By Sarah Jones Palmer, Co-Founder, The Human Co and People & Culture Consultant, Advertising Council Australia
Across Australia’s commercial landscape, businesses are navigating a complex economic environment marked by inflationary pressures, tight margins, and rapid technological change.
The advertising sector is no exception. Data from the latest Advertising Council Australia Salary Survey, which benchmarked nearly 3,400 permanent agency staff, reflects this. Overall headcount is down 4.5%, while salary growth sits at 2%, closely tracking the national average.
While these numbers show an industry managing cost pressures, the real shift is happening inside agency walls, and it’s taking a toll on our teams.
Heightened movement across junior and mid-tier ranks points to an active reshuffling of talent as teams adapt to leaner operational models.
Concurrently, dedicated training allowances have felt the pinch of commercial tightening, with only 44% of agencies currently maintaining a formal learning and development (L&D) budget.
The view from the ground
Behind these numbers lies a very human reality. Over a drink with a couple of Group Account Directors last week, the situation reinforced a sentiment I’ve felt growing over the past couple of years.
A Group Account Director is meant to be a senior commercial lead: shaping client strategy, steering agency vision, and driving business value. Instead, most are reaching down two rungs on the ladder, acting like overqualified project directors.
It isn’t their fault, and it isn’t the fault of the mid-tier operators coming up behind them. In the rush to fill resourcing gaps, promotions are happening in fast-forward. Driven by business needs to fill immediate resource demands, the mid-tier is missing crucial development and ‘time in the trenches’ before taking on major accounts.
How this fast-tracking unfolds depends on the agency environment. In larger holding companies navigating restructures, titles are sometimes accelerated to bridge immediate operational gaps. In expanding independent agencies, mid-tier talent is promoted rapidly to service new business and is often expected to step into senior client management without formal commercial training.
Layer rapid tech adoption on top, and the pressure doubles. On one side, rapid AI adoption has slowed entry-level hiring. But automating foundational work doesn’t make execution disappear; it just pushes it upstream.
Middle managers now spend valuable strategic hours troubleshooting prompts, double-checking machine outputs, and handling administrative spillover. On the other side, because teams are stretched, senior leaders end up managing down just to keep projects on track. Instead of sharpening strategic, commercial leadership skills, our brightest mid-tier operators are caught in the middle.
When you automate the bottom and starve the middle of proper L&D, you erode the very capability needed to run tomorrow’s agencies. Middle managers aren’t failing. They are simply navigating volatile client demands and rapid tech shifts without the structured development they deserve.
What’s next
If we want resilient agencies, we have to stop treating talent investment as a luxury during lean times. This means changing how we operate.
This mix of streamlined teams and fast-paced tech adoption creates a critical opportunity: supporting mid-level managers so they can focus on more valuable commercial leadership rather than getting bogged down in day-to-day operations.
Structured development helps emerging leaders navigate complex client demands with confidence, closing the gap often left by accelerated career moves. Economic uncertainty isn’t a reason to pause talent investment: it highlights the exact need to double down on capability. By taking a proactive, future-focused approach to workforce strategy, agency leaders can convert current industry pressures into a foundation for resilience and growth.
This should include:
- Protecting the middle: Back managers in lean structures working through structured mentorship, clear feedback loops, and defined paths for progression.
- Reinvesting AI efficiencies back into supporting juniors: Rather than viewing automation through the lens of headcount reduction, leverage AI productivity gains to support entry-level output. Using AI to streamline routine execution gives junior staff the space to master foundational craft, test creative ideas, and accelerate their learning curve under senior guidance.
- Training for commercial judgment: Shift L&D focus beyond technical skills toward high-impact development in commercial strategy, client negotiation, financial literacy, and team management. Building strong commercial judgment ensures mid-tier leaders feel equipped to use the real human judgment that tech can’t replace.
- Establishing capability-based promotion benchmarks: Clear, skills-based roles and progression benchmarks so titles reflect proven capability, rather than immediate resourcing demands.
The advertising industry has always been defined by its adaptability and human ingenuity.
Technology is changing the mechanics of our work, but human capability remains our sharpest competitive edge. Reinvesting in our people today is the only way to secure our industry’s leadership for tomorrow.
