With B2B marketers drowning in data and automation, have we forgotten that our buyers are still human beings who are moved more by compelling visuals than by another line on a spreadsheet?
Agility requires not just the speed to react, but the insight to know what to react with. It demands a seamless connection between creative ideation and performance data, allowing teams to not only launch campaigns quickly but to make them smarter over time.
Today, we’re going to talk about the often-underestimated power of visual communication and design-led thinking in B2B marketing. We’ll explore why creativity isn’t just a ‘nice to have’ but a core driver of engagement and business results, how neuroscience backs this up, and how new platforms are enabling marketing teams to scale high-quality creative while directly measuring its impact on the bottom line.
To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome, Emma Robinson, Head of B2B Marketing at Canva.
About Emma Robinson
Emma Robinson is the Head of B2B Marketing at Canva, where she drives customer-centric strategies that showcase the impact of design at scale across enterprise organizations. She brings more than 20 years of global B2B marketing experience and has held leadership roles at Salesforce, Google, Medallia, and ThoughtSpot. Having worked across the UK, Asia Pacific, and the US, she’s known for building high-performing teams and bringing innovative, high-impact go-to-market strategies to life. Emma brings deep expertise in customer advocacy, lifecycle marketing, and insight-led content, and is a strong champion for the power of brand and creativity in B2B. Her work is instrumental in positioning Canva as the visual communication platform for the modern workplace.
Emma Robinson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-robinson-mtkg/
Resources
Canva: https://www.canva.com/about/
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Transcript
Greg Kihlstrom: With B2B marketers drowning in data and automation, have we forgotten that our buyers are still human beings who are are moved more by compelling visuals than by another line on a spreadsheet? Agility requires not just the speed to react, but the insight to know what to react with. It demands a seamless connection between creative ideation and performance data, allowing teams to not only launch campaigns quickly, but to make them smarter over time.
Today, we’re going to talk about the often underestimated power of visual communication and design-led thinking in B2B marketing, including some findings from Canva’s recent visual communications report. We’re going to explore why creativity isn’t just a nice to have, but a core driver of engagement and business results. How neuroscience backs this up, and how new platforms are enabling marketing teams to scale high-quality creative while directly measuring its impact on the bottom line.
To me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Emma Robinson, Head of B2B Marketing at Canva. Emma, welcome to the show.
Emma Robinson: Thanks, Greg. It’s great to be here.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, yeah, I’m really looking forward to talking about this fascinating topic here. Before we dive in though, why don’t you give a little background on yourself and your role at Canva?
Emma Robinson: Yeah, sure, happy to. So, I lead B2B marketing at Canva, which in a nutshell is essentially the growth engine that works in partnership with our go-to-market organization, and we’re jointly working together to sort of empower business customers to achieve their goals on Canva.
So, most of you, our listeners, probably know that Canva from our broader mission, which is to empower the world to design. Now that was the sort of mission around the first decade, but the second decade is around empowering organizations to design. So, it’s quite a lofty vision, but it’s a journey that we’ve been on for around two years now. We’re really trying to help people scale their visual comms efforts within organizations.
And so that’s the charter of my group. So we support full funnel, cross-channel marketing covering businesses of all sizes, so SMB to Fortune 500, as well as higher education and public sector more broadly. Think sort of enterprise scale, long buying cycles sometimes, distributed teams, lots of stakeholders.
But interestingly, I think what this role at Canva has probably taught me is that complexity doesn’t really reduce the need for creativity. I actually think it raises the bar for it. So, my my role is really about proving that creativity isn’t the opposite of performance, but it is one of the strongest drivers of it. So, it’s definitely a fun ride, that’s for sure.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, yeah, I love it. And I I love I love that mission too. And so, yeah, I mean, I always I always feel like design is making the complex easy to understand and and stuff. So, yeah, definitely.
Um, so let’s uh let’s dive in. Let’s start with looking at things from the the strategic view of visual communication. And the report, uh the visual communication report that I mentioned, we’ll we’ll put a link to it in the in the show notes as well. It talks about the neuroscience behind why design-led companies win.
So, for those marketing leaders listening out there who might still see design as a beautification step or, you know, kind of a nice to have, rather than a core strategic function. What’s the most compelling piece of evidence that you’d share to change their mind?
Emma Robinson: Yeah, yeah, that’s a good question. So, you know, I think the simplest proof is is actually in this research, in this data. I mean, it’s it’s really how the brain works, right? Um and you can’t argue with that. But but you know, we process visuals far, far faster than we do text, and we remember them longer. And, you know, you mentioned this field of of neuroscience, which is actually a fascinating field. I if anyone has a chance to dive into it, it’s it’s really interesting. And we totally geeked out on this one. Uh, we tracked brain activity using a technique called steady-state topography, which shows that, you know, visual content triggers memory encoding 74% faster than dull alternatives.
