00:00:00
What is the through line that I think is
00:00:01
really interesting as the tools create
00:00:04
greater ease and greater acceleration
00:00:05
and reduce barriers is I think the human
00:00:09
piece is the most important piece more
00:00:10
than ever because what matters judgment
00:00:14
taste point of view um ingenuity right
00:00:18
those are the things that I I think will
00:00:20
create sparks and difference in a world
00:00:22
where the tools become um more baseline
00:00:26
where there's more access and those are
00:00:27
more standard um the the the brightest
00:00:31
commodity will be that creative spark.
00:00:33
And today we have a very interesting
00:00:35
guest. Christine Seagris is the global
00:00:38
head of consumer and product marketing
00:00:41
at Canva. Now, I don't know if you've
00:00:44
heard of Canva, but Canva is a global
00:00:47
design platform that empowers
00:00:49
individuals and teams to create
00:00:51
professional quality content quickly and
00:00:55
easy. Um, it has a mission to enable
00:00:58
anyone to design anything. Um,
00:01:01
Christine, welcome to our show.
00:01:03
>> Welcome, Christine.
00:01:04
>> Thank you. It's so great to be here and
00:01:05
speak with you this morning.
00:01:06
>> Before we talk about you,
00:01:09
which I'd like to know about your
00:01:11
background because you do have an
00:01:12
interesting background, but can you just
00:01:14
do a better job describing camp? I
00:01:16
played with it online so I kind of have
00:01:18
a sense of what it is
00:01:20
>> but like can you just describe what the
00:01:22
mission is, what the product is, why
00:01:24
we're excited to have you.
00:01:26
>> You are right. Um Canva is an online
00:01:29
design and collaboration platform. Uh we
00:01:32
have the good fortune of serving 260
00:01:34
million people all around the world.
00:01:36
Wow. And I think the way to think about
00:01:38
Canva in the simplest terms is it allows
00:01:41
you to take whatever idea you have in
00:01:43
your head um whatever dream project
00:01:46
anything you're kind of cooking up and
00:01:48
to realize that in a design quickly and
00:01:52
it was built um to really create that in
00:01:55
an accessible way for folks. So a word
00:01:58
we talk about a lot internally is the
00:02:00
idea of feeling empowered. I think even
00:02:02
10 years ago, uh, the ability to to
00:02:04
render something in your mind in a
00:02:06
design, uh, was the domain of a few if
00:02:09
you were a designer by trade or a a
00:02:13
official creative. And now it's just the
00:02:14
idea if you're a small business owner,
00:02:16
if you're a creator, if you are an
00:02:19
educator, if you work um, and an
00:02:21
enterprise institution and you're like,
00:02:23
gosh, no one reads my newsletter. Like,
00:02:25
how can I just break through? It's just
00:02:27
putting those tools in everybody's
00:02:28
hands. I gota I just have to say I'm so
00:02:31
excited to hear you talk about this
00:02:33
because just last week I uh collaborated
00:02:36
with two two academics in the field and
00:02:39
we're putting together a proposal for
00:02:42
one of our journals to study what AI
00:02:46
design does from a consumer behavior
00:02:49
point of view like how do consumers use
00:02:52
it? How do consumers respond to it? How
00:02:54
does it change? Um and we're going to
00:02:56
try to do it. We're gonna try to do it
00:02:59
to encourage new research, like new
00:03:01
primary research on people thinking
00:03:03
about it. But I was thinking you
00:03:05
probably have some of those answers that
00:03:08
we were
00:03:10
my proposal to you and maybe you know
00:03:12
the answer. Like one of the things we
00:03:14
were thinking is how does a consumer
00:03:17
respond differently to an AI generated
00:03:19
design than they there's a lot that goes
00:03:22
into that. They have to understand it's
00:03:24
AI generated but can they tell that? And
00:03:27
then if they can tell that, do they
00:03:29
respond differently? I mean, there's a
00:03:30
lot of things you might one might
00:03:32
intuitively guess about it, but I'm
00:03:34
guessing you have more than intuition.
00:03:37
>> Yeah. Well, I mean, I think the way we
00:03:40
think about it is AI is just a new set
00:03:43
of tools at people's fingertips. And we
00:03:46
try to pull it back to the idea of what
00:03:48
are the goals people are trying to
00:03:50
accomplish.
