We build trusted relationships with clients. Your best interests always come first and we offer constructive advice with honesty and principle at its core.
We’re Animo PR, formerly Anita Morris Associates. True to the meaning of our new name, we approach every project with purpose and resolve. What we do is about more than making headlines and getting ‘likes’ on socials (although they certainly play their part) – it’s about inspiring audiences and earning support to help you make a difference. And we’ve been doing it for over 25 years.
Our expertise in strategic communications sets us apart, encompassing regeneration, arts & culture and civic transformation. Whether you’re bringing culture to our communities or building towns, cities or places for the future, we achieve the advocacy and momentum needed to make it happen. Let’s inform the public conversation.
We build trusted relationships with clients. Your best interests always come first and we offer constructive advice with honesty and principle at its core.
We’re a strategy-first public relations agency. It’s why we’ll interrogate your objectives to identify what’s needed for success. Strategic thinking underpins the impact we have.
Our clients often stay with us for years. These enduring relationships are built through collaborative working and a rigorous understanding of your needs.
Our work enriches communities, empowers the arts and enhances the places where we live. We focus on engaging cultural projects and the regeneration of places, buildings and the spaces in between.
We value reflection, learning and personal development. We’re constantly evolving in response to client needs, market changes and media advancements, but we always stick to our ethos.
Anita is the energy behind Animo PR, leading our team to award-winning success.
In 1999, after a decade in senior communications roles, Anita founded Animo PR (formerly Anita Morris Associates), meeting a demand for strategic communications spanning the cultural, regeneration and built environment sectors. Her experience across each sphere benefits the others, bringing fresh insight to every project.
With a strategy-first approach, Anita has produced and overseen hundreds of successful campaigns, informing public opinions and pinning destinations on the map. Beyond strategy-building, Anita is valued for her expertise in ideas generation, rooting out key messages, stakeholder engagement and a calm, confident approach to crisis communications. She’s energised by her work because it’s constantly shifting.
When she’s not shaping the narrative around the country’s most transformative projects, Anita is happiest out and about in the great outdoors – or standing front row at a Pulp gig (again).
Debbie plays a pivotal role in developing strategic solutions for our clients.
Since joining us in 2009, Debbie has proved her extensive industry knowledge time and again to deliver outstanding campaigns across the sectors. Navigating complex communications challenges is her forte; she provides trusted guidance to clients from concept to completion, engaging diverse audiences along the way.
Debbie is invaluable for her skills across campaign strategy, stakeholder engagement, project management and multi-channel communications. Her stand-out Animo PR moment was being part of the crowd when Bradford won UK City of Culture 2025 – the accumulation of years of hard work.
If you want to get in Debbie’s good books, recommend to her a new podcast or ask her about her favourite ‘80s film.
Anys develops creative, impactful media campaigns for our clients.
Anys joined Animo PR in 2007 and is trusted by clients and the media alike to bring together compelling media opportunities and steer successful events. She creates meaningful ‘moments’ for our clients and is always on hand to ensure they hit the mark. One of her (many) favourites was when Charlotte Brontë’s ‘little book’ was re-discovered and returned home to the Brontë Parsonage Museum, where it was written almost 200 years before.
From the now globally recognised Piece Hall in Halifax to Holbeck Urban Village (dubbed the coolest corner in Leeds), Anys has delivered campaigns for some of the UK’s most impressive developments. She works across arts & culture, regeneration and property development, and her interest is fuelled by the ever-changing media landscape.
Away from her desk, Anys will likely be trying out the latest local restaurant or cooking up a feast in her kitchen.
John keeps everything ticking behind the scenes.
Bringing years of expertise to the team, John’s been with us from the very beginning, having previously worked in the accountancy profession and charitable sector. He knows the ins and outs of everything we do at Animo PR and makes sure all our financial areas are strong and secure.
John plays a vital role in shaping the everyday running of the business and keeping us on track for a bright future.
