The most popular types of creatives across the UK
We hear the word creative A LOT, but what does it actually mean to be creative and how do you measure how creative you are?
We’re conditioned to perceive that you can only be creative if you are a “creative” person, but we’re here to tell you that it’s just a myth.
Creativity comes in many forms and it’s all linked to cognitive diversity. There are so many different types of creatives. Most Psychologists out there will tell you that in fact creativity is linked to the process in which new things are created and how problems are solved.
We have to say, as innovation marketing experts, we agree! But we also know that it’s not enough to just tell you this, that’s why we worked with our very own Psychologist Tina Catling to create a questionnaire which helped people across the UK to uncover the type of creative they are.
About the questionnaire
We believe that everyone is intrinsically creative, but the way we create and problem solve differs from person to person. This is known as Cognitive Diversity and should be valued in every workplace, as understanding the varying types of creative you work with can reap great benefits.
Cognitive Diversity also helps generate better ideas, improved ways of working, and it results in more decisiveness meaning you get to those winning ideas much faster.
Using the methodology from Tina Catling and Mark Davies’ book Think, we launched a questionnaire to find out the most popular types of creatives across the UK.
Each of the questions were scored based on the answer provided and at the end, the scores were collated to categorise the respondent into one of the five types of creatives.
Who took part?
Over the course of campaign, 481 people from across the world took part. Each of these were asked their location, job title and age category so that we could monitor correlations.
Graph 1 – Age range and location of participants
As you can see, the majority of people who answered the questionnaire were from Yorkshire and The Humber, or Outside of the UK.
Results
The results below are based on the valid data which came out of the questionnaire.
Age range and creative type
The majority of people who took part in the questionnaire intrigued by what type of creative they are we aged between 15 and 54.
Whilst the results are quite varied, it does appear that across all age groups, Inquisitor was the most common creative type, with the exception of the 25-34 age group where the most common creative type was Visualist.
Age Range – Creative Category as a %
| Adventurer | Imaginator | Inquisitor | Performer | Visualist | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-14 | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.8% |
| 15-24 | 3.1% | 0.6% | 9.4% | 5.4% | 5.8% | 24.3% |
| 25-34 | 2.1% | 2.9% | 9.4% | 7.3% | 10.8% | 32.4% |
| 35-44 | 2.7% | 0.6% | 7.5% | 3.1% | 6.2% | 6.2% |
| 45-54 | 1.0% | 1.2% | 4.4% | 3.1% | 3.3% | 13.1% |
| 55-64 | 0.8% | 0.8% | 0.2% | 4.0% | 1.2% | 7.1% |
| 65+ | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 1.0% | 0.2% | 2.1% |
Location and creative type
The majority of creatives who completed the questionnaire were based in Yorkshire or Outside the UK. This gave us little room to compare the most popular types of creatives across regions, but we can see the most popular creative type in Yorkshire.
Based on the results, it seems Yorkshire and the Humber is home to majority Visualists and Inquisitors, with Performers following closely behind.
Location – Creative Category as a %
| Adventurer | Imaginator | Inquisitor | Performer | Visualist | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Midlands | 0.8% | 0.6% | 3.7% | 1.9% | 1.9% | 8.9% |
| East of England | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 1.5% |
| London | 0.6% | 0.4% | 2.1% | 1.7% | 2.5% | 7.3% |
| North East | 0.0% | 0.4% | 1.2% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 2.3% |
| North West | 0.8% | 0.4% | 2.3% | 1.2% | 1.2% | 6.0% |
| Northern Ireland | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| Outside the UK | 2.5% | 1.7% | 7.7% | 7.3% | 5.0% | 24.1% |
| Scotland | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.6% |
| South East | 0.6% | 0.4% | 1.0% | 1.7% | 0.4% | 4.2% |
| South West | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 1.0% |
| Wales | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.4% |
| West Midlands | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.8% | 0.4% | 1.7% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 4.4% | 2.3% | 12.3% | 8.3% | 14.3% | 41.6% |
Gender and creative type
Based on the results of the questionnaire, we can identify that Females are more likely to be Visualists, whilst men are more likely to be Inquisitors.
However, it does appear that men and women are equally weighted in the Performer creative category, suggesting it’s both men and women who like a little drama, perhaps?
Gender – Creative Category as a %
| Adventurer | Imaginator | Inquisitor | Performer | Visualist | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 4.8% | 2.3% | 13.7% | 11.9% | 15.6% | 48.2% |
| Male | 5.4% | 4.4% | 15.8% | 11.2% | 10.6% | 47.4% |
| I’d rather not say | 0.2% | 0.0% | 1.9% | 0.8% | 1.5% | 4.4% |
Industry and creative type
Interestingly, the majority of people who responded to our questionnaire worked in the marketing and communications industry, suggesting we naturally are more intrigued about our creative abilities.
This is even more evident in the results which show the majority of marketing professionals are actually inquisitors.
Industry – Creative Category as a %
| Adventurer | Imaginator | Inquisitor | Performer | Visualist | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aeronautics and Defence | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 1.0% |
| Automotive and Parts | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Banking | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 1.5% |
| Beverages | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.6% | 0.2% | 1.2% |
| Building and Materials | 0.8% | 0.6% | 1.0% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 3.1% |
| Commercial Transportation | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.4% |
| Domestic Goods | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.8% | 1.0% |
| Electricity Generation and Distribution | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Electronic & Electrical Equipment | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.6% |
| Engineering Products | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1.5% | 0.8% | 0.6% | 2.9% |
| Financials | 0.2% | 0.0% | 1.0% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 1.7% |
| Food Products | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 1.0% |
| Forestry & Paper | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Health Care and Related Services | 0.6% | 0.4% | 2.7% | 2.9% | 2.1% | 8.7% |
| Household Utilities | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Investment Companies | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| IT Hardware | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.8% |
| IT Services | 0.4% | 1.2% | 1.0% | 1.0% | 1.7% | 5.4% |
| Leisure Products | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.8% |
| Marketing & Communications | 4.0% | 2.5% | 13.3% | 10.4% | 11.4% | 41.6% |
| Media | 0.8% | 0.6% | 2.5% | 3.1% | 5.2% | 12.3% |
| Medicine and Biotech Research | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.8% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 1.2% |
| Metals | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| Personal Goods | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| Property | 0.4% | 0.0% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1.0% |
| Retailers | 0.2% | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.4% | 1.5% | 3.3% |
| Support | 1.0% | 0.0% | 1.2% | 1.5% | 0.8% | 4.6% |
| Telecommunications | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.6% | 1.2% |
| Tobacco | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.4% |
| Tourism and Leisure | 0.2% | 0.0% | 1.2% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 2.3% |
What’s next?
If you’re intrigued by the different types of creatives, why not take a look at our recent blog where we discuss each creative type in depth.
Or, if you’re itching to find out what type of creative you are, why not head over to take our questionnaire http://whattypeofcreativeareyou.co.uk/#/.
You can even let us know the results in the comments if you wish to!
