We, as a communication agency, used our own out of office reply for Berlitz as a medium to reach other communication professionals.

During the summer holidays (July and August) everyone at the agency who left on vacation installed the ‘Out Of Focus Reply’: an out of office reply written in very bad but funny English. The e-mail didn’t end with the logo of our agency, but with the logo and the baseline of Berlitz: "You don’t have to be a genius to take language courses, but you’ll look like a fool if you don’t. Berlitz."

In only two months time, 4,284 ‘Out Of Focus’-mails were sent, thus reaching a lot of communication professionals in a very low-cost and surprising way. Some communication- and marketing bloggers wrote flattering posts about the ‘Out Of Focus’-mail. A lot of our contacts asked us if they could use the ‘Out Of Focus’-mail as their own out of office reply.