Canva enters the wide world of sports

Australia’s fastest-growing company is not slowing down, signing up new sports teams and adding new core functionality.

Australia’s Jordan Mailata of the Philadelphia Eagles. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Australia’s richest start-up Canva is tackling a new vertical – sports – partnering with teams including Melbourne Victory and the Philadelphia Eagles as the country’s fastest-growing company expands even further.

Canva, which most recently was valued at $US40bn ($53.6bn) – more than Telstra and Woolworths – has teamed with Victory through a multi-year partnership with the club to be its first “official design partner”, and is on the hunt for more partnerships.

The Sydney-based company’s software allows users to create social media graphics, designs and other visual content, and is soon releasing functionality for building websites. As part of the tie-up Victory allowed its fans to design the club’s next away kit, with more than 650 designs created and over 1.4 million impressions generated for the club online.

The #DesignOurAwayKit campaign was created in reaction to a controversial 2021 away kit, criticised at the time by the club‘s passionate fanbase. This year’s winning design, created by Canva user Anthony B, will be donned by Victory players at away games next season.

Canva founders Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins. Source: Max Doyle

Canva has also partnered with NFL team Philadelphia Eagles, which has three Australian players on its roster and is using Canva’s brand management tools to create visual content.

The Eagles’ senior vice president of revenue and strategy, Australian veteran sports executive Catherine Carlson, said that Covid had forced teams to be more creative with how they approach fan engagement.

“I‘m genuinely excited to welcome Canva as a partner of the Philadelphia Eagles, especially because I’m Australian so I’m a bit biased, but we quickly realised their online design platform was very relevant for our fans who engage with us on digital platforms and social media.

“Our fans are crazy, they bleed green, and it’s going to be really fun seeing how our fans use the platform.”

Ms Carlson said at each home game two season ticket holders were selected to hold the American flag when the national anthem plays, and fans would have the chance to design and vote on which T-shirt would be worn by those fans.

Zach Kitschke, Canva’s chief marketing officer, said the sports vertical was shaping as a key plank behind the company’s rampant recent growth.

“Fan engagement has become a huge part of sport, and supporting your favourite team is no longer confined by geography,” he said. “And so sports brands, like every brand, now need to communicate visually to capture the attention and affinity of their audiences.”

“Whether it’s creating fan engagement templates to celebrate new player signings, launching fan-inspired design competitions, creating game day posters, sharing social media updates during live sporting matches or for sports journalism and game recaps, the opportunities are endless to use visual communication to engage fans and build brand affinity.”

He said Canva has just tipped over 80 million monthly active users globally, a new milestone for a company that is already Australia‘s fastest-growing company in history.

The List 250 is out this Friday.

“We’ve just tipped over 80 million active users and people are using Canva all over the world,” he said. “We’re about to launch Canva websites, which is a big one that we’re very excited about, and we’ve just launched our latest global brand campaign that will be coming on TV and radio in the next few weeks too. It’s been a really big few months.”

Canva co-founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht have a combined wealth of $15.89bn in this year’s edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250, published by The Australian on Friday.