View Out Of Focus mail
View a user generated blogpost about the action
Visit the agency blog announcing the campaign
Office leaflet
2
1View print ads:
Radio spots
1. Challenge
How can we reach communication professionals to point out the importance of language skills in their field of work? In other words, how can we promote Berlitz language courses amongst communication professionals?
2. Solution
As a communication agency, we used our own out of office reply for Berlitz as a medium to reach other communication professionals. During July and August, everyone at the agency who went on holiday installed the ‘Out Of Focus Reply’: an out of office reply written in very bad but amusing English. The e-mail didn’t end with the agency's logo, but with the Berlitz logo and baseline: “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 January, we'd already launched a radio campaign consisting of ten commercials with the baseline, "If you're not fluent in a different language, you sometime say different things."
In September, we ran two striking ads in De Standaard. In the first, a Japanese company which had just set up in Belgium advertised for a "Pee manager with root potential (m/f)". In the second, the Dakawi tourist agency promoted the country as, "The prefect distinction for young brushes."
Finally there was a cool guerrilla campaign. 5,000 leaflets were distributed in the receptions of companies in business parks with the menu of "Restaurant Rhodos – Greek bestialities". On the menu were dishes such as "Greek farmer's salary with wives" and "Artfully smashed balls with automatic sauce".
3. Results
In just two months, 4,284 Berlitz 'Out Of Focus' mails were sent, thus reaching a lot of communication professionals in a very cost-effective and surprising manner. 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 funny mail as their own out of office reply.