Carbon Black

Threat Hunting: The Carbon Black Defendathon

Carving a niche in the crowded security space so that prospects and the media can quickly understand your area of expertise is not easy. Carbon Black, a leading provider of next-generation end point security, needed to differentiate its technical capabilities, while also positioning its spokespeople as the ‘go to’ commentators on next generation security threats.

Objective

Carbon Black wanted to demonstrate that the Chief Security Officer’s job is getting progressively challenging in a way that would engage prospects and help it to stand out with the media.

Story

Carbon Black asked Spark to brainstorm how an event could be used to draw the media into their product story. This was a challenge as journalists are time and attention poor and are often reluctant to engage with products or attend events. The answer was an interactive experience, in the form of a live threat hunting event. Carbon Black gave attendees the tools to hunt for threats and simulated real world attacks – they were able to ‘walk-in the shoes’ of security professionals. The event was followed by drinks where the Carbon Black team was able to mingle with journalists and build relationships. Spark also developed research that showed that companies weren’t prepared for the next generation of threats, as well as the challenges SOC teams were facing, in order to provide them with some ‘news’ to take home.

Results

The event was a great way of building relationships with the media, as they got to experience Carbon Black’s technology first-hand in a ‘fun’ and memorable way. It was easy for them to see what spokesperson could talk about for future stories, resulting in weekly inbound media enquiries from the eight journalists in attendance. As well as the initial 25 pieces of coverage, including Business Reporter, (the Sunday Telegraph) and all of the main trades, there were plenty of other opportunities for media coverage as security stories broke. The BBC were not able to attend the event, but we worked with them to brainstorm feature ideas, resulting in a piece on nation state attacks.

  • Experiential media event
  • BBC story
  • 25 pieces of coverage