There is no single truth in war. Every side and everyone affected, military and civilian, experience war differently and each has their own truths and stories to share. Only by learning about ALL sides and experiences can we gain understanding and try to prevent similar conflicts from ever happening again. That’s exactly what Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s documentary series, “The Vietnam War,” explored by sharing stories of the conflict from all perspectives, including American soldiers and protesters, North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese soldiers and citizens, the Viet Cong, government officials, and more.

To engage a younger audience, our inspiration was a defining force from the era that resonates today: Music. Through exploring music and stories from the past, brought into today with eight top musical acts covering six historic songs, we brought deeper understanding of the war by inviting people to experience it as artistic expression.

Throughout the documentary’s PBS airing, we released the current musicians’ reimagined songs and developed three artist perspective videos. In the videos, the artists highlighted the donations that Bank of America would be making on their behalf to relevant causes of their choosing.

An Echoes of Vietnam page on Ken Burns’ The Vietnam War website within PBS shared the songs juxtaposed directly with the originals and directed people to Spotify. There we provided additional content and an Echoes of Vietnam multi-media playlist of the covers, originals and other iconic songs of the time.

Our trailer video and additional content shared across Spotify’s platform, digital and social media explained the purpose of the covers and content: To deepen understanding through perspective, aligning with the film and Bank of America’s responsibility efforts. Along the way, we encouraged listeners and viewers to watch the series on PBS to gain even more understanding.

Echoes of Vietnam deepened people’s understanding of the war through musical expression and helped Ken Burns’ “The Vietnam War” touch nearly 34 Million Americans who viewed the documentary series across 10 nights. The musical artists’ donations funded by Bank of America topped $750,000 USD to charities including USO, National Urban League, The Leadership Conference and FREEAMERICA, providing support for veterans, the advancement of civil and human rights and resources for the formerly incarcerated.

Listeners streamed the playlist for nearly 3 Million minutes, 90x Spotify’s average, and it captured almost 30,000 subscribers.

Generating over 350 Million earned impressions, Bank of America saw a 17% increase in positive favor towards its brand, with the highest lifts in goodwill from Millennials, and a 25% increase in agreement that it supports different perspectives on important issues.

There is no single truth in war. But, with perspective comes understanding. The echoes of Vietnam.