Australia-based design and tech juggernaut Canva – valued at $49 billion – outlines its plans to acquire data-gathering platform MagicBrief.

In an announcement from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Australian design and technology company Canva has taken another step forward in powering the holistic marketing lifecycle with its planned acquisition of Australian data-insights startup MagicBrief, its Sydney team pictured above.

Streamlining solutions for digital advertising

The MagicBrief analytics tool, launched in 2022, is an AI-powered workflow platform that works to streamline data-gathering to assist digital advertisers in identifying which campaigns and assets are successfully driving traffic. Trusted by thousands of marketing and creative leads all over the world, MagicBrief represents a valuable acquisition for Canva. 

While the company remains a content-creating platform, its forthcoming purchase of MagicBrief will now allow users to leverage data-driven performance insights as a core aspect of the user experience. 

Canva co-founder and chief operating officer Cliff Obrecht made the announcement at the prestigious advertising awards event, with assurances that the company is entering a new frontier. “We’re powering the entire content and marketing workflow, from ideation and creation to deployment, measurement, and now analysis and optimisation,” he said.

Obrecht emphasised the key success marker in a visually oriented consumer market is knowing which creative elements are the most effective, as well as which audiences they resonate with and why. 

“By combining MagicBrief’s AI-powered insights with Canva’s Visual Suite, we’re giving every team the tools to not just create great content, but drive stronger results,” he said.

Smarter tools to work faster

With the expectation behind brands to make large volumes of content, in quick turnaround and on a regular schedule, strategic marketing is a leading aid in creating digital materials that cut through the noise and make an impact. Services like MagicBrief allow creatives to translate engagement insights into instant performance enhancements for any brand. 

“We started MagicBrief to give creative teams smarter tools to move faster and make better work,” co-founder and CEO George Howes said. “Joining Canva takes that vision to the next level, helping us reach more marketers and turn great ideas into high-performing creative.”

The suite of tools helps users translate disparate fragments of data into insights that drive strategic change within a brand’s content schedule. Since MagicBrief’s inception, it has successfully analysed more than $6 billion in ad revenue and has been a brand partner to leading market players such as Linktree, Koala and Fenty Beauty. 

With a monthly subscription base in excess of 240 million users, Canva has securely positioned itself as the service provider of choice for creatives seeking to produce winning visual content at scale. In the meantime, MagicBrief will resume its independent operations as the startup’s technology team begins to integrate into Canva’s core product offerings. 

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