The Dave Gerhardt Show

The Strategy Behind Canva’s B2B Growth with Emma Robinson and Kristine Segrist


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#277 Growth | Dave is joined by Emma Robinson, Head of B2B Marketing at Canva, and Kristine Segrist, VP of Consumer Marketing at Canva. Together, Emma and Kristine lead the teams driving Canva’s growth across both enterprise and consumer audiences, helping the company scale into a platform now used by over 95% of the Fortune 500.


Dave, Emma, and Kristine cover:

  • How Canva balances brand-building with pipeline accountability, and why they view brand investment as long-term growth.
  • The playbook Canva uses to turn bottom-up adoption into enterprise deals, including how product signals guide upsell and expansion.
  • How their team structure, data science investments, and creative bets (like the Love Your Work campaign) work together to scale B2B marketing without losing Canva’s approachable brand identity.

This episode offers a practical look at how one of the world’s most recognizable platforms approaches B2B growth.


Timestamps

  • (00:00) - – Intro
  • (03:08) - – Canva’s marketing org structure
  • (06:08) - – Blurring B2B and B2C
  • (11:08) - – How Canva measures marketing impact
  • (16:08) - – Turning free users into enterprise deals
  • (21:08) - – Data science’s role in marketing
  • (24:08) - – Balancing brand bets with ROI
  • (30:20) - – Inside the “Love Your Work” campaign
  • (37:20) - – How Canva executes large campaigns
  • (41:20) - – Building enterprise credibility and trust
  • (44:20) - – FedEx case study on brand governance
  • (48:20) - – Lessons from Google and Meta
  • (52:20) - – Why creativity is a marketing superpower
  • (54:20) - – Closing thoughts

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    ***

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    ***

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