Macquarie University
Raising Macquarie University’s voice above its competitors
Challenge
Macquarie University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering comprises leading academics in a range of highly topical areas, yet it saw its competitors’ outperforming them in responding to the news agenda.
While the internal communications team produced strong proactive work, they lacked the fast, agile newsjacking capability needed to respond to breaking stories. This had led to a lower share of voice in in tier one news media, an essential channel for raising brand preference with the parents of prospective students.
Having worked with previous partners who hadn’t successfully engaged the academics, willingness to participate was low.
The goal was to engage a dependable, collaborative PR team to work as a reactive press office that brought Macquarie’s experts back into national conversations.
Solution
The solution was clear: quickly engage and deeply understand the academics, while implementing a structured process for predicting, monitoring and responding to the news agenda.
This included setting up smart monitoring and rapid‑response workflows, preparing tailored backgrounders and talking points to shortcut response times, and spending time with academics to refine messaging, build media confidence and deepen trust and cooperation.
Our targeted journalist matrix prioritised the right spokespeople with the right journalists through an outcomes-focus media relationship building approach. The result was a reactive PR engine that consistently positioned Macquarie’s academics ahead of more established competitors.
Outcome
-
Across 2025 and 2026, the program delivered 1,165 media items, reaching more than 28 million people and generating over $11.5 million in ASR.
-
Within the first six months, the Faculty’s competitive share of voice on science topics increased by more than 100%, significantly strengthening Macquarie’s position in national science reporting.
-
In September 2025, a leading academic from the Faculty of Science and Engineering led Macquarie University’s monthly media impact ranking with 119 stories driven by rapid newsjacking and wide national syndication
-
Academics became more confident and media‑ready, several emerged as regular go‑to experts, and journalists increasingly approached the team directly for comment — clear proof that Macquarie’s experts were becoming trusted, authoritative voices in their fields.
