The problem GreatHorn is trying to solve is really big, really complicated and lacking an easy solution. Email security has a massive impact on public institutions, infrastructure, small and large businesses, and society as a whole. They were first to market, meeting the rapidly evolving threat landscape within cloud email solutions. While GreatHorn may have the best product, the market message is being dictated by the Microsoft / Google cloud office duopoly, a deluge of fast followers, and legacy companies claiming they can deliver the same solution. Accurate or not, they are all using the same product language such as Cloud Native, AI, and Machine Learning along with some opaque terms like Predictive AI. Increased competition has produced odd pricing structures that state Only pay for the attacks we stop and general fear-based sales tactics with bold unrealistic claims like Obliterate BEC Attacks, Annihilate Spear Phishing, Eliminate Email Identity Deception. With so much marketing and feature parody, companies and their products are perceptually blending into one another. This saturation is beginning to create a skeptical market for security professionals attempting to evaluate the efficacy of a cloud email security product. Trust and brand recognition move to the frontal lobe of the decision-making process and lack of a strong third-party validation from a peer or analyst will all but guarantee a well-known entity as the default.

 Our approach to separating GreatHorn from this market mess was to create a brand position that demonstrates the company mission in a broader cultural context of disinformation and its impact on institutions, business, and society. The tag line See Through The Dark was born from this brand positioning. Since we inherited the name and Great Horned owl icon, we needed to connect the repositioning to the existing elements for continuity while updating the look, tone of voice and messaging. As most marketers understand, awareness is paramount to building a successful sales funnel and leading with product features / benefits that are perceptually similar would not lay the foundation to generate qualified leads. We developed a LinkedIn video strategy with introductory brand awareness messages that were followed by more specific product benefit messages and continued to retarget through an audience based programmatic buy with CTV, display, and landing pages. This total re-brand effort helped to increase MQLs by 2X as compared to the previous year.