Spare a thought for PR queen Roxy Jacenko who’s 2020 appears to being going from bad to abysmal.
Back in March, the 40-year-old revealed that COVID-19 had seen her PR agency, Sweaty Betty, lose a staggering 85 per cent of its clients in a mere three days.
Now Jacenko has revealed that Bauer’s decision to close a number of its high-end women’s fashion magazines, namely Harper’s BAZAAR, ELLE and InStyle, has her fearing for the future of her PR business that lists a number of upmarket fashion brands as clients.
Jacenko telling B&T: “Now more than ever, where we have all been hit hard by COVID-19, the magazines we relied on to gain coverage for our clients on are almost all closed and budgets are being sliced, it’s apparent that unless we adapt and change the way we work business will not be what it was.”
Ever the canny businesswoman, Jacenko added that her decision to diversify the business had meant that fashion dollars weren’t her only source of revenue.
“Fortunately some years ago I diversified my business from being purely PR to open Talent Management, Content Creation, Social Media Management covering WeChat, Weibo and Little Red Book as well as two name sake brands as it was clear there was a change coming to PR,” Jacenko said.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph over the weekend, Jacenko painted a bleak picture for many PR agencies once the government’s JobKeeper payments were wound back.
“A lot of people are saying it is business as usual. It’s not. I don’t agree with that,” Jacenko said.
“PR in Australia has taken a hit. There is a lot of uncertainty.
“People are concerned. They are getting rid of any unnecessary expenditure and one of those things is anything to do with PR and marketing. JobKeeper has created a false sense of security,” she said.
And proof her business brain doesn’t stop ticking, Jacenko also used the Tele interview to reveal her latest -albeit left-of-centre – venture.
The PR maven revealed she’d partnered with long-time friend and Ingham’s Chicken heiress Jessica Ingham to create a “celebration and eventing” brand called XRJCelebrations.
Although what XRJCelebrations actually does is a little vague, however it appears to be a table setting and centrepiece agency for high-end corporate functions (if, and when, they return).
“I’ve never been someone who (thinks) ‘business is flying, I don’t need to worry’. I’ve always been thinking if one thing slows down, what can I do next. I’ve always had four to five things on the go,” Jacenko said.
