BURLINGTON, MA, October 5, 2000—Cognos^® (Nasdaq: COGN; TSE:CSN), the world's largest and most successful business intelligence company, today launched a brand initiative to increase awareness of the Cognos brand and create a bold, new image of the software maker. Targeted at senior business executives and line managers, the initiative is intended to triple Cognos' market awareness with key decision-makers, and aggressively push Cognos into new markets. An advertising campaign with high-profile placements in business publications such as The Wall Street Journal will be a creative centerpiece of the initiative.

The brand initiative will reinforce Cognos' value proposition and position its business intelligence software as a mission-critical enterprise solution required by any company to survive in the hyper-competitive global market. More than ever, organizations are demanding senior business executives and line managers create strategic business value, in addition to optimizing operating efficiencies. The brand initiative will build and communicate the promise of value of Cognos products to the target audience.

Brand campaigns will communicate how rapid, insight-driven actions undertaken by users of Cognos software fundamentally transform organizations and turn them into highly competitive businesses. Cognos enterprise business intelligence empowers business users at all levels, from executives to administrators, to add strategic and operational value to the organization and its customers.

Joanne K. Masingill, Cognos senior vice president of marketing, spearheaded the brand initiative, which extends to every facet of the company. "The Cognos brand reflects the essence of the company, built on our strong ethical value system coupled with a very aggressive, make-it-happen attitude," said Masingill. "We are going to market with an image of Cognos of a bold, fast-moving, visionary company that empowers our customers to 'innovate through information' delivered by our software solutions."

The initial advertising campaign around the brand will define the Cognos moment of realization for the customer. The "Cognos Moment" is the 'eureka' moment when a customer has a flash of insight powered by Cognos business intelligence software. Insight leads to rapid business execution and creates immediate business value. Cognos' ability to deliver this "moment" on a consistent basis is why organizations of all sizes increasingly consider business intelligence software to be 'must-have,' mission-critical technology. This enduring, relevant promise of value has become the distinctive brand identity that differentiates Cognos.

"The strength of our brand will expand Cognos' selling opportunities to large, global organizations by defining the business value we deliver," said Ron Zambonini, Cognos president and chief executive officer. "In the past, we have been a bit reserved about our success and the powerful capabilities of our business intelligence solution. It's paramount that we elevate the presence of Cognos around the world, and invest in a strong global brand to achieve our goal of becoming a top-tier technology company and make our customers the world's greatest decision-makers."