Brand Is Back. Cyber Marketing Forgot Why It Matters.
When I went to Cyber Marketing Con, I spent time sitting down with some of the people shaping how cybersecurity companies actually go to market.
Not talking about tactics or tools, but the harder questions. Why so much cyber marketing feels interchangeable. Where AI is genuinely changing the job. And what it will take to stand out in 2026 when attention is the real constraint.
This Beyond the Breach series captures the patterns that kept coming up in those conversations. Not theory. Signals from inside the industry.
For a long time, cyber marketing believed growth lived at the bottom of the funnel.
More leads. More assets. More campaigns. If something did not convert fast, it was deprioritised.
Walking into Cyber Marketing Con, it became obvious that this mindset is cracking.
In conversation after conversation, the same frustration surfaced. Everything looks the same. Everything sounds the same. Buyers cannot tell vendors apart, and marketers are being asked why brand “isn’t working”.
Joseph Barringhaus, VP of Marketing at Maze, framed the problem simply. The cyber companies people admire are not admired because they run better campaigns. They are admired because people understand them. Their message is clear, their audience is defined, and their brand is supported consistently over time. That does not happen accidentally. It happens because leaders choose patience over panic.
Don Jeter, CMO at Torq, described the RSA floor as a neighbourhood where every house is painted the same colour. Different logos. Same story. In that environment, demand does not fail because buyers are uninterested. It fails because nothing feels worth remembering.
What stood out most was how often the conversation came back to narrative. Valerie Zargarpur, Head of Marketing at Monad, spoke about launching in crowded markets and the discipline required to start with story, not features. What problem do you actually solve, why does it matter now, and can someone repeat it after one read.
Alex Yakubov, VP of Marketing at Terra Security, added another layer. Brand does not just live with buyers anymore. Analysts, press, and increasingly AI systems absorb everything you put into the market. Confusion compounds faster than clarity.
And as Danielle Guetta, Director of Marketing at Jazz Security, put it, the biggest shift is remembering who we are talking to. Not personas, not titles – people.
In 2026, brand will not be a luxury, but it will be the prerequisite for demand to work at all.
