Marketers of Technology
00:00:00 · Travis Cameron, Andres Figuera
[00:00:00] S0: You start with your audience. You can give me a good match rate and a good serve rate. That means the person I'm trying to target is on your platform. Let's find where that user is and try and capture them in the right moment. Hey, [00:00:19] S1: everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Marketers of Technology. My name is Andres Figuera, and this show is brought to you by Front Lines Studios, Silicon Valley's leading podcast production studio. If you're looking to launch your own show, we offer a full podcast as a service experience. You just show up and host, and we handle everything else. And with that said, let's dive into today's episode. Because today, I'm here speaking with Travis Cameron, senior vice president of marketing at AIA Contract Documents. So, Travis, how's it going, man? A pleasure to have you on the show. [00:00:50] S0: It's going great. How are you doing? [00:00:52] S1: Doing pretty well, man. Pretty well. I can't complain. Happy that we're hosting this episode for you. And just so that we can hit the ground running, Travis, would you be able to tell us a bit more about your experience, your background, how you came to become SVP of marketing at AIA Contract Documents?
00:00:52 · Andres Figuera, Travis Cameron
[00:00:52] S1: Doing pretty well, man. Pretty well. I can't complain. Happy that we're hosting this episode for you. And just so that we can hit the ground running, Travis, would you be able to tell us a bit more about your experience, your background, how you came to become SVP of marketing at AIA Contract Documents? [00:01:06] S0: Yeah, happy to. So, Travis Cameron here. I've been in marketing for almost twenty years at this point going on. Started my, career in the marketing agency world up in Oakville, Ontario, which is just South Of Toronto in Canada. I was with them for five years and then joined a private equity firm, which actually led me to ACD for the past three or four years. So I've done all different types of marketing, but what I would say I've kind of leaned closer to over my career is the data, the analytics side, the cutting edge of media, but have kind of a little bit of everything of, as they would say, that wide T of marketing go deeper on the data analytics insight kind of end is where I find myself most interested in. [00:01:55] S1: Okay. Now, and with data analytics and marketing, I feel that's also one of the most important parts of it because if you're not able to support the marketing you do with the data and the analysis of what's going well, what's going wrong, where to reiterate then how much proof do you have that the work you're doing is actually correct, right?
00:01:55 · Andres Figuera, Travis Cameron
[00:01:55] S1: Okay. Now, and with data analytics and marketing, I feel that's also one of the most important parts of it because if you're not able to support the marketing you do with the data and the analysis of what's going well, what's going wrong, where to reiterate then how much proof do you have that the work you're doing is actually correct, right? [00:02:11] S0: That's exactly it, right? And I think, you know, my career, it's always it's oftentimes been in support of marketing leaders. And so look you at what you do in the agency world, what we did at Tealium as a tool set or what I did at Welsh, Carson as an operating partner. It's kind of oftentimes saying, hey, you know, marketers have come out of being experts in communication a lot of times, maybe haven't had as much skill set in the analytics side, the proof point where to put that next dollar. And so that's something that I've always kind of perfected over my career. And what I find myself doing a lot here at ACD is just how can you be more precise of what you're doing? How can you be data backed and data oriented? How can you get to that right user at the right time with the right message, which I think is oftentimes like a tool and data problem versus being a communication problem. [00:02:59] S1: Of course, man. And I imagine boardrooms and executive leadership must love you. Right?
00:02:59 · Andres Figuera, Travis Cameron
[00:02:59] S1: Of course, man. And I imagine boardrooms and executive leadership must love you. Right? [00:03:05] S0: At times. It's not... The data doesn't always tell the story that you want it to. Right? And so I think part of it... Partially, it's being honest and not picking and choosing the points that allow you to tell the story that you want told, but rather what is the truth behind it all. [00:03:18] S1: Of course. No, I get that, man. I get that. And Travis, could you tell us a bit what AIA Contract Documents actually does as a company? What you guys do?
00:03:18 · Andres Figuera, Travis Cameron
[00:03:18] S1: Of course. No, I get that, man. I get that. And Travis, could you tell us a bit what AIA Contract Documents actually does as a company? What you guys do? [00:03:26] S0: Yeah. So it's really interesting. It's probably going to be one of the oldest companies you've ever had on this podcast, but it's near 140 years old. It was started inside of the Architect Institute of America and 140 ago, they said, Hey, how can we better support our membership base and our stakeholders? And they started creating standard industry contracts for the construction industry. Now that one hundred and forty years later has grown to a library of over 300 documents and various different technology elements to really help with building and getting to the idea of saying, I will sign this contract. Contracts themselves are built on being extremely fair, providing a neutral starting point, as well as being around for one hundred and forty years have been through the test of time with the court system. And so courts know and our buyers know and users of the documents know what they mean, know what the terms inside the mean. And so it's much easier to say, yes, I know exactly what I am signing versus when they get a custom written legal agreement. [00:04:31] S1: Okay. I understand. And now how has the experience with marketing such kind of like specific product been?
00:04:31 · Andres Figuera, Travis Cameron
[00:04:31] S1: Okay. I understand. And now how has the experience with marketing such kind of like specific product been? [00:04:38] S0: You know, it's really interesting, like in one kind of set, you know, you are a legal agreement, but as I said, we kind of have the breadth of about 300 different contracts. And so that will encompass anything from an owner working with an architect to working with a consultant to a subcontractor agreement to how somebody gets paid. And you actually look at the entirety of a project as you actually go and do it from the initial bid through the project closeout, you might be using 20, 30, 40 different documents across that whole life cycle. And so while it's like a very kind of specific thing that we're selling, which is the contract element to that, it is touching so many different people across what can potentially be years long projects and billions of dollars that there's a lot to it. And so that keep that's what keeps it really interesting is that understanding with a specificity of like, what's the right time for the right document to that right person to get it to them and make sure that they are signing again, something that is fair and is neutral from a risk perspective for them, but allows them to keep building and keep construction going across America.