The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2025–2026
Canva turns meme star Kween Yasmin into fonts, emojis and ads that Filipino SMBs can use
GIGIL made meme queen Kween Yasmin the product: Canva Pro-exclusive photos, a body-letter font and emojis that Filipino businesses used 1.6M+ times.
Canva
What it had to solve
Canva Pro needed Filipino small-business owners to see value beyond the free tier. SMBs compete on the same meme-driven feeds, so the brief was to show, not tell, how Pro makes their materials stand out, and to reach audiences who did not yet see Canva as a business tool.
How it works
Canva Pro's problem in the Philippines was not awareness but perceived value: small-business owners on the free tier did not see what paying added, while SMBs competed for attention in feeds ruled by memes. The brief to GIGIL was to convert those free users and make Canva feel like an essential business tool.
GIGIL's answer was to stop putting an influencer next to the product and turn the influencer into the product. Kween Yasmin, a Filipino internet star famous for switching between singing, comedy, poetry and her mango-graham business, became an all-purpose brand kit inside Canva Pro: photo libraries of cliché business shots on deliberately absurd sets, a font whose letters are her posed body, and a set of Kweemojis.
Small businesses could drop the assets straight into their own marketing, with Canva's tools doing the editing work. The assets were used by Filipino businesses more than 1.6 million times, and the campaign went on to win a MAD STARS 2026 Gold in Brand Experience & Activation, a New York Festivals Silver for influencer use and a Bronze for user-generated content.
Why it lands
- The endorsement doubled as the demo: every photo library, font and emoji showcased a Pro feature the business owner would then use.
- Kween Yasmin's all-purpose persona mapped exactly onto Canva's all-purpose claim, so the casting carried the strategy.
- Cliché business shots on absurd sets gave any SMB a usable asset while staying funny enough to share.
- Shipping the endorser as tools meant the audience created the campaign's proof themselves, at scale.
What it did
Filipino small businesses used the Pro-exclusive assets more than 1.6 million times. The endorser-as-tool idea earned a Gold in Brand Experience & Activation at MAD STARS 2026, plus a Silver for Best Use of Social Media Influencer and a Bronze for User-Generated Content at the New York Festivals.
What you can take
An influencer can be more than a face beside the product: ship the endorsement as usable assets inside it, and every ad customers make extends the campaign.
Since then
The Kween Yasmin assets stayed inside Canva Pro as a permanent collection, and the campaign kept collecting recognition through 2026, including the MAD STARS Gold and New York Festivals metals. Canva's country lead noted that even large brands had begun using the assets, evidence that the idea reached beyond its small-business target while the core conversion goal held.
Sources
- EY! Kween Yasmin is Canva, GIGIL's newest 'All-Purpose' endorser for Canva Pro
- Kween Sans & Kweemojis: How Canva Pro, GIGIL transform Kween Yasmin into the ultimate 'All-Purpose' marketing tool
- GIGIL brings home silver and bronzes from The New York Festivals
- Philippine winners at MAD STARS 2026
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