Canva Brings Holiday Magic to Life With Its 2024 In-House Film
Canva's "The Magic Within" is a narrative-driven holiday film produced entirely in-house and released in Australia in December 2024, following the fictional magician Stella Sparks and her charming rabbit sidekick Whiskers the Wondrous as they use Canva's design tools to stage an unlikely creative comeback.
The campaign launched on 9 December 2024, according to the Canva Newsroom, with a listing on Ads of the World recorded on 16 December 2024 and coverage from shots Magazine following on 19 December 2024. It was created for Canva by Canva In-House, placing every discipline — copywriting, art direction, videography, VFX, motion graphics, and colour grading — under one roof. The film sits within the Electronics and Internet/Technology category and represents a single, cohesive media asset built around a seasonal narrative rather than a product feature reel.
In Australia, where Canva is headquartered, the campaign carries particular resonance. It marks a deliberate evolution from Canva's first documented global brand campaign, "What Will You Design Today?", launched in March 2022 according to the Canva Newsroom, toward a more cinematic and emotionally driven mode of brand storytelling. The 2024 holiday film does not simply demonstrate what Canva can do — it dramatises the feeling of creative rediscovery, positioning the platform as the catalyst behind a magician's return to form. That framing, built around the original characters of Stella Sparks and Whiskers the Wondrous, gives the campaign a narrative spine that distinguishes it from the category-standard product demonstration format. Clapboard scores "The Magic Within" at 63 out of 100, reflecting strong craft ambition and a clear strategic premise tempered by the tension between storytelling and product integration.
Canva occupies a distinctive position in a competitive creative-software market. According to electroiq.com, Adobe controlled approximately 70% of the broader 2024 creative-software market, with Photoshop accounting for an estimated 41% of product-level share and InDesign at 39%. Against that dominance, Canva has carved out a meaningful counter-position: accessibility over professional complexity. According to aiwiki.ai and electroiq.com, Canva held an estimated 10 to 13% market share in the graphic-design tools category as of December 2024, depending on the category definition applied.
The strategic logic behind "The Magic Within" flows directly from that positioning. Rather than compete with Adobe on feature depth, Canva's 2024 holiday campaign in Australia invites audiences into a story about creative confidence — the idea that magic is not lost, only dormant, and that the right tools can bring it back. Stella Sparks, the fictional magician at the centre of the film, functions as an analogy for any user who has felt creatively stuck. Whiskers the Wondrous, her rabbit puppet sidekick, adds warmth and levity that softens the implicit product message.
The holiday season provides a structurally sound context for this approach. In Australia, the December gifting period intensifies consumer attention to design, personalisation, and print — categories that map directly onto Canva's print product suite, which the campaign explicitly promotes via canva.com/print. According to the Canva Newsroom, the film began as an internal initiative to upskill Canva's creative team in their respective crafts before expanding into a full-scale production. That origin story reinforces the campaign's thematic coherence: a platform that enables creativity was itself created through an act of internal creative ambition. Competitors such as Adobe Express and Figma operate in the same accessibility-oriented segment, making emotional differentiation — rather than feature comparison — a sound strategic choice for the Australian market and beyond.
Director Jess Edwards led the creative execution of "The Magic Within," describing the work as telling "the story of Stella Sparks and her loyal sidekick, Whiskers the Wondrous," according to shots Magazine's coverage dated 19 December 2024. Edwards brought a narrative sensibility to material that could easily have defaulted to a product showcase, grounding the film in character and emotional arc rather than feature demonstration.
The production credits, documented by Ads of the World, reveal a full creative operation assembled entirely within Canva. Creative Director Matt Nisbet and Executive Creative Director Cat van der Werff shaped the project's strategic and aesthetic direction. Cinematographer Andy Lloyd handled the visual language of the film, while Art Directors Indah Shillingford and Brittany Britten built its visual world. Lead Copywriter Kieran McConnell was responsible for the script and narrative voice. Puppeteer Kay Yasugi brought Whiskers the Wondrous to physical life — a practical creative choice that distinguishes the work from CGI-heavy holiday advertising. Music was composed and produced by OTIS Studios.
