We’ve spent the better part of the past few years glued to our screens—clicking, swiping, streaming. Endless tabs, endless scrolls. And yet, despite all the infinite access, we’re still craving the one thing the web cannot render: real presence.
That collective craving has rewritten the rules of marketing.
Five years after COVID, brands are finding the antidote to Zoom fatigue by showing up in person again.
Canva, the Australian graphic design platform, is moving quickly to meet this demand with the launch of the Canva World Tour, a global initiative spanning 40 cities across 30 countries and five continents, with the goal of training one million people in just a month.
The tour features 250 workshops and community-led sessions, from campus pop-ups to hands-on tutorials and certification programs.
With a massive online footprint—1 in 24 internet users worldwide—Canva boasts 240 million monthly active users across 190 countries and 100 languages, generating more than 370 designs every second.
Amid a booming online presence, its move to live events is about taking the experience from “URL to IRL,” Jimmy Knowles, Canva’s global head of experiential, told Fast Company.
It’s not the first time Canva has embraced face-to-face interactions. This year, Canva Create, the company’s annual event, had a tentpole moment with 105 speakers across six stages, drawing more than 4,300 attendees in person at California’s SoFi Stadium, with 6.6 million tuning in online.
Knowles describes the events as a chance to be “unapologetically ourselves,” adding, “Tech brands are all straight lines and rounded boxes, as opposed to coloring outside the lines.”
Experience the economy
Canva’s headfirst dive into experiential marketing is perhaps no surprise. As reported by eMarketer, experiential marketing spending has surged past $128 billion, with activity signaling a resurgent comeback above pre-pandemic levels.
According to the 2023 Trust Report from live events company Freeman, 77% of consumers say their trust in a brand increases following a live event interaction, and 64% retain positive impressions of brands they engage with in person.
Building on insights like this, Canva designed its world tour to connect with people directly on their own terms.
“This enables us to get super local and relevant to the communities we’re serving,” Knowles explains.
Kristine Segrist, Canva’s global head of consumer marketing, adds, “Meeting them where they are makes the experience feel immediate and personal.”
The tour took off at the Texas State Fair in Dallas and will culminate in Sydney, Australia, with a 4,000-person keynote and, according to Canva, a major product announcement.
