Case study
How do you turn an invisible problem into a $1.5 billion acquisition?
pieces of coverage
per quarter on average
pieces of business coverage
per quarter on average
acquisition underpinned by category creation
share of voice
against five key competitors
About the client
Venafi helps organisations secure and manage machine identities – i.e., the digital keys and certificates that enable secure and trusted machine-to-machine communication. We spent almost a decade helping Venafi establish the machine identity management category ahead of the company being acquired by CyberArk in 2024.
Challenge
Back in 2015, Venafi coined the term “machine identities” to put a more relatable, almost human face on the hidden credentials that machines use to identify and trust each other online. But the market wasn’t ready: the term wasn’t widely known, no one else was talking about the issue, and even major breaches linked to machine identity abuse weren’t being recognised as such. The challenge was to turn this invisible concept into a credible, urgent business issue that the market would understand and act on.
Spark is the creative storyteller behind Venafi’s success in creating the Machine Identity Management category. Together, we built a category that went on to be recognised by C-level executives, Gartner, media, investors, and the largest cybersecurity vendors. The Spark team made machine identities understandable to a wider audience, from the BBC to the Economist, and CNN. They brought together experts to deliver impactful campaigns that really get to the root of the problems we solve, and data has helped us to show value when talking to customers, investors and industry analysts. If you have a difficult communication challenge, and want an agency that is willing to dig into the problem, space and technology to drive great results, then I’d highly recommend you speak to Spark. The Spark team has consistently been our hidden superpower!”
Kevin Bocek, Chief Innovation Officer at Venafi, a CyberArk company.
Action
We needed to create proof, not just messaging. So, Spark built a long-term, data-led campaign strategy to put the risk of unsecured machine identities into the spotlight. Over the course of nine years, we partnered with academic researchers, forensic analysts and threat experts to surface evidence no one else had – we infiltrated various underground marketplaces and forums on the dark web to understand how machine identities, TLS certificates and macro-enabled ransomware are being sold. We even commissioned economic modelling to quantify the global cost of unmanaged machine identities. This combination of original data, third-party validation and clear real-world impact gave us credible, hard-hitting angles that sparked sustained media interest and helped reframe machine identity management as a business-critical issue.
Crucially, we made the issue relatable. We worked closely with Venafi’s internal teams to create multiple data-led campaigns aimed at technical and non-technical audiences. We analysed breaches and tied them to machine identities, scanned the web for insecure certificates, exposed how state-sponsored threat actors were exploiting machine identities, and developed forward-looking research on topics like AI and quantum to keep Venafi ahead of the curve. By turning a complex technical concept into a variety of accessible, headline-friendly, data-backed stories, we reached a point where journalists came to us for insights when relevant news stories broke.
Impact
Spark’s work helped establish machine identity management as a recognised category, and Venafi as the pioneer of it. Data from our campaigns was used in investor decks, contributing to the company’s $100 million funding round and its eventual $1.54 billion acquisition by CyberArk. Media interest became self-sustaining, with journalists proactively seeking Venafi’s perspective on stories involving machine identities. We hosted 86 briefings with relevant media, including 23 with business-level media.
Over nine years, we delivered an average of 20 unique, high-quality articles per month, with consistent business press results in the likes of the Financial Times, CNN Live, Sky News, BBC and Forbes. By 2022, Venafi had achieved a 68% Share of Voice against five key competitors. Meanwhile, machine identity management had been named in Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Identity and Access Management Technologies and was touted as one of Gartner’s ‘Top Security Trends’ in 2021.
