Roxy Jacenko focuses on building her brands

Sydney PR maven Roxy Jacenko subscribes to H.G Wells’ famous mantra, “adapt or perish”.

Roxy Jacenko at the offices of her PR agency Sweaty Betty, in Sydney’s Paddington. Picture: Britta Campion

Sydney PR maven Roxy Jacenko subscribes to H.G Wells’ famous mantra, “adapt or perish”.

When the coronavirus brought the Australian economy to a sudden halt in March, Jacenko’s successful Sweaty Betty PR outfit lost 85 per cent of its business in just three days.

Knowing most of her regular clients wouldn’t be opening their wallets for at least another six months, Jacenko says she had to get creative in order to stay afloat.

And the 40-year-old says she has been pleasantly surprised by the strength and durability of her brand.

“What I’ve learnt is the Roxy Jacenko brand has got pull,” she says.

“There is a lot of growth now for me in terms of personal brands. I do an online course now, which is sort of half a million dollars a year in revenue for me.

“Because of COVID-19, we had to pivot the 700-person seminars — which used to be held all around Australia — and make them online. That has been a really good one for me.”

Jacenko is currently putting the finishing touches on her second online course, titled The Marketing Bootcamp. The five-week course will kick off mid-October, consisting of live Facebook chats as well as social media and event training.

She is not the only public relations executive to see the value of online courses at a time when the industry has effectively closed down.

Melbourne PR queen Judy Romano — who was instrumental in creating the birdcage enclosure at Flemington Racecourse — and business partner Gareth Beck have also moved into industry training following the cancellation of major events during the coronavirus crisis.

Jacenko, who was thrust into the media spotlight when her husband Oliver Curtis was jailed for insider trading in 2016, says the other key lesson she’s learnt during the past six months is that products are much easier to sell than service.

Jacenko points to the popularity of her new candle business XRJ Celebrations, which she started with her friend and Ingham’s Chicken heiress Jessica Ingham two months ago as a “fun project” during COVID-19.

“It’s become a very, very profitable business but what it shows me again is ‘product rather service’ — you know the service business is so tough. Customers want blood.

Jacenko also said her hair accessories business Pixie’s Bows, which was named after her daughter Pixie Rose Curtis, is also doing “very well”.

The online business was set up in 2011 and is also available in Myer department stores.

“Again, people love brands. They love to be immersed in that person’s actual life.”

As well as working on her businesses, Jacenko is set to debut on Seven’s reality show SAS Australia, her second TV stint after appearing on Celebrity Apprentice on Nine in 2013.

Jacenko describes her time on SAS as short but memorable after fracturing her hip and pelvis six weeks before filming kicked off.

The outspoken blonde said she did SAS because she wanted to make money, rather than the fame associated with being on TV.

“A lot of people mistake me doing any of these things … ‘Oh, she wants fame’. Well, no, it’s not a fame thing, it’s an opportunity that leads to other things. And you know what, I want money in the bank.”

Jacenko filmed SAS in the NSW Snowy Mountains, along with more than a dozen celebrities, including convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby.

SAS will premiere on October 19, going head-to-head with Nine’s The Block and Ten’s Junior MasterChef, in the final major TV ratings’ battle of the year.