Canva wants marketers to slay content fatigue with fantasy
Canva’s new brand campaign urges marketers to fight boring content with imagination and its AI-powered tools
Canva is leaning hard into storytelling in its latest brand campaign, "Put imagination to work," which features a trilogy of fantasy-inspired short films that highlight how professionals can unlock creative superpowers through its platform.
Launched in the US with support from UK creative agency Stink Studios, the campaign is a strategic pivot from typical SaaS messaging. It repositions Canva as a creativity catalyst for marketers, HR teams, and entrepreneurs who are burned out by boring decks, lifeless signage, or bland social posts.
This article explores the campaign's narrative direction, product tie-ins, and what it signals for content creators and brand teams.
Short on time?
Here’s a table of contents for quick access:
- What’s new in Canva’s fantasy campaign
- Inside the films: sales, HR, and small business stories
- What marketers should know
Patrecia Meliana
What's new in Canva’s fantasy campaign
The campaign rolls out across TV, digital, and out-of-home channels until November and includes three cinematic shorts. These fantasy scenarios are used to frame how Canva helps professionals get unstuck creatively:
- “Slay” follows a realtor who channels her inner medieval warrior to design a showstopping open house sign.
- “Vamped Up” stars an ice cream truck owner who revitalizes his social media game with vampire-themed posts.
- “Spellbound” centers on an HR leader who revives dull presentations using witchy, interactive slides and swag.
While playful on the surface, each ad demonstrates Canva's power as a real work tool, especially for visual storytelling and content development in small businesses and corporate teams alike.
The campaign also coincides with updates to Canva’s Visual Suite 2.0, with features like Canva Sheets (a more visual alternative to traditional spreadsheets) and AI tools like Bulk Create, which helps users generate marketing assets at scale.
Inside the films
Each film places a different professional archetype at the center of a whimsical rebrand:
- The Sales Slay: A realtor slices through mediocrity with a sword and a Canva-made sign that looks like it belongs in a medieval fantasy world but draws real crowds.
- Vamped Up Content: A plain-vanilla ice cream truck rebrands into a horror-themed hit on social media, thanks to Canva’s templates and editing tools.
- HR Gets Spellbound: “Wendy from HR” conjures up a new way to present internal training with magical slides and event materials made in Canva.
This creative approach underlines how storytelling is no longer just for big ad agencies. It is for internal comms, sales teams, and mom-and-pop brands too.
What marketers should know
Canva’s campaign delivers more than whimsy. It reveals deeper shifts in how modern teams want to create and communicate. Here’s what matters for marketing professionals:
1. Productivity is now visual
With Canva Sheets, Canva is pushing into territory long held by Excel and Google Sheets. The difference is visual integration. Marketers can build project dashboards, campaign calendars, and asset trackers that look good and function well in a collaborative workspace.
2. AI and scale are not optional
The campaign introduces Bulk Create, an AI feature that allows users to generate content variations quickly. For marketing teams producing social creatives, product slides, or multi-language ads, this speeds up output without losing consistency.
3. B2B content is getting cinematic
This campaign joins a growing trend of B2B brands producing film-grade creative to stand out. Like Notion, ClickUp, or Slack, Canva is proving that storytelling and humor can live comfortably alongside spreadsheets and pitch decks.
4. OOH is making a comeback
Earlier this year, Canva took over London’s Waterloo Station with live billboard demos. These real-world campaigns reinforce the idea that Canva is not just digital. It is embedded in how brands show up in physical environments too.
Canva’s latest campaign is a reminder that imagination has value in B2B marketing. When paired with smart tools, it can lead to faster execution, better engagement, and more fun along the way.
By blending fantasy with functionality, Canva is nudging marketers to see design not as a department, but as a capability. And with tools like Canva Sheets and AI-powered content engines, the barriers to creativity are falling fast.