Van der Werff described the project as "a true labour of love" and confirmed that it "started as an internal initiative to upskill in our crafts," according to a LinkedIn post dated 9 December 2024. That context is meaningful: the production disciplines deployed — VFX, motion graphics, grading, and live-action puppetry — represent a significant stretch for an in-house team more commonly associated with digital design tools than film production. According to the Canva Newsroom, Canva's own products, including Docs and Whiteboards, were used at various stages of the production process, creating a degree of self-referential authenticity that aligns with the campaign's broader message. Shots Magazine described the finished film as "very sweet" and a "winter warmer," singling out the rabbit puppet as "utterly adorable" — a response that confirms the practical puppetry decision landed as intended.
Canva's "The Magic Within" generated measurable public engagement following its December 2024 release in Australia. According to data cited on the campaign's YouTube listing, the film recorded approximately 7,480 views, 136 likes, and 19 comments at the time of submission. These figures reflect organic reach for a brand-produced holiday film rather than a paid media push, and should be read in that context.
Critical response provided a more qualitative signal of effectiveness. Shots Magazine, in its 19 December 2024 review, praised the film as "very sweet" and a genuine "winter warmer," while also noting that the execution functions more as a product demonstration than a purely emotional narrative — a tension that Clapboard's score of 63 out of 100 reflects. The score acknowledges the campaign's real craft strengths: a distinctive original-character premise, practical puppetry that earned press attention, and a production model — entirely in-house, across every discipline — that is structurally unusual for a company of Canva's scale.
The broader business context supports reading the campaign as part of a longer brand-building arc. According to growthmarketreports.com and electroiq.com, Canva reported revenue of $2.7 billion in 2024, up 35% from $2.0 billion in 2023 — a growth trajectory that the holiday campaign serves by reinforcing Canva's emotional relevance at a key consumer spending moment. In Australia, where the brand is headquartered, campaigns of this type carry additional weight as expressions of corporate identity and creative culture. "The Magic Within" is less a performance-marketing asset than a statement of what Canva's in-house team is capable of — and on that measure, the press coverage and craft recognition it attracted suggest it delivered.
"The Magic Within" is a narrative holiday film produced by Canva In-House and released in Australia in December 2024. It follows fictional magician Stella Sparks and her rabbit sidekick Whiskers the Wondrous as they use Canva to rediscover their creativity. The film was created entirely in-house across every production discipline, from copywriting to VFX and puppetry.
Jess Edwards directed "The Magic Within." She described the film as telling the story of Stella Sparks and her loyal sidekick Whiskers the Wondrous, according to shots Magazine's December 2024 coverage. Creative Director Matt Nisbet and Executive Creative Director Cat van der Werff also led the project, with the full team operating under Canva In-House in Australia.
Yes, Canva In-House produced the entire film without an external agency. According to the Canva Newsroom, the project began as an internal initiative to upskill Canva's creative team before expanding into full-scale production. Disciplines covered in-house included art direction, videography, VFX, motion graphics, colour grading, puppetry, and copywriting.
The film centres on Stella Sparks, a fictional magician, and Whiskers the Wondrous, her rabbit puppet sidekick. Both characters are original creations developed specifically for the 2024 holiday campaign. Shots Magazine singled out the rabbit puppet as "utterly adorable," and puppeteer Kay Yasugi is credited for bringing Whiskers to life in the production.
Clapboard scores "The Magic Within" at 63 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's genuine craft strengths — original characters, practical puppetry, and a fully in-house production model — balanced against shots Magazine's observation that the film edges toward product demonstration rather than purely emotional storytelling.
"The Magic Within" represents a cinematic evolution from Canva's first documented global brand campaign, "What Will You Design Today?", launched in March 2022 according to the Canva Newsroom. The 2024 holiday film shifts from functional brand messaging toward character-driven narrative, using Stella Sparks and Whiskers the Wondrous to dramatise creative rediscovery for an Australian and global audience.
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