LOVE, LOSS & DEMENTIA

When Alzheimer’s Society wanted to create a ‘Davina menopause moment’ for Britain’s biggest killer, we developed a prime time Channel 4 show and companion campaign, all built around the personal story of our lead talent Anna Richardson. Watch the documentary on Channel 4 here.

THE FORGOTTEN KILLER

Alzheimer’s is the biggest killer in the UK – with a dementia diagnosis roughly every 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Despite these frightening statistics, awareness and fundraising for Alzheimer’s lag behind other serious health conditions. Alzheimer’s Society asked AMV Stream to create a moment of national alarm – a programme that could attract an audience and create headlines.

THE PERSONAL CONNECTION

Key to the AMV Stream approach is to develop non-scripted material around and with lead talent – and for a subject as personal as Alzheimer’s, it was especially important to find someone with a connection to the condition. The impact of Davina McCall’s menopause documentary became our model, so when we discovered the link that Channel 4 presenter Anna Richardson had to the disease through her father, we attached her as Executive Producer, bringing her into the production team, developing a feature documentary with a prime time block of Channel 4 as our target.

THE CULTURAL IMPACT

Anna Richardson: Love, Loss and Dementia grabbed national headlines when it aired at 10pm on Channel 4, following a development and delivery sprint of just 14 weeks. What made the process more efficient for our client was that the same production delivered a companion campaign including a multi-award-winning 3m 30s ad-block film featuring talent that included David Baddiel, Anne-Marie Duff, Vicky McClure and Meera Syal. With four- and five-star reviews across the board and dozens of TV appearances for Anna and her father, the film created an immediate cultural impact and gathered an audience that surprised even Channel 4, winning the largest share of viewers on commercial TV in its timeslot and beating slot average by 70% for young viewers. More importantly, the one million people who saw the film translated directly into fundraising for the client with a 270% increase in search for Alzheimer’s Society and a record number of visitors to the site.