Don Jeter, CMO, Torq
If you’re not putting on a show, you’re just paying for a spot on carpet, says Don Jeter, cmo of Torq.
At RSAC 2026, the enterprise security company went all in with a 20-foot inflatable skeleton and a fully operational tattoo bus. Insight was sizzling at the Cyber Wok lunch and CISO Karaoke, meetings were happening off-site, not to mention the after-hours ScaleUP club. Trevor, the junior media intern, was unleashed to do field reporting, scoring serious social media traction. All this linked back to the brand’s 2026 AI Soc Leadership Report and, of course, deep dives into Torq AI Soc Platform and its new Agentic Builder.
“Right now AI Soc is the most crowded category on the planet, at least in our space,” Jeter says. “So it’s an existential race to achieve this ubiquity with the category. A lot of categories collapse into a single winner, and Torq has to keep the lead. We have to be everywhere, and every time we show up, we have to ask how do we cut through all this noise.”
Last year, the brand roared into RSAC with Grave Digger, a 12,000-pound iconic monster truck. This year, the visual statement had to be even bolder, which is where the impossible-to-miss skeleton came in. The engagement had to get deeper, which is where the tattoo bus rolled in, and generated permanent brand love with over a hundred real tattoos, with pre-set designs ranging from feathers and sparkles to a Torq skeleton.
“I think creating memories is the biggest way to make an impact from a brand perspective,” Jeter says. “RSAC, with 600 vendors and 40,000 attendees, is a cognitive attack.”
The exhibit strategy was developed in partnership with the sales team, with over a hundred meetings pre-set before the show. Success was measured through the impact on the sales pipeline as well as engagement on social media, specifically on LinkedIn, where the brand gained more than 1,000 followers in three days.
As the company continues its rapid growth, the events program is accelerating from four events in 2023, to 90 in 2024, to about 140 in 2025, and more than 400 this year, ranging from smaller partner events to large cybersecurity conferences. The experiential approach stays the same.
“Booths are no different than scrolling,” Jeter says. “I don’t think people will remember your messaging pillars, but they will remember the visuals and the experiences. But the consistency of showing up creates a shortcut to legitimacy.”
A veteran event marketer, Jeter notes the shift away from the “big demo station” philosophy at trade shows and towards experiential. “There’s more appetite to do fun stuff,” he says. “Teams across the space are starting to look at it more as a stage, more of a theater, and I think it’s really good for the industry.”
He adds: “We’re building a universe one show at a time. There’s a cast of characters. There’s lore, whether it’s Trevor, the plushies, or even stuff like urinal cakes, it’s all part of our brand universe, and our team loves building it. We don’t know what we’ll do for next year, but the pressure is already on.” Partners: In-house, creative; Altitude Exhibits, exhibit.
Photos: Courtesy of Torq
