Sainsbury’s sent us a standard press release about an initiative to support and raise awareness of the deaf community by temporarily rebranding as ‘Signsbury’s.’
Staff were taught basic sign language, there were screens around the store showing customers how to sign common groceries and a signing choir was to attend the launch.
Rather than wait for whatever they sent us after the event I attended the launch in the hope of creating a Facebook live to help boost our social media reach.
It could have been very dull, if I just stood in front of the store talking about it, as there wasn’t a huge amount of ‘action’ to see.
Instead, in a rather chaotic environment, I organised to have a walk through the store explaining all the features and interviews with key people, bookended by the signing choir.
It was all lined up so there were no gaps of inactivity in more than 17 minutes of live streaming. I also responded to the comments coming through in real time live on camera to make it more engaging.
The live video was very well-received and had more than 37,000 views directly here. Viewers were directed to read more in our launch story here which had another 33,722 views.
This story was memorable, not necessarily for showcasing my newswriting ability, but rather because it gave me a chance to prove my adaptability, organisation and ability to face new challenges undaunted.
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