THE IDEA OF SEEKING TRUTH AND GAINING UNDERSTANDING.

After America left Vietnam, our country still finds itself with more questions than answers. Why were we there? What was the cost? We built a social media community to support that discussion and shared a robust stream of content around multiple perspectives.

BREAK THROUGH A CROWDED LANDSCAPE OF COMPETING VOICES INTO A MORE CALM AND REFLECTIVE SPACE.

With the distance of time, there was a desire for clarity and an evenhanded portrayal of the war. We aspired to make viewers feel a sense of fairness, honesty and personalization in trusting PBS and Ken Burns to present this era in a balanced way.

THERE IS NO SINGLE TRUTH IN WAR.

Our social creative approach was built around the tagline that “There Is No Single Truth In War”, with a suite of assets that were at once powerful, reflective, immersive and emotional.

With Baby Boomers and the PBS viewing audience being highly engaged on Facebook and Instagram, we launched dedicated accounts on these platforms five months prior to broadcast to build community, drive engagement and invite sharing. All content was shared on The Vietnam War platforms, and extended through organic sharing on PBS master brand and over 100 PBS station accounts.

To keep audiences engaged, multiple social content pillars were developed as a framework for our social content, including personal storytelling, #OnThisDay, quotes, and calls to action for UGC – as well as tune-in content closer to broadcast. Developed in multiple engaging formats and optimized for each platform, we had limited material to work with and transitioned decades-old assets into immersive 360° panoramics, kinetic video optimized for sound off, animations, and galleries. Each week, three to five posts were shared and amplified through earned media, influencers, partners and crossposting by PBS stations.

Our social efforts resulted in a rare moment where people of all generations and perspectives came together to watch, reflect and discuss the topic and the film, providing a perfect illustration of the power of our social media campaign. The alchemy of activity led to strong results on our two primary objectives of driving conversation and turning out a big audience.

From launch through broadcast, our social communities gained over 100,000 followers, extended through over 100 PBS station accounts. Our 384 social posts had a combined reach of 48 million and garnered 14 million engagements. We sparked conversation, resulting in over 5 million social mentions of film, and 68,000 UGC shares. Social videos were viewed over 22 million times, with total program views of 39 million and 8.4 million digital streams. Moreover, The Vietnam War reached 13% of all U.S. adults and 1-in-5 of the nation’s Baby Boomers.