Expanding the Bench to Amplify Impact

Tessian is a human layer security company whose mission is to empower people to do their best work, without security getting in their way. Tessian uses machine learning technology to automatically predict and stop advanced threats on email caused by human error - like data exfiltration, accidental data loss, business email compromise and phishing attacks.

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CHALLENGE:

The infosecurity community is a crowded space, and strong, timely viewpoints are essential to break through the noise and establish executives as go-to sources for media. When Tessian let us know that they’d be bringing on multiple new executives in late 2021, we were thrilled to integrate them into the PR program. Our challenge was to do this quickly so that they could start speaking and making an impact on behalf of the company in as short a timespan as possible. Mission North spearheaded this process, defining and designing their thought leadership platforms, introducing them to reporters, and making an impact on behalf of the company within a matter of weeks.

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STRATEGY:

First, we facilitated download calls with the new stakeholders when they joined to identify their focus areas, topics they were passionate about and storylines that would appeal to press. We also led media trainings for them, which included mock interviews customized to the scenarios they would be most likely to encounter with reporters. Once the team solidified the execs’ platforms, rapid response was key to connecting them with media to start building relationships right away. We were collaborative in our approach, working in real-time with the execs to develop and evolve statements to pitch to press and building trust between our teams along the way. The team conducted aggressive media outreach and developed 10 new media relationships on behalf of the spokespeople in less than two months.

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IMPACT:

Expanding Tessian’s spokesperson bench allowed us to go after a broader range of security topics and accounted for 10 rapid response campaigns in Q4 2021 at a 90% success rate. Within the span of one quarter, the team secured a total of 40 media mentions for two new spokespeople, in outlets including CSO, Washington Post and Forbes. We connected spokespeople with 13 new reporters, including journalists at the Associated Press, Washington Post, CNET and VentureBeat, and placed two bylines in Dark Reading and CPO Magazine. This all contributed to a 26% YoY increase in total coverage from 2020-2021, with a 16% higher briefing conversion rate than the previous year.