Credit: National Museum of Australia
The National Museum of Australia is taking its media account to pitch, with $750,000 in annual spend up for grabs as it moves away from a fragmented buying model, AdNews can reveal.
The Canberra institution has issued a formal Approach to Market, closing May 5, with a contract start date of July 1.
The museum expects to shortlist agencies from mid-to-late May for additional discussions, with meetings able to be conducted online, leaving a tight runway to the July 1 start.
The shift follows a split model, where an incumbent agency handles paid digital while the internal marketing team buys TV, radio, print, out-of-home and cinema directly from media owners.
The museum said the model limits buying power, restricts optimisation and leads to stop-start campaign activity tied to exhibitions.
The attribution gap reinforces the point, the museum currently runs on last-click only, with no online-to-offline tracking in place.
The National Museum of Australia’s 2024–25 annual report shows how that plays out, with direct deals struck across publishers including Nine, Schwartz Media, ACM, The Guardian and Prime Television, all paid without a media agency intermediary.
Total media spend came in just under $381,000 for the year, well below the $750,000 flagged in the tender, a figure the museum has confirmed covers all spend and fees combined, not net media alone, pointing to the scale the museum is now looking to unlock.
The appointed agency will be tasked with building an always-on model, maintaining baseline digital activity year-round while scaling for major exhibitions across channels.
The museum runs two major exhibitions annually, one in summer and one in winter, each typically lasting four to six months.
Cost is the top weighted criteria at 30%, followed by capability and experience (25%) and strategic approach (25%). Capability building and compliance make up the remaining 20%.
The museum is open on commercial models, retainer, percentage-of-spend or hybrid, but is firm on transparency, requiring full disclosure of fees, commissions and rebates.
Cultural sector experience is preferred, alongside government credentials and an understanding of Commonwealth Procurement Rules.
The brief also includes a capability transfer requirement, with the museum confirming training and capability building as a core ongoing requirement rather than a one-off phase-in, with the agency expected to train internal staff and support smaller campaigns.
Agencies with federal government and cultural sector experience are expected to be in the mix.
The National Museum of Australia has been contacted for comment.
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