#817: Canva's Emma Robinson on the power of visual communication in B2B marketing
The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX
The Agile Brand
4.9 • 113 Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
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Summary
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
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| 0:00.0 | The Agile Brand |
| 0:02.4 | Welcome to Season 8 of the Agile Brand podcast. |
| 0:10.1 | This season we're going all in on expert mode |
| 0:12.7 | MARTEC, AI, and customer experience, talking with the people and |
| 0:16.8 | platforms behind the brands you know and love. |
| 0:19.4 | I'm Greg Kilstrom, your host, and I help |
| 0:21.7 | Fortune 1000 companies make sense of Martec, AI, and marketing ops. Hit subscribe or follow to make |
| 0:28.2 | sure you always get the latest episodes and leave us a rating so others can find us as well. And make |
| 0:33.1 | sure you check out our sponsor, Tech Systems, an industry leader in full-stack technology services, |
| 0:38.0 | talent services, and real-world application. For more information, go to teK-systems.com. Now let's dive in. |
| 0:48.9 | With B2B marketers drowning in data and automation, have we forgotten that our buyers are |
| 0:54.0 | still human |
| 0:54.7 | beings who are moved more by compelling visuals than by another line on a spreadsheet? |
| 1:00.1 | Agility requires not just the speed to react, but the insight to know what to react with. |
| 1:05.2 | It demands a seamless connection between creative ideation and performance data, |
| 1:09.7 | allowing teams to not only launch campaigns quickly, but to make them smarter over time. |
| 1:14.7 | Today we're going to talk about the often underestimated power of visual communication and design-led thinking in B2B marketing, |
| 1:21.5 | including some findings from Canva's recent visual communications report. |
| 1:25.9 | We're going to explore why creativity isn't just a nice to have, but a core driver of |
| 1:29.9 | engagement and business results, how neuroscience backs this up, and how new platforms are |
| 1:35.4 | enabling marketing teams to scale high-quality creative while directly measuring its impact |
| 1:40.3 | on the bottom line. |
... |
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