00:03:51
>> You know, if you open up Canva, you have
00:03:52
a goal. It might be a little goal to
00:03:54
send out a birthday invitation for your
00:03:57
son. It might be a big goal like
00:03:59
launching a whole new business.
00:04:01
>> So, what we want to do is give you the
00:04:03
right tools where it just feels really
00:04:04
easy.
00:04:05
>> So, you can drag and drop something. You
00:04:08
might have something in your mind and
00:04:09
you just want to write a prompt to see
00:04:11
it, you know, magically come to life.
00:04:14
>> Like maybe it's a it's a unicorn um
00:04:16
dejing on Mars. Like I could pump that
00:04:18
in and and there I would see something
00:04:20
rendered. But one thing that we think is
00:04:22
important is this idea of having um
00:04:25
human in the loop. you know, how do you
00:04:27
keep the human very very centered? Not
00:04:30
just from a perspective of their
00:04:32
imagination driving the whole process,
00:04:35
but also the idea of getting an image or
00:04:39
um an output that you can edit and that
00:04:42
you can manipulate and that you can
00:04:44
shape because I think people really do
00:04:46
want to make things their own and they
00:04:47
have a sense of pride when you say,
00:04:49
"Gosh, I made that. I can't believe I
00:04:51
made that. Look how great that looks."
00:04:52
That AI is just another tool or an
00:04:55
accelerant to get you there. So, that's
00:04:58
that's really our view is that it's just
00:05:00
coming back to goal accomplishment
00:05:02
>> is just another um tool and a bit more
00:05:05
wind at your back to help you get there
00:05:06
faster.
00:05:07
>> Nice. I love that point, Christine.
00:05:08
There's two things that jump out at me
00:05:10
when I hear you make that commentary.
00:05:12
It's really nice. The first has to do
00:05:14
with this idea of not being seduced into
00:05:17
trying to use AI in a mindless way. In
00:05:21
other words, as some kind of hammer
00:05:23
looking for a nail. In other words, I
00:05:25
love your point about, you know, there's
00:05:26
a goal that needs to be achieved.
00:05:28
There's a problem to be solved. How does
00:05:30
AI facilitate that? That's point number
00:05:32
one. Point number two, which I want to
00:05:33
get your reaction to, is stepping a
00:05:36
little bit back to Barbara's point about
00:05:38
I love this because
00:05:39
>> back to my point, too.
00:05:41
>> She's she's, ladies and gentlemen, she's
00:05:43
always making connections. She's always
00:05:45
connecting the dots. It's like six
00:05:46
dimensional chess here. But, um, I love
00:05:49
this point because when Barbara said
00:05:50
like the democratization of creativity
00:05:54
Yeah, I hear what you're saying, but I
00:05:57
do I'm I do want to double down on that
00:05:59
because I do think people will react
00:06:01
differently if they know it's AI. I
00:06:03
mean, I think that's what you're saying
00:06:04
also, Americas. I hear you. I like what
00:06:08
you're saying, but I do think there is
00:06:10
something different if AI designs it
00:06:12
versus a creative soul does it. And some
00:06:15
people are creative and some people
00:06:17
aren't. And you're that's what you're
00:06:20
talking about the democracization
00:06:22
of now everybody is creative like that
00:06:26
you've added that dimension no but
00:06:28
you've added that dimension to my point
00:06:29
like I was saying
00:06:30
>> everyone can create is I
00:06:32
>> right but that is what essentially what
00:06:34
happens is the the differentiators in in
00:06:38
people's identity go away um and at some
00:06:42
point people might react to that
00:06:44
>> yeah I mean it's that's a really meaty
00:06:47
topic I I would say that you're looking
00:06:51
topics here in marketing.
00:06:53
>> So many so many of your toys into this
00:06:55
topic. I would say a few things. Um
00:06:59
>> I would challenge the idea that not
00:07:00
everyone's creative. Um I I think people
00:07:04
>> get it beaten out of them early. Um
00:07:06
whether it's through school or maybe you
00:07:09
don't draw well or maybe it's you know
00:07:11
you feel it's very vulnerable the act of
00:07:13
creation, right?