So, I mean, that’s really interesting. You know, how I think we all feel a certain way when we look at creative and we respond to visual stimuli, but now we actually have the proven research to actually back this up that, you know, we have a a language around how we describe these things. And so, what does it mean for companies? I guess, you know, the research shows that it’s clear that visual communication is not just optional anymore. You know, design-led companies are achieving major boosts in clarity. So, 66% of these companies achieve more efficient communications compared to just 52% that rely on text alone.
So, you know, we’ve seen organizations move in this direction, in particular with Gen Z being predominantly in the in the workforce these days. So, I think the only interesting thing that we saw in the research too is that there’s also this gap that only 22% of companies actually consider themselves design-led. So we have a lot of work to do here, but no, I think, I think seeing the data for real um really kind of just solidifies that this is such an important topic now.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, yeah. Well, and I think a lot of the companies that are maybe known for their design or just their aesthetics are often B2C companies, right? Anyone could probably rattle off a few what very well-known brands that are that are kind of known for that. But you’ve said, you know, creativity also remains the heart of strong B2B. And so I think this is, you know, potentially an uh sometimes overlooked and and maybe feels counterintuitive to some that are living in the world of, you know, account-based marketing and lead scoring, MQLs, you know, all all of the the sales speak that that goes along with with B2B.
You know, how how would you advise large B2B organizations to balance obviously they’ve got to make sales and they’ve they’ve got to make numbers and everything, but like how do they balance that art of creativity with the science of demand generation without one, you know, overshadowing the other?
Emma Robinson: Yeah. No, it is it’s something that we ponder a lot in B2B marketing, uh in many, many of a many years. I wish I had the simplest answer. But I but I think that one of the analogies that I really like in this example is, you know, I know car analogies sometimes are overused, but, you know, creativity is really the engine, and then data’s almost like the steering wheel. And so, one without the other goes either nowhere or crashes.
And to answer your question, you know, I don’t know if there’s ever a perfect balance, but I would say that, you know, you should treat brand like research and development. You know, they become those brand efforts become really the oxygen that sustains demand over time and also accelerates channel performance when you get it right. So, you know, we’ve done a lot of data or data work to show that brand campaigns correlate better performance of digital, so performance marketing based on how your brand is showing up and how much work you’re doing to build brand equity.
And and so creativity really is like working hardest, I guess, upstream in intention, in understanding, and trust. And I think some of the biggest mistakes that, you know, actually mentioned that B2B teams can sometimes force that creativity to justify clicks. And, you know, certainly we find that you have to kind of use both together. And you, you know, you mentioned that you, you know, there are B2B campaign or uh brands that are actually providing inspiration for B2B. And I think we definitely see that. So, you know, the market is incredibly complex and competitive now.
So, you can’t just do the same old things to scale a company these days. So, you know, we’re looking at Canva at companies like Disney and Pinterest for inspiration of how they show up in market and kind of really learning in that regard. And then AI is should not just make us faster, but should actually also make us more creative. And, you know, making sure that you’re leading with humanity and with authenticity. Those types of things are really impactful for the brand as well. So, you know, I think at the end of the day, there’s something really pure and right about genuinely connecting with your customers in channels like ABM.
Uh, you know, creativity isn’t really just sort of the enemy, I guess, of precision, but it’s what makes the message actually land ultimately with your buyers and and sort of doesn’t end up disappearing in that kind of inbox noise. So, so yeah, I see a role of them both working together.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah. Well, and then in the enterprise as well, you know, what one of the challenges in enabling this creativity and, you know, to take it to a more, let’s say, to the tactical level as well is enabling these enterprise marketing teams to not only be fast, but also creative, right? So, you know, some it’s it’s the good, fast, cheap thing. It’s like you can you can have two, right? So, but it’s it’s enabling all those things to be to be possible and to enable the creativity and and the brand to really be consistent when, you know, potentially thousands of employees are are working with brand assets.
How does a platform approach help to solve this tension between, you know, we got a centralized brand governance and and have that consistent brand identity, but also democratizing the creation of content that is on-brand?
Emma Robinson: Yeah. Yeah, you know, I I think the platform approach really works because it removes that sort of false choice between control and creativity. And, you know, I personally really like using brand systems. I am, you know, I think I’m the world’s best designer, so I’m always going rogue. But, you know, in my experience, you know, you can’t stymie content creation and ideas from being launched into the world. So, you know, the best possible approach is to be you have to be a good steward of the brand and it’s everybody’s responsibility and in a work organization to make that work.
