2023 edition

The Visual Economy Report

The digital revolution has powered a visual revolution unlike anything we’ve seen in human history.

The explosion of visual content is changing how we live, work and communicate. The proliferation of digital media we consume in our personal lives has created a demand for compelling, shareable visual content in the workplace – and shrinking attention spans have made it a business imperative.

To help organizations better understand the drivers and impact of visual communication, Canva launches The Visual Economy Report. We surveyed 1,600 business leaders from the US, UK and Australia about how they’re approaching design principles to drive business efficiency, creativity, audience engagement and economic impact.

Visual communication has become a strategic imperative for business leaders

With time, attention, and productivity at an all-time premium, communicating visually is becoming the most impactful way to communicate in the workplace. Business leaders around the world are showing a strong preference for the use of visuals, aware of the many business benefits on offer.

The majority of global business leaders agree that visual communication methods increase efficiency (90%), enhance collaboration (89%) and carry more authority than other methods of communication (85%).

This is the era of the visual economy. Thriving in it requires organizations and their employees to think and work differently.

Zach Kitschke

CMO, Canva

Canva has been an invaluable tool for our business, transforming how our creative and social teams work with one another by making it easier for staff to create new designs in a way that maintains brand consistency. It’s also enabled our team to scale best practices when it comes to visual communications across the company, ensuring that we can create compelling content across all of our social and owned channels

Marissa Kraines

VP, Global Head of Social Media, Salesforce

Communicating visually is key to both hybrid work and customer engagement

Teams and workplaces are more global than ever. Visual communication is enabling productivity, team culture and collaboration. Organizations want teams to collaborate, share ideas and scale the creative process from wherever they are in the world.

Nearly all global business leaders (89%) agree that visual communication methods have helped remote and hybrid team members connect with each other.

Visual Content Accelerates the Sales Cycle

89%

agree visual communication tools help customers stay engaged

88%

agree that visual communication tools have accelerated sales cycles

87%

agree that visual communication tools have increased open rates for marketing materials

Design literacy has become a must-have

The need to create and scale content is greater than ever before. Every business is now a content business making design literacy critical for all employees. What was once considered a specialized skill has become foundational for billions of everyday professionals worldwide.

Design is now expected of non-designers. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of global business leaders say those in non-design roles are expected to have extensive design knowledge - think the ability to create new graphics, GIFs, and presentations from scratch.

Businesses demand more from their visual communication platforms

Visual content can be the gateway to increasing brand equity. Despite this, businesses are plagued by consistency, workflow and quality issues with their design platforms. Nearly two-thirds of global business leaders (64%) say that their company lacks a streamlined visual design software platform and over half agree their content is neither aesthetically pleasing (53%) nor consistent (56%).

With the stakes as high as ever to deliver visually-compelling content that breaks through, businesses can’t afford to fall short of meeting today’s design expectations.