00:07:15
to
00:07:15
>> put yourself out there and to to make
00:07:17
something. But I think a lot of ways
00:07:20
people talk about being creative um
00:07:22
might be through the lens of well I
00:07:24
solve problems or I'm making this output
00:07:27
for this like logical cerebral thing.
00:07:29
But at the end of the day you are
00:07:31
creating there's a there's a spectrum.
00:07:33
Now that said, um we have incredible
00:07:37
respect and obviously rever um
00:07:40
designers, creatives, I mean, you know,
00:07:42
creativity and design is in our DNA. We
00:07:45
just think that it's a broader landscape
00:07:48
of allowing more people to bring their
00:07:51
ideas to life. And
00:07:54
>> um you know, our origin story, our
00:07:56
founder um Melanie Perkins, she was
00:07:58
teaching design tools at a university in
00:08:00
Perth. And what she was observing is it
00:08:03
was just so hard for people. You know,
00:08:04
folks having to do such an upward um
00:08:07
curve of learning and they were spending
00:08:09
so much time trying to um massage the
00:08:13
technology that they just weren't
00:08:14
getting in flow. Like they weren't they
00:08:16
weren't getting to their ideas. So it
00:08:18
all really came from how can we put all
00:08:20
of this into one page, make it really
00:08:22
easy, really intuitive, um and just
00:08:25
invite more people to to see their ideas
00:08:28
come to life in a world that's
00:08:29
inherently visual. I mean, we all engage
00:08:31
with visuals um in a
00:08:33
>> I know I actually teach a course on
00:08:34
visual marketing, so I couldn't agree
00:08:36
more on this, Barbara. It's, you know,
00:08:38
before your cerebral thinking brain even
00:08:41
clicks in, you're having a reaction,
00:08:42
you're getting tons of information and
00:08:44
we're just hardwired for it. And it felt
00:08:46
like that should be an opportunity for
00:08:49
everybody to have communication and a
00:08:51
visual conversation with others.
00:08:53
>> Yeah. Let me ask you this question,
00:08:54
Christine, because again, I'm trying to
00:08:58
kind of connect the dots here, which I
00:08:59
think is super interesting. This idea of
00:09:02
how many f how many sub um members,
00:09:04
subscribers? I did I hear the number 260
00:09:07
million? Did I hear that correctly?
00:09:08
>> That's right. Yeah,
00:09:09
>> that's shocking. So, congratulations.
00:09:11
>> When was your company started?
00:09:13
>> Um, we were started a little over 10
00:09:15
years ago. So um a lot of the growth has
00:09:19
been
00:09:20
>> you know word of mouth honestly for for
00:09:22
a large period of the company where
00:09:25
people people were just sharing they had
00:09:26
a great experience they were able to
00:09:27
make something.
00:09:28
>> Yeah those kind of moments of pride and
00:09:30
then more recently
00:09:32
>> um I would say even over the past
00:09:34
>> let's call it so let me just get to my
00:09:36
question real quick.
00:09:37
>> Can I ask one question Americans before
00:09:38
you go into your question just on this
00:09:40
point of your description? How much of
00:09:43
your uh customer base is like consumer
00:09:45
versus enterprise?
00:09:47
>> Well, we we really grew up more um
00:09:51
consumer, you know, more focused on
00:09:53
having strong product market fit with um
00:09:55
you know, again like SMBs, creators,
00:09:57
teachers are really really important um
00:10:00
uh group for us um to serve. But
00:10:03
increasingly um in the past two years
00:10:05
we've also been looking at what are the
00:10:07
goals people want to solve at scaled um
00:10:11
at scaled companies um at large
00:10:13
organizations. So we've launched an
00:10:15
enterprise offering formally and 24
00:10:20
>> um and we launched it in a really kind
00:10:21
of fun unorthodox way um but it's really
00:10:24
trying to understand
00:10:26
>> everybody wants that sense of ease but
00:10:28
what are the problems that are unique to
00:10:29
enterprises as well. So that's a growing
00:10:31
part business. So you have the
00:10:32
enterprise component you grew up with on
00:10:34
the consumer side,
00:10:35
>> right?
