the company's business page on social media.

"For relevant communication that ensures the fulfillment of business objectives, we incorporated multiple channels and tools through which we managed to increase the visibility and notoriety of the Mogo brand in the Romanian market. We focused on authentic communication, personalized to consumer needs, and the area of financial education constituted a constant pillar in all campaigns we carried out. Over time, the impact was reflected in substantial sales increases, which reached peaks of up to 50% increase in peak months compared to previous months and similar periods of the previous year," explains Iuliana Floricică.

The fintech sector is innovative, characterized by speed and continuous evolution. For this reason, communication must be agile, constant, powerful, and induce the idea of trust, so that customers are drawn to choose digital methods over traditional ones they are already familiar with. June Communications understood these challenges and conceived a strategy based on four communication pillars, to inform the public about Mogo's contributions in the fields of circular economy, mobility, and digitization, as well as positioning the company as a reliable partner for financing the purchase of vehicles.

"The collaboration with June Communications was natural, based on common principles and values, such as supporting initiatives in the transition to sustainability and green transformation. By permanently optimizing all digital solutions and promoting the purchase of used cars to limit pollution from producing new vehicles as much as possible, we aimed from the beginning to encourage the reuse of goods that are already in circulation, while helping customers make informed decisions," explains Ionuț Badiu.

Communication for a fintech involves anchoring in contemporary reality, to stay up-to-date with new trends and always be a step ahead of competitors, with the right messages at the right time. Since the business perspectives for Mogo aim for expansion on all fronts and accelerated digitalization, this also necessitates strengthening the brand among potential employees.

"2022 was certainly a dynamic year for the auto market, full of macroeconomic challenges, but during this year of collaboration with June Communications, we recorded both an increase in turnover and a larger number of potential employees who showed interest in joining our team. Internally, the communication techniques proposed, such as interviews with Mogo employees