A big trend that we see rising is social media. Searches for “Instagram” are up 461%. Searches for “YouTube” and “Facebook” are also surging. Creators are continuing to grow the content they produce for social media and we don’t see that changing soon as the need for design templates, video, and imagery within the creative community continues to grow. The demand for this content could be tied to recent news coverage and cultural commentary focusing on social media and the role it plays in our society and personal lives.

Authentic content is still king.

When reality gets heavy, some of us escape to fantasy entertainment. We’ve seen a recent uptick in searches for futuristic, future, robot, fantasy and dream. In recent years, shows like HBO’s Westworld and Netflix’s Black Mirror have popularized a genre with ideas of futuristic technology at the core. The dreamy and often haunting visuals of futuristic fantasy are heavily influencing media and design right now.

We looked at content types and topics that experienced a large increase in searches over the last three months. These large groupings searches indicate content areas that are currently in need.

Japan – Scenery, landmarks, food, and people from Japan, particularly Tokyo have jumped in searches.

Sports – Fans, supporters, athletes, and arenas are all being celebrated.

Landscapes – Beautifully shot landscapes had the biggest increase in search popularity.

We think the fact that the terms below have decreased in popularity indicates that customers are transitioning away from broadly represented topics and general stock themes.

Business – Traditional business scenes tend to lack authenticity and don’t accurately represent many jobs or workplaces today.

Animals – Customers are more focused on human content lately. Birds, dogs, and wild animals have all seen a decline in search frequency.

Watercolor – While abstract designs remain popular, the watercolor trend seems to be fading.

It’s worth noting that holiday-themed content spikes as the holidays approach. However, there has been a decline associated with holiday-related searches lately indicating this type of content may not be as popular with our customers as it has been in the past. When capturing holiday content, make sure you are producing and uploading early. We start seeing an uptick in searches and downloads two months before the holidays with most of the activity happening one month before. Searches go down to almost zero immediately after the holiday so there will not be demand after the holiday has ended until the following year.