But the way we think about at Canva is we help companies to really set those templates up as the guardrails, not handcuffs. And they help people to move faster without going off the road. And in my experience, you know, this sort of good governance systems, they shouldn’t slow creativity, just remove any of that friction in the process. But having said that, there’s probably two important nuances that I would want to convey. The first one is around how you set this up and then the second one is around tool consolidation.
So, on the first one, how you set it up, instead of, you know, brand control living in a PDF or in a separate layer, our brand system at Canva is able to embed directly into the workflows, into the work itself, which does help with removing some of that friction I talked about. So, things like fonts and colors and logos, templates, layouts, they’re all built into the editor. So, every employee sort of starts with this foundational layer of brand control by default. And so that’s really helpful for organizations to scale.
And then secondly, the other part is just reality. I mean, most teams are working in incredibly fragmented environments. On average, we see that teams are juggling 8.7 tools each week, which, you know, you can only imagine just slows execution and introduces a ton of brand risk. And, you know, that’s probably getting worse, I would say, with all the the AI tooling that’s coming onto the market. So, you know, companies when they consolidate onto that sort of single visual communications platform, the impact goes far beyond just the cost savings, but it’s more about how they they achieve true brand consistency that does scale and allows your employees to get ideas out to market faster.
So, um, so I guess the TLDR is, you know, that shift from centralized control to centralized enablement is where creativity is democratized and then the brand still stays incredibly cohesive. And that’s kind of like the that’s the the way that we would recommend people to work.
Greg Kihlstrom: So, measuring the impact of this, certainly, you know, there’s a there’s a way to measure time savings perhaps. It can be a a little challenging to measure brand consistency perhaps as well, but, you know, this idea of integration between content creation and the performance analytics on that content that’s created, you know, it can be it can be really powerful.
Historically, these have been pretty separate worlds with time lags between and and things like that. What what’s the practical benefit of having performance metrics directly inside a creative tool and and how does that change a a marketer’s day-to-day workflow?
Emma Robinson: Yeah. Well, look, I mean, I’ve been at this game for a very long time. And for as long as I remember, you know, the old world was very much, you create your campaigns or your assets, you you launch, you wait and see what happens, you analyze and analyzing in itself is like a weeklong process, you know, before you even can take action. It’s like too late and there’s been a ton of handoffs in that process. So incredibly complex and time-consuming.
But the new world is interesting and much more performance than it’s ever been. So, you can create these campaigns, you can create your assets and see performance and then iterate on those insights almost instantaneously. So, I think these like practical benefits you get is speed but with learning actually built in. So, when performance data like lives inside the creative tool, the marketer doesn’t have to wait, you know, days, weeks, um, months even to understand what’s working and they can act on it in real time.
And we see that in Canva Grow, which I’m not sure if you’ve seen, but that’s our way to be able to create and publish um and then get performance data all in one workflow across, you know, Meta and and other platforms. So, being able to track those results and then be able to take action on that data without switching tools and switching that context that um usually so much time within those those sort of cracks that are in the handoff process. And so that really does collapse that feedback loop and instead of spending hours on unproductive work, it feels like you can move much faster, make clearer decisions and then really just get those campaigns out to market faster.
And then hopefully the impact is that you actually also see where your customers are truly responding and you know what the engagement levels are like and and do that in a very quick way. So you can actually then respond to needs and cultural moments in the market, which uh which always seems good. And I guess whilst we’re on the car analogies, you know, in the past, you know, I’ve seen teams the creative teams like measure performance when they’re looking in the rearview mirror, whereas when performance actually lives inside the creative tool, then you really truly are looking through the windshield. So that always really helps and and hopefully makes us all better marketers.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, to to talk a little more about Canva Grow, I I believe the platform also has what’s called brand aware AI that actually learns from that performance data as you were describing. Can you talk a little bit more about, you know, how does how does this help in providing, you know, tangible recommendations, you know, let’s say I’m a I’m a non-designer but I’m tasked with doing things like how does how does this brand aware AI help improve not only, you know, initial content but campaign outcomes over time?
Emma Robinson: Yeah, I mean, I I think you can consider it the generic AI is a bit like having an intern with no context. Um whereas with brand aware AI is more like a coach who knows your playbook and then constantly learns from it. So, you know, it goes far beyond just creating on content in isolation and does, I would say, a few things really well. One is that it understands your brand rules, so the visual identity, your tone, your creative patterns. It then learns as we’ve talked about from the performance data and then recommends what to adjust, so not just what to actually generate.
Um and yeah, Canva Grow is a good example of that. Um performance data is built into that feedback and creative process. And then over time will actually surface smarter recommendations about the types of formats, the messaging, the visuals that tend to resonate. So teams are just not guessing, they’re actually been able to improve with every campaign. And it’s not just asking, you know, what can I create? It is actually asking what should I improve based on what’s already working, which is a very different nuance.
