CloudQast director, Damian Gaskin, explained, "When we encountered the credit crunch, in 2008, a number of our customers reduced their budgets, and this affected CloudQast's activity and income generation. Rather than become a nuisance, contacting organisations and asking them to spend money they didn’t have, my fellow CloudQast director, Lindsey Mack, and I hit on the idea of writing poems. We then sent these to CloudQast's customers and potential customers instead."

According to Damian, writing the poems was fun. He said, "We felt that we were not only feeding our creativity skills, but also giving our clients something to smile about in tough times. Distributing the poems on a regular basis meant that CloudQast could 'give something back' to its clients and keep its name in front of potential clients without annoying them.

"Initially, we kept up the process for ten months, sending out one or two poems each month - and the exercise was successful in that it generated business," said Damian.

The very first poem that CloudQast sent out attracted the attention of two organisations that had previously used CloudQast.

"Prompted by the poems, these organisations got back in touch with CloudQast," said Damian. "The subsequent conversations resurrected relationships - and these began to move CloudQast from being an organisation that provided merely face-to-face learning experiences to one which provides video-based learning materials as well.

"So, all in all, it was a great initiative for us - and a strategy that CloudQast would recommend to any business that wants to grow but doesn't have much money to spend!"

CloudQast's current clients include multinational companies such as AECOM and the chemical firm Scott Bader, as well as charities including The Magistrates Association.