The socks were created by the Alzheimer Lab in conjunction with the agency partners. The brief was to educate, capture the imagination and prompt the target audience to publicly show its support for those affected by the disease.

AlzheimerSOCKS are no ordinary socks. Created by two of Holland's top fashion designers, the deliberately mismatched socks symbolise the confusion Alzheimer patients struggle with every day.

In the weeks prior to the launch, pitched in-depth stories to put Alzheimer’s on the public agenda. Interviews with researchers (Prof. Dr. Scheltens) and patients (or their relatives) were published to share knowledge about Alzheimer’s disease, young patients and the urge for research.

Days before the launch, Dutch celebrities, journalists and politicians were sent a gift of a pair of Alzheimer SOCKS. The accompanying letter explained why the campaign mattered and why their help was needed to spread the word about #AlzheimerSOCKS.

The campaign was launched on World Alzheimer’s Day and almost instantly began trending on Dutch social media channels. Celebrities, politicians and consumers started to share photos of Alzheimer SOCKS. Dutch media picked up the story quickly, resulting in various primetime TV and radio items, varying from news bulletins to lifestyle programs and sports shows.

The campaign successfully broke the taboo and #AlzheimerSOCKS became part of the public conversation. Within the first days over 2.1 million estimated social media impressions were generated with Dutch celebrities, online influencers and press embracing the initiative. The viral campaign with ‘sockfies’ attracted massive media attention with TV, radio, dailies and online publications.

Results achieved within 14 days:

• 2.5+ million estimated impressions from 1,000+ Twitter mentions

• 350+ Instagram posts

• 8 national TV and radio items

• 10+ in-depth print articles

• 30+ online articles

• Dutch politician Alexander Pechtold wearing the Alzheimer SOCKS in the Binnenhof (political centre of the Netherlands)

• 20+ more CEOs, Dutch TV, sports and fashion celebrities wearing Alzheimer SOCKS and sharing their support online

• During the campaign period, 90% of the available pair of socks were sold