As another year comes to a close, we’ve taken a look back at some of the major creative trends that took over the industry in 2018, which have also helped us understand where the industry is headed and given us a glimpse into which trends will reign supreme in 2019.

One trend that is impossible to ignore, and something that creatives will continue to be the driving force behind, is the public’s growing appetite for video. Almost in a complete turn of events, people are moving away from the 15-second video snippets that flooded the media in years past, and are gravitating more and more toward long-form video. Be it educational or simply entertaining, the video content on YouTube ranging from 15 minutes to two hours in length has proven to be incredibly successful on the platform.

Partly due to social media’s growing adoption of long-form video via channels such as Instagram’s IGTV and YouTube’s recently launched Stories, content creators have been inspired–and urged–to produce video content quickly and efficiently.

So how can video producers, marketing professionals, and other creative professionals keep up with the ever-rising demand for video content? As we continue to see an increasing number of creatives dive into the video space, our end of year data shows that they have started to embrace lightweight, easier-to-use editing tools and video templates that make video development on more complex platforms faster and easier. We saw an increase in searches for templates, VFX, and content fit for lightweight video editors like Filmora and iMovie.

So Much Video, So Little Time

While we know the demand for video is slated to grow even more as we head into 2019, churning out video content quickly and efficiently can be a tall order. This can especially be a headache for creatives who don’t have experience using more complex editing tools like Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro. Tools like these can be intimidating for beginners, making it overwhelming to learn even the basics of video editing.

This would explain why we saw such a dramatic spike in searches for easy-to-use video editing tools and templates in 2018. According to our 2019 End of Year Trends Guide , for which we analyzed 85 million searches on Storyblocks’ site throughout 2018, searches for easy-to-use templates went up 18,592% since last year. The increase in these searches tells us that creatives are looking for ways to simplify the video editing process.

We also saw searches for “After Effects Templates” increase 153% and searches for “VFX” grow by 211%. These video tools can elevate a video from basic to professional by jazzing them up with smooth transitions, animations, and visual effects–and ultimately, they have proven to be the secret sauce in shortening production time.

Beginner-Friendly Tools will Give Industry Favorites a Run for their Money

With such a massive increase in searches for beginner-friendly editing tools and video templates, we predict that even more video content will be published in 2019. Additionally, we think that newcomers with products built specifically to help creatives meet the increasing demand for more video content will give popular editors like Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro a run for their money.