NovaCustom: the largest campaign flight on the network, in 38 days
NovaCustom joined three weeks before the event, was promoted to the first-place prize on merit, and received the largest single campaign flight of any partner on the network.
The Stack, scheduled for 5 August 2026 at The Wynn in Las Vegas, was cancelled 25 hours out. That failure was ours, and we said so publicly at the time. The campaign around it ran in full and is still running — which is what this case study is about.
Top of the podium, and the biggest flight we have run
NovaCustom held the first-place prize at “The Stack”, our inaugural CISO.POKER night. The event was cancelled 25 hours before it was due to start — an anchor sponsorship that never landed, a venue arrangement that was never contracted in writing, and a miscommunication found too late. That failure was ours and we published it at the time.
The event was only half of NovaCustom’s presence. Across the CyberAdX network it received the largest campaign flight of any partner by volume — 102,704 banner impressions, 451 tracked clicks carrying its affiliate reference from the very first impression, and 18 editorial placements across 7 security publications, seven of them written around NovaCustom specifically.
A NovaCustom NUC on the table, promoted to first place on merit
Shipped from the NovaCustom US warehouse and in hand well ahead of the date. NovaCustom joined on 14 July as the second-place prize and was promoted to first place on 25 July — top of the podium, three weeks after signing on.
The dedicated brand page carried the full product-line writeup: PrivacyGuard and SecurityTitan laptops, the NUC Box, the SHIFTphone 8.1 with iodéOS, Dasharo coreboot, Heads verified boot, and Qubes OS certification.
The audience that was assembled
- ›61 registered security leaders — CISOs plus compliance, legal, AI and IR leadership — across 6 tables. Free entry, no badge scans, no pitches.
- ›38 applicants received the touchpoint email naming NovaCustom twice, in prose and in the prize table, linked.
- ›The cancellation notice to all 61 put NovaCustom first in the “none of this is on them” section, with a direct buy-from-them instruction — “EU-built, privacy-first hardware” — sent at the moment of maximum goodwill.
- ›436 hand-written 1:1 LinkedIn messages, every one naming NovaCustom. 104 distinct organisations reached, 40 direct replies (9.2%), zero recipients below director level.
- ›Of 429 profiled recipients: 318 in the CISO/CSO/Security-Director band, 77 Group or Global CISOs, 34 privacy, compliance or legal chiefs. 56% outside the US across roughly 35 countries — and outside North America, Europe was the deepest region, which is NovaCustom’s home market.
- ›6 site surfaces on the event platform including a dedicated brand page, plus machine-readable ai.txt / llms.txt attribution carrying full first-place credit so AI assistants attribute the event correctly.
- ›Sponsor page drew 68 pageviews from 44 unique visitors over 22 days live — the other two sponsors ran 67 and 96 days, which is the fair comparison.
Outreach figures describe the seniority and spread of the audience reached. They do not imply endorsement, registration or attendance, and no individual or employer is named.
The largest CyberAdX flight of any partner
CyberAdX is our own first-party ad network across the security and privacy publications we operate — live network figures are published at cyberadx.network/stats. NovaCustom joined as a founding privacy-hardware partner on 1 July, tracked from the very first impression.
The sticky-anchor placement produced 98% of all clicks, climbing from 0.94% to 2.31% CTR as the editorial wave compounded behind it — the clearest evidence we have that editorial and display work better together than either does alone.
| Metric | Result | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Banner impressions | 102,704 | 1 July – 7 August — the largest flight on the network by impressions |
| Tracked clicks | 451 | All carrying the partner affiliate reference |
| Sticky-anchor impressions | 19,072 | Premium placement |
| Sticky-anchor CTR | 2.31% | Produced 98% of clicks; climbed from 0.94% as editorial compounded |
| Editorial placements | 18 | Across 7 publications — 7 NovaCustom-led, 11 featuring NovaCustom |
18 placements across 7 publications
Seven pieces were written around NovaCustom — the brand is the subject, not a mention. Eleven more feature it alongside Nitrokey or the event. The five-part “Hardware-Backed Careers” series carries NovaCustom across its full arc.
Podcast coverage
CISO Insights carried the campaign across four July episodes — one dedicated to NovaCustom and three all-sponsor episodes. All remain live in the feed and keep working after the event.
- ›Escaping Big Tech: Achieving Digital Sovereignty with NovaCustom — dedicated episode, 18 July
- ›The Stack: Where Security Leadership Meets the Felt — the event episode
- ›From the Lincoln Highway to Vegas — the cross-country road-trip episode
- ›Hacker Summer Camp 2026: Villages, Badgelife and Vegas Survival — Vegas-week primer
Where to buy NovaCustom
We stood up an authorised US storefront for NovaCustom — roughly 13% below EU pricing, free shipping, and the identical 3-year warranty — because import cost and shipping time were the main things stopping US buyers from choosing EU-built privacy hardware. It is live and continuing regardless of the event.
Buying through either link supports the network — we earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you, disclosed per our advertising policy.
NovaCustom joined late, committed fast, put real hardware on the table and was promoted to the top of the podium on merit. The event is the part that failed. The 18-piece editorial library, the US storefront and the largest network flight we have run are the part that is still working — and they are what a sponsorship here actually buys.