Football creates incredible moments in grounds and on screens across the country – unforgettable for most fans. But for the 900,000 people living with dementia in the UK, sadly they are often forgotten.

We wanted to make players and fans aware of this reality, by finding a way to connect one of the most well-known symptoms of dementia, memory-loss, with football.  

A particular focus was engaging a more disengaged audience for Alzheimer’s Society of men and younger audiences, who are less likely to fundraise and more under-represented by dementia support services. To engage an audience interested in football but unaware of the charity/dementia, and to harness the power of mass football conversation, we needed standout creative ideas to engage the hearts and minds of fans and ensure our messages gained cut-through both visually and in conversation.

Our stunt involved the England team changing shirts at half time, to reappear with their ‘unforgettable’ names removed, catching the attention of fans and journalists, and hitting home the reality of people with dementia losing precious memories. Having gained buy-in from senior stakeholders: The FA, the Switzerland national team and UEFA, we worked with The FA to maximise the impact. We widely announced, under embargo, the PR stunt the week before the match, using imagery of key players in the nameless shirts. For broadcasters (TalkSport, BBC5Live, Sky Sports), we drafted a script for commentators, which was read out by all three stations. By briefing in matchday photographers, imagery was used as part of post-match coverage and Alzheimer’s Society/FA social media channels could cross-post to create extra buzz.

Football creates incredible moments in grounds and on screens across the country – unforgettable for most fans. But for the 900,000 people living with dementia in the UK, sadly they are often forgotten.

We wanted to use the most widely known symptom of dementia (memory loss) to create a tailored approach for a match that would reach an audience who would need the charities support.

The stunt was widely announced, under embargo, the week before the match, using imagery of key players in the nameless shirts. For broadcasters (TalkSport,

BBC5Live, Sky Sports), we drafted a script for commentators, which was read out by all three stations and by briefing in match day photographers, imagery was used as part of post-match coverage and Alzheimer’s Society/FA social media channels could cross-post to create extra buzz.

The brief was taken on 5 weeks prior to the match, which meant quick decisions and implementation was required.

Following creative approval of the in-game stunt, we worked closely with the FA who pitched the idea to UEFA and Gareth Southgate, England's Team Manager, for sign off.

The stunt itself involved the England team changing shirts at half time, to reappear with their ‘unforgettable’ names removed, catching the attention of fans and journalists both watching at home and live at Wembley Stadium.

On the day of the match, bespoke DOOH was placed near Wembley Stadium and a film, narrated by Gareth Southgate was released on social media both with the message of ‘Football Should be Unforgettable’.

During the match itself, pundits picked up and commentated on the ‘Nameless Shirts’, and the stunt was widely picked up by journalists soon after.

The Nameless Shirts were also auctioned off.

Ticket buyer survey showed: 73% would see GP is experiencing dementia symptoms (compared to 64% in August 2021), 74% aware that Alzheimer's Society is The FA's charity partner (compared to 14% when partnership was announced in 2021), 50% more aware of Society's work, 23% more aware of dementia and 20% donated to charity as a result of the match. 


Awareness of the charity’s support/what we do increased for 50% of 2,000 people surveyed post-match who watched the match on TV. 30% noticed the ‘nameless shirts’ and saw its significance 


Achieved highest two-month average for spontaneous awareness for Alzheimer’s Society ever (rising from 2% to 3% post-match). Brand Buzz increased to 14% (highest two-month average since Oct 2020). 


131 pieces of national coverage, with reach of 460m, consistently cutting through usual football-related coverage of the match & news agenda e.g. Qatar World Cup. 


5% uplift in people noticing coverage of the charity’s work with sport week after match 


Exceeded all social media targets: 200k total reach on Facebook (target 100k), 305k impressions on Twitter on 
match-day alone (average impressions: 34k per day), average of 71k reach per post on Instagram (target: 15.5k). 


Click throughs from Google searches for 'Alzheimer's Society' doubled compared to average weekend. 


Compared to an average weekend, views of the homepage were up 64%. 50% of this traffic was male, compared 
to 35%. 


Around 1,100 new followers across all platforms 


£66k raised