Behind The Brand: Marissa Pysarczuk on Building an In-House PR Team, Creative Digital PR and Making Waste Newsworthy

Digital PR is often associated with consumer brands and flashy campaigns, but Marissa Pysarczuk has built a career proving that creativity can thrive in even the most unexpected industries. As Head of PR at Business Waste, she’s transformed topics like recycling, fly-tipping, disposable vapes and litter into headline-grabbing campaigns that consistently earn national coverage, build authority and support business growth.

Since moving in-house after nearly a decade agency-side, Marissa has been focused on building Business Waste’s PR function from the ground up, creating a strategy that blends data-led campaigns, reactive storytelling, brand awareness and environmental advocacy. Whether she’s campaigning for a ban on disposable BBQs, calculating the value of metals lost in discarded vapes or even helping launch the UK’s “Buffest Binmen” charity calendar, her work shows that almost any topic can become newsworthy with the right creative approach.

We caught up with Marissa to discuss building an in-house PR team, making technical industries interesting, why curiosity is her biggest competitive advantage and how she sees Digital PR evolving over the coming years.

About Marissa Pysarczuk

Marissa Pysarczuk is Head of PR at Business Waste, where she leads the company’s in-house PR strategy at Business Waste. After almost nine years agency-side, progressing from Outreach Executive to Digital PR Manager, she moved brand-side to build a PR department focused on driving brand awareness, earning authoritative coverage and supporting long-term business growth. Alongside her role at Business Waste, she also oversees strategy for Embargo, and is a regular speaker on Digital PR, outreach and campaign strategy.

Working In-House at Business Waste

What does a typical week look like for you at Business Waste?

A typical week at Business Waste starts with our Monday morning team meeting, where we all meet to discuss what our work and priorities are for the week with our Director. Ideas are shared, and any plans are amended as needed.

Every other Tuesday, we're at our York office, and we use these days to work on more collaborative tasks like ideation, retrospectives of work or planning for social media. We'll take the opportunity to chat with others in the company and try to glean any insights which may be useful.

Throughout the week, we're constantly checking the news to see what's happening both in the world of waste and the wider news cycle to see if there are any stories with relevance to us. Outside of this, I'm usually working on strategy, data collection or active Digital PR outreach. If I'm not on direct digital PR tasks, I'll be working on reporting or helping to up-skill the team.

Friday afternoons revolve around planning for the following week, and we dedicate some time as a team to learning and development to ensure we always have time to keep on top of our industry, the SEO landscape or technical skills.

You moved from agency life into an in-house role, what’s surprised you most about working brand-side?

I think the freedom, I always knew there would be fewer hoops to jump through, but it was such a pleasant surprise to be given so much autonomy to execute strategy in the way I believe will produce the best results.

What originally attracted you to moving into an in-house leadership role?

Autonomy and the ability to dedicate my full time and attention to one topic. I really wanted to be able to get stuck into one specific area. I think when you have the time to find the unique quirks and interesting facts about a topic, that's where ideas can be most fruitful.

Aside from that, I had worked in an agency for 8 years, and I was ready for a change and wanted to work somewhere with more freedom. Agencies can be great for variety, but I found you were very stuck to specific processes, rules and stringent KPIs.

What’s been the biggest learning curve since leading PR internally?

I think how important brand and tone of voice are. It's something you don't really get full insight into unless you are in-house. But being able to work internally within a company, you really get to know and appreciate how the company wants to be seen, what leaders are most proud of and what image they are trying to project.

Has moving in-house changed the way you think about campaign success?

I don't know if it's changed the way I think about it, but it has allowed me to celebrate wins in the way I feel is right. We all know that relevancy, link targeting, anchor text, and so on are more important than quantity of links, but in-house, it feels as though you are less held to quantity, and so you're able to report on the elements that matter. Luckily, I have a very knowledgeable manager who understands what matters when it comes to the SEO benefit of links.

What qualities do you think make someone genuinely well-suited to working in-house?

Curiosity, patience, and attention to detail.

1. Curiosity because you are going to be working on a smaller span of topics. You need to have a genuine interest in the market you work in, and you must have the ability to dig out new ideas, new angles and unique ways of approaching stories.

2. Patience, because we're rarely in a rush here. It's all about quality results over quantity. It's better to spend more time getting a dataset or a press release right than to fire it out to hit a monthly KPI. The pace is slower, and the strategy is more long-term.

3. Attention to detail, because you are representing your company and brand. You need to understand what the goal is we're all working towards and how your work can support that. You need to understand how what we communicate externally can impact things internally.

How Business Waste Plans Digital PR Campaigns, Reactive Opportunities and Long-Term Brand Growth

How far in advance are you usually planning campaigns and reactive opportunities?

Campaigns are usually planned anywhere from a month to a few months in advance, depending on the size. Reactive ideas which rely on seasonality can be planned well in advance, but anything which is newsjacking will be planned there and then and prioritised over other work, so we can ensure we're inserting ourselves into fresh news stories as often as possible.

One challenge people often associate with in-house PR is balancing creativity with brand protection, how do you approach that at Business Waste?

There are clear brand guidelines for us to follow. We know what the USPs are that we are trying to convey, and we also understand what we don't want to be seen as. All ideas will be seen by our manager and director before going ahead, so they act as a final stop to anything that could be problematic.

