Dementia Friends is an initiative from Alzheimer s Society launched in 2013 with the aim of recruiting one million friends by 2015.

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1 Partner Briefing MAY 2014 Dementia Friends Campaign May 2014 Introduction Public Health England and Alzheimer s Society have come together to inspire a new Dementia Friends campaign launching on Wednesday 7 May This new campaign aims to make the nation more aware of dementia, improve attitudes towards the disease and encourage people to become Dementia Friends. The aim is to recruit one million Dementia Friends across England by March Background Dementia Friends is an initiative from Alzheimer s Society launched in 2013 with the aim of recruiting one million friends by Public Health England is committing up to 4 million per annum until 14/15 to a campaigning fund. The Prime Minister s Challenge on Dementia, launched in March 2012, is a three year programme designed to push further and faster on the 2009 National Dementia Strategy to deliver improvements in diagnosis, care and research. It recognises, however, that this is not just an issue for government, the health service and the social care system. If we are to create a dementia-friendly society all of us need to change how we think and feel about dementia and understand more about how we can help. This means having the confidence to engage with people who have dementia and the skills to interact in a way that is both useful and welcome.

2 Campaign Overview Dementia Friends campaign is a marketing campaign being supported via TV, digital activity, PR, outdoor and nationwide corporate, public sector and charity partnerships. The campaign will encourage people to watch a short video or attend a face-to-face Information Session, which will provide them with a better understanding of the disease and practical tips on how to support someone with dementia. On watching the video they will be asked to register to become a Dementia Friend and will then receive a Dementia Friends badge and a little book of friendship with more tips. The campaign will see a number of firsts for Public Health England: Biggest ever coalition of celebrities brought together to support a public health campaign Biggest ever coalition of commercial sector partners pledging their support and training their staff to become Dementia Friends A significant coalition of public sector partners coming together to pledge their employees to become Dementia Friends and to provide support and profile within communities Campaign Timings The campaign will launch to the media on 7 May and run throughout May, which also includes Alzheimer s Society s Dementia Awareness Week from May. Dementia Friends 2014 will be running through the following media channels: TV advertising will run from 7-31 May.

3 A TV channel roadblock will help launch the campaign meaning that the launch ad will be shown simultaneously on nearly 40 TV stations making it unmissable by viewers; Outdoor advertising will run from May; Search and social media will run from 6 May to the end of the year; PR activity will run throughout the campaign along with support from partners. Additionally there are three media partners involved in the campaign: The Daily Mirror will be supporting the campaign throughout May (including editorial support in the Trinity Mirror titles for Dementia Awareness Week) from 6-31 May; The Guardian is a digital partner who will also be supporting the campaign during May; The Telegraph is a media partner. Media The news story, which is embargoed until 00:01hrs on Wednesday 7 May, will focus on two distinct elements. The advert brings together a host of celebrities including Chris Martin, Ray Winstone, Eamonn Holmes & Ruth Langsford, Simon Pegg, Paul O Grady, Leighton Baines, Pixie Lott, Alesha Dixon, Amanda Holden and Sir Terry Pratchett (among others), some of whom have personal experience of the disease through friends or family and some are just supporting the role that everyone in society can play to help people live well with dementia for longer. The ad also features Gina Shaw, a 61 year old singer and former nurse from Liverpool who has recently been diagnosed with dementia. Gina and some of the talent will be undertaking media interviews on launch day and beyond. Additionally we will be releasing new research from the Centre of Economic and

4 Business Research which calculates the cost to business of dementia in terms of lost hours from carers taking time off, and early retirement from people with dementia. The research also highlights the additional challenges faced by carers in terms of hours spent caring for someone with dementia, but provides encouraging statistics from the number of businesses willing to offer flexible solutions for both those caring for people with dementia and those diagnosed with dementia based on a You Gov survey of businesses. We plan to offer some exclusive trails to media ahead of launch to remind people of the scale of the issue and seed information about the new campaign which will appear in Sunday newspapers from Jeremy Hunt MP and Norman Lamb MP Social Media As part of our campaign for Dementia Friends, we would greatly appreciate any support that you can give through your social media channels. This will allow us to reach a hugely valuable audience and build word of mouth to support our aim to create 1 million Dementia Friends. We are creating a social sharing mechanic to communicate the message that one in three people over 65 will develop dementia. We are asking people to upload a photo holding three fingers up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and tagging two friends asking them to become Dementia Friends. We are creating an instructional image to support this initiative which will feature one of the pictures of our talent with the instructions 1. Visit 2. Watch the video and become a Dementia Friend 3. Share your photo (like Alesha) and tag two friends to join you in becoming Dementia Friends

