Durham, N.C.—Despite the gyrations of the stock market, marketers plan to boost spending on all forms of marketing, according to an online survey of 249 marketing executives conducted in August by Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

The CMO Survey, which is conducted every year in February and August, found that marketing budgets are expected to increase 9.1% over the next 12 months. Additionally, marketing hires are expected to increase 7.2% in the same time period.

The survey also found that marketers were pessimistic about the overall economy, with the overall average of respondents saying their optimism level was a 52.2 about the economy on a scale of 1 to 100. The lowest previous level was 47.6 in February 2009.

“These results show that while executives feel the fear of all the doomsayers operating in financial markets, these same executives are reporting positive performance gains and are spending despite the negative news,” Christine Moorman, director of the survey, said in a statement. “I conclude that these sources closer to company operations, especially in revenue and demand-generating activities like marketing, are trying to tell us that market reactions over the past month may be grossly exaggerated.”