Canva is one of Australia’s greatest technology success stories. Since launching in Sydney in 2013, it’s grown into a global powerhouse with more than 265 million monthly active users across 190 countries.

But how does a company operating at that scale actually use AI across its marketing team?

In this episode of Smarter Marketer, Rocket Agency's Co Founder and Host James Lawrence sits down with Jackie Hill, Canva’s Global Marketing AI Lead, to find out.

Jackie is responsible for helping Canva’s global marketing team move beyond experimenting with AI and embed it into how they actually work.

It’s a challenge facing marketing teams everywhere. With new AI tools launching almost daily, how do you know if you’re keeping up? Where should you be investing your time? And how do you make sure AI is genuinely improving your marketing rather than simply helping you produce more work?

Jackie shares a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Canva’s approach, including the initiatives that have worked, the challenges they’ve encountered and the lessons marketers can apply to their own teams.

• How Canva is embedding AI into its global marketing operations
• Why Canva gives employees dedicated time to learn, experiment and build with AI
• Real examples of AI improving marketing workflows, productivity and decision-making
• How Canva measures whether AI is actually delivering value
• How to encourage AI adoption without sacrificing creativity, critical thinking or quality
• Why even the people leading AI transformation feel like they’re falling behind

Jackie Hill is Marketing AI Lead at Canva, where she works with the company's global marketing teams to move AI beyond experimentation and build it into how they work every day. Her remit spans AI adoption, measurement and change across the marketing function.

She started her career in finance before moving into marketing, where she became known as a technical, systems-minded marketer with a love of marketing automation. She joined Canva around four and a half years ago in lifecycle marketing, where she led the customer marketing team as Head of Lifecycle Engagement.

Jackie speaks regularly on what it takes to transform a marketing team for the AI era, most recently at Forrester's AI Forum in Sydney in August 2026.

Connect with Jackie on LinkedIn.

• James Lawrence LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslawrenceoz/
• Smarter Marketer Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/smarter-marketer-podcast
• Rocket Agency Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/
• Rocket Agency LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocket-agency-pty-ltd/

• Hardcover: https://amzn.to/30O63kg
• Kindle: https://amzn.to/2ZqfCWm

This is the definitive podcast for Australian marketers. Join Rocket Agency Co-Founder and best-selling author, James Lawrence in conversation with marketers, leaders, and thinkers about what it takes to be a smarter and more successful marketer.

Two clients can pay the same agency the same amount of money, work with exactly the same people and get very different results. One gets exceptional work while the other gets regular output.

Why? And what can in-house marketers do to get the very best from their agency?

In this episode, James Lawrence is joined by Rocket Agency’s Head of Client Services, Roeya Arzani, to explore what separates clients who get extraordinary value from those who don’t.

They discuss better briefing, avoiding micromanagement, building trust and creating the conditions for exceptional work.

Whether you work with a digital, creative, media or PR agency, this episode will help you get more from that relationship.

• Why giving your agency a task instead of a problem might be costing you its best ideas.
• What spending a full day inside a client’s business taught us that no written brief could.
• Why the fifth round of feedback on an ad headline might be doing more harm than good.
• How your agency can help you convince your CEO to increase your marketing budget.
• The uncomfortable question: Does your agency team actually like working with you?
• Why having one clear decision-maker on the client side can dramatically improve agency performance.
• Why the best agency relationships focus on one meaningful business metric rather than dozens of marketing KPIs.

Roeya Arzani is Head of Client Services at Rocket Agency, where she leads the team responsible for building and managing relationships with Rocket’s clients.

Having joined Rocket six years ago as an Account Manager, Roeya has worked closely with in-house marketing teams across a wide range of industries, helping them develop strategies, deliver campaigns and get more value from their agency relationships.

Connect with Roeya on LinkedIn.

• James Lawrence LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslawrenceoz/
• Smarter Marketer Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/smarter-marketer-podcast
• Rocket Agency Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/
• Rocket Agency LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocket-agency-pty-ltd/

• Hardcover: https://amzn.to/30O63kg
• Kindle: https://amzn.to/2ZqfCWm

This is the definitive podcast for Australian marketers. Join Rocket Agency Co-Founder and best-selling author, James Lawrence in conversation with marketers, leaders, and thinkers about what it takes to be a smarter and more successful marketer.

GEO/AEO, AI Overviews and ChatGPT Ads are changing how customers find, research and choose brands. In this episode, Host and Co-Founder of Rocket Agency, James Lawrence, is joined by Rocket's Head of SEO & GEO, Joe Alder, and Head of Paid Media, Sam Lucas, to explain where AI search stands in Australia right now and to answer the questions marketers are asking most.

• How quickly Australians have adopted AI tools, and how much they influence purchase decisions
• Why Google search volume is at record highs even as clicks fall
• Where ChatGPT Ads are up to in Australia
• Should you still be investing in Google Ads?
• How do you measure AI search and prove it's working to your C-suite?
• Which GEO tracking tools are worth using?
• SEO or GEO: which should you prioritise, and why?
• How to write content for both humans and AI

Joe Alder, Head of SEO & GEO, Rocket Agency

Joe leads Rocket's SEO and GEO offering. He shapes the agency's product and processes in organic and AI search, and he hires, trains and mentors the team that delivers them. His focus is getting clients results in Google and across AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.

Sam Lucas, Head of Paid Media, Rocket Agency

Sam oversees Rocket's full suite of paid channels and leads and mentors the paid media team. He also works on GEO projects with clients, where he connects AI search visibility to paid opportunities like ChatGPT Ads and the AI placements in Google and Microsoft Ads.

You can follow Joe and Sam on LinkedIn.

• James Lawrence LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslawrenceoz/
• Smarter Marketer Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/smarter-marketer-podcast
• Rocket Agency Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/
• Rocket Agency LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocket-agency-pty-ltd/

• Hardcover: https://amzn.to/30O63kg
• Kindle: https://amzn.to/2ZqfCWm

About the Podcast:

This is the definitive podcast for Australian marketers. Join Rocket Agency Co-Founder and best-selling author, James Lawrence in conversation with marketers, leaders, and thinkers about what it takes to be a smarter and more successful marketer.