Here is an eight minute video that should answer most of your questions regarding sponsorship of two of our podcasts, CISO Series Podcast and Defense in Depth. To get the latest sponsorship package which includes pricing and audience numbers, please contact me, David Spark, producer of CISO Series.

Transcript

Awesome. You’re interested in sponsoring one of the CISO Series podcasts.

This video will explain how sponsorship works on our podcasts. To get the most recent prices and audience numbers, contact me, David Spark, for the latest sponsorship package.

OK, let’s jump to what is probably the primary reason you want to sponsor one of our shows.

You’d like a representative from your company to be a guest on one of the podcasts.

Once again, AWESOME.

We happily have vendors on our shows through sponsorship. And we treat our vendor guests no differently than we treat any of our other guests.

Here’s how it works.

If you sponsor three or more episodes of either CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast or Defense in Depth, one of those episodes can have a sponsored guest on for the entire episode.

For all episodes, sponsors receive the following:

• A fully-produced 90-second sponsored segment that plays in the middle of the show. There is one exception to that I’ll talk about later.
• We also mention your company at the top and bottom of the show.
• In addition, you get a banner ad, 50-words of copy, and link which appear on the CISO Series blog, our newsletter, and in the podcast feed.
• You’ll also get mentioned and tagged in our social media posts on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

OK, back to having a representative from your company on the show.

For the sponsored guest episode, one option is to have a customer on as your sponsored guest. I know that’s not easy to do in cybersecurity, but for the sponsors who have done it, they’ve been very happy with the results.

If you do have a customer on as a sponsored guest, we can still produce a sponsored segment.

If the sponsored guest is someone from your company, we don’t create a sponsored segment on that episode since your company representative is on for the entire show.

As a bonus, all guests, even sponsored guests, of either podcast are invited to be members of our CISO Series guest-only Slack group. This is an excellent and exclusive collection of CISOs and cybersecurity leaders who have appeared on our shows. We just have one rule in the Slack group: no selling.

OK, what’s the difference between the two podcasts, and how do sponsored guests get the most out of their appearance?

First, the podcasts. The CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast is a 35-minute show comprised of five segments. The show is co-hosted by me and CISO Mike Johnson, a well-beloved and respected cybersecurity leader.

The show’s editorial is about the relationship between buyers and sellers of information security products, plus we talk about general cybersecurity issues, the job of working in cybersecurity, being a CISO, and hiring cybersecurity talent.

As the show title suggests, our audience is split between practitioners and vendors. Of the practitioners who listen to the show, we have a significant number of CISOs, CIOs, CTOs, and vps and directors of information security.

Since we only spend about five minutes on each topic, we never go in depth on anything.

That is why we created our second show, Defense in Depth, which is a 25-minute discussion on a single topic in cybersecurity.

The show skews a little more towards practitioners and is co-hosted by me and CISO Allan Alford, also a well-beloved and respected cybersecurity leader.

We have one editorial mandate on Defense in Depth and that is we will only do topics that have proven audience interest.

That’s achieved by basing each episode on a popular online discussion. We use the best comments in the thread as the outline for our recording.

For sponsored guest episodes on Defense in Depth we work with the sponsor to come up with a topic that’s relevant for them and our audience. If we can’t find an existing online discussion on that topic, we will create one.

For sponsored guests on CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast, we dedicate one of our regular editorial segments to the sponsor.

Traditionally, we do that in a segment called, “Please, Enough. No, More.”

Here’s how it works. Say your company’s category is “firewalls.” I would say to my co-host, “What have you heard enough about in firewalls, and what would you like to hear a lot more?” And then I would turn to the sponsored guest and ask the same question. This way, we can more naturally weave in what you’re trying to promote into the editorial of our show.

But do keep in mind that we fully disclose that our guest is a sponsored guest at the beginning and end of the show.

For the first half of the CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast, listeners get a chance to know the sponsored guest as they build rapport and thought leadership with our audience.

When we arrive at the “Please, Enough. No, More.” segment, the guest will have built a level of trust with the audience.

In addition, I ask all guests of the CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast, sponsored or not, to let me know what topics they’re passionate about in cybersecurity that aren’t directly related to the product they’re selling. If editorially appropriate, I will try to work in as much of that into the show as possible.

One element I’m most proud of is the level of engagement we get from our fantastic community. Our listeners provide wonderful contributions and feedback on every single item that we post on LinkedIn.

In addition to these sponsorships, we also produce bonus content that is part of our premium sponsorship package. It just costs a little bit more to get additional branding and messaging in a few highly digestible formats.

First, we turn your 90-second sponsored segments into an animated video which is posted on our blog and YouTube.

We also convert that segment into a sponsored transcript. All those assets, video file, caption file, thumbnail image, and PDF, are delivered to you for you to host on your own site, like on your blog or media page.

In addition, for all episodes we produce three meme quotes from the episode. Premium sponsors get to sponsor these memes. This includes their logo and being mentioned and tagged in our posts on LinkedIn and Twitter.

That’s it for the podcasts. We have other sponsorship opportunities in video chats, live events, and something we call “Topic Takeover” where we design a content program across multiple media to help you own a specific space in cybersecurity and increase your search visibility.

As always, thanks for your interest in the CISO Series podcasts. This video should have answered most of your questions. For everything else, such as the latest pricing and audience information, please contact me, David Spark, for the most recent sponsorship package.

And if you’re not ready to sponsor yet, that’s quite alright. There are plenty of ways you can still get involved that don’t require sponsorship. Just head to the “Participation” menu on CISOSeries.com.

We are open to all feedback, even critical feedback. Our show gets better thanks to your involvement.