The Alzheimer’s Association wanted to leverage the universal love and connectivity of music to reach new audiences, drive awareness and concern for Alzheimer’s and all other dementia, and engage the public in conversation in order to advance the fight to end Alzheimer’s disease. Storytelling is instrumental in raising concern and awareness of Alzheimer’s, increasing research funding and engaging people in the cause.
Alzheimer’s is one of the biggest global health crises of our time. More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease - by 2050, this number is expected to rise to nearly 14 million. “Music Moments” is a multi-genre collection of powerful performances and heartfelt storytelling, created to champion the fight for a world without Alzheimer’s and all other dementia. This campaign honors the personal and emotional connection between music and life’s most important moments we never want to lose.
We wanted to tap into the power of music and storytelling to spark conversation and raise awareness of a disease that too often is not discussed because of stigma. With a limited budget, we needed something that would generate earned media and household conversation (bringing in influential, diverse voices, having award-winning artists and song selections) to drive awareness and concern for Alzheimer’s disease beyond our established audience.
We also needed a strong creative vision that would resonate with talent and lend itself to a video concept worth viewing and sharing across platforms. To increase reach, we needed 10 very different artists, diverse in genre and fan base demographics, and in their personal stories.
The end result: a free album available on all major streaming platforms, made in collaboration with Grammy-awarding winning executive producer, Randall Poster, and featuring award-winning artists such as Sting, Brett Eldredge, Anthony Hamilton, Lee Ann Womack, Nile Rodgers, Joan Jett, The Head and The Heart, Jason Isbel and Sharon Van Etten . In addition to the audio, each artist recorded a video sharing the very personal story behind their song choice woven together with their reason for raising Alzheimer’s awareness and behind-the-scenes recording footage.
We created organic and paid strategies to efficiently drive listeners to the album through multiple platforms, including Youtube, display networks, Triple Lift, Spotify, Pandora, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Our Twitter strategy included a pre-release teaser through a brand reminder campaign allowing fans to be the first to have access to the album and exclusive video content, as well as a Twitter trend using #MyMusicMoment and a custom emoji to spark user-generated content.
Despite the global pandemic, “Music Moments” successfully released on the targeted date of March 13, 2020. The multi-artist, multi-genre album had an overwhelmingly positive reception, with earned media coverage across widely read publications including from Rolling Stone and to People Magazine, over 1 billion impressions, 3.5 million+ video views, hashtag Twitter trend and custom emoji at launch, as well as organic engagement from all ten artists and amplification from celebrities inspired by not involved in the project.
Once launched, “Music Moments” became a shareable movement, with artists and songs inspiring and encouraging listeners to share their own stories and experiences with music. Like the album artists who told their stories, listeners were moved to reflect, share, and ultimately not feel alone in their experiences with Alzheimer’s and other dementia. As the world began to shut down, this project resonated with audiences yearning for connection and positivity in the midst of the confusion and anxiety around COVID-19. It gave people something meaningful, personal, and hopeful to rally around.
