Music Brings Life · Awareness campaign, broadcast, screenings · October 2024 to present
Nobody books a film. They book the reason it was made.
Students Are Heroes: A Sickle Cell Warrior’s Story is a film from Keenan “Special” Bristol and his nonprofit, Music Brings Life. It follows a high school track athlete through a sickle cell crisis and the shortage of blood donors from Black, Latino and Caribbean communities. Bristol lost his mother to the disease. We pitched the cause and the man behind it, and followed the screenings from Brooklyn to Atlanta.
- Client
- Music Brings Life Inc., a 501(c)(3)
- Principal
- Keenan “Special” Bristol, founder
- Role
- Awareness campaign, broadcast, screenings
- Period
- October 2024 to present
Good Day Atlanta, FOX 5 Atlanta, September 2025.
The problem
An independent cause film has no release window and no studio behind it.
The film premiered at the Angelika in September 2024, before we came on. After the premiere it had no distributor, no theatrical run and no marketing budget. It sells on the nonprofit’s own site. Film desks cover studio releases and festival winners, not an independent film about blood donation.
But the film wasn’t really the thing to promote. The goal was more donors, more schools screening it and more cities hosting it. Those goals made the story news: a Brooklyn filmmaker who lost his mother to sickle cell, using music and film to close a blood shortage that hits his own community hardest.
So we pitched the founder and the cause to news and morning shows, not the film to critics.
Critics review films. Morning shows book people with a reason to be on air.
The campaign
Every screening got its own local booking.
The campaign followed the screenings. Each school assembly, festival slot or church screening gave a local desk a date to cover, and each booking made the next pitch easier.
Onboarding and the first rollout
We came on in October with a Phase 1 plan covering New York broadcast, community print and school screenings. The first report went to the client in November.
BronxNet, OPEN
Bristol recorded a segment for BronxNet’s OPEN at Lehman College, our first television booking for the campaign.
NY1 In Focus
Booked for Spectrum News NY1’s In Focus. The date moved once, and the segment is posted online.
Schools and community press
We wrote the release for a high school blood awareness assembly and pitched the East New York Family Academy screening. Coverage followed in BK Reader, NY Carib News and Brooklyn Paper, with photos credited to Playbook MG.
Sundance week
A screening and panel at Utah Film Studios with the African American Women in Cinema organization and the CEO of America’s Blood Centers. We were the media contact on the release.
The soundtrack
We produced a visualizer for “Claiming Greatness,” the film’s official song, so the music could travel on its own.
Atlanta trailer premiere
The trailer premiered at the Sickle Cell Consortium Leadership Summit in Atlanta. We wrote the release with the client and had been building an Atlanta media list since January.
FOX 5 Atlanta
Good Day Atlanta, days after the film screened at New Morning Baptist Church. It was booked from Brooklyn, and our team met Bristol in the green room.
WABC-TV
A live segment of about five minutes on Mornings at 10 in New York, confirmed with the producer over three weeks.
Use each screening to book the local press in that city.
The placements
Broadcast first, community press alongside it.
Each row below is backed by a booking email, calendar invite or report in our records.
| When | Outlet | Placement | Our role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2024 | BronxNet | OPEN, recorded at Lehman College | Booked |
| Oct 2024 | Spectrum News NY1 | In Focus | Booked |
| Oct 2024 | NY Carib News | Brooklyn screening feature | Placed, per our report |
| Jan 2025 | BK Reader | Interview feature on the film and Bristol | Interview arranged |
| Jan 2025 | Brooklyn Paper | Blood shortage feature, photos credited to Playbook MG | Pitched |
| Sep 2025 | FOX 5 Atlanta | Good Day Atlanta | Booked, team on site |
| Sep 2026 | WABC-TV | Mornings at 10, live | Booked |
Press releases went out on the wire in October 2024, January 2025, April 2025, February 2026 and April 2026. Station websites that reprinted them automatically are not counted as television coverage.
Not claimed
The September 2024 Angelika premiere and its coverage came before this engagement and were handled by another publicist. The Jamaica Observer and Buffalo Criterion covered the film, but we have no record of pitching either. A PIX11 appearance in August 2026 and an earlier FOX 5 New York clip are pending confirmation of air dates and are left off the table.
The number
12.5 million impressions from four television segments.
Broadcast impressions are counted at each station’s stated household reach, the same method used on every Playbook MG case study. Print and digital placements are not counted here because none of those outlets publish an audience figure.
| Placement | Basis | Impressions |
|---|---|---|
| WABC-TV, Mornings at 10 | New York market, 7,494,510 TV homes, Nielsen 2024-25 | 7,494,510 |
| FOX 5 Atlanta, Good Day Atlanta | Atlanta market, 2,758,170 TV homes, Nielsen 2024-25 | 2,758,170 |
| Spectrum News NY1, In Focus | More than 2 million cable customers across the five boroughs and suburbs | 2,000,000 |
| BronxNet, OPEN | More than 275,000 Bronx households, as BronxNet states | 275,000 |
| PIX11 and FOX 5 New York | Air dates to be confirmed | Pending |
| Print and digital | BK Reader, Brooklyn Paper, NY Carib News. No stated audience | Not counted |
| Total | Four segments | 12,527,680 |
Earned media value, by format
| Format | Impressions | CPM | EMV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadcast and cable television | 12,527,680 | $25 | $313,192 |
| Total | 12,527,680 | $25 | $313,192 |
A station’s household count is the reach of the market it broadcasts to, not the number of people who watched one segment. We use it because it is the figure stations sell advertising against, and we print it so anyone can check the math.
What it cost
The honest part.
- The first quarter had more pitches than bookings
- Between October 2024 and January 2025 we pitched well over a dozen New York outlets, from the Daily News to NY1’s New Yorker of the Week. Several deadlines passed without a result, and the FOX 5 pitch took most of a year to land in Atlanta, not New York.
- Assets have to arrive with the booking
- Ahead of the WABC segment, the producer said the photos and video never arrived. The segment still aired, but a live show should never have to chase the assets.
A booking is only finished when the producer has everything they need.
What transfers
Three rules for any cause-driven film.
- Pitch the cause
- News desks and morning shows book a founder who lost his mother to the disease his film is about. They don’t book a film with no release date. Lead with the reason the film exists.
- Follow the screenings
- Each screening is a local news event with a date and a place. Book the local press in each city around it, and a small film gets covered in several markets.
- Give the music its own release
- A soundtrack with its own visualizer travels on streaming and social platforms where a trailer won’t, and it gives music desks a separate way in.
Cause films don’t need a studio. They need a founder on air with a date and a reason.
Playbook MG is a boutique public relations and influencer agency in Brooklyn, working with Caribbean heritage and culture-rooted brands, founders and nonprofits across music, film, entertainment, food and beverage, beauty, fashion and the arts. This engagement began in October 2024 and is ongoing.
All case studiesPlaybook MG · Industry City, Brooklyn · Broadcast reach per Nielsen and station figures · EMV at the CPM printed above · As of September 2026