In this episode, Dave sits down with Melton Littlepage, CMO at 1Password, to discuss how he’s transforming a well-known consumer brand into a B2B category leader in cybersecurity. With decades of experience in SaaS marketing, Melton shares insights on category creation, demand generation, and the intersection of brand and product marketing—and why being the leader in your space matters more than perfect attribution.
Dave and Melton cover:
- Why category leadership is critical and how to position your company as #1
- How enterprise marketing, brand-building, and demand gen work together to drive growth
- How 1Password is expanding beyond password management to create a new category
Timestamps
- (00:00) - – Intro to Melton
- (06:25) - – The evolution of marketing from demand gen to category creation
- (09:34) - – The balance between data-driven marketing and brand-building
- (11:08) - – Why attribution alone won’t make your company “hot”
- (11:41) - – The importance of category leadership and market perception
- (13:53) - – How 1Password is shifting from password management to Extended Access Management (XAM)
- (16:17) - – How COVID changed the cybersecurity landscape
- (18:30) - – Why legacy security tools aren’t enough for modern businesses
- (21:00) - – The role of category creation in defining 1Password’s future
- (22:15) - – Naming and positioning a new category (Extended Access Management)
- (23:54) - – The risks and rewards of category creation vs. competing in an existing space
- (25:58) - – Why CISOs are hesitant to be early adopters—and how to shift buyer perception
- (29:55) - – The strategy behind creating demand for a new category
- (31:52) - – Lightning strike moments and big brand plays for category awareness
- (34:31) - – Structuring a marketing team to support both enterprise and self-service growth
- (38:25) - – Balancing B2B and consumer marketing
- (41:50) - – Why 1Password invested in sports sponsorships
- (44:47) - – The power of emotional marketing and brand trust in enterprise sales
- (47:34) - – Thought leadership and analyst relations in shaping a category
- (48:56) - – Final takeaways
Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.com
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership
***
Today’s episode is brought to you by Zuddl.
We’re halfway through 2025, and one thing’s clear: events continue to be one of the highest performing marketing channels. Niche meetups, conferences, curated dinners, networking - you name it. Everyone’s leaning in.
Events are a core part of our playbook this year at Exit Five. So far, we’ve hosted two virtual sessions each month, one large virtual event, one in-person meetup, and we’re deep in the weeds planning our Drive conference coming back to Vermont this September.
Zuddl helps us run a smarter event strategy - from driving registrations, managing invites, automating comms, reminders, analytics, tracking. Their Salesforce integration also makes it simple to report on pipeline and revenue from events without pulling in ops.
On top of that, the differentiator with Zuddl is how their team is insanely good at supporting us. They always go above and beyond for us - and that’s how we’ve been able to keep the momentum going with 12+ events already this year, with plenty more to come.
If events are part of your marketing strategy, you need to look at Zuddl to see how companies like Zillow, CrowdStrike, and Iterable are using the top event platform for Business events in 2025.
Head over to zuddl.com/exitfive to learn more.
