Ahrefs Podcast Clay's $3.1B Marketing Playbook | Bruno Estrella (Clay)
Dec 9, 2025
Bruno Estrella, Head of Marketing at Clay, shares insights from his journey helping the company soar to a $3.1 billion valuation in just two years. He discusses the innovative GTM Engineer role created through influencer engagement and the playful branding inspired by Play-Doh. Discover how Clay balances self-serve and enterprise marketing strategies, leverages programmatic SEO, and uses Substack for thought leadership. Bruno also dives into community-building tactics, scalable global events, and the importance of nurturing service providers for lasting brand loyalty.
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Create A New Role To Spark UGC
- Clay rode user-generated content by shaping a persona: the “GTM engineer” who blends ops and marketing skills.
- That narrative attracted partners and organic influencer posts without paid outreach.
Make Power Users Proud And Visible
- Give power users credibility tokens like badges and activity metrics to encourage public sharing.
- Surface weekly usage stats so service providers can showcase their expertise and post about your product.
Why Play‑Doh Branding Was Chosen
- Clay’s Play‑Doh visual identity came from an internal designer, Hudson, to make a B2B data product feel creative.
- They treat brand as a competitive advantage and built campaigns like “every artist has a medium.”