9th Annual Survey of Creative Pros Indicates COVID is Having a Lingering Effect

Work from anywhere causes shift in creative process and increases in workload.

NEW YORK, Sept. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- VisualSteam announces the release of its 9th Annual Survey of Creative Pros: Visual Content & Licensing.

The survey is sent to over twenty-five thousand creative pros, including creative directors, art directors, publishers, photo editors, graphic designers and marketing professionals. The goal of the survey is to provide creators, licensors and distributors with customer feedback on needs, likes and the many challenges faced when searching for and licensing visual content.

The survey covers a wide range of topics and provides results from total participants and by segment. We include qualitative questions like "Has COVID had any lasting impact on the way you work, or your image choices?" Creative professionals indicated that COVID is having a lingering effect on their work. Participants said that the shift to "work from anywhere" has changed the creative process from collaboration to workflow. They said, however, that image selection is getting back to "normal" although they need more visual content with "heart."

In this survey, we explore content and marketing trends, favorite destinations and who creatives name as their "go-to" resource. Getty Images reclaimed the top spot this year while Google Images fell to number 6. The survey also includes questions like "how many projects do you work on per month," and "what is the average turn-around time per project?" It is, perhaps, no surprise that creatives say that they are handling more projects per month, need more images per project, and all at a time when budgets remain flat. The most important issue, according to creatives, continues to be finding the best, most relevant content to "fit the narrative," quickly and easily.

"In the past, our surveys have identified early market shifts including the move toward subscriptions, the growth in multi-media licensing, the emergence of free content and new providers like Unsplash, and the growing demand for vertical content," says Leslie Hughes, VisualSteam's founder. "This year's survey is full of information on topics that range from how creatives define quality to the rise of integrated design tools. Creatives are looking for solutions to improve search, save time, keep costs down and that will allow them to find the content they need."

VisualSteam wants to recognize and thank the sponsors of this year's survey: Gold Sponsor Dreamstime (https://www.dreamstime.com/#ref7703558), Silver Sponsor Envato Elements (https://elements.envato.com/) and general sponsor, https://iSPYVisuals.com.

To request a copy, please email Liz at [email protected].

For more information about VisualSteam, please go to www.visualsteam.com, or email [email protected].

VisualSteam (www.visualsteam.com) is a marketing services organization that specializes in digital transformation and visual content markets. We specialize in market intelligence and strategic planning, working with companies, producers, creators, and distributors, to identify and respond to market forces.

Media Contact:
Liz McGovern
646-770-3501
[email protected]

SOURCE VisualSteam