Advertisers will seek compensation for the six days their ads sat unseen on buses parked at depots.
Advertising industry experts estimate each bus could have carried $800 to $1300 of advertising during the six-day strike by Stagecoach bus drivers. With about 600 buses sitting idle up to $780,000 of advertising
may have been disrupted.
The chief executive of media buyer Starcom, Paul Maher, said his agency had asked for compensation for all of its clients, who include businesses such as Telecom, where their advertising was affected. Starcom was seeking compensation in the form of a "make-good" extension of any campaigns affected.
"We're making sure we're doing everything we can to make sure campaigns deliver," said Maher.
Total Media's Martin Gillman said he would expect compensation for affected bus ads, but the strike probably made little difference to bus shelter advertising.
"The value you get from bus shelter advertising is not the people waiting in it but the traffic driving past."
Mediacom's Michael Carney said a Price Rollback campaign his company was running for The Warehouse had been affected, but with warning of the strike Mediacom had been able to negotiate an extra six days for the campaign.
Advertising on Stagecoach buses is controlled by Buspak, part of APN Outdoors. That, in turn, is owned by APN News & Media, which also publishes the Herald.
APN Outdoors' Sydney-based chief executive Richard Herring said Buspak had been in touch with all clients that might have been affected.
"We have indicated we will treat them fairly and they won't be disadvantaged by this," he said. "We would clearly act in good faith."
Herring would not confirm the cost of advertising disrupted by the strike or whether it was a material cost.
Carney said he expected the company would be able to absorb the ads displaced by the strike without disrupting other business. "I suspect it will be a matter of inventory management," he said.
