We have exactly the same problem in Wellington but they're called Sticky Fingers. They say they own places in town but the truth is those places are council owned and are there for anyone to put posters up. If my band want to get good coverage we have to go out at least every 2nd night to stick more up or rip off coke ads or other shit that have been posted over ours.
Its the only way for us to do it cos we can't afford to print out 50 posters then pay $80 for them to put up maybe 10 of them. If your spending a lot of your own time putting up advertising and they're posting over yours just tear the fuckers down. Thats fair.
It does defeat the purpose of NZ music month, but remember its all about money not music.

exactly the same thing goes on in CHCH with Bantam Pillstickers and has for years. i remeber doing late night poster runs 10 years ago with my band only to have all of them covered or ripped down by these assholes. my brother experienced threats and intimidation from them when he did poster runs on behalf of local bands a few years ago. i noticed posters on the city mall bollards yesterday decrying some of the things that PB get up too. Like telling local business that they have exclusive rights on the bollards, when in fact they don't.
wankers!

Right, here goes:

1) If it wasn't for poster companies every poster wall would be a mess of posters that nobody could read and everyone would paste over each other all the time. Can you imagine: someone goes in at 6, someone else at 7, someone else at 8 ..............
2) Most poster companies give good discounts to unsigned artists, community arts groups and often do postering for FREE for charities eg The Foundation for the Blind. They way they can afford to do this is by postering for corporates who can afford to pay full price, thats why use see condom posters and vodafone etc
3) Lots of there sites are leased, that means they pay money to the owner to put posters up. And some companies do actually own bollards.
4) Both Phantom and Sticky Fingers work closely with City Councils around issues such as bollards etc In fact if it werent for these companies probably alot of city councils would scrap postering altogether. I know there are people in council that view posters as graffitti and we are very lucky that the poster companies work so hard ( and spend money) to prove them wrong.
5) Postering is not expensive, it is in fact the cheapest form of advertising. And they are experts at it. Thats what you are paying for. You are also paying for them to go out everyday of the year (including christmas) to check your posters, to give you reports and send you photos, to give you advice, and to make sure no other campaign has preference over yours. In a poster company every poster is equal and therefore gets equal space on a wall (obviously dependant on how big they are and how many you have but you get the point)
6) If you think you are hard done by because your posters have been covered over by a poster company think about what YOU covered over. A lot of people (and I dont mean to generalise here but this is my experience) who do there own postering dont care about what they are covering either. If your posters are being covered by a poster company (and I can't speak for auckland here as I completely agree that postering in auckland is a mess and not particularly effective) than more than likely you have also covered up a poster placed by the poster company and that poster is probably for the local dance studios end of year show, a dance studio that probably has no money and that the poster company is more than likely putting up for next to nothing. (This is just an example but I have seen this sort of thing many times).
7) If you are a poor struggling band, and lets be realistic here, we mostly all are, than instead of going out and doing your own postering and covering up other peoples posters and than complaining when the poster company covers yours, why don’t you try talking to them! Ring them up, make an appointment to go see them, tell them the situation. They know how you feel, lots of posterers are in or involved with bands themselves. Why not organise a sponsorship deal? Get their logo on your poster in exchange for a bigger discount of postering. There are solutions.
8) Never, never use flour and water, Yuck! It looks exactly like someone has held a poster to a wall and asked a passing drunk to throw up on it and the surrounding pavement. NO poster companies use flour and water.
9) University bollards and noticeboards are controlled by student associations, poster companies have no right to cover you up there. And again I cant speak for Auckland but in Christchurch Phantom asks permission to poster uni bollards. If you have a problem in this area you need to go talk to someone in the students association.

And since I’m on a roll I may as well make a……….
10) Most poster companies are not there to fuck with nz musicians, in fact the definition of a poster company is “To Promote The Arts”. Sure they do corporate posters but why not. Its legitimate advertising and it brings you information in a colourful and interesting way. But before you all rant off about poster companies, just do this one thing for me okay: ring up The Royal New Zealand Ballet, ring up The Cholmondy Childrens home, ring up The Court Theatre, ring up The Dux De Lux, ring up Mike Chunn and ask them what they think of Phantom or Sticky Fingers.
Sure no company is perfect, but these companies work really hard to make posters work and to help kiwi musicians and the arts. Don’t complain about them on here (and how juvenile to paste anti-Phantom posters in chch, I mean come on, do people not have the guts to ring up a company and have a simple conversation with them?)
GO TALK TO THEM! Tell them your situation. Be proactive.

As a side note:

In mid 90's (approx) Seattle City banned posters from poles and other council property. This from a city that housed one of the most important poster-driven movements in the history of counter culture. Art Chantry (the king of indie poster art) moved away from his beloved Seattle not long after that.

Oh the battles we have had here in Palmerston North, absolute battles. The people who poster here all know each other and respect each others posters and know how to poster ( clean lines and symatry ) EXCEPT the commercial postering company who come here, they are total cunts and no amount of contact or communication has stopped them from coming in with their big A1 and A0 sized posters and covering us all up. I believe there is a by-law preventing the covering of arts events before their due date, however the council is not interested in enforcing this. Nice one.

Well, in my experience, what Tape says doesn't apply because bands resort to putting up their own posters because they dont get a fair deal from the companies, thats the whole point. Everybody I know who does their own postering is very considerate of others posters, because they're shit scared of pissing othger people off and having thier stuff ripped down, and because often the other posters are from bands they know. Its true the poster companies deliberately try and stamp out independents, thats why this whole thing has flared up. Why shouldn't be thankfull for the poster companies. When you take posters to them you are employing them, not the other way around. Its true they could just not take small posters, but they do so in an effort to control everything, not to help us out. Billboards belong to everyone. Most users are considerate, but the big bully just wants it all to himself.

I've totally missed the boat with this forum, but it is my pet topic so here goes:

I agree entirely with pinktricity. The problem is the dominance of companies such as sticky fingers. Poster companies can be good, but poster companies with monoplies are evil. Because they hold such a large chunk of the postering market, they can get away with charging high prices and tearing down other the posters of what little competition there is.These practices do real harm to local music and to basically any small event that relies on postering.

A major cause of the dominance problem is that councils give exclusive licences to companies. If there were a number of alternatives available, these companies couldn’t get away with such high prices, because people would choose another or company, or would do it themselves. And they couldn’t get away with tearing down other posters, as everyone else would tear down their posters in return. With exclusive licences, companies do what they like, and do a fair bit of damage to local arts in the process. Tape’s propoganda is only going to make things worse.

I see two solutions: 1. avoid using companies like sticky fingers at any cost. Basically, ignore the exclusive licences. Tell all your friends to do the same. Some of the other posts include good suggestions for doing it yourself. The less dominant companies like sticky fingers become, the less inclined they will be to tear down other posters, because they know the same could happen to them in return. And the fairered their prices will become; 2. perhaps local councils could be lobbied to stop giving exclusive licences to a company. This will mean that all posterers, whether a companies or independents, can fairly share the same space.