From Popular Target to Future-Proof Agency

The Challenge

An Agency’s Inbox and Data Under Constant Pressure 

VaynerX is a global advertising and media parent-company led by successful entrepreneur and internet personality Gary Vaynerchuk (commonly known as Gary Vee). The company has 18 offices worldwide and roughly 2,000 employees who serve some of the world's most well-known brands.  

For John Georgatos, the company’s Chief Information Officer, that visibility cuts both ways. “Our IP is everywhere,” he says. “We make it pretty easy for a lot of bad actors to make us a target.” 

The main target was email, the agency’s primary communication channel. Vaynerchuk alone receives around 2,000 emails a day, a mix of legitimate business, spam, scams, and outright threats that once landed largely unfiltered. VaynerX had solid baseline protection with Google Workspace, but nothing native that could stop impersonation attacks and protect the workforce against phishing attacks.  

Employees were bombarded with phishing attempts every day, Anthony Latino, Controller and EVP at VaynerX, watched fraud attempts grow more sophisticated with AI. “We constantly received communications saying: “Hey, it’s Gary Vaynerchuk. Can you wire some funds?”” Latino says. “The AI sophistication now is becoming even tougher to deal with, and an organization has to be ready to combat that.”  

Latino said security is a big focus from a finance and controls perspective to protect financial data, and client and vendor data.  The financial threats come via different methods, including text messaging and WhatsApp. Proofpoint provided the security to stop AI attacks and malicious prompts across multiple channels and stages.  

These threats had the potential to jeopardize multimillion-dollar client relationships. For Georgatos, the answer wasn't another point product; it was a proven partner. The agency had relied on Google's security as it matured, but its ambitions had outgrown that approach. VaynerX needed a security partner that could help the team be proactive rather than reactive.

The Solution

Securing Email with Technology and Training 

Georgatos didn’t need a long discovery process. He evaluated alternatives, but what set Proofpoint apart was the company’s focus and track record. “I said to myself, we got to get Proofpoint. I could have gone Darktrace, I could have gone Mimecast. I've tried all of them,” he says. “Since we went with Proofpoint, we have not had a single incident.”  

The contract was signed on Christmas Eve, and Proofpoint was up and running by the end of January. The combined teams deployed Enterprise Email Protection, Targeted Attack Protection (TAP), and Threat Response Auto-Pull to filter threats at the gateway, detect advanced attacks, and automatically pull malicious messages from inboxes.  

 “We did it in record time,” Georgatos recalls. “We had a great implementation team that knew how important it was to be up and running and that we can’t just spend the next six months overthinking it.”  

That doesn’t mean teams cut corners or stop planning for tomorrow. Conditional policies continue getting fine-tuned and metrics are reviewed on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly cadence. “It’s not a tool that we’ve set and forget,” Georgatos says, “because this landscape is constantly evolving and changing.” 

VaynerX paired the deployment with Proofpoint’s ZenGuide security awareness training, running phishing simulations from the same console as the rest of the stack. For Melissa Moriarty, VaynerX’s Deputy General Counsel and EVP, the simulations turn training into something employees can actually practice. “Proofpoint phishing test keeps security top of mind for our folks and makes everyone think, not once but twice before maybe clicking on a suspicious email,” she says.  

The Results

Stronger Security Posture, Zero Incidents  

Over 12 months, Proofpoint analyzed 55 million inbound emails for VaynerX and blocked or quarantined 34.2 million of them, including 28.2 million sender-reputation threats, 6 million commodity threats, and 125,000 advanced attacks. 

That includes: 

• 93,000 phishing attempts 

• 19,000 business email compromises (BECs) 

• 13,000 advanced malware attacks 

If that isn’t enough proof, as soon as Proofpoint was deployed, impersonation attacks fell 90%. “From an ROI standpoint, that was a big win,” Georgatos says. “The organization saw a difference right away.” 

Now employees spend less time sifting spam messages, the finance team can focus on strategic work instead of impersonation attempts, and the legal team’s previously bot-filled inboxes surface important consumer requests. 

Then there’s another upside of working with a proven security leader for VaynerX clients. When prospective clients ask VaynerX on its security posture, their answer changes the conversation. “Once we said Proofpoint, most of the people lit up in the room,” Georgatos says. “They knew from brand recognition that it’s not a small tool.” For an agency competing for clients that demand sophisticated security, that recognition has made a difference.”