00:10:36
>> That's 260 million people. 260 million
00:10:37
that's a lot. And so I'm thinking like
00:10:39
how do you this is like maybe a design
00:10:42
question for the design gurus. How do
00:10:44
you since you have like you know someone
00:10:47
who's just getting started just trying
00:10:48
to create something cool versus a really
00:10:51
wellskilled well-trained designer you
00:10:53
have this spectrum. How do you design
00:10:55
the website to be able to be most
00:10:58
accessible like to present itself across
00:11:01
a in a you know a wide swath of wildly
00:11:05
different types of design acumen let's
00:11:08
say how do you figure that out and how
00:11:10
does that evolve and emerge with the
00:11:12
>> or any of the marketing
00:11:14
>> yeah yeah how do you how do you do that
00:11:16
>> I mean it's set up by design to address
00:11:20
a lot of different use cases and we're
00:11:22
always going backwards from goals and
00:11:23
we're always going backwards from our
00:11:25
community and our community serves very
00:11:27
diverse groups of people. So if you're a
00:11:30
teacher there's a certain journey and we
00:11:32
have content templates um
00:11:35
>> that's nice
00:11:36
things that you can do to to bring
00:11:37
learning to life for your classroom. I
00:11:40
see
00:11:40
>> you are um a marketer or a saleserson
00:11:44
working in a large organization, there's
00:11:46
going to be other tools for you
00:11:48
>> to be able to for example um connect
00:11:50
directly to Salesforce to populate your
00:11:52
presentations and do that with great
00:11:54
ease.
00:11:55
>> Yeah, it's
00:11:57
>> it sounds like in the in the old days
00:11:58
when you used to have what was that
00:12:00
called? Clip art that you could put on
00:12:02
your PowerPoint. You know, I mean
00:12:04
>> Barbara is dating herself. No,
00:12:07
>> there was a little Microsoft paper clip.
00:12:10
>> I was clippy was in my mind as you were
00:12:11
saying.
00:12:12
>> Clippy.
00:12:13
>> So, it's kind of like a more
00:12:14
sophisticated clip art in a way, but I'm
00:12:16
sure it's way more sophisticated than
00:12:18
that.
00:12:19
>> Yeah. I think, you know, and then to
00:12:21
your point about um all the way through
00:12:22
to pros, um we recently acquired a
00:12:25
company called Affinity. Uh they're in
00:12:27
the UK and they have the kind of
00:12:30
powerful tools that a designer
00:12:33
>> would need, right? vectors and layers
00:12:35
and um just working at that high end of
00:12:38
the craft.
00:12:39
>> That's interesting.
00:12:39
>> So, we're we are really trying to serve
00:12:41
that broad spectrum all the way from
00:12:43
prod.
00:12:46
It's very broad, but it's really in our
00:12:48
mission. We truly want to empower the
00:12:50
world to design and it's it's literal.
00:12:52
It's literal. We just think this should
00:12:54
be in everyone's hands and we're just
00:12:56
trying to meet people where they are.
00:12:57
>> This is another thing we talked about in
00:12:58
our proposal when we were putting it
00:13:00
together. Um and I'm curious how you
00:13:02
define it. the difference between
00:13:04
design, drawing, aesthetic, like you're
00:13:08
you're using the word design and so is
00:13:11
that something different than aesthetics
00:13:13
or drawing or like how does all that
00:13:15
come together?
00:13:17
>> Yeah, you know, design actually it's a
00:13:19
word we do use um and we care about
00:13:22
design and uh our our systems and tools
00:13:25
are all trained on good design
00:13:26
principles to help people make the best
00:13:28
possible output. Um but I feel like
00:13:32
sometimes the word design can be a
00:13:33
little high flutin. I think people do
00:13:35
come to this tool just to make things to
00:13:38
build things um to have an output. Um
00:13:41
and you know I I do think about it a
00:13:43
little bit in historical context when
00:13:45
you think about you know who could
00:13:47
communicate visually over time maybe a
00:13:49
draftsman maybe um someone who's a
00:13:52
skilled artist. I mean the world lost
00:13:55
their mind when there was photography
00:13:56
right what does that mean for art?
00:13:58
>> Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:59
to have uh the ability to capture a
00:14:01
picture. Everyone could do that.
00:14:02
>> And then
00:14:05
let's not forget clip art. Barbara,
00:14:06
obviously a huge milestone, you know,
00:14:09
>> Clippy. Yes.
