Computers may still be the preferred device for creative projects, but a new study shows that 29 percent of creatives use a smartphone or tablet at some point in their creative process. The data comes from a VideoBlocks study of 1,500 creatives that use the stock video platform.
Photography tops the list of mobile creations with 64 percent of respondents saying photos were part of their mobile projects. That is followed closely by video at 62 percent while half of creatives use mobile for social media projects. Design (37 percent), audio (32 percent), blogs and personal websites (26 percent) and advertisements (16 percent) are less common on mobile platforms.
“Creating on mobile isn’t the norm yet, but it’s growing fast,” said TJ Leonard, CEO of VideoBlocks. “About 30% of users rely on mobile devices for their work and that subset is incredibly active—74% use mobile at least daily or weekly for creative projects. As devices become more powerful and apps improve, these numbers will go in one direction: up.”
More survey respondents also used mobile platforms for both the shooting and editing content at 31 percent, while a quarter only shot the photo or video on a mobile device. Photo is the biggest creative project edited on mobile platforms at 84 percent, followed by video at 67 percent. Less than half of mobile creatives edit graphics (49 percent), audio (34 percent) and illustrations (23 percent) on smartphones and tablets. The 1,500 users surveyed named Adobe Spark, Canva and Pic Collage as the top creative mobile apps.
Both browsing for inspiration and searching for content sit at 15 percent of the survey’s mobile use.
Content created on a mobile app is most often destined for Facebook, the survey suggests, followed by YouTube, personal blogs, Instagram, Vimeo and Snapchat. Users younger than 45 were 60 percent more likely to use a smartphone or tablet for creative projects than those 45 and older.
VideoBlocks conducted the study after noticing a jump in mobile traffic to the stock video platform. While the study only encompasses VideoBlocks users, the data could offer insight into the way mobile devices are becoming integrated into the creative process.
“There’s a crystal clear use case for mobile among a growing subset of creators: digital marketers who need to maintain social channels and blogs,” Leonard said. “The better mobile editing gets, the better these users can do their jobs. That’s where we see the biggest opportunity in the coming years. But if Apple or Android can deliver the speed, processing power, and storage to match a desktop within a mobile device, there is definitely room to expand penetration in creative markets. The final obstacle will be finding the Goldilocks of screens–one that’s not too big, not too small, but just right.”
