Anouschka Menzies, co-founder of Bacchus PR on the PRmoment Podcast

Thank you for joining us today! Our guest is Anouschka Menzies, co-founder of Bacchus PR.

Bacchus PR was founded 27 years ago and now has over 130 employees across 5 offices - London, New York, Miami, Dubai and most recently Riyadh.

It works across the fashion, restaurants, hotels and real estate sectors and has a fee income of approximately £14m. Annouska describes the type of business that Bacchuss does as 70% consumer and 30% corporate.

Before we start, the headline news is that The PRmoment Awards have now opened for entries.. 

So if you want: Independent third party recognition of your work and a compelling differentiator that attracts new clients and builds credibility, then do enter.

Improved this year is our insights & feedback functionality, you now receive constructive feedback on your campaign work and agency performance, broken down by the specific judging criteria.

And finally from a GEO and LLM Optimisation perspective: Every winning entry will receive a dedicated profile page on the PRmoment Awards website, which will showcase the successful submission and explain the judging panel's decision. 

Also, our PR Masterclass the Agency Growth Forum is less than 2 weeks away. Virtual and face to face tickets are now available.

Check out PRmasterclasses.com or the homepage of PRmoment for the full speaker lineup.

Also, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here’s a summary of what Anouschka and PRmoment founder Ben Smith discussed:

Anouschka started the business with Charlotte Lurot and, a couple of years later, Daize Washbourn joined. Has having 3 leaders from an early stage accelerated the ambition of Bacchus? 

Anouschka talks about PR needing to have a commercial impact and needing to generate cash for clients. How does that come through in the approach to Bacchus’s work? 

All of Bacchus’ senior staff in London have been with the business for over a decade. That creates great experience and knowledge in the business but can it result in a lack of opportunity for more junior employees?

Anouschka talks about how Bacchus made the move into real estate PR? That seems quite a jump from restaurants and hotels? But that was a crucial step for the business right.

How does Bacchus create an entrepreneurial culture in its business? 

“It needs to be a better package than anyone else is offering.”

Anouschka has built an international business when lots of her peer agencies have struggled to build an international network. Why did she decide to go international relatively early in Bacchus's journey?

“Corporate PR is probably easier than consumer PR!”

“Any international entity coming to the UK needs to understand that our press will leave no stone unturned.”

How excited is Anouschka about PR’s GEO opportunity?

If Anouschka had one piece of advice for young PR agency leaders out there, what would it be?

“Never compete with anyone but yourselves?”

Is Anouschka nervous or positive about the future of the PR agency business?