Cloud Expo, cybersecurity, and the ‘Anti Magic Quadrant Club’
Stepping into Cloud and Cybersecurity Expo in London last week, one thing hit me immediately:
Everything looked the same.
It was a sea of sameness, where almost every stand had been assembled from the same ‘B2B brand toolkit.’
Then, amidst the blur, something caught my eye. Aikido had a single shirt hanging up at their stand with the phrase "ANTI MAGIC QUADRANT CLUB" slapped across the back.
Now, this did two things. First, it cut through the noise, which is the literal first job of marketing. And second, it immediately signaled that these guys had a point of view—something most vendors seem deathly afraid of.
Their stand was equally direct: "No bullsh*t security for developers." No vague platitudes, no desperate attempts to sound serious by stringing together meaningless jargon. Just a clear, confident tech brand with an edge.
I chatted with Oliver Taylor from Aikido’s team on stand and asked how their message had landed. Apparently, they’d had exactly one complaint about the word "bullsh*t" (despite it being censored with an asterisk). But as Oliver put it, "You’ve got to piss off the occasional person to be noticed."
And noticed they were.
People were queuing up to take photos with the shirts, and I’ve already seen them all over LinkedIn—far more than any booth offering a sad little jar of branded jelly beans.
The B2B blandness epidemic
This is what we tell our clients all the time in PR: B2B marketing has a problem. It’s so desperate to please multiple stakeholders that it says absolutely nothing of interest.
If your messaging is designed to be inoffensive to procurement, analysts, engineers, and risk-averse board members, congratulations—you’ve made something utterly forgettable.
Gatekeepers—whether they’re journalists, analysts, or B2B influencers—aren’t going to share, write about, or engage with something that blends in. And let’s not forget, even in cybersecurity, your audience is human. They’re tired. They’re scrolling past 500 identical LinkedIn posts about ‘unlocking cyber transformation.’
Give them something with a pulse.
To understand Aikido’s approach better, I spoke to Michiel Denis, who heads up the company’s marketing. Here’s what he had to say about why they took this approach:
"Every cybersecurity company is chasing analysts and acronyms. But Aikido is building for the people doing the work: developers. Developers don’t want quadrants, wave reports, or another four letter quarterly trend. They want to get security done, and get back to building. We are “Anti-Magic Quadrant Club” because analysts don’t dictate our roadmap- developers do."
Do Magic Quadrants still matter?
Aikido isn’t alone in their Magic Quadrant cynicism. Fifteen years ago, you could throw out a press release announcing your inclusion in a Gartner Magic Quadrant and expect at least some journalists to cover it. Now? Most wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole.
That’s not to say Magic Quadrants don’t matter. If you’re in the top-right quadrant, it’s still worth celebrating—these reports still hold sway with CFOs, procurement teams, and risk-averse buyers.
But if your company isn’t in the top quadrant? Who cares? There are other ways to build credibility and awareness. A genuinely great product, strong customer testimonials, eye-catching PR, and a brand that actually stands for something can do more for you than another analyst report will.
Cybersecurity PR doesn't have to be boring!
So, hats off to Aikido for actually cutting through the noise at Cloud Expo. And for the tech PR and comms pros wondering how to do the same, here are a few key takeaways:
Dare to be different—The first rule of marketing is getting noticed. If you’re not standing out, you’re doing it wrong.
Don’t be afraid to alienate a few people—If your brand is trying to be everything to everyone, it’ll be nothing to anyone.
Magic Quadrants aren’t everything—Analyst reports still influence buyers, but they’re not a golden ticket to reputation and industry credibility. You need more.
Invest in brand personality—Tech buyers are still human. Give them something that isn’t another generic "future-proof, AI-driven, cloud-native" buzzword soup.
B2B doesn’t have to be boring—You don't have to be wacky. You don't even have to be creative. But you do need to be memorable!
If you’re looking for a cybersecurity PR agency that gets it, check out our recent B2Bold research, and the latest case studies from our boldest and best!