00:14:10
>> Don't sleep on Clippy. And then now
00:14:12
moving into what is a world driven by AI
00:14:17
creation. But what is the through line
00:14:19
that I think is really interesting
00:14:21
>> as the tools create greater ease and
00:14:23
greater acceleration and reduce barriers
00:14:26
is I think the human piece is the most
00:14:28
important piece more than ever because
00:14:30
what matters judgment taste point of
00:14:33
view um ingenuity right those are the
00:14:37
things that I I think will create sparks
00:14:39
and difference in a world where the
00:14:42
tools become um more baseline where
00:14:44
there's more access and those are more
00:14:46
standard um that the the brightest
00:14:49
commodity will be that creative spark.
00:14:51
So, we're interested to see how that
00:14:53
plays out.
00:14:54
>> Love that.
00:14:54
>> But I do kind of like to look back to
00:14:56
look forward, right? Because it just
00:14:57
reminds me we're just in another cycle
00:14:59
of innovation right now.
00:15:00
>> Interesting. Real quick question. So, I
00:15:02
I love this Barbara what she said
00:15:03
because I was like trying to like how do
00:15:05
you boil the ocean of like all these
00:15:07
possible things and she has a strategy.
00:15:09
It's very clear which is say we we do
00:15:11
segmentation America. So, in other
00:15:12
words, these use cases are just
00:15:14
segments, right? There's a teacher,
00:15:16
there's a designer, there's a so and so
00:15:17
blah blah. So you have this portfolio
00:15:19
which I find super fascinating.
00:15:20
Christine, talk a little bit about new
00:15:23
use cases that are emerging. In other
00:15:26
words, has AI created now a new cluster
00:15:30
of you know different design components
00:15:34
that would show up as a use case or like
00:15:37
how does this happen? like what are the
00:15:38
newer use cases that and maybe a use
00:15:40
case that surprised you a little bit
00:15:42
with respect to the Canva port uh Canva
00:15:44
portfolio.
00:15:45
>> Yeah, sure. I mean I think we're seeing
00:15:48
use cases increase in video certainly
00:15:51
video is becoming more of the the
00:15:53
language
00:15:54
>> across everything. So that is increasing
00:15:57
and of course I you know just the idea
00:15:58
of using AI of prompting to create an
00:16:01
image. Um yes we we've had over 20
00:16:03
billion uses of AI on our tool which is
00:16:06
wild. Um, and people I don't know even
00:16:08
know if they're even thinking, oh, I
00:16:09
woke up this morning, brewed a cup of
00:16:11
coffee, and I'm going to go do some AI.
00:16:12
You know, I don't think that's really
00:16:13
the mental model
00:16:16
or gosh, I I would love to make this
00:16:18
background disappear. I would love to
00:16:20
add um some new kind of element um to
00:16:24
this this design to match what's in my
00:16:27
head. So, that that's how we're seeing
00:16:29
AI, you know, come come to bear. The the
00:16:32
other thing I think we're seeing a lot
00:16:33
is um shifting expectations around
00:16:37
things that used to be hard that
00:16:38
shouldn't be hard anymore.
00:16:40
>> And um two use cases I would give you on
00:16:43
that is we work with a lot of brands and
00:16:45
those brands are creating tons of
00:16:47
content uh because it's just like the
00:16:49
hungry cookie monster of the world wants
00:16:50
more content all the time. And
00:16:52
>> I think the expectation is that can all
00:16:54
be created on brand. The right colors,
00:16:57
the right tone, the right photography,
00:17:00
>> the right tone of voice without having
00:17:02
to, you know, carefully
00:17:05
um develop each individual asset, but
00:17:07
that you can do that at scale really
00:17:09
quickly. You can apply your brand
00:17:10
system, your brand hit to develop things
00:17:13
at scale. So you're spending less time
00:17:15
um making the technology work and more
00:17:18
time on how do you get an idea and
00:17:20
really scale it into all the places and
00:17:21
spaces you need to be. The other
00:17:23
expectation we're seeing shift is
00:17:26
>> um this idea that you're going to go to
00:17:28
all these different tools to accomplish
00:17:30
uh a workflow. Particularly in
00:17:32
marketing, we're seeing that
00:17:34
>> there's this sense of I want to create
00:17:35
here, I want to refine here, I want to
00:17:38
scale the content here, I want to
00:17:40
publish here.
