I am an 80's child from New Zealand, who grew up with many fond memories from Telethon. Needless to say, I was over the moon to hear that after 15 years, TV3 was bringing Telethon back to NZ screens and to a new generation of kiwis. Although, I wasn't so happy to find that I was in Australia visiting my parents last weekend when it aired... especially as one of the best things about Telethon is staying up and watching with friends and family!
I had resigned myself to missing out on all the fun, hopefully catching a few snippets on You Tube over the coming months, or the odd clip 'On Demand' on the TV3 site, assuming they didn't have the geo-filters on the content. But, thankfully, I was pleasantly suprised to see that the team behind Telethon thoroughly embraced the digital age, much more so than I would have ever expected!
Not only did TV3 have the entire 23 hours live streaming through their website (non geo-filtered thankfully!), but the Telethon team were also all over the main stream social media sites. On Facebook, they kept their 2,810 fans regularly updated, answering questions and posting pics. On Twitter, the Telethon team had another 659 followers and I had a great time making new friends with other followers such as @mraucklandguy, @kiwisnake, @ktkiwi and @matt_stephenson. The You Tube Channel is a tad undeveloped with only four posts and 27 subscribers, but I assume as more footage gets cut up, more will be uploaded... But then again, there may already be more footage on the TV3 website, but I couldn't find it...
So even though I found myself sitting alone in my room at my parents house in Western Australia, I was able to join in on all the action online. And even better, I was able to enjoy it with many other kiwis online and laugh as events unfolded, so I didn't actually feel alone.
It would have been nice though to see more use of the web for people to register pledges and dares, and also allow other people to vote or add to the pledges for dares to be completed. Being able to donate online these days was a given, although I personally would have liked to have been able to donate by text as well. But all in all, for the first truly integrated live event over tv and online, it was well executed.
Digital and social media, and how we use it, continues to amaze me. Bringing Telethon back and reaching kiwis all around the world through digital media is a real credit to the Telethon team and the amazing online communities that frequent sites like Twitter and Facebook. A job thoroughly well done, and they raised nearly NZ$2million in the process. Lets hope content providers for live events take note of the success of this integrated media approach and we see more of this in the future. No doubt we will see more of this in the future, especially as we move towards a full 'three-screen' strategy approach and we see the same content and media options delivered over mobile devices as well. Interactive and IPTV will also throw some interested challenges to content providers, but at the end of the day, it will all be to the benefit of us, the users, as we get a chance to interact more with content and with each other in ways that suit us.
Well done to the team at Telethon, you officially have my first 'RAVE'.
Showing posts with label telethon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label telethon. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2009
RANT: Freedom of Choice
I firmly believe in two basic rights - freedom of speech and freedom of choice. Many of us believe we have these basic rights, but what happens when information is witheld from you? Do you really have freedom of choice?
The reason I raise this is due to a controversy that is rearing it's head in the New Zealand town of New Plymouth. Over the weekend, New Zealand held its first Telethon in 15 years. As part of fundraising activities for the Telethon, New Plymouth Boys High School (NPBHS) held a mufti-day for students where they donated money so they could go to school in their own clothes instead of wearing their uniform for the day.
The short version of the story is that despite having over 1300 students at the school, most of which participated in the mufti-day, who each donates $2 to Telethon, only $500 was given to the cause which was raising money for KidsCan. For more details on this, please read Kyle's Blog on the Telethon Ripoff and his Update on the NPBHS Telethon Ripoff.
The school advised that the fundraiser was for Telethon and KidsCan, therefore the students (and their parents who probably gave them the money) participated on the basis that the funds they were giving to the school were going to be donated to Telethon on their behalf. Otherwise, the students and their families could have just donated directly to Telethon or KidsCan.
In the faith of full disclosure here, if the school did not intend to donate all funds, they should have just called it a charity fundraiser. At the very least, be able to provide you a list of the other ‘charities’ they donated funds from the mufti-day to and how much. What are school fees for if not to pay for keeping the school running? Not to mention all the money we pay in taxes each year so the government can give them more money to keep them running... If NPBHS cannot run on the money from fees and from our taxes, then they should really be looking at their operating costs and where they are spending their money, not asking for more money from students and families under the guise of a mufti-day.
I am sure that if the students and families knew that the money not all going to KidsCan and Telethon, but to the school and other undisclosed charities that less people would have participated, but at least then they would have been making an INFORMED choice. At the end of the day, we should not only have freedom of speech, but we should also have freedom of CHOICE. Where information is witheld from us for whatever reason, we do not truly have that freedom.
This is not what I expected my first blog entry to be on, but it really got me thinking about the opinions we have and the choices we think we are making. Our daily choices are based on the information we have been given or acquired from different sources, but how much do we really know? Are we really making informed decisions, or are our decisions actually being made for us by the people who choose what we are told... Just a bit of food for thought.
The reason I raise this is due to a controversy that is rearing it's head in the New Zealand town of New Plymouth. Over the weekend, New Zealand held its first Telethon in 15 years. As part of fundraising activities for the Telethon, New Plymouth Boys High School (NPBHS) held a mufti-day for students where they donated money so they could go to school in their own clothes instead of wearing their uniform for the day.
The short version of the story is that despite having over 1300 students at the school, most of which participated in the mufti-day, who each donates $2 to Telethon, only $500 was given to the cause which was raising money for KidsCan. For more details on this, please read Kyle's Blog on the Telethon Ripoff and his Update on the NPBHS Telethon Ripoff.
The school advised that the fundraiser was for Telethon and KidsCan, therefore the students (and their parents who probably gave them the money) participated on the basis that the funds they were giving to the school were going to be donated to Telethon on their behalf. Otherwise, the students and their families could have just donated directly to Telethon or KidsCan.
In the faith of full disclosure here, if the school did not intend to donate all funds, they should have just called it a charity fundraiser. At the very least, be able to provide you a list of the other ‘charities’ they donated funds from the mufti-day to and how much. What are school fees for if not to pay for keeping the school running? Not to mention all the money we pay in taxes each year so the government can give them more money to keep them running... If NPBHS cannot run on the money from fees and from our taxes, then they should really be looking at their operating costs and where they are spending their money, not asking for more money from students and families under the guise of a mufti-day.
I am sure that if the students and families knew that the money not all going to KidsCan and Telethon, but to the school and other undisclosed charities that less people would have participated, but at least then they would have been making an INFORMED choice. At the end of the day, we should not only have freedom of speech, but we should also have freedom of CHOICE. Where information is witheld from us for whatever reason, we do not truly have that freedom.
This is not what I expected my first blog entry to be on, but it really got me thinking about the opinions we have and the choices we think we are making. Our daily choices are based on the information we have been given or acquired from different sources, but how much do we really know? Are we really making informed decisions, or are our decisions actually being made for us by the people who choose what we are told... Just a bit of food for thought.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)