Telecom Express (TE) is proud to announce its contribution to Comic Relief’s most successful campaign in its 25 year history. Comic Relief raised an incredible £74.3 million during its recent Red Nose Day appeal on Friday 18th March.

Red Nose Day is the largest biennial charity event in the UK that culminates in a spectacular night of TV on the BBC. All the money raised by the public will be spent by Comic Relief to help transform the lives of poor and vulnerable people across the UK and Africa.

Telecom Express provided Comic Relief’s main automated donation line (03457 910 910), which forms part of the huge network of lines enabling viewers to donate over the telephone during the live televised Red Nose Day event. Processing payments to PCI DSS level 1, Comic Relief are assured of a card processing system that provides their supporters with a secure payment route, and provides Comic Relief with the actual donations in minimal time.

TE also managed the fundraising kit request line (0345 605 8000) which allowed callers to request a fundraising pack. The service allowed a quick turnaround of requests for packs from the public, with captured data transferred daily to Comic Relief for fulfilment.

Telecom Express also utilised its diverse skill base in Broadcast provision for several other Red Nose Day campaigns. TE provided the voting platforms for the BBC One’s ‘Let’s Dance for Comic Relief’, which ran over four weekends in February and March. Viewers voted for a range of dancing stars including Katie Price, Lulu and Noel Fielding. An outrageous version of Beyonce’s ‘Crazy in Love’ by Russell Kane was eventually pipped to the post by James Thornton and Charlie Baker’s technically brilliant tap dance.

TE also provided the mechanic for a unique vote across all BBC network radio stations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Live and 6 Music, in ‘Stand Up For Comic Relief’. Each radio station nominated one presenter to be paired with a professional comedian for a period of coaching in the art of stand-up comedy. After a couple of weeks devising and practicing their stand-up routines, the contestants performed to a packed audience at London’s famous Comedy Store. The presenters included Radio 1’s Dev and Radio 2’s Tony Blackburn, but they were defeated by the popular Jenny Murray from Radio 4 whom listeners voted for as the winner.

Radha Chakraborty, Operations Director of Comic Relief commented: “Telecom Express has managed our requirements to a very high level across the range of projects they were involved with for Red Nose Day 2011. Their experience and knowledge across a range of our key fundraising areas was invaluable”.

Rob Ellis, Managing Director of TE said: “Telecom Express is delighted to have contributed to such a worthwhile and successful Comic Relief campaign. Our approach to media organisations is to be able to offer a diverse range of services to allow them to engage with audiences through the increasing number of user platforms and interactive channels. TE has demonstrated its expertise in managing a number of concurrent projects utilising this approach and we are proud to have helped Comic Relief have a record-breaking total this year”.