Johnson & Company delivers Leaders Magazine coup for client

Three-page story brought much praise from clients NRW and Vignette

Leaders magazine is a prestigious publication. Inside the cover of the magazine it reads: "To receive Leaders magazine one must be the leader of a nation, an international company, a world religion, an international institute of learning or an international labor organization; a chief financial officer, a chief information officer, a Nobel laureate, a major investor on behalf of labor or corporate pension funds or a leader in science or the arts." The bottom line, this is a high-level publication with only the top minds of the world having subscriptions.

Imagine the coup when Johnson & Company (jo&co), The Virtual Agency™ , landed a three-page article about one of Niehaus, Ryan, Wong (NRW's) clients in the April, May, June 2000 issue.

When Cami Rozanas started lining up appointments for the Vignette V/5 Vision Media Tour, she had no idea what was in store. As part of its partnership with NRW, jo&co was charged with booking appointments with many of the top-tier media in New York City. Someone at Vignette mentioned that jo&co should try to get an interview with "Readers" magazine. After a futile search, Rozanas realized that they must have been talking about Leaders magazine, so she quickly began to figure out a possible pitch to the editors there.

"This very elite publication with a very limited audience turns out to be very influential in the business community," Rozanas says. "However, after talking with the editor for a few minutes, he was ready to set up an interview with Vignette during the New York City leg of the press tour."

While Leaders magazine wasn't on the initial list of target publications, Johnson & Company wowed clients NRW and Vignette with the incredible hit. Not only was Vignette mentioned in the magazine, but there were three pages devoted to the company with its name in the headline: "Driving $1.5 Billion through the `Vignette Economy.'"

Only one other company in the issue had three pages devoted to them, and Vignette was also among just a handful of companies with its name in the title. The story was in a question and answer format almost verbatim from the interview the editor had with Vignette.

Rumor has it that when client NRW first found out about the three-page story in Leaders magazine, an individual was actually jumping up and down with excitement. Showing more decorum, Vignette was unbelievably ecstatic with the coverage as well, and the fact that the rest of the V/5 Vision Media Tour was also highly successful.

"Both NRW and Vignette were happy with the way the coverage ended up," Rozanas says. "Everyone hustled to get the job done, and in this case it was done right."