Bateman Agency began its work with Sentra in January of 2022 to launch this up-and-coming Israeli cybersecurity start-up out of stealth and establish its presence in North America. The remit involved working with a small team at Sentra to develop its first ever PR program. The company was in the process of opening its U.S. headquarters in New York City and had yet to showcase why it was a contender in a burgeoning market. The concept of Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) was beginning to gain traction and it was a race among many startups to put a stake in the ground about who was a true trailblazer in the space.
While Sentra had a pedigreed executive team, advisors and investors, and received early recognition from Gartner in its inaugural Hype Cycle on DSPM, the company was an unknown player. Outside of the official launch of the company, Sentra also was not able to champion customers and the news pipeline was very limited.
As new entrants emerged at a rapid pace, the challenge was for Sentra to definitively be regarded as the company driving the conversation around DSPM as it came out of stealth, and fortify its position as a viable contender in this crowded and noisy market. To do this effectively, Sentra needed a consistent, sophisticated content program, a dedication to analyst relations and thoughtful, proactive media relations that demonstrated how this new technology impacted businesses and the industry at large.
Bateman used a multi-phased approach, starting with message development and content creation. Executive thought leadership was also ignited quickly to build compelling storylines for the well-regarded CEO and president. The objective of this stage was to start creating buzz about Sentra, and ensure all assets were ready to go once the company was officially launched.
The fall 2022 opening of its U.S. headquarters in New York City was used as a news anchor to introduce Sentra to the marketplace. The Bateman team secured five in-depth pieces of coverage, with a SiliconANGLE feature as the exclusive. The Bateman team was also responsible for the company’s Analyst Relations program with a key goal of helping this community define the DSPM marketplace through Sentra’s lens. The results of the program have included landing Sentra in a 451 Market Impact Report, another strong placement in Gartner’s DSPM Hype Cycle and, most recently, a secured Leader position in GigaOm’s inaugural DSPM Radar report and Frost & Sullivan’s Global DSPM Market Study.
In terms of Thought Leadership, Sentra’s president who was the Commander of Israel’s elite IDF was tapped to become an authority on many controversial topics such as U.S. election security and high-profile breaches. Building his brand in the industry has resulted in several commentary placements as well as in-person interviews with Bloomberg, Forbes and POLITICO. These efforts garnered significant results in business, trade and vertical media including Dark Reading, Fast Company, Healthcare IT News and POLITICO.
This program was extended to include additional spokespeople to diversify content and media relations outreach. By identifying different swimlanes for each spokesperson, Bateman has been able to tap into a variety of industry conversations from the AI firestorm to more controversial topics such as the rise of deep fakes and the implications of charging nation-state actors.
Awards became a priority for Sentra in 2024, leading to significant industry recognition. This effort resulted in Sentra becoming a winner of the CloudX awards, finalist for the CRN Tech Innovator awards, reaching finalist status for InfoWorld Technology of the Year awards, and being named to the CRN Stellar Startups list. These achievements underscore Sentra’s innovative products and commitment to excellence in data security.
Bateman’s successful content and proactive media program set the stage for a successful funding launch in the winter of 2023 that secured 25 separate pieces of coverage. Highlights include articles in Axios Pro Rata newsletter, Forbes, Fortune Term Sheet, SC Magazine, TechCrunch and VentureBeat.
Overall, Bateman has been able to help Sentra rise above the noise in an emerging, crowded market, improving the company’s share of voice consistently year over year. In fact, by the second half of 2023, Sentra moved into first place and claimed 42 percent of the DSPM market with its nearest competitor at 13 percent.
