Sheffield Based Dialogue Communications Boosts Comic Relief Fundraising



Partnering With BT, Dialogue Communications helped to make ?Comic Relief does Fame Academy? a huge voting and fundraising success

-/5 April, 2005 - Wi-Fi Technology Forum/-BT agilemedia, a BT venture focused on providing premium rate voting solutions to those media companies active in the growing ?participation? based programme sector, partnered with Dialogue Communications of Sheffield, one of the world?s leading mobile messaging companies, to provide the technology behind the SMS-based voting process for this year?s Comic Relief does Fame Academy.

BBC Radio 1 DJ, Edith Bowman won the final, which was broadcast on BBC ONE during Red Nose Night Live ?05 on Friday 11 March.


Not only was the show a huge success but it is also believed to be the first time that the final of a national television competition of this magnitude has been judged solely on votes cast by SMS voting. Close to 1 million votes* were cast within the strictly controlled voting windows within the Comic Relief event. Edith shocked the nation by beating hot favourite Kim Metcalf, the EastEnders star who plays Sam Mitchell.

Commenting on the show, Dr Guiom Peersman, Technical Director at Dialogue Communications said. ?Our optimised voting platform has set an industry standard that is likely to be adopted by television stations around the world as it not only offers fast results but allows them to benchmark and evaluate the results in detail?. Dr Peersman continued, ?Together with BT Agilemedia I believe we have created a formula for the future, one which will raise the expectation for the levels of votes that can be handled when deploying SMS voting as one of the participation channels available to viewers.

?It?s a tremendous breakthrough for us and I?m doubly pleased that we should make our mark while helping Comic Relief?.

During the event, Dialogue?s platform achieved a voting throughput of 427 votes per second for sustained periods during the evening. Based on this level of votes, the platform demonstrated the capability to process nearly 2 million text votes per hour.

By using a technique called Effective Voting Throughput (EVT), the platform enables the broadcaster to track and accurately measure the speed of voting during a high volume event, thereby helping production teams to plan future events more efficiently.

Throughout the 11 days the Academy was broadcast in the run up to Red Nose Day 2005 on BBC ONE, viewers could vote for their favourite ?student? using a combination of IVR phone and SMS voting. However, on the night of the final, the resilience and message handling capacity of Dialogue?s SMS voting system was crucial, as phone lines had to be kept clear to maximise the capacity of the Red Nose Day donation lines.

? Data by kind permission of iTouch, the service provider appointed by Comic Relief and the BBC to manage the voting system for the Comic Relief does Fame Academy programme.


About Dialogue:
Dialogue is a world leader in mobile messaging, mobile electronic payments processing and specialise in the development and rapid deployment of mobile applications that utilise text messaging and mobile multimedia. Its customers include BT, MSN, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone and O2. The company has offices in the UK and Australia.

About BT Agilemedia:
"BT agilemedia is one of 12 ventures that sits within BT Retail's Enterprises and Corporate Venturing approach. Led by CEO Ian Bull, BT's corporate venturing enables BT to harness innovation and create small businesses that can deliver new, rapid revenue growth. As a result, new and innovative products and services can be brought to the market quickly to meet customer needs while also enabling BT to continually transform and expand its core business."

About iTouch:
iTouch is a leading provider of services to the media and telecoms world. We work within all areas of the wireless market, from content aggregation and creation, to complete turnkey solutions for media companies, corporates, fixed-wire Internet portals, network operators and other global brands. iTouch provides fully integrated solutions, which combine our expertise in fixed and wireless communications with a comprehensive knowledge of interactive marketing, service creation and mobile business solutions.

Clients include media companies, FMCG brands, marketing service agencies, retailers, Internet portals, network operators and enterprises. iTouch UK is a wholly owned subsidiary of the London-listed iTouch plc, (LSE:ITU)


For further information about Red Nose Day 2005?s new media fundraising, contact Elma Glasgow: e.glasgow@comicrelief.org.uk or 0207 820 4019.


About Comic Relief:
? To make a donation with your credit card call 08457 910 910 (local rate call charges apply) or go to http://www.rednoseday.com.

? Red Nose Day is about tackling poverty and social injustice in the UK and Africa.
? The theme for RND ?05, ?Big Hair & Beyond - Just Do Something?, is about changing the way you look for the day to transform someone else?s life forever.

? 40% of the money raised through Red Nose Day is allocated to work in the UK and 60% goes directly to work in Africa.

? At Comic Relief we have a promise that for every pound the charity gets directly from the public, a pound goes to help people affected by poverty and social injustice to transform their lives. We are able to keep this promise because the costs of running Comic Relief are met in cash or in kind from all types of other sources including, Government, corporate partners and individual suppliers as well as through the interest generated on our funds and through Gift Aid.

? Comic Relief is a registered charity, number 326568.
? You can go to any bank, post office or building society and ask to pay your money into the 'Red Nose Day 2005' account. Alternatively, cheques/postal orders should be made payable to 'Red Nose Day 2005' and sent to Red Nose Day 2005, Ernst & Young, PO Box 51543, London, SE1 2UG.