When Jessica Sneddon started working in PR, she landed in one of the best possible places for a first lesson in how to run a business. Fanfare Communications, a London restaurant agency run by two women who had helped launch Gordon Ramsay's media career, gave her autonomy from day one. She was their first full-time hire. They trusted her to run accounts.
It shaped everything about how she leads today.
"I wanted to be the boss I would want to work for."
Jessica is the co-owner and co-founder of Soundbite PR — an Edinburgh-based PR agency that works exclusively with hospitality, food tourism and food and drink businesses. In this episode of Scale HER Up, she joins Brenda to talk about niche, growth, co-founders and what it really takes to build a business that people genuinely want to be part of.
Why specialise — and why it's the most profitable decision you'll make
Soundbite PR works in hospitality. Full stop. They're not a general PR agency that also does hospitality. They are a hospitality PR agency, and that distinction matters more than it might first appear.
Their accountant — who also only works with agencies — told them something that Jess found herself coming back to: businesses that specialise are the most profitable. Not because they set out that way, but because depth of knowledge and genuine passion for an industry is hard to fake, impossible to replicate quickly, and immediately obvious to the clients who most need it.
"I wouldn't want to take your money. I could build a media list for a lighting company. But I know hospitality. I really know what I'm talking about within hospitality."
They do occasionally get enquiries from businesses outside their world — a friend's lighting company, a finance client. They say no. Not because the tactics would be different, but because the understanding wouldn't be the same. And that understanding is the product.
The real value of PR — and how to see it working
Edinburgh has a lot of restaurants. A lot. When a new one opens, the question isn't whether it's good — the question is whether anyone knows it exists yet.
PR gets the critics in. PR lands the "10 best restaurants in Edinburgh" mentions. PR creates the early buzz that fills tables while the word of mouth is still building. And Jess is candid: she can look at any restaurant list and tell you which ones have PR and which ones don't.
"If you want to be on that list — having PR really helps."
But she's equally clear that quality speaks for itself. There are restaurants in Edinburgh she loves that have never had a PR agency. The customers become the PR. Great food and a great experience create their own noise. PR is the amplifier — it's not a substitute for the thing itself.
The harder case is when a restaurant opens without PR and then comes back three months later wondering why nobody's talking about them. Newness is the lifeblood of news. That window doesn't stay open forever. It can be worked around, but the bigger impact — the critics, the openings coverage, the launch features — comes from being in from the start.
For longer-term clients, Soundbite's work is about creating moments: a chef collaboration, a seasonal ingredient trend, a supplier story. Always on the news agenda. Always finding the angle.
The organic growth nobody notices until they look back
Jess didn't start Soundbite from a business plan. She started by working from home, building clients, finding that she needed senior support, and crossing paths again with Martha Bryce — someone she'd first met when Martha was at VisitScotland and Jess was at the Balmoral. Martha's clients were in food tourism and produce. Jess's were in hotels and restaurants. They were almost designed to work together.
"Two heads are better than one. We really helped one another, and it just felt like the natural fit."
They're also both Capricorns, born a day apart — Martha on Christmas Day, Jess on Boxing Day. Written in the stars, perhaps.
The growth that followed was, in Jess's words, seamless and organic. No big bang. No moment of decision. Just gradually: a shared office, a first hire, another team member, outsourced bookkeeping, more clients, a name on the wall.
"Suddenly you go, oh. Look what we've got here. How did we get here? That's amazing."
Today, Soundbite has a team of nine full-time and one part-time team member based down south for London media access. Around 30 clients. Two director-level team members who have been with them for five years. And a culture that means, in seven or eight years, nobody has ever left to go to a competitor.
Being the boss you'd want to work for
Jess has had bosses who micromanaged. She's had bosses who set unrealistic expectations in client meetings and then handed those expectations down to the team to somehow deliver. She remembers one client who wanted to be the next Vita Coco — a drinks brand that had been endorsed by a supermodel — and being sent into meetings where the question was, "Why isn't this in Kate Moss's hands yet?"
That experience was instructive.
"I'm never going to do that to my team. I'm never going to go into a meeting and say, 'We will deliver this,' and then have my team inherit a completely ridiculous challenge they're never going to achieve."
She wanted to bring autonomy to Soundbite. Trust. The freedom to take an account in the direction that makes sense, without someone second-guessing every decision. And she wanted realistic conversations with clients — saying yes to what's genuinely achievable, and no to what isn't.
That culture extends to the practicalities: Soundbite runs a nine-day fortnight, meaning every alternate Friday off. Hybrid working, with everyone in the Edinburgh office on Tuesdays. Flexibility around appointments, holidays, family. Martha brings her expertise in HR. Jess focuses on the hospitality side.
"I don't think any bit is compromised."
The two pieces of advice she'd give every business owner
Before the episode ended, Jess added two things she'd wished she'd known earlier.
First: outsource your finance, and find an accountant who really understands your type of business. Soundbite works with the WOW Agency — a firm that only works with agencies, produces annual benchmark reports comparing businesses by turnover bracket, and runs webinars where agency owners can meet, compare notes, and reality-check how they're actually doing. It's made an enormous difference to how Soundbite understands its own performance.
Second: do your tax return as soon as possible after the year ends. Don't wait until January.
"I had one year where we'd grown and I got a bit of a shock. I thought, 'This is not quite what I've been putting away.'"
She and Martha are, by their own description, words people. They both studied English Literature. In another parallel that feels like destiny, Martha studied at Glasgow and Jess in Birmingham — but both had a deferred offer to Glasgow, which would have put them in the same year. Neither is naturally a numbers person. Which is exactly why knowing that about yourself — and getting the right support — matters so much.
About Jessica Sneddon
Jessica Sneddon is the co-owner and co-founder of Soundbite PR, an Edinburgh-based PR agency specialising in hospitality, food tourism and food and drink production. She co-founded the agency with Martha Bryce after careers at the Balmoral Hotel, House of Fraser and Fanfare Communications in London. Soundbite's clients include some of Scotland's most celebrated hotels, restaurants, distilleries and food producers.
