The Flemish foundation for the deaf doesn’t have a lot of budget. We jumped on the initiative ‘the warmest week’ from VRT, the public broadcaster in Flanders. This gave us the attention we needed and we were picked up by mainstream media to send a heartwarming message to Flanders to support the deaf or hard hearing community during Corona.

The warmest week is a big initiative by VRT, the public broadcaster in Flanders. The week before Christmas they inspire Flanders to do good for each other and especially for those who really need it. In this Corona time we can all use some extra warmth.

But who suffers the most form Corona and is often forgotten?

In Flanders we have 500.000 deaf or hard hearing people. For them Corona is terrible and increases social isolation. When they go out, go shopping or just go for a walk their communication line is blocked by mouth masks. They depend on lipreading to communicate. So with their handicap they are even more isolated.

We wanted to send a signal that they are not forgotten and still part of our community. The Flemish foundation of the deaf launched ‘the warmest gesture’. Teaching Flanders basic sign language and urging to show this to the deaf or hard hearing in their inner circle. With easy video tutorials everyone could learn how to give a compliment in sign language.

We had a very small budget. We had to depend on PR to boost our campaign.

The first wave started from within our community. There are more than 500.000 deaf or hard hearing people in Flanders and many who stand by them. We gave the people who stand by them tools to show their support.

Next are the influencers. Famous people with a heart for society. We reached out to them and many reacted. Even our own prime minister Alexander Decroo made a movie.

This was picked up by almost every newspaper and in prime-time on television. That was the tipping point of our campaign and we saw a massive increase of traffic to our website.

In addition to PR we boosted the campaign through youtube, radio and bannering.

We started with the community of deaf and hard of hearing people in Flanders and asked participation to make tutorial videos.

Together with the participants of the community we made 17 videos learning people in Flanders how to say basic words in sign language. All sentences were compliments. So that they could directly send their warm messages in their new taught language to somebody they love. These videos were placed on a YouTube channel.

We aired a radio spot for hearing people to raise awareness and with a call to action to our platform. The radio spot taught already a first simple sign language compliment; "You are the best!"

Different Influencers and our Prime Minister spread a compliment to all their followers on social media. Unpaid.

TV shows, radio shows and newspapers picked it up and supported.

It was a small campaign but it was picked up by the media. Almost every newspaper in Flanders talked about us. We even got in prime time on television. The support was overwhelming. Even Prime Minister Alexander Decroo made a sign language movie and used his media channels to promote the initiatives.

More than six million people saw our message. And 15.000 people made a sign language movie to send to their family, friends or colleagues.

We did not only gave the deaf and hard hearing community a sign that we thought about them. We even taught many people how to speak a little sign language.

This campaign was heartwarming and had a positive impact on many lives, now and in the future.