00:17:41
>> So we will make partnerships with folks
00:17:43
like LinkedIn. So you can make a
00:17:44
LinkedIn ad or post, publish directly,
00:17:48
>> get insights and then bring those
00:17:50
insights right back into creation. So,
00:17:52
it's going from like a linear flow,
00:17:54
>> a lot of switching and baton passing to
00:17:57
a closed loop flow, and we're seeing
00:17:59
that expectation more and more um with
00:18:02
the the folks using our tools. Can I can
00:18:05
we shift gears just a little just
00:18:07
because I know you have some really
00:18:09
interesting background um and just talk
00:18:11
a little bit about how you got here and
00:18:14
your personal story why you're at this
00:18:17
new platform and in this new place
00:18:18
because I know you were at Facebook or
00:18:20
Meta for a while and so you have a
00:18:23
technology background. So I'm curious
00:18:25
how like your personal journey brought
00:18:28
you to where you are now.
00:18:30
>> Yeah, absolutely. It was Facebook when I
00:18:32
joined and meta when I left.
00:18:33
>> Now Meta got to change your CV.
00:18:37
>> That was the journey. I mean um Meta was
00:18:40
a great experience and learning how to
00:18:43
serve people at scale. Um I was there
00:18:45
when we launched I worked a lot on our
00:18:46
video products. Um so bringing those to
00:18:49
to market
00:18:50
>> um and then you know just kind of
00:18:53
working on the brand work there. you
00:18:55
know, just understanding kind of what
00:18:56
brings all these disparate pieces of the
00:18:58
product together, which is this idea
00:19:00
that people can do more together than
00:19:02
alone and finding opportunities to bring
00:19:04
that to life um in places like Facebook
00:19:06
groups, for example.
00:19:08
>> But I think when I learned about Canva,
00:19:12
um what really floored me was how
00:19:16
that felt like a gap in the market. This
00:19:18
this sense that, you know, we live in a
00:19:20
world that demands visual communication.
00:19:22
We live in a world that demands a
00:19:24
constant and increasing um influx of
00:19:27
content to be competitive to um be
00:19:30
effective, especially as a marketer. And
00:19:33
there was this tool that was literally
00:19:37
um allowing, you know, people to do that
00:19:39
who were outside of maybe the four
00:19:41
hardworking folks in the design team.
00:19:43
And I thought, well, this is this makes
00:19:45
a ton of sense business-wise. This is a
00:19:46
really unmet need. Um, then I used the
00:19:49
product and it was so dead simple that I
00:19:52
could use it. Okay, I'm the bar. I'm not
00:19:54
I'm not the designer here, right? I'm
00:19:55
the marketer, not the designer. And um,
00:19:57
I fell in love with the product
00:19:59
experience. And then the third piece,
00:20:01
and and we probably don't talk about
00:20:03
maybe that as much in in a a podcast
00:20:05
like this, but there's a real
00:20:07
values-based um anchor of that organ of
00:20:11
Canva, and it's very simple. Um, you'll
00:20:14
hear from our founders, they say, "We
00:20:15
have a two-step plan. Step one is to be
00:20:17
the most valuable company we can. Step
00:20:19
two is to do the most good we can.
