Situation: We were tasked with raising industry awareness of new OT/IOT cybersecurity vendor Otorio by securing media coverage of its research into wireless IoT device vulnerabilities, a challenge made immeasurably more difficult by a partnering company’s failure to sign off on the release up until the night before it was to be distributed.

Strategy: Knowing that partner approval could be an issue, we hinted about new research when reaching out to the media a week earlier about a pending industry event. We also offered an early exclusive look to leading cybersecurity publication Dark Reading on the condition that the reporter hold the story until the release date and not mention the partner unless and until they agreed to it. We also prepared in advance a version of the press release that did not mention the partner; ultimately, this is the version we had to go with!

Results: We secured nine media placements and four press interviews about the research, including coverage in Dark Reading, CSO and SC Magazine – the triple crown of security trade media. And ultimately, the partner expressed regret that they had not been part of the release.