5 We ve provided a list below of our requests for social media and would appreciate if you can help out on as many of these as possible and ideally all of them! For assistance in copy for updates, image assets etc. please contact lauren.fisher@freuds.com and jonny.marsh@freuds.com 1) on Twitter and Like our Facebook Page facebook.com/dementiafriends 2) Sign up to the Dementia Friends Thunderclap with your organisations Twitter & Facebook details ( This will send an automatic message from your accounts at around 7:35pm on 7 th May that will have a call to action to visit the site 3) Any time between 2 nd May and 6pm on 7 th May, ask your followers on Facebook & Twitter to join you in signing up for the Thunderclap (( using the hashtag #DementiaFriends in your profile update 4) Between 7 th May and 11 th May, share an image on your Facebook Page, Twitter account or Instagram with one or a group of people in your organisation, holding the same three fingers up with this copy: Twitter: #1in3 people over 65 will become #DementiaFriends bit.ly/dfriends Facebook: #1in3 people over 65 will develop dementia. Tagging (your friend) & (your friend) to join me and become a Dementia Friend. bit.ly/dfriends #DementiaFriends

6 5) Between 7th May and 11th May share the image on your Facebook & Twitter profiles directing your social followers to take part in #1in3 (image tbc) Checklist of activity From Wednesday 7 May, there are a number of activities and opportunities that regional and local teams can adopt in support of the campaign, including: Promoting the campaign internally to staff Promote the on-line Dementia Friends tool to all staff Use the short or long copy templates to help draft articles about the campaign for newsletters, websites or social media channels Feature campaign key messages and facts and stats in any relevant communications about the campaign or dementia activities Utilise available social media networks, e.g. Facebook and Twitter, to provide regular updates and information on the campaign, to help maintain momentum post launch Additionally, partners can also contact the Alzheimer s Society about face-to-face Dementia Friends sessions Ready-to-use copy Please find below some examples of copy that can be used when communicating with internal or local/trade media audiences about the Dementia Friends campaign. These can be used across a range of channels, for example websites, e-bulletins or newsletters.

7 For newsletters/websites/e-bulletins <Insert organisation/group name> is supporting the new Dementia Friends campaign to help people develop an understanding of dementia and turn it into action to help people in their community living with the disease by becoming Dementia Friends. Dementia is arguably the biggest health crisis facing the UK there are currently approximately 670,000 people in England Error! Bookmark not defined. who have dementia with one in three of us, over 65 developing the disease. Public Health England and Alzheimer s Society have come together to inspire the Dementia Friends campaign which is encouraging individuals and businesses to become a Dementia Friend by watching a short video online to increase their understanding and use this to help people with dementia in their communities. The campaign aims to create a network of one million Dementia Friends across England by As part of the campaign, adverts will appear on TV, online and outdoors from 7 May For further information on the campaign and how to become a Dementia Friend, please visit

8 Campaign Key Messages Key campaign messages Key messages around Dementia Friends If we live past 65, one in three of us will develop dementia and every one of us will be affected by it because we will all know someone living with the disease. People with dementia can live well and independently - for many years if they have a little help, understanding and kindness from those around them. It s easy and free to become a Dementia Friend. Just visit dementiafriends.org.uk. Public Health England (PHE) and Alzheimer s Society (AS) have come together to inspire the Dementia Friends campaign. Dementia Friends is a programme created by Alzheimer s Society to give people an understanding of what it's like to live with dementia and the small things we can all do to make a difference to people living with the condition. You can become a Dementia Friend by watching and interacting with an online video or by attending a 45 minute face to face information session. Visit to become a Dementia Friend.

9 Key messages around dementia Dementia is one of the biggest health crises facing England. Dementia is not a natural part of growing old. Dementia is caused by diseases of the brain. The most common of these is Alzheimer s. There are about 670,000 people living with dementia in England. It is possible to live well with dementia. There s more to the person than the dementia.