00:20:22
>> And um you know I was a little bit like
00:20:24
all right I'm coming here in Silicon
00:20:25
Valley. All right everyone has a
00:20:27
corporate responsibility. But I think as
00:20:30
I met more folks on the team um and
00:20:33
really understood what that meant in
00:20:35
terms of
00:20:37
>> programs to eradicate um extreme poverty
00:20:40
in terms of sustainability efforts in
00:20:42
terms of empowering educators like they
00:20:44
walk the walk. This is real. this is
00:20:46
real and I thought I you know we all
00:20:49
work hard at work and putting a lot of
00:20:50
sweat equity I want to be part of
00:20:51
something
00:20:52
>> that is letting people bring your ideas
00:20:54
to life and is you know making some real
00:20:57
good to the world and
00:20:58
>> I don't know it it
00:21:00
>> those those were all the confluence
00:21:01
factors that um really enticed me um to
00:21:04
start the journey with Canva. You know
00:21:06
what's interesting about what you're
00:21:07
saying is with all the push back some
00:21:10
companies are getting on DEI initiatives
00:21:12
and social responsibility and things
00:21:13
like that. What you're saying kind of
00:21:15
reminds me of when I used to talk to
00:21:17
Neil Blumenthal from Warby. Um, and it's
00:21:20
interesting because, you know, he's
00:21:22
eyeglasses letting people see and your
00:21:24
people creating what they can see, you
00:21:26
know, like the design that they can see,
00:21:28
but it was always part of his mission to
00:21:31
give back, to give people glasses and
00:21:33
things like that, which it was very
00:21:34
authentic to him as well as I hear you
00:21:36
speak about it. It sounds very
00:21:38
authentic. And what he would say,
00:21:40
especially in today's day and age when
00:21:42
people are trying to decide what to do
00:21:44
about some of these values that they had
00:21:46
in the past and what he said was, you
00:21:48
know, it's less of a marketing play for
00:21:50
us and it's more of an HR play the kind
00:21:53
of people we get to work at our company
00:21:56
and the kind of corporate culture we
00:21:57
want to create. And I think that's an
00:22:00
interesting way for people to navigate
00:22:02
in some of these political situations
00:22:04
right now. You know, whether or not you
00:22:06
wear your values on your sleeve in terms
00:22:09
of your marketing and branding, that's
00:22:11
one thing, but it does create a certain
00:22:13
kind of organizational corporate culture
00:22:16
that could be as important because
00:22:18
you've got to deliver customer
00:22:20
experience. And that's um that's what I
00:22:22
hear you saying like even as you mention
00:22:25
it, it it was your motivation to join
00:22:27
the company um and what made you feel
00:22:30
comfortable there. It's kind of
00:22:31
interesting.
00:22:32
>> Yeah.
00:22:32
>> Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And
00:22:34
you know, when you have these
00:22:36
long-standing
00:22:38
values, commitments, um, whatever you
00:22:40
want to call them, I think they
00:22:42
transcend politics hopefully because
00:22:45
>> they're just so core, right? You might
00:22:47
have different administrations, you
00:22:48
know, we work in markets all around the
00:22:50
world, but this is true of us everywhere
00:22:53
>> around the world. And I love what you
00:22:54
said about culture. I mean, culture is
00:22:56
really everything, I think, at a
00:22:58
company. It's culture is a competitive
00:22:59
edge as well. and people do self- select
00:23:02
to be part of a mission driven culture
00:23:04
like that. So, I love that Parker um
00:23:06
parallel.
00:23:07
>> Yeah, I love that example as well too
00:23:09
because I feel like it's it's an under
00:23:11
estimated power of creating a kind of
00:23:15
kinetic energy for the community because
00:23:16
when you show up and you're living in
00:23:18
purpose, I your work lands on you
00:23:21
totally different I would think. And
00:23:22
this is the reason why Barbara's
00:23:23
pointing out as an HR play perhaps more
00:23:26
potently than in addition to I guess I
00:23:28
should say you know a marketing play but
00:23:30
I want to get back to 20 billion AI you
00:23:35
said this okay that was incredible talk
00:23:38
to so
00:23:40
>> help me understand Christine as you're
00:23:42
watching people use the platform you're
00:23:45
learning about things that they're doing
00:23:48
that is giving you a cultural tell
00:23:51
>> let's Okay. Talk about that process of
00:23:53
like looking.
00:23:54
>> That's an interesting question.
00:23:55
>> How's that for me?
00:23:57
>> Yeah, that's good in meeting.
00:24:00
>> You talk us through that though because
00:24:02
that's an amazing insight to be able to
00:24:04
look at all of these creatives and like
00:24:06
try to understand where is this more
00:24:09
meta thing happening,
00:24:11
>> you know, as I'm as I'm watching them
00:24:12
create. Can you give us an insight into
00:24:14
that?
00:24:14
>> Oh, that's a wonderful question. Hard to
00:24:16
answer, but wonderful.
00:24:18
>> Very hard to answer.
00:24:19
We are community obsessed. We're
00:24:21
obsessed with our community. That is how
00:24:23
we decide what we're building. It's how
00:24:25
we iterate. It's how we build our
00:24:27
marketing. That is our anchor. Much more
00:24:29
than anything external. We're always
00:24:31
going to go back to them. And one of the
00:24:33
magic um elements of using Canva is that
00:24:36
we have templates and content. So,
00:24:39
you're not coming.
