Five outdoor advertising contracts for Auckland Transport, estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming decade, have been suddenly pulled off the table.
According to Shayne Currie’s Media Insider column in the NZ Herald (paywalled), news that “the biggest media procurement in New Zealand history” had been dropped filtered out on Tuesday.
The current AT contracts for out-of-home assets have just weeks to run. New contracts were scheduled to be in place on January 1.
The robust tender process covered contracts for AT’s billboards, buses, trains and ferries, bus shelters, train stations/transport hubs and promotional activations.
AT says an entirely new RFP (request for proposals) – with new and updated criteria – will be issued some time in the new year.
MediaWorks and oOh!media currently hold contracts for bus exteriors and bus shelters respectively. Billboards are serviced by MediaWorks as well as Lumo, JCDecaux and Go Media.
Many OOH companies have invested significant resources into the tender process and were primed for a frantic festive period if they won contracts. This news will come as a blow to the industry.
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