Marina Ziegler has served as AMTSO’s Chief Marketing Officer the past five years, since August 2020. At the time of joining, she was Head of Global PR at Avast, and later took on the role of Head of Communications at Gen following the company’s merger with NortonLifeLock. She is currently on parental leave.
Marina has worked in global PR roles in the cybersecurity industry since 2011. Prior to her in-house positions, she spent seven years at global tech PR agency LEWIS PR (today Team LEWIS), where she led campaigns for cybersecurity and other technology companies in both the B2B and consumer space.
As her parental leave comes to a close, Marina is preparing to return to her full-time role and will be wrapping up her volunteering activities with AMTSO. In this interview, she reflects on her experience as AMTSO’s CMO and the evolution of the organization’s brand and communication strategy.
- You joined AMTSO five years ago as a CMO. What made you join the organization?
There were several reasons why this role appealed to me. When I stepped into the CMO position back in 2020, AMTSO had already developed the AMTSO Standard—an initiative that brought much-needed transparency and fairness to the world of anti-malware testing, which had previously been fragmented and, at times, conflict-prone. I was genuinely impressed by what AMTSO had accomplished: bringing together competing testers and vendors, creating a space for open dialogue, and building a common ground that ultimately benefits not just the industry, but also businesses and consumers through more trustworthy testing practices.
At the same time, it was clear that AMTSO was at a turning point. The organization was still known as the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization, but with the Standard established, it was starting to explore new areas of cybersecurity testing beyond anti-malware. The question was how to position the organization for this broader scope. On top of that, AMTSO was in a relatively quiet phase in terms of communications, and much of its value as a community wasn’t visible outside the membership.
From a personal perspective, my background had been in public relations, and this role offered an opportunity to expand into the wider field of marketing. It brought together strategic thinking, communications, and brand development—along with a mission I found meaningful. All of that made the role an exciting challenge, and one I was eager to take on.
- What was your overarching marketing strategy for AMTSO, and how did it evolve over time?
When I got on board five years ago, the perception of AMTSO as Anti-Malware Testing Standard Organization, with its then narrow focus on anti-malware, felt outdated. If AMTSO wanted to stay relevant, it needed to embrace the creation of cybersecurity testing guidelines and frameworks beyond anti-malware. At the same time, in a survey initiated in my first weeks, we learned how much members valued AMTSO as a community, with networking opportunities between testers and vendors, an exchange of ideas and knowledge sharing, and the opportunity to gain insights into, and contribute to the creation of a fair and transparent Standard.
So a big part of the strategy was to reposition AMTSO as the cybersecurity industry’s testing standard community—a more inclusive, future-oriented identity that positioned AMTSO as an organization that is active in fields beyond anti-malware testing, and emphasizing its character as a community, which is a benefit its members truly value. In the years that followed, AMTSO’s working groups collaborated on and published guidelines and frameworks in areas like IoT, VPN, sandbox, and XDR testing—so the broader positioning supported and aligned with this direction.
Also, due to the nature of AMTSO as an industry organization with many contributors and diverse marketing representatives throughout the years, there was a lack of brand consistency. The website had a different branding than the organization’s brand materials, the logo existed in a variety of different colours, and its official logo version was in pink and purple gradient style, which was hard to print and replicate. Together with our design agency, me media, we focused on giving the brand a modern, unified look—from the messaging to the visual identity to how AMTSO presents itself across channels.
Over time, the work shifted from laying that foundation to making AMTSO more visible and relevant across the industry—through content, a member interview series which is ongoing until today, media outreach, consistent social media engagement, and increased presence around events. The goal was, and still is, to make sure the value AMTSO creates is recognized not just inside the organization, but across the wider cybersecurity space.
- How can brand-building be effectively achieved in a technical, member-driven environment like AMTSO?
Behind every technical detail and requirement, there’s always a broader story to tell—one that connects to business value, collaboration, and trust. In a member-driven organization like AMTSO, brand-building means putting our members at the center of the narrative. It has given us the opportunity to communicate through their voices—publishing interviews where they share their needs, views, and perspectives on cybersecurity testing, as well as the value AMTSO has brought to their organizations.
At the same time, through our members we have a loyal and engaged social media audience that amplifies our content and messaging. In a highly technical space, it’s not just about promoting what the organization does, but showing the members who bring it together, what conversations it enables, and why that matters for the future of testing.
- What was the biggest challenge you faced during your five years as a volunteer CMO, and how did you handle it?
In an international, member-driven organization like AMTSO, there are naturally many diverse voices and viewpoints, and it can be challenging to make everybody happy. What has been important to me is creating space for input and discussion. Surveys, member meetings, or regular executive and board calls have been very helpful in this regard. One thing I’ve truly appreciated is the culture within AMTSO—especially among the executive team and board. There’s a strong sense of mutual respect and openness to constructive discussion, which has made navigating those complexities not only manageable, but also rewarding.
- What have you learned about leadership and collaboration in a nonprofit tech context?
In a nonprofit organization like AMTSO, most contributors are volunteers—which means processes often move more slowly, as people, myself included, need to carve out time alongside their main responsibilities. Budgets and resources are also minimal.
While that can be challenging, it forces you to focus on what truly matters. And when something comes together, it’s incredibly rewarding to see the outcome—because it’s the result of close collaboration and everyone working to make things happen, despite limited resources.
- If you could wish for one thing for the future of AMTSO as a brand and community, what would it be?
The largest organizations in the cybersecurity and testing industry are already AMTSO members, but I wish for AMTSO’s value to be more widely recognized—not just by those already in the community, but also by emerging players in the industry. The work that happens within AMTSO, specifically within its working groups—from building standards, guidelines, and frameworks, to threat intel sharing via its Real-Time Threat List (RTTL) program and fostering collaboration between vendors and testers—is incredibly important, yet still too often invisible to those outside the organization.
I’d love to see AMTSO continue to grow as a trusted voice and reference point in cybersecurity testing and threat intel sharing, helping testers gain access to real-world samples for their evaluations. It would be great for AMTSO to further strengthen its voice—not only as a source of expertise, but as a unique platform that brings together competitors in testing and cybersecurity, partners, and thought leaders—all working to raise the bar for the entire industry.
Although I’m ending my active involvement with AMTSO, I’ll certainly follow what’ll be next for the organization, specifically in terms of marketing. We’re currently looking for a new CMO, and any members interested in this role can learn more on our member website.
Thank you for these insights, Marina!