Advertisers facing creative challenge

But, while there are many advantages to pairing with local clients, it is also crucial for companies to maintain the standard of business practices that allowed many of the multinational firms to become the global successes they have.

Crunch time

According to Wang, there are over 1 million people working in the advertising industry of some 100,000 small, medium-sized and large advertising agencies. Logically with such big numbers finding talent should not be an issue at all for the industry. But that is far from the truth.

Lured by prestigious titles and pay rises, China's top advertising talent are able to set their own terms when it comes to their employers. The result is a big strain on the market

"It's a developing industry. It's only been around for 15 to 20 years, whereas in the US or Europe it has been around for 100 years, so the experience in the talent pool is quite small."

The relative youth of the industry in China has left many Chinese graduates seeking more traditionally profitable careers like law or medicine, Hunt said.

The result is an increasing number of young Chinese workers holding onto titles that would normally take decades to earn if they were working in the US or Europe.

"They're not really aware of the advertising industry, so they don't see it as an opportunity," he said.

Companies, however, are making efforts to address the talent drain.

Working with the Ministry of Education and Shanghai Art and Design Academy, the WPP School of Marketing and Communications enrolled its first class at the start of the 2011 school year. Selecting 50 out of more than 1,300 applicants, the school is designed to nurture the next generation of top advertising talent.

Despite there being a lack of numbers, the past 10 years has seen an impressive increase in the quality of creative works imagined by China talents has gone up considerably.

In June this year, Ogilvy and Mather Shanghai won gold in the outdoor advertising category at the internationally renowned Cannes Lion advertising competition for its Coca-Cola advertisement depicting two hands sharing a bottle of Coke.

It marks the second year in a row that China-based advertising talent has earned top marks at the prestigious global event. JWT won a gold last year for an advertisement created for Samsung.

Graham Fink, chief creative director for Ogilvy and Mather, who oversaw the creation of the award-winning Coke ad, said the victory indicates a significant benchmark for the nation's creativity.