Aside from enabling us to deliver our very best work, it’s not unusual to spot John out for a run through Yorkshire’s moors and dales.
“The knowledge of place-making, arts and culture demonstrated by Animo PR is second to none, and their extensive experience with the media means they are truly trusted by both clients and journalists.
They work extremely hard to deliver the results you want and they’re also absolutely brilliant and fun to work with: hands down the best PR agency I’ve worked with.”
“I consider Animo PR to be an integral part of the igloo team, having worked with us for more than 15 years, in Leeds and now in Newcastle.
Commercially smart, the team understands the targets-driven needs of the business, ensuring we secure commercial occupiers and residential sales, as well as the ‘softer’ social value requirements we build into all of our places. Animo PR delivers with informed enthusiasm and creativity every time.”
“At Muse, we transform places for the better and build a brighter future together. To do this, we assemble a team of experts that completely understand our vision, share our goals and deliver to the same high standards that we do.
This is why we’ve been working with Animo PR for more than 10 years. We trust the team’s knowledge, expertise, consistency and ability to deliver a first-class communications and PR service.”
“The build up to The Piece Hall’s reopening was an unparalleled success, and Anita and her team navigated some very choppy waters to ensure it would be.
Following that huge moment, Animo PR helped us to move the story on: launches are one thing, sustained strategic communications that deliver outcomes are something else entirely. The Animo PR team was integral in us achieving our commercial and cultural goals in the first three years of operation.”
“Through a strategic communications campaign that told Bradford’s story on its own terms and in its own voice, Anita and her team ultimately helped us to secure the UK City of Culture title.
Their ability to offer long-term strategic thinking with the insight that comes from delivery on the ground has been a valuable combination, allowing us to build on our own capabilities at a time of extraordinarily heightened activity.”
“Anita Morris and her team provided LEEDS 2023 with excellent comms strategy, advice and service. What sets them apart from other PR agencies is that they truly understand our vision and mission and so are completely aligned with delivering strategic comms that meets our objectives.
The team have been responsible for us surpassing our media coverage goals, but what is more significant, is that they have helped us to shift the narrative told about Leeds.”
“As a scaling-up business, we’ve been empowered by Animo PR. The team gets our vision, understanding our purpose and sharing our values, which means their work is an authentic amplification of our brand.
They are skilled listeners and strategic thinkers. We trust Anita and her team to bring confident, straightforward counsel and they have navigated some of the thornier challenges, preventing them from escalating into crises.
Animo PR has helped to make us known for something valuable to society.”
“Animo PR have become trusted members of the Brontë Parsonage Museum team. As well as ensuring the news about our achievements reaches the widest and most relevant audience, they have helped us to coordinate busy press calls and photography shoots, and they are always on hand to share their expertise and experience with honesty and pragmatism.
I have no hesitation in recommending them to anyone looking for intelligent PR delivered with passion and integrity.”
“More than a decade since it was developed, everyone in Leeds knows Granary Wharf and it is a thriving destination where people want to be. This is testament to the long-term planning and placemaking strategy that Animo PR developed. They wanted our residents and commercial partners to understand our objectives without us walking around holding signs above our heads.
To date, Granary Wharf has been my greatest professional achievement, hugely helped along the way by Anita and her team.”
“At the beginning of the project, we were thrilled by getting a piece in the Hull Daily Mail (and, of course, I still am), but by the end we were taking calls from The New York Times and were virtually sponsored by The Guardian for a while there.
Animo PR helped put Calderdale’s cultural offering on the national and international map, giving the media – and through them the public – the inspiration and information that they needed to visit the area.”
“Animo PR’s in-depth knowledge across the cultural, regeneration, corporate and property sectors has helped us to demonstrate the value of the Bradford UK City of Culture title as a driver for inward investment, skills development and job creation. It’s why we, as a Council, have put culture at the heart of our 10-year strategy for socially inclusive regeneration.
We see Animo PR as key in continuing to help us put Bradford on the map on an international stage.”