“I’m With the Banned,” was a program that brought artists from each of the six “banned” nations together with American artists—in Toronto—to create six original, collaborative songs. We paired these songs with video content that told each artist’s story. And we supported it all with a nationwide marketing campaign under the headline, “When people can’t travel, music will.” The idea was to put a human face on this policy, and show people around the world what we truly stand to lose when people are banned.

The musicians met in Toronto, as travel to the U.S. was too uncertain, and the songs were recorded in less than three days. We captured the collaborations for six original films, each of which chronicled the artists’ collaborations as well as the emotional journeys the “banned” artists experienced in getting there.

The songs and films were released in multimedia playlists on Spotify. We released the playlists the week of the Supreme Court’s scheduled hearing of arguments on the Travel Ban. Months later, we followed with a long-form documentary at special screening events in LA, New York, and less than one mile from the White House in Washington, D.C.—as well as on the TV channel Viceland. And we promoted the artists in a national OOH campaign, in placements usually reserved for superstars, as well as strategic locations such as airports.

The songs have been streamed over 10 million times, and 4 landed among the Top 10 most-streamed songs on the Global Viral 50 Chart (a chart on Spotify marking the most viral songs on the platform). The documentary content was viewed over 5.2 million times.

I’m With the Banned was also featured at the United Nations’ “Media for Social Impact” summit, and as part of the Global People’s Summit during the UN’s General Assembly. The work was recognized by Muslim Advocates, a leading organization in the space. Most importantly, the campaign made a real impact in the artists’ lives, with artists like Moh Flow and Ahmed Fakroun seeing a 145-270% increase in streams after the launch. This program took Sufyvn from being an artist who wasn’t even on Spotify to an artist with over 4M streams, placement on leading playlists like Are & Be, and over 300K monthly listeners.