• by Colin Kirkland , December 22, 2022

According to a new Adobe study, non-professional creators have been working harder during the 2022 holiday season than they have over the course of the year, engaging more frequently with audiences and brands and monetizing more content.

Adobe focuses on two types of creators in the United States: “non-professional creators,” or those who post, share and promote their own creative activities such as photography and writing, and original social-media content creation, and “monetizers,” or creators who earn income through these creative activities.

When looking at 1,000 non-professional U.S. influencers, 73% of monetizers indicated that the holidays are their most lucrative time of the year.

On average, monetizers reported that holiday revenue represents just over one-third (34%) of their annual creative income.

Furthermore, among creators who have been monetizing their work for a year or more, 51% anticipate significant growth in 2022 income over 2021, while 26% said they will earn at least 50% more year-over-year.

Over 8 in ten monetizers, the study shows, will earn income this holiday season through selling directly to consumers, while 63% will earn income via promotional revenue.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding social media platforms and the economic environment, 88% of creators expect to grow their audience this season. Nearly half named building brand awareness as a major goal.

As for output, 47% of creators who have monetized for a year or more, expect to post content at least once a day, with 59% reporting that they have increased their posting frequency since last year.

Adobe says brand partnerships are key to making money, but creators are selective with tho they collaborate with, citing that 71% of monetizers are partnering with brands this holiday season, with 36% of brand-partnered monetizers reporting that their creative income represents half or more of their total income.

Three-quarters of monetizers reported that a brand's values were more important than their size and influence, and 74% said they would rather partner with other creators than large brands.

Half of monetizers who partner with five or more brands plan to proactively seek new brand partnerships, while most expect to increase the frequency of audience engagement (53%), create more video content (60%), create new types of content (61%), and create more content (66%).

In terms of a chosen medium, monetizers said they will create and post four different types of content formats this holiday season, including photography (70%), videos (61%), art/graphics (47%), and memes (31%).

Finally, their most popular platforms for posting creative or social media content included Facebook (71%), Instagram (65%), and YouTube (57%), with TikTok more regularly used by Gen Z monetizers (60%) than with Millennial (47%) or Gen X (42%) monetizers.