Crafting and Sharing a Client Story the ‘Right Way’

Crafting and Sharing a Client Story the ‘Right Way’

How Voxus collaborated with Agero to land a Boston Globe profile on the company’s 50th anniversary

Seeking a Prominent Spotlight

Agero is a national leader in roadside assistance, working on behalf of auto manufacturers and insurance companies to help 33,000 drivers every day. Yet, despite being a billion-dollar company and the fourth-largest private business in Massachusetts, many people have never heard of Agero. This presented both a challenge and an opportunity when this longstanding Voxus client expressed its goal of securing a feature profile on the company’s upcoming 50th anniversary in one specific outlet – The Boston Globe.

Tapping our Rich Knowledge of the Client

Drawing The Boston Globe’s interest required a creative approach, which
is where Voxus PR’s familiarity with Agero came into play. Our firm was deeply embedded in the company’s brand narrative because of Voxus’ relationship with this valuable client over the past six years. We identified the most compelling story threads we could pull and which company executives would best fit the type of feature desired if we were to succeed. A 50th anniversary story ultimately led to the company’s origin and founder, Sidney Wolk.

A Pitch, a Plan and a Dogged Pursuit

The Voxus team developed a pitch that provided a thumbnail sketch of Sidney Wolk’s background, the founding of Agero, and the company’s history and growth. From there, we determined our media outreach strategy (which included contingencies). Voxus targeted Jon Chesto, The Boston Globe’s business reporter, who excellently covers the leaders who shape Boston’s business community in his weekly “Bold Types” article series. Voxus also leveraged intelligence from our internal pitching platform to identify the best days and times to reach out to Jon and track the open rate of our emails, which informed when we should follow up via phone. After Voxus sent our initial pitch to Jon, it took repeated emails and phone calls to finally confirm contact and catch the reporter’s interest.

Persistence Pays Off

The song and dance to determine the Globe’s interest in covering the news continued for several months. Finally, after persistent follow-up activity from the Voxus team, the journalist expressed interest in scheduling an interview with Agero, to our mutual delight. Agero would host a 50th anniversary gala, which provided Voxus an event and firm date to tie the storyline and helped make the news timely for an interview. After nine months of correspondence, Jon Chesto interviewed the Wolk family. Just days later, the long-awaited and much-anticipated feature profile published on Sept. 11, 2023.

The Wolk family was thrilled with the article. Sidney Wolk’s eldest son, Howard, shared the following message to send to the journalist:

“I know that for my father in particular, having started out with very little and building the business over many decades, an article like this in The Boston Globe is particularly special. It is a real capstone, and we all genuinely appreciate Jon’s taking the time to present it so nicely.”