Branded ice pops were only the start.

Cannes Lions is not a place where you can show up halfway. Canva knew this. So did we.

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For Canva's debut at the world's most prestigious creative festival, the goal was clear and the stakes were high: drive pipeline, educate attendees on new products, tell the Canva story, and build real relationships, all while feeling effortlessly warm and unmistakably on-brand. The second-biggest pipeline-generating moment in the Canva calendar. Totally casual.

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The answer was the Canva Creative Cabana: an all-day destination for creativity, community, and conversation. Warm, curious, and layered by design, every detail was built to shift seamlessly between inspiration and activation without ever feeling transactional.

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Four fully branded semi-private meeting rooms supported high-value sales conversations throughout the week. A mainstage hosted panels and keynotes daily, with adjacent seating that invited drop-ins and grew audiences organically. A coffee and juice bar kept the energy up. Canva-branded ice pops introduced attendees to the company's visual suite, each flavor linked to a different doc type. (Yes, really. Yes, it worked.)

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Hands-on demo zones featured retro viewfinders to showcase Canva's AI functionality, and a live data visualization wall brought real-time attendee insights to life through a scan-and-see experience. The Cabana also hosted an Experiential Marketers Brunch, a Creative Happy Hour, and several private dinners, all designed to build the kind of relationships that outlast the week.

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Final tally: roughly 5,000 visitors, 100+ meetings, 566,000 unique social impressions, and 21,000 social engagements. What happens in the Cabana scales in 2026.