Public Relations Development Company (CROS)

The Public Relations Development Company (CROS) works in the field of consulting government and corporate customers.

History

2023: Board changes

The communications agency CROS on March 1, 2023 announced changes in the composition of the company's board of directors.

The founder of the agency, Sergei Zverev, left the post of chairman of the board of directors of CROS. From March 1, 2023, Alexey Chuikin became Chairman of the Board of Directors. Read more here.

2012

Aktivs

As of December 2012, the company had more than 90 employees. These are consultants, journalists, sociologists, political scientists, economists, lawyers, historians. CROS employees have experience in PR departments of the largest Russian and international companies, federal ministries and departments, as well as in leadership positions in the editorial offices of the media.

Criminal case on the project for the Ministry of Transport

After the prosecutor's check, a criminal case was initiated on the grounds of fraud in the development of an Internet site commissioned by the Ministry of Transport. This message was posted on December 14, 2012 on the website of the Prosecutor General's Office.

The violation was discovered when studying the state contract under the Comprehensive Program for Ensuring Public Safety in Transport, signed by the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and the CROS group of companies (Public Relations Development Corporation), specializing in PR services for government agencies and large corporate clients.

The contract under the Comprehensive Security Program, worth 108.6 million rubles, was concluded in November 2011.

According to the prosecutor's office, the terms of reference for the contract provided for:

• an advertising campaign,
• placement of outdoor advertising on vehicles and transport infrastructure facilities, * development and creation of an Internet portal on the topic of information and explanatory work, as well as its maintenance, etc.

The portal was created by May 2012, and then passed acceptance tests. However, the cost of work on its creation and support amounted to 2.26 million rubles, which, as law enforcement officers noticed, is much less than the price of the concluded contract.

Events for the placement of information materials in educational institutions of the transport industry were reduced to posting advertising posters in the halls of higher educational institutions.

The activities of the society to educate citizens in the field of transport security consisted in placing one banner at the airport on the same Volgograd trolleybus, as well as posters in the salons of high-speed trams of Volgograd and Samara.

The prosecutor's office reports that the actual cost of placement amounted to 192 thousand rubles.

After the transfer of the materials of the prosecutor's check to the investigating authorities, a criminal case was initiated under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud).

Interestingly, by the time this material was published on CNews, the message of the Prosecutor General's Office about the check in the CROS was removed from the agency's website.

The CROS agency did not answer the question about the direct developer of the site on public safety in transport. The domain of the website dedicated to this topic and owned by the Ministry of Transport trans-bez.ru registered with the New Internet agency, which has been part of the CROS group of companies since September 2011^[1] the^[1].

Areas of activity

The main activities of the company as of January 2012:

• consulting,
• management of projects in the field of external and internal communications,
• analytical support,
• IT services and Internet promotion.

Key areas of work also remain:

• planning and conducting PR campaigns, organizing work in the field of Government Relations and Investor Relations, as well as managing the company's reputation;
• outreach to the public within the framework of federal programs;
• crisis information management;
• working with the media;
• interaction with legislative and executive institutions;
• holding public events and press conferences;
• research of the information field;
• conducting sociological and expert surveys;
• evaluation of the effectiveness of information campaigns; creating Internet resources.

In recent years, CROS has significantly expanded its scope, optimized the structure of the company, strengthened business contacts with media market participants, clearly identified its presence not only at the federal but also at the regional level, and also began to represent the interests of Russian clients and abroad.

Clients and projects

One of the first projects in the field of Public Relations, which brought CROS wide fame, is associated with the information support of the 2002 All-Russian Population Census. Counselor magazine called it "the largest PR project of recent times, second only to the presidential election in scope." This work of CROS was awarded the annual National Prize in the field of public relations development "Silver Archer" in the nomination "Best PR-project."

KROS has implemented many corporate PR campaigns for Russian and foreign clients: Sberbank of Russia, OAO Gazprom, Gazprombank, Norilsk Nickel, AK Sibur, Microsoft, Nestle Food, Sun Inbew, Toyota Motor Corp., Wimm-Bill-Dann, Carrefour and others.

In addition, the CROS has the following federal campaigns:

• outreach to the 2002 All-Russian Population Census,
• providing information support for the federal program "Reforming the public service of the Russian Federation,"
• information support of the federal target program "Electronic Russia,"
• priority national project "Health,"
• FTP "Development of physical culture and sports in the Russian Federation for 2006-2015,"
• All-Russian Agricultural Census of 2006, as well as
• information support for the additional issue of shares of Sberbank of Russia ("people's IPO").

2010: Public Relations Global Network Partner

Since 2010, CROS has been a partner of the Public Relations Global Network, one of the three largest global PR networks, as well as the official communication partner of Deutsche Borse in Russia.

1997: Start of work in the Russian market Public Relations

CROS has been operating in the Russian Public Relations market since 1997. Its founder and president, Sergei Zverev, is known not only in the field of political consulting and PR - in the 90s he held high posts in the country's leadership and influential business structures. Sergei Zverev was a member of the 500 Days reform economic program. Most of the ideas outlined in it were implemented in one way or another in the past decade. He also stood at the origins of the creation of NTV, the first independent television channel in Russia.

The main principle that guided Sergei Zverev when creating a company can be formulated as follows: PR is a business that is built on relationships, relationships are primarily people, and these people should be the best in their profession.

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