Alzheimer’s disease affects around 1.2 million people in Germany, with around 300.000 new cases being diagnosed every year. Yet awareness on the progression of the disease is still low. The earlier patients know, the more steps they can take to slow down its progression.

Alzheimer’s Forschung Initiative, an independent non-profit organisation, needed an original creative idea that would reach an audience that is largely uninformed about the effects of the disease, all within a modest budget. A secondary objective was raising funds for the non-profit, allowing them to continue their research around finding a cure for Alzheimer’s.

Every second traveler (49%) names art and culture as an occasion for a visit to Berlin. The high interest and engagement around the Berlin art scene on a local, as well as on an international level, is what inspired us to innovate traditional artworks and use them to tell our story

Berlin, the capital of Germany, is rated the world’s third major art city.

Knowing the influence that art plays in Berlin, we used 15 innovative artworks as media to start a conversation about Alzheimer’s.

The Fading Exhibit featured artists with a family history of Alzheimer’s. Each artist painted a personal memory using a special thermochromic pigment.

We fitted the paintings to custom designed frames with a hidden, built-in heating system.

Each day of the exhbit, the heat of the frames was turned up, which caused the paintings to fade more and more.

Tickets to the exhibition became donations on site, and finally, the paintings were put up for a silent auction which helped increase the amount raised.

The innovation of the disappearing paintings piqued the interest of the audience who visited the exhibit, shared the experience on social media and got informed about the effects of Alzheimer’s.

Our PR strategy utilized a two-pillar approach to maximize impact and media engagement.

The first pillar, Local Engagement through Emotional Storytelling, focused on captivating local media. We invited journalists to an exclusive event where artists shared the emotional stories behind their works, resonating with media preferences for compelling narratives and ensuring rich, emotive content that enhanced local coverage.

The second pillar, National Awareness with Scientific Depth, transformed the exhibition into a platform to elevate awareness about Alzheimer's research. Expert speakers provided scientific insights, enriching content for journalists and enabling the creation of in-depth pieces that went beyond standard event coverage.

We prepared materials tailored for various media formats to ensure effective communication on both local and national stages.

This dual-strategy approach maximized the exhibition's impact by securing media coverage in wide-reaching target media and therefore effectively positioning AFI and conveying key messages for more Alzheimer's awareness.

The exhibition took place at the erstererster gallery in one of Berlin’s most vibrant quarters, Prenzlauer Berg and was open between April 2nd and April 9th.

As the days went by, the paintings progressively faded away, until the original image could barely be distinguished.

Each painting came with a QR code, leading users to the website where they could read more about the memory and see the original painting.

The exhibit was promoted via the non-profit’s social channels (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube), but also on the artist’s personal channels and through the art collective. All the engagement on the content was organic, with zero media budget behind it.

Even though it was a small-scale event, it had a big echo, piquing the interest of a large audience who visited the exhibit daily as well as the press covering it.

The Fading Exhibit was more than an art exhibit; it was a captivating stunt reaching over 9.5 million people in Germany. This unique event sparked a conversation about Alzheimer's, with organic social media engagement soaring 20 times higher than the AFI's average. This translated into real-world impact: over the span of one week, donations jumped 65% compared to the entire month of April in 2023. Even those who couldn't attend were captivated – a 13.3% conversion rate on ticket downloads showed a thirst for knowledge. The impact went beyond the exhibit walls, with a 28.8% increase in newsletter open rates, exceeding industry benchmarks. The fading artworks became a powerful symbol, turning awareness into action and proving art's ability to ignite positive change.