SYDNEY: Despite and increasingly gloomy outlook by much of Australia’s business, it’s marketing and advertising executives remain almost universally optimistic, according to recruitment agency Aquent’s latest salary survey.

The Survey included 2,847 marketing and advertising companies in Australia and 5,658 across Asia Pacific and covers salary and employment conditions in the marketing, advertising, public relations and commercial design industries.

According to Aquent, Australia’s worst performing economy, NSW, contains some of its most upbeat executives, with 86% f those surveyed in Sydney expecting revenue growth in the next 12 months, only outdone by Perth, with 92%.

This optimism comes in the face of the latest NAB Monthly Business Survey for August that identified a fundamental downward trend in business confidence as nervousness about interest rate hikes has led to a lowering of forward orders.

However, Aquent reports that the major factors holding the advertising, marketing and public relations industries back, is finding and retaining talented staff, which is contributing to growth in wages across the board.

This has prompted some such as Will Lavender, founder of direct marketing agency Lavender, to advertise for staff overseas – recently advertising in UK magazine Campaign under the headline “Creative Poms Wanted”.

Lavender said his agency was being evermore innovative in its pursuit of talent, including offering 5% pay incentives to new staff that come direct, rather than going through a recruitment agency, and offering existing staff a 5% pay rise spotter’s fee for introducing new staff.

“The ads (in Campaign) drew a strong response from creatives across the UK,” he said.  “Surprisingly it also received a number of responses from Mumbai in India.  We also find that the direct marketing industry in the UK produces the type of direct specialists with online skills we highly prize.”