Apropos Bureau: Building a Local Marketing Agency Based Trust

We talked to Lars Marco Andersen, founder of Apropos Bureau, about operating marketing departments and this is what he said about it.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Lars Marco Andersen: We’re fine, given the situation. Our social relationships are limited and the fact that we can only meet with our closest family is the biggest consequence for us on a personal level.

Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded Apropos Bureau.

Lars Marco Andersen: I have an MSc in International Business from Aalborg University in Denmark. As an experienced e-trader and digital marketing professional with experience from Denmark and the Netherlands, I founded Apropos Bureau, together with my partner Mads Mathiasen back in 2017. We met through our previous workplace, where Mads was the marketing manager and I was a digital project employee.

How does Apropos Bureau innovate? 

Lars Marco Andersen: We are innovators in our industry, by setting new standards for the use of SaaS tools and our employees’ optimal staffing conditions. Using innovative processes, we can maintain a high standard of our service, competitive price, and happy employees.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances?

Lars Marco Andersen: We are affected by the pandemic financially in the form of fewer new customers. Besides, we are also doing significantly more digital tasks at the moment, where we otherwise tend to have a good synergy between online and offline marketing services.

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources and what are the lessons learned?

Lars Marco Andersen: During the pandemic so far, our employees have been repatriated several times. We have also had to cancel physical meetings and hold virtual events instead whenever possible. The biggest challenge has been remote work, rather than the physical workplace. Corporate culture is the major standard in our strategy for growth and good conditions, and it goes without saying that it suffers when we cannot meet physically and be social.

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?

Lars Marco Andersen: We have come even closer to our customers over the past year. The primary reason is that we have been in contact more frequently than we usually do. Usually, we have a high Net Promoter Score (NPS) and it has only been further improved during the pandemic.

Did you benefit from any government grants, and did that help keep your business afloat?

Lars Marco Andersen: We are a growing company. Although growth has slowed down a bit, we are still growing, and therefore it has not been necessary or possible to apply for government grants.

Your final thoughts?

Lars Marco Andersen: As a company, we look forward to our employees being back in the office so that we can continue our common mission of delivering eye-level marketing as a valuable partner through Personal Service, Accessibility, Flexibility, and Credibility. Either way, it’s most important of all that we navigate safely through the pandemic.

Your website?

https://aproposbureau.dk/eng/