We're lucky to have the internal team on hand who can give us the OK on any more 'risky' or 'sensitive' ideas.

What’s a recent Digital PR campaign you’re particularly proud of and why did it perform so well?

Very recent, so we've not seen the full results yet, but we've just sent out a campaign which looks at how much value could be gained from recycling materials in vapes.

Vape disposal is a huge talking point in the industry at the moment, with vape fires in bin lorries every single day, plenty of litter still occurring, and people simply not understanding the dangers and loss of resources of throwing vapes in the bin.

We wanted to insert ourselves into the conversation without repeating what's already been said, and so we looked at calculating the value of lost precious metals and how a deposit-based system for vapes may help to see some of these captured and recycled. We estimated this could amount to £6.3m worth of lithium and copper annually.

We really tried to tap into the fact that waste is only waste when people see it that way, often, it's just a missed resource. So much of what we throw away can be recycled, reused or converted to energy, and we felt that if more people understood that, it might help to change behaviour.

What trends are you personally paying attention to right now?

AI, I mean, who isn't! Also, cause-led campaigns, as we work in an environmental space, we want to be working on as many ideas as we can that will genuinely make a difference.

Has working in-house changed the way you approach ideation and campaign planning compared to agency life?

To be completely honest, I don't think it has changed much. I was fortunate to work at agencies that were very strong on creativity and ideation, and that's influenced a lot of the methods we use here today.

I would say that a big difference in our approach is that we are a B2B business, so we may have to source our inspiration a little differently, looking at media outside of traditional press, attending industry webinars and ensuring we are engaging with other professionals in the industry.

We're also lucky to have easy access to both quantitative and qualitative data from our teams in the office, which can help to inspire or shape stories.

Building PR Buy-In: Demonstrating Value Across the Business

How do you communicate the value of PR internally to wider stakeholders or leadership teams?

We monitor everything from the number of links, to where each link is pointing and its relevancy, right through to how the website is performing and the impact on our business' sales figures.

It can be challenging to get those who aren't from an SEO background to understand Digital PR and its place in the business, but we're constantly working to make our reporting as clear as possible and provide opportunities for us to educate others.

Business Waste works in a technical industry, how do you make those topics interesting to journalists?

Fortunately, waste is a topic which affects everything we do in life, so it isn't as difficult as many assume. Environmental concerns are a major topic, and many businesses and consumers are looking to reduce their impact.

However, some key methods we use include providing data where we can to illustrate our points, using projections to show the impact on the future, and always tying topics back to the real-world impact on consumers.

What do you think brands and PR teams need to do to maintain trust with journalists moving forward?

I think the main thing I go back to is, if you have nothing to hide, then why hide anything?

The more information you can provide about your business and experts, the better. Have photos, bios, previous coverage, and links to social media to hand. Case studies and customer reviews, while not necessarily in the control of Digital PR teams, are great tools to illustrate real-world experience and trustworthiness.

I do think social media is one of the best tools for showcasing your business, telling the story of who you and your employees are and showing real faces and stories behind the business.

Building an In-House Career and What’s Next for Digital PR

Having worked both agency-side and in-house, what makes an agency genuinely valuable to an internal PR team?

Agencies can provide extra resources where you need them, and often have all the tools and resources at hand. For some businesses, it's the best option to get support with marketing without having to make heavy investments.

Not only this, but having worked in agencies, I can appreciate how having such a wide mix of minds can really help to propel creativity.

What advice would you give agency PRs looking to move into an in-house PR role?

Ensure you pick a sector that you can get excited about. Whether that's because it relates to your day-to-day hobbies, or because you've worked on it before and you know you can produce great results. In my career, I found that some of the 'less glamorous' industries are actually the ones I had a wealth of ideas for and gained the most satisfaction from.

Make sure you're comfortable working more independently; you'll likely take on more responsibility and manage your time more on your own.

How do you think the role of in-house Digital PR teams will evolve over the next few years?

I think we'll move toward a blend of traditional and digital. We're seeing now just how important brand awareness and other channels are for SEO and AI citation. I think we'll see a change to more campaigns that have both online and offline touch points, that carry through from press releases, to social, to events and right through to marrying up with sales strategy.

Marissa’s career is proof that great Digital PR isn’t about having the most glamorous product or service. It’s about finding the stories that matter, uncovering overlooked data and understanding how your expertise can contribute to wider conversations.

Whether that’s taking the time to fully understand a specialist industry, working closely with internal experts or spotting opportunities where others only see everyday topics, Marissa believes the strongest campaigns come from asking better questions and looking beyond the obvious angle.

Her approach also reflects the changing role of in-house PR. Rather than focusing solely on coverage or links, today’s teams are expected to influence brand awareness, support commercial objectives, contribute to wider marketing activity and build long-term authority. At Business Waste, that means everything from data-led campaigns and reactive commentary to public awareness initiatives, environmental campaigns and even creative projects like the UK’s “Buffest Binmen” calendar, all helping position the business as a recognisable voice within its industry.

For anyone considering a move in-house, Marissa’s story is a reminder that specialising doesn’t mean sacrificing creativity. In fact, the more deeply you understand a business and its audience, the more opportunities you uncover to tell stories that genuinely stand out.