Cyber teams are running hot.
Pipeline pressure is real.
Cybersecurity leaders are 82% more likely than average to say they’re ahead of plan, and 50% more likely to predict pipeline pressure will define their year. The brands converting visibility into pipeline aren’t spending more, they’re showing up differently.
The pressure is real. The data backs it up.
The cybersecurity cut from our Q1 CMO Pulse tells a story most agencies aren’t equipped to address.
of cybersecurity leaders are more likely than average to say they’re significantly ahead of plan this year.
Q1 CMO Pulse, 2026
B2B tech marketing leaders are already behind on plan heading into Q2.
Q1 CMO Pulse, 2026
are more likely than average to predict pipeline pressure will be their year’s defining story.
Q1 CMO Pulse, 2026
Well-resourced teams are twice as likely to be significantly ahead of plan. The fault line isn’t effort — it’s resourcing alignment.
Q1 CMO Pulse, 2026
Two questions every cybersecurity
marketing team is trying to answer.
How do we drive brand influence?
Decision-makers in cybersecurity buying committees need as many as 80 touchpoints across media, peers, analysts, and original content before they form a preference. A blog post and a paid ad don’t get there.
How do we win findability in an AI world?
71.5% of people now use AI tools to search for information. If your brand isn’t documented, validated, and cited across the web, you’re invisible to the buyers asking ChatGPT or Perplexity “what’s the best platform for [your category]?”
Earned media still matters.
The map around it just got bigger.
Earned coverage is still the engine — and it always will be. What’s changed is everything that sits next to it.
The places where cybersecurity buyers form opinions today (CISO newsletters, security podcasts, threat intel reports, practitioner Substacks, vendor evaluation threads, AI-generated answers) aren’t just “media.” They’re the broader knowledge landscape, and they’re what large language models pull from when an cybersecurity buyer asks AI for a recommendation.
A great earned-media program plus a strong presence across that whole map is how cyber brands make the shortlist now.
Three things separate the cyber brands that lead from the ones that don’t.
Consistency
Whether you’re trying to own mindshare, win share of voice, or build search leadership, consistent coverage is non-negotiable. One big hit doesn’t move buyers. Steady, layered presence does.
Validation
Competitor-free coverage in high-authority publications. Documented validation of your category leadership. Third-party signal that LLMs and skeptical buyers can both verify.
Originality
Original thought leadership and unique owned data. Our in-house research team — the same team behind the CMO Pulse — builds proprietary studies that give your brand a voice in conversations your competitors are commenting on, not leading.
Cyber brands we’ve helped
cut through.
Axonius aimed to elevate its overall media presence while establishing cybersecurity asset management as a recognized, essential category.
We partnered with Enterprise Strategy Group on a survey examining the key challenges IT and security teams face from an asset-management perspective. The findings gave deeper insight into Axonius’s core customers and surfaced their most pressing issues in a way the media could amplify.
The Results
Kickstand needed to raise Coalition’s visibility among cybersecurity and top-tier business press — repositioning the company as a cybersecurity solutions provider, not only a cyber insurance brand.
We coupled rapid response with Coalition’s internal threat-research data to place stories in top-tier cyber and business press, offered expert commentary in the wake of major breaches, and set up introductory meetings between spokespeople and reporters covering security news.
The Results
Pentesting-as-a-service (PtaaS) brand Cobalt faced the dual challenge of demonstrating a new way to execute pentesting while building share of voice in a rapidly evolving market.
Kickstand executed a multinational campaign speaking directly to IT professionals to capture a snapshot of pentesting utility and roadblocks. The data became the State of Pentesting 2021 Report, with 2022 and 2023 follow-up studies after the initial report’s success.
The Results
Cybereason sought to increase both the volume and the quality of its media coverage in a category that was getting noisier by the quarter.
Built a conversation-analysis plan, implemented a rolling campaign strategy, broadened thought-leadership topic areas, supported narratives with original research, and leveraged the consumer RansomFree product launch for a wider audience hook.
The Results
Built for how cybersecurity buyers actually decide.
PR / AR / IR
Earned media, analyst relations, and investor communications — sequenced so coverage compounds.
Research
In-house team builds owned data that gives your brand a voice in the conversation.
Crisis Comms
When something goes sideways: a calm, prepared partner who’s been there before.
Speaking & Awards
Get your executives on the right stages and your brand into the right industry recognition lists.
Social Media
Programs that amplify earned coverage and original research instead of running parallel to them.
SEO & Search
Search visibility built for the AI era — citations, structured content, and third-party validation.
Let’s talk cybersecurity.
Tell us about your team and what you’re up against. We’ll come back with a no-pressure conversation about what we’d do.
"*" indicates required fields