Brisbane's advertising professionals have delivered a frank assessment of their industry through the city's first comprehensive agency survey, revealing concerns about leadership, workplace culture and artificial intelligence (AI), AdNews can reveal.
The Brisbane Advertising Agency Sentiment Survey, nicknamed BADASS, collected insights from more than 75 people across creative, strategy, production and account management.
The survey, conducted by Otis Recruitment Company and Veracity Research, comes after a string of local closures, including Wonderkarma, nextThursday, CHEP Brisbane, Khemistry (since resurrected) and Cutting Edge.
"When we started the project it was aimed to be a fairly light and cheerful door-opener to spruik our services," said Andrew Thompson, founder of Otis Recruitment.
"But what it turned into has been a thoughtful and timely commentary as to where the local industry is at.
“Clearly with agencies and production companies with 30 year heritage closing down, the industry is at a crossroads. And clearly leadership is what will shape the future."
The survey showed leadership matters more than salary when choosing where to work. A total of 85% of respondents said great leadership is the number one reason they choose their workplace, ranking higher than salary, clients, work-from-home flexibility or the nature of the work itself.
The feedback is that good leaders are those who protect creative integrity and fight for decent briefs.
Bad leaders are seen as absent, self-interested and toxic, according to respondents.
"Because, frankly, everything flows from it," said Erin Core, managing director of Veracity Research.
Poor leadership leads to burnout, undervaluation, and safe, uninspired work. Some of the comments from respondents: “Very self-centred and yet almost completely absent leadership… complete lack of achievement recognition … multinational sweatshop.”
The survey reported agencies facing financial pressure, leading to downsizing and cautious spending.
“Budgets have contracted in a big way,” said one respondent. “Hiring is quite low, redundancies are high,” said another.
However, despite the squeeze, more than one in four agencies are actively looking to expand teams. And 37% of employees are seeking a pay rise.
The survey ranked culture as the second priority, with 71% saying it influences their agency choice. Responses included descriptions such as "multinational sweatshop" and "they treat their staff like trash".
Artificial intelligence concerns dominated responses, with 30% worried about career prospects.
One respondent said: "It would be completely idiotic to think that it's not going to take out the bottom 80% of the ad business."
However, others view AI as an opportunity to handle routine work and free creatives for strategic thinking.
Agencies that embrace AI transparently and invest in staff training will gain advantages over those using it purely for cost-cutting.
The survey comes as Brisbane prepares for the 2032 Olympics spotlight.
"The survey has given the city's ad industry a mirror - and what it sees is potential," Core said.
"A vibrant, ambitious, sometimes frustrated community that wants to create work they're proud of, without burning out or selling out."
Otis Recruitment’s Thompson, a former Cannes Gold Lion-winning executive creative director, believes the industry can recover.
"Hopefully the survey acts as a lightning rod to reset our industry and reinvent our role," he said.
"Create the kind of honest and ball-tearingly good work we're famous for. Embrace the power of AI to make million-dollar looking ads on the miniscule budgets we have.
“Win back those clients that have deserted us for shiny models down South. And have a bloody great time doing it too."
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