PRESS RELEASE – Links Associates is celebrating 10 years and looking forward with anticipation to the future.

Bucharest, 27 November 2018

Over the 10 years of strategic communications, we believe that lobbying has brought more transparency and professionalism in the relationship between Business and Government!

Links Associates celebrates 10 years of strategic communications, a period in which the company contributed fundamentally in shaping the lobbying activities in Romania by deploying very high levels of professionalism. From the first client in 2008, the agency took up the mission to work on a narrow pathway: that of high stakes projects that pursue dialogue and engage with important parts of our society, the business environment, public institutions, civil society, mass media, local communities and partners of the social dialogue process.

“For the10 years we have been present in the strategic communications market in Romania and we are not ashamed or afraid of using the term LOBBY. This is because in addition to what an agency does normally, to reopen channels of communications and connect people and institutions properly to achieve their business goals, our mission from the beginning was to create a debate around the objectives we are promoting. We do this while abiding by the law and public interest, and now after 10 years of work in this field , it is clear that professional approach to lobbying has brought transparency and professionalism to the relationship between the business environment and authorities,” said Corina Vintan, CEO of Links Associates.

In 10 years, our agency has been at the forefront of public decision-making and communications along side our clients, the main effort was to broaden the framework for public consultations, given that in part, the world we live in today entails that no one has a monopoly on decisions and we have to consider that influencing a decision has a completely different mechanism today, given the democratization of information through social media and other technological advances.

“If in 2008, when the country had just recently joined the European Union, the opaqueness of institutions was alarming and lobbying was practiced in a primitive form as simply brokering deals between persons and groups, in the last10 years it’s transformed into a small industry. We are proud of our participation and to the birth of which we contributed; an industry that practices ethical and responsible lobbying. We believe that this process started by companies, in which the private interest is made public precisely because it is congruent with the general interest and must be pursued by all actors involved in the shaping of public policy. Our task as communicators is to play an active role that increases general trust in institutions, by practicing integrated communications, targeted towards all players involved.” Continued Corina Vintan.

Beyond boundaries

With an integrated approach from the beginning, Links Associates added new core services, especially following the affiliation with Edelman – the largest independent PR network in the world, services such as commercial and brand PR, succeeding to have a complete mix of services that include: public affairs, intelligence, corporate communications, crisis management, reputational management and events.

Armed with the best data and information, the most complex network and the most daring strategy, Links succeeded over the years to build an image of “solving the impossible.” The agency has been constantly involved in projects that were seen as difficult, sensitive, sometimes considered “no-going areas”. Links excels in it’s role of a trainer, helping clients surpass their limits, identify and diminish risks and break barriers of conventional thought, change the course of public debates to win notoriety, leadership and favorability.

In the course of the past 10 years, Links has been involved in key topics for Romania, succeeding in finding remarkable solutions for instance the amendment of the law regarding food products in 2017, following an infringement procedure launched by the EU Commission.

Beyond the complex topics, Links accumulated expertize in 14 industries, some of which being considered difficult domains to approach such as security and defense, aerospace and energy. The agency’s portfolio also includes industries such as telecommunications, real-estate, retail, heavy industry, agriculture, pharma, FMCG, tobacco, services, tech and NGOs.

The Links’ team has vast knowledge, experience and expertise in the various domains to meet our clients needs, to access/approach and understand – journalists, researchers, marketing and communications specialists, former government counselors and business executives – Links boasts an experienced team of seniors and an external network of consultants that create campaigns and actions capable to yield durable results for clients.

New Horizons

Following the announcement in 2013 of Links opening a new office in Serbia, and in 2014 the affiliation for Romania and Serbia to Edelman, Links began a new chapter over the past 4 years to cover for common projects with Edelman in parts of the Balkans. Consequently, for clients that need corporate or brand PR services, Links works in other countries in the region as well – Slovenia, Montenegro and Macedonia.

In the next phase, Links Associates will concentrate on creating strategic partnerships with the goal of expanding its international footprint and reach.

As part of the strategy for services diversification, we have launched Links Share, a company that develops social media campaigns for Links‘ clients.

Social Commitment

Besides this regional participation, Links is also providing social engagement locally through two entities; Community Links association – an NGO that focuses on projects in the education sector and Vintan for Reputation – a company that works pro-bono cases such as the international kidnapping of minors, where children are “taken abroad”, away from one parent illegally.