Cybersecurity
THE FAILED NOTION OF THE “NEW NORMAL”
Few corporate functions shifted priorities so much and so quickly as when the COVID-19 crisis struck corporate cybersecurity operations and the technology providers that support them. The pandemic brought cybersecurity to the forefront of the conversation. Furthermore, almost every company in the world has since seen a higher demand for cybersecurity services. CISOs took steps to prevent new network threats that target remote workers and to bolster business-facing operations and e-commerce after a surge in online activity during pandemic lockdowns.
The response to the crisis continues to press department budgets, limiting resources for less essential functions, and challenging the prioritization of strategic cybersecurity strengthening plans. For cybersecurity communications professionals, COVID-19 has only made a challenging job more challenging. The overarching societal landscape has changed drastically. Schools have transitioned to online learning, hospitals have been inundated with patients, and almost every corporate company has shifted to work from home. The way we operate on a day-to-day basis has been completely altered. With this shift, comes increased threats of cyberattacks. Since the start of quarantine alone, WE cybersecurity clients were required to digest and react to an ever-expanding range of reactive and proactive storytelling opportunities.
Contact us for more information on Cybersecurity
LATEST BLOGS
The Way Forward: Communications During a Crisis
Tech B2B Media Strategies During COVID-19
3 Cybersecurity Storytelling Strategies for COVID-19
Working From Home and Feeling “Normal” in a COVID-19 World
Will the Coronavirus Make 2020 the Year of Online Events?
There is no New Normal:Cybersecurity's Two Media Landscape
Takeaways & Principles
EARNED MEDIA INSIGHTS
Getting your insights read by audiences that matter
CALLING ON EXPERTS: Cyberattacks like Twitter or Marriott come fast and furious – media seeks voices to contextualize these events. Specifically, reporters are searching for unique spokespersons, such as security engineers, to provide a diversified point of view to their narrative.
HUNGER FOR DATA: Reporters love digging into studies, threat research and postmortems to anticipate trends, purchasing dynamics or to explain incidents. Not only do they seek out data, but they also require data to demonstrate meaningful impact within the broader industry story. The technical details are second to the real life affects to the average citizen.
KEY COVERAGE THEMES: Media highlight cybersecurity through the lens of data privacy, national security, future of work, online learning and the global nature of these vulnerabilities and threats. Additionally, diversity, inclusion and talent demand is a prominent theme. We project that IoT and Cloud will also only continue to grow as the technology becomes more developed, further implemented, and reaches a broader range of industry users.
TACTICS THAT WORK
Helping break from the pack
CREATE YOUR OWN MOMENT: From lab tours to virtual events and experiential campaigns, orchestrate a memorable moment with an interactive element for media. This type of impactful storytelling brings a humanizing element to the brand narrative and makes it easier to digest.
NURTURE YOUR INNER CIRCLE: Frequent touchpoints, long-lead time, exclusives and briefings with those you consider your inner circle across media verticals and interests.
PUTTING PEN TO PAPER: Outlets want to hear from industry experts, in the form of bylines articulating positions on security issues. Additionally, briefings, product announcements, interviews, Q&A’s, etc. are landing much better when offered to reporters as exclusives.
NEXT STEPS
As cybersecurity communicators face a transformative moment for their storytelling opportunities, manifesting the full potential for a brand’s resonance and impact will require a reimagination of the balance between disciplined approaches and embracing change.
But we’ve got this. All cybersecurity communicators know: there is no new normal. This is what we do everyday of the week.
The shifts in cybersecurity communications opportunities are poised to help the industry realize the recognition it has sought for many years. Cybersecurity is no longer lost in the stack, overlooked in corporate budgeting plans, unknown to Tik Tok-ing teens, dismissed as the follow-up segment to a morning news show celebrity interview or disconnected from efforts to connect humankind via the internet. Today, cybersecurity has emerged as an essential element of our technology enabled future and it is our shining opportunity to tell those stories.
If you’d like to discuss how WE might help you reimagine your cybersecurity story, please contact us here.
examples of our work
RSA needed to authentically reignite its relevance amidst an expanding threat landscape. It needed to shift from product communications towards thought leadership and innovation to reach executive audiences, and to reinforce its brand as distinct from the RSA Conference. To better position RSA as a trailblazer that continues to meet and anticipate evolving cybersecurity and risk management challenges, WE secured alignment across leadership, SMEs, product leaders, and marketing to build a fresh narrative, create the digital risk management category and ensure a unified corporate message. We also built a media engine to better leverage business story opportunities.
Trend Micro needed to build more awareness of its leadership in security among key business audiences. WE partnered with Trend Micro to identify key, newsworthy nuggets within its research that could tell stories that cut through the crowded marketplace. Within its ranks, Trend Micro nurtured a passionate base of security researchers and threat and vulnerability experts. Dedicated to staying ahead of cyber-criminals, Trend Micro Research scours the illicit underground tracking conversations, shedding light on potential threats. WE helped Trend Micro to showcase its research through the lens of strategic storytelling.
F5 needed to shift audience perception of the brand from legacy hardware to be an application security provider, while building some credibility with security decision-makers. WE conducted a media audit to assess the cybersecurity landscape in order to guide F5 in its brand transformation. In the changing media landscape, few reporters cover security products however cybersecurity beat reporters and security trades are hungry for cybersecurity research and credible security experts who can break down the activities of hackers. WE worked with F5 to arm executive subject matter experts with relevant data-driven research insights to insert into topical industry trend stories.