RMIT puts media account out for pitch
RMIT is on the hunt for a new media agency.
Melbourne’s RMIT University has called a pitch for its media planning and buying account, putting its incumbent agency, The Media Store, on notice.
The university, which spent $27 million on consolidated advertising across its global campuses in 2024, has put out a request to media agencies as part of what is understood to be a five-year review.
The Media Store CEO Stephen Leeds confirmed to Mumbrella that the agency would re-pitch, having first won the account in 2021.
That year, the university restarted its domestic advertising after cutting it sharply to just $3.7 million in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Two years after appointing The Media Store, RMIT merged its brand and creative briefs to hand a consolidated new account to Dentsu Creative.
As of its last annual report for 2024, RMIT spent $14.6 million on advertising its brand domestically and $26.9 million consolidated across its global entities, which include RMIT Vietnam.
Meanwhile, last year RMIT quietly said farewell to its marketing leader Chaminda Ranasinghe, who joined the university as CMO in 2018 and was promoted to chief experience officer in 2020.
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He oversaw the university’s global marketing, student recruitment, market intelligence, and digital experience for customers and alumni before leaving in May 2025 to join educator JMC Academy as chief customer officer.
His role does not appear to have been directly replaced, with oversight of these functions currently sitting with the interim deputy vice-chancellor of international and engagement Layton Pike, while Carmen Gould serves as director of global marketing.
