In early 2023, Bionic tasked Bateman Agency with building a strategic corporate and product communications program from scratch. Bionic had spent the previous couple of years establishing a product market fit for its Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) platform, securing $83 million in VC funding, Fortune 100 customers, and Gartner citing ASPM as a category in market research.
The challenge was to own ASPM, especially as several cybersecurity competitors were claiming ASPM capabilities. Bionic needed to wrest control of the category through a continuous flow of news releases, engagements with the media, and impactful thought leadership.
As the Bionic team painted its new Silicon Valley office, Bateman embarked on a campaign designed to target security trade media and build the spokesperson bench. Leveraging practitioners such as security researchers and C-suite execs like the company’s CTO, we deployed an effective rapid response program that placed Bionic’s diverse opinions on cybersecurity trends and events in key publications. By showcasing real-world examples of threat detection and mitigation, the company quickly positioned itself as a trusted source — especially for application security — as demonstrated in Cyberwire’s “The MOVEit Transfer Vulnerability” and “5 Best Practices to Ensure Third-Party APIs” in CSO.
The rapid response efforts established a robust foundation that garnered significant media attention for Bionic’s news announcements. In June 2023, Bionic announced Bionic Signals and Bionic Business Risk Scores, which we successfully placed in CSO, DevOps.com, SiliconANGLE, and others. Bionic also had a solid presence at trade shows, including Black Hat where the company announced its integration with ServiceNow. We secured coverage of the news in POLITICO Pro, CRN, Disaster Recovery Journal, and others.
Building upon the traction gained from our rapid response program and news pipeline, we developed an integrated content program that extended the longevity of our spokespeople’s point-of-view and amplified Bionic’s business impact across various publications. Security Boulevard published “What Uber’s Latest Data Breach Means for Third-Party Risk” by Jacob Garrison, a security researcher at Bionic. This was later followed by another piece from Jacob titled “Why Shifting Left Is a Pipedream for Application Security” in DevOps Digest.
Through Bateman’s comprehensive and aggressive PR program — encompassing rapid response initiatives, impactful news announcements, and thought-provoking bylines — Bionic emerged as an attractive acquisition target. In September 2023, CrowdStrike confirmed its acquisition of Bionic for $350 million.
Dubbed the pioneer of ASPM by CrowdStrike, the combination extended CrowdStrike’s Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) with Bionic’s unique ASPM capabilities. Shortly after, under the CrowdStrike umbrella, Bateman and Bionic released the findings of the 2024 State of Application Security Report, which offered a clear and concise examination of how companies are safeguarding evolving applications. The Bateman team worked closely with CrowdStrike to draft the report and pitch its findings, resulting in coverage in Disaster Recovery Journal and Security Week, as well as a byline from Eyal Mamo titled “7 Key Takeaways from the CrowdStrike 2024 State of Application Security Report.”
Bateman Agency’s collaboration with Bionic yielded significant results within a short span of six months. Through our strategic PR initiatives and tailored communication strategies and messaging, we not only enhanced Bionic’s visibility in the market but also conveyed its unique value proposition to CrowdStrike and the wider market. The acquisition of Bionic by CrowdStrike stands as a testament to the effectiveness of a solid PR program, demonstrating the power of strategic messaging and tenacious media outreach.
