Thao Nguyen

I was reading an interview with Jake Block, Head of Studio at Clay, on The State of Brand recently, and I had a few thoughts. Working in growth, it feels like you can't get out of a conversation without talking about Clay or GTM engineering, a job function Clay introduced a couple of years ago. Clay has built an undeniably creative and prolific content machine. It's a reputable brand and a reference point I often return to when thinking about what great marketing and product content can look like.

Jake's conviction, and bold strategic bet, is that top-tier B2B marketing teams will operate more like media companies in the future. The kind with writers, producers, editors, and other roles that traditional B2B SaaS companies don't typically hire for.

My first thought: that makes sense. And that is a lot of money.

This "go big or go home" play also makes sense. It's hard to spend two minutes on LinkedIn or X these days without seeing a launch video or an ad from some obscure SaaS company. Video content is everything.

When AI first became useful for creative work, the challenge was how to use it, and prompt it, to make what you wanted. In today's increasingly crowded B2B SaaS content market, where AI has only accelerated proliferation, the challenge is staying ahead of the curve and differentiating from the sea of content. That might mean high quality, editorial, multimedia content that stays aligned with the product vision while speaking directly to your ICPs.

I have long believed that, in a crowded market, when two or more products are equivalently good, the one with the better brand will win. So should every B2B company invest heavily in brand? No. Only if you have really nailed the product.

The core of a durable company comes down to having a product people need, not just want, and genuinely love. It has to solve a real, critical problem. Or, in the case of companies like SAP and Salesforce, it becomes something people depend on, even if they complain about it.

Without nailing the product, everything else is noise and, frankly, a waste of time and resources, two things most startups do not have in abundance.

So yes, I do think Clay is making the right strategic bet by building its in-house studio and attempting a media empire. Their ICPs, marketers and salespeople, love the crazy creative spectacles and are chronically online enough to consume this content in bulk. And Clay has nailed the product so far, which means they can afford this bet.

With that said, for now, back to building.