Exposing a JAXB Annotated POJO as JSON via CXF-RS

Issue

• Have a JAXB annotated POJO request / response that is used in a CXF WS and try to expose this as a JSON REST service;
• When sending a JSON request, get the following error response:

JSON request:

{
    "xxxRequest": {
        "header": {
            ...
        },
        "data": {
            ...
        }
    }
}

Error:

JAXBException occurred : unexpected element (uri:"", local:"xxxRequest"). Expected elements are 
<{http://www.companyname.com/aaa/bbb/ccc/v1}...>,
<{http://www.companyname.com/aaa/bbb/ccc/v1}...>,
<{http://www.companyname.com/aaa/bbb/ccc/v1}xxxRequest>,
<{http://www.companyname.com/aaa/bbb/ccc/v1}...>.