Case Study

Transforming Agent Branding with Canva Automation and Drupal Integration

Shamir V S | | 3 min read

Introduction

  1. Brief overview of the client: The client is a digital platform that empowers real estate agents in the United States and Canada by providing them with the tools and services needed to market themselves to luxury homeowners seeking to sell their properties. Additionally, the platform offers tools and services to help agents sell the luxury properties assigned to them. The platform is built on Drupal, ensuring flexibility, scalability, and robust content management capabilities.
  2. Project scope: Real estate agents increasingly rely on digital platforms to showcase and market their properties. The client's platform has emerged as a leading service for many real estate agents specialising in high-end properties in the United States. The digital service operates on a B2B business model, delivering property listing services to real estate agencies.
  3. Use Case and Problem Statement Description: The primary goal was to automatically generate personalized Canva templates for agents, utilizing data pulled directly from their platform profiles. This solution was required to operate with minimal manual administrative intervention.
 

Challenges

  1. Detailed use case description: Previously, creating property marketing materials was a complex, multi-step manual process. Designers at Agencies had to manually copy agent details, logos, and images into pre-made Canva templates. This dependency on internal creative teams resulted in significant delays, design inconsistencies, and a high operational cost.
  2. Technical complexities: The existing client's platform lacked the technical framework to support the automated creation and population of sophisticated property marketing materials.
  3. Project scope reiteration: Our mandate was to build a system that would automate Canva template creation and population for all eXp agents. This required every new or updated agent profile to automatically trigger the generation of pre-approved branded templates without human intervention.

Our Approach

  1. Client Requirement Understanding: We began with an in-depth analysis to fully map the client's needs, design standards, and expected automation workflows.
  2. Custom Module Development: We engineered a custom Drupal module to interface directly with the Canva API, handling data extraction, secure authentication, and template generation logic.
  3. Testing and Deployment: Rigorous testing ensured data accuracy, brand integrity, and the stability of the asynchronous processing queue before a smooth final deployment.

Result

1. Overall project outcome:

The Canva Automation system fundamentally transformed how the platform delivers branded marketing materials. Agents now receive personalized, ready-to-use templates instantly after completing their profile, reducing the creative turnaround time from hours to under 10 minutes.

2. Solution Effectiveness and Efficiency efficiency:

  • Automated onboarding: New agents now have their dedicated Canva folders and personalized templates generated automatically upon profile creation.
  • Brand consistency: All templates strictly adhere to predefined design standards, eliminating human error and maintaining a cohesive, high-end brand identity.
  • Reduced dependency: Creative teams are now freed from repetitive manual work, allowing them to focus on premium, custom campaigns.

3. Success metrics:

The implementation of automation yielded significant improvements across key performance indicators. The manual design turnaround time dramatically shifted to less than 10 minutes. Brand consistency saw a nearly complete resolution, dropping inconsistencies . Furthermore, the project positively impacted team morale and efficiency: the agent satisfaction rating rose substantially, while the design team workload saw a considerable reduction from the baseline.

4. Lessons learned:

  • Asynchronous Processing: Implementing queue-based execution was crucial to ensure the system's scalability and reliability under high load.
  • Asset Verification: Pre-upload validation for profile images and logos was essential to prevent template generation failures.
  • API Monitoring: We integrated periodic token refresh and retry logic to maintain uninterrupted operation with the external Canva API.
  • Extensibility: Using config-driven field mappings allows the platform to easily add new templates or fields in the future without requiring core code changes.

Conclusion

  1. Recap of project achievements: This integration delivered a fully automated Canva workflow directly within the platform, eliminating manual design overhead. Personalized, on-brand marketing templates became instantly available, empowering agents to market properties faster and with superior visual consistency.
  2. Benefits to the client: The client realized scalable automation, with every new agent and listing automatically triggering branded collateral creation. This resulted in a significant reduction in design turnaround time, driving significant operational efficiency. Ultimately, the system delivers improved engagement through higher agent satisfaction and stronger brand alignment across all campaigns, while the flexible API architecture ensures future readiness for integration with other marketing tools.
  3. Call to action: If your organization manages large-scale content personalization or complex branding workflows, automation can revolutionize your process. Contact us today to learn how integrating the Canva API with your existing platform can dramatically boost productivity, ensure design consistency, and accelerate your brand's growth.

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