00:24:44
Um, and a lot of what we really focus on
00:24:46
is the idea of how we can have that
00:24:49
content be really really local
00:24:50
everywhere around the world. So it will
00:24:53
feel right to you if you're in Manila or
00:24:54
Sa Paulo um, you know, or Delhi, you
00:24:57
know, but so it's it's going to feel
00:24:59
that it was made for you.
00:25:02
>> Uh, and a big way we do that is yes, we
00:25:05
do work with AI um to scale and to
00:25:08
understand design logic. Um but we also
00:25:11
work with um creators and creators make
00:25:14
nine out of 10 of our templates um uh
00:25:16
that we have.
00:25:18
>> So it's a combination of working with
00:25:20
truly local um creators and uh design to
00:25:25
see you know what is meaningful in each
00:25:27
different region. So whether it's
00:25:29
something like I I think in France last
00:25:31
year rumés were our biggest use case um
00:25:33
that people were using or where we saw
00:25:36
the phenomenon of presentation nights.
00:25:38
You know, friends would get together and
00:25:39
do presentations or they would do things
00:25:41
like my dating wrapped.
00:25:46
>> Barbara doesn't want to be around
00:25:47
friends that are presenting.
00:25:49
>> No, they they've they've popped a bottle
00:25:52
of bubbly. They're sitting back and
00:25:53
they're really
00:25:54
>> they're presenting.
00:25:56
>> I love that.
00:25:57
>> Exactly. So, you know, we see these
00:25:58
trends happening organically and then we
00:26:00
just kind of lean into them and how do
00:26:02
we help to give them more more fuel, but
00:26:04
it still starts with people and I think
00:26:06
the AI piece of it is um we built um an
00:26:11
LLM last year uh the Canva design model
00:26:14
which is
00:26:15
>> focused on you know we have all this
00:26:17
great templates and these presentations
00:26:18
and it's it understands design logic and
00:26:20
I think that's what's unique about it.
00:26:22
So, if you're building something, let's
00:26:24
say, you know, Barbara's um making a a
00:26:27
beautiful um uh cover or something for
00:26:30
this research study she's undertaking,
00:26:32
you can actually kind of jam and work
00:26:34
with this u alm like a partner, you
00:26:37
know, to say, "Oh, is this composition
00:26:39
off?" Are there colors that make this
00:26:41
feel more like warm? So all all of that
00:26:44
um intelligence is based on this corpus
00:26:47
of
00:26:48
>> templates, creativity, designers um that
00:26:51
we want to nurture that get royalties
00:26:54
actually working with Canva. So a lot of
00:26:55
them are, you know, it's it is a whole a
00:26:58
whole creator ecosystem that we're
00:26:59
nurturing, but we're also using it to
00:27:02
make
00:27:02
>> your AI
00:27:04
harder. Very interesting.
00:27:06
>> It's one fuels the other.
00:27:08
>> Super interesting. Oh, well Christine
00:27:09
Secrets, we can talk to you all day, but
00:27:11
it is the end of our time. I'd like to
00:27:13
thank you, global head of consumer and
00:27:16
product marketing at Canva for being
00:27:18
with us today. And can you tell our
00:27:21
listeners where they can go to find out
00:27:22
about you or where there's information
00:27:25
about your platform?
00:27:26
>> Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think just
00:27:28
go to Canva and have a play is what I
00:27:30
would tell everyone. Just go make
00:27:31
something. Um, and that's the best way
00:27:34
to dive in. And the best way to find me
00:27:36
is on LinkedIn for things that are
00:27:38
serious and meaningful and I'm on
00:27:39
Instagram for all the silly stuff. So
00:27:42
>> nice.
00:27:43
>> That's where that's where I'm located.
00:27:44
>> That's awesome.
00:27:45
>> Well, thank you so much. Thank you so
00:27:48
much for your time.
00:27:49
>> We really appreciate this.
00:27:51
>> That's all we have time for today. We'd
00:27:53
like to thank producers Dion Simkins and
00:27:55
Marissa Rena. Thank you all for
00:27:57
listening. We'll be back next week. Till
00:27:58
then, this has been Marketing Matters on
00:28:00
the Wharton Podcast Network. I'm Barbara
00:28:03
Khan here with America's Reed.
