With Agency Spotlight, we’re featuring the independent PR and marketing agencies that Fashionista loves to work with. Meet the hardworking professionals behind them and discover what it really takes to make it in fashion publicity.

Sydney Schiff, 30, founded her agency Sydney On The Scene in 2021 after more than eight years of experience at various agencies, where she found herself unexpectedly running entire departments and teams at a young age. Based in New York City, Schiff studied Advertising and Marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology (graduating summa cum laude); but, ironically, she didn’t initially feel super aligned with the PR industry.

“PR people get a bad rap,” says Schiff. “I didn’t like the standard of yes-manning clients in order to keep them happy due to setting expectations that were beyond unrealistic. I’m an honest person, so it felt really against my personal values to tell people we could accomplish things that couldn’t necessarily be promised, especially in earned media.”

It was this commitment to transparency that cost Schiff her job at the last agency she worked at, ultimately leading her to “cannonball into freelance.” She continues, “If I failed, I’d end up back at a desk or being a barista. I took my severance check and ran with it.” 

She trusted her hands-on experience to know what’s really necessary for a publicist’s success, versus what’s just fluff. “I don’t think the glitz and glam is important, you need clients who you believe in, who believe in you and who are doing something press-worthy.” That’s in addition to “strong work ethic and a healthy amount of coffee.”

Financial transparency with clients is also crucial. “I think the most important thing you can do is communicate with your clients; when you’re entertaining on behalf of them, they need to pay for that and it needs to be in their contract. When you’re traveling, bake in a per-diem in your agreements,” she says. “I recently heard of an onboarding fee that pays for CRMs or databases — Slack, Launchmetrics, Muckrack etc. — that agencies charge to all clients at the top of the year or upon signing. We’ll be implementing this model this year.”

Schiff specializes in supporting emerging brands, with a deep understanding of the industry’s constant evolution. “The special place our brands sit in, is that they are past the space that an Etsy seller would be in, but they’re not a Nordstrom or an Amazon, and so that specific niche of emerging and evolving brands is particularly challenging,” she explains. “Especially with the price of influencers skyrocketing and tariffs overtaking, there’s been a lot of learning curves on how to navigate the landscape with a more limited budget.”

Some of Schiff’s notable clients currently include Kada, Brigade, P.F. Flyers and Huha. She finds herself especially supportive of brands with strong female founders and a charitable approach, such as with Huha and Kada.

The founder admits she could do without the necessary administrative work, but loves the camaraderie of her job, often sharing contacts, resources, teams, event databases and more with her peers. With plans to expand into a new office space soon and plenty of exciting client news on the horizon, keep an eye on Sydney on the Scene.

To work with Sydney, contact thescene@sydneyschiff.com. 

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