Karen Kaukol, CMO at Entrust, explains how to market trust and identity security when both the threat (deepfakes, AI fraud) and the defense are powered by AI. Karen spent 17 years at First Data managing digital marketing through an IPO and portfolio transformation, then joinedEntrust nearly a decade ago as CMO to lead marketing strategy for a global digital identity and security leader protecting the world's most critical transactions across 150 countries.Key Insights:■■ Why candor beats hype when marketing security. Enterprise buyers are tired of fear-mongering and AI buzzwords. They respect vendors who shoot straight about what's working, what's uncertain, and where the real risks live.■■ The paradox: defending against AI-powered attacks while using AI to market that defense. Both threaten and protect at scale. The key is transparency about how you're using AI and honest acknowledgment of what you don't yet know.■■ Buying committees have exploded to 14-17 cross-functional people who tune out jargon. You must always reframe back to the business problem you're solving, not the technical terminology.■■ Brand awareness is a revenue lever, not a cost center. Most marketers can't prove the connection. Karen shows how to build a funnel from awareness to preference to consideration to revenue, then prove it with real customer data to your board.■■ AI-enabled video production costs one fifth of traditional agencies ($100K vs $500K) and delivers 60% faster with better iteration cycles. In-house creative plus boutique agency plus AI tools creates multiplying effect.■■ The real differentiator is trust, built through learning communities, thought leadership, and third-party validation. Owning the conversation before the sales funnel means your brand becomes the discovery engine.Timestamps:00:01 Introduction01:03 Karen's 30-year career arc through product, marketing, and innovation02:53 What Entrust does: securing identity across the full lifecycle04:21 Scale of Entrust's reach: every credit card, corporate login, banking transaction05:20 Karen's CMO scope: product, brand, performance, communications06:39 How Entrust uses AI as core to marketing workflows07:52 The brand campaign that cost one fifth the traditional budget08:58 Buyers using AI to research before ever visiting your website10:35 The paradox: defending against AI while using AI to market12:46 Enterprise buyers are tired of hype and fear-mongering14:59 Why candor and transparency win over bold promises15:57 The jargon tax problem: explaining post-quantum cryptography to non-technical buyers17:58 Reframing security concepts to business outcomes not technical specs19:25 Three phases of buyer journey: awareness, trust, conversion22:37 What activities belong in each phase with real examples25:36 Building the Identity Thread: owned community as competitive advantage26:57 Quality over volume in content strategy for sophisticated buyers27:16 Moving beyond vanity metrics to actual revenue impact KPIs30:51 How to prove brand impact to board with funnel data33:48 Zero-based budgeting: reject inertia, allocate based on business case36:48 Portfolio A-book/B-book analysis forces focus over spray-and-pray40:05 What's increasing: website optimization for AI, selective in-person events42:28 What's decreasing: volume of content, commoditized brand campaigns43:20 Behind the scenes: AI video production under 100K in 60% less time47:32 What marketing skills matter most in AI era: critical thinking, judgment, curation49:30 What excites Karen about next three years of security automationlFollow Chirag Khanijau: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chirag-khanijau #TrustMarketing #AI #CybersecurityMarketing #IdentitySecurity #B2BMarketing #EnterpriseMarketing#ContentMarketing #BrandBuilding #MarketingLeadership #BuyerJourney #ThoughtLeadership #DigitalTransformation