So, yeah, I I think that there’s this really interesting shift from generic Gen AI to AI practical impact. Um and and that’s, you know, been able to then have AI handle the optimization, the learning at scale and then freeing marketers like myself to be able to focus on what we do best, which is tell really incredible human stories and be creative and and be able to do that strategically. So, yeah, it’s it’s a journey, but I feel like that’s where the industry’s headed.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, and I want to talk a little bit more about that as well and just, you know, being able to democratize content creation, tying the content creation into the performance, you know, and the analytics part of it means, you know, creative functions, analytics functions, channel management, marketing, there’s a convergence here, right? So what does this mean for, you know, what what does the ideal marketing team look like over the next few years as, you know, more more of this becomes democratized and, you know, which roles may become more important and and which ones may merge?
Emma Robinson: Yeah.
Greg Kihlstrom: That’s a lot of questions, but sorry.
Emma Robinson: It is, it is. But I I get this question a lot actually, so I’m trying to think of the best way to simplify. But but I think it’s not so much where the roles are changing per se, it’s more the skills that you want your teams to continue and invest in. And so the most valuable marketers I think in the future are going to be more T-shaped. So blending like this really great balance of creativity and data fluency and AI literacy. And those things are not easy to come by, but I think that’s where we’ve definitely seen a lot of the talent that’s coming through now really having that sort of intersection of those three things.
So I don’t think roles necessarily will be disappearing. I think many will merge, as you said. And what really matters is is mostly judgment and understanding, you know, brand and culture and then being able to use data to learn fast and, you know, applying technology to do better work. And like those are more skills developments. And then, you know, I think the piece that we probably just need to all be very acutely aware of is that human stories, authentic stories will become incredibly important in the future and being able to connect, you know, zeitgeist and culture moments and those things together with human stories is going to be the standout in this sort of AI world of content creation.
So the future feels a little bit like it’s not just is it left-brain or right-brain, but I think marketers need to be fluent in both.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, yeah. And then looking ahead, uh what what would you say is uh maybe either the single biggest opportunity or or maybe threat for B2B brands that fail to embrace uh a more visually driven and agile approach to their marketing?
Emma Robinson: Yeah. Yeah, well, look, I mean, the the B2B buying journey is is nonlinear as you know, and it’s heavily influenced by peers, through creators and communities, not just ads. So, I think brands that rely on really slow, sort of text-heavy, rigid marketing will not stand out. And I think they they will really struggle where decisions have been shaped in companies.
But the opportunity is actually in the opposite. So, visual fluency, agile brands are going to move really fast. And, you know, 90% of Gen X, Gen Z, I’m sorry, are doing their best work visually. 83% are using unapproved tools to communicate effectively. So, you know, brands that enable visual on on-brand creation will actually really earn that sort of relevance, the trust, the the attention, um in these really crowded markets. So, so do the right thing by the Gen Z community, I think. Get them doing, you know, their best possible work, give them the tools they need to be successful and just watch what happens because they they are the future for sure in this world. So, yeah.
Greg Kihlstrom: I love it. Well, Emma, thank you so much for joining us. It’s been great talking with you. I just got two last questions for you as as we wrap up here. First, uh if we were having this interview one year from today, what is one thing that we would definitely be talking about?
Emma Robinson: Hmm. You know, I would love it, Greg, if we could be talking about how creativity has become really truly measurable at scale and how that’s changed budget conversations in boardrooms. I think it’s something that we probably don’t give enough credence to honestly. And so by being able to do things like this research we’ve just done and really codify what creativity means is going to really help us shape those conversations.
So, yeah, I think we’ll be talking about as well like brand brand aware AI and how we’re moving from simply generating content to actually learning what resonates and then what opportunities we have for speed and scale. And so, yeah, I think the best marketers, we’re not going to be competing with AI. We’re going to be directing it through workflows. I hope we’re going to talk about that. I think we will be moved on significantly in terms of where AI is taking us much more into like how do you how do you truly make it change, shape of things like, you know, new products, new services, new experiences versus be more productivity led. So, um, I’m excited to have those conversations with you this time next year, Greg.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, absolutely. Well, and Emma, last question for you before we wrap up, what do you do to stay agile in your role and how do you find a way to do it consistently?
Emma Robinson: Yeah, look, I try and stay really close to the work. So I think particularly at Canva it’s very easy to do that. We use the platform uh each and every day. But also close to customers who are using Canva too. I think that really helps to be able to understand their problems, like really deeply, where they’re struggling, where they what they love, what they’re missing. And then that agility comes, I think, more from the curiosity, not just the speed. So, yeah, I think, you know, been able to use the product and been able to spot friction faster, really helps us to kind of keep grounded and and curious and consistently agile.
