Bournvita Quiz Contest celebrates 40 Years with #IndiaPlaysBQC

I remember as a child, being glued to my television set on a sunday morning to catch up with Derek O Brien who hosted the Bournvita Quiz Contest. The quiz pattern along with the excitement was one of the reasons it was one of the most popular shows to come out of India. BQC as it is popularly known was started in 1972 and was originally held live in cities to be later adopted into a Radio Show. The show generated momentum when it was first aired on Television on Zee TV in 1992.

40 Years later, the show has returned to be aired on Colors TV from 4th August,2013. The pattern remains the same with the same host, but this time it aims for an all india participation. This participation is what they are aiming for through social media and technology. The viewers of the show can get a chance to participate sitting in their homes on a sunday morning live through social media and mobile.

Viewers with access to a smartphone can download the app on Google Play or iOS devices to enable live participation through the application. The login can be done through your Facebook or Twitter ID’s. You can start playing through the app during the live telecast of the show in real-time as soon as Derek asks the question on the TV screen. All you have to do is respond faster than any of the participants on TV or those playing with you can. To gamify this concept, a leaderboard would be displayed on their Facebook page. And if you have missed the show live, you can always click on ‘prepare’ to answer 10 questions. You would have to select the answer out of 4 options and hit the buzzer before it hits the 30 second timer. And although i fared poorly for the first time (3/10), i will keep trying to get a decent score.

The show’s Twitter handle also created a hashtag #IndiaPlaysBQC prior to the broadcast of the show, which was trending till today evening as users seemed pretty excited to participate in the contest through Twitter. All they had to do was tag their one Twitter friend with whom they would like to participate in BQC using the hashtag #IndiaPlaysBQC and tag and follow their official Twitter handle. The quiz had 10 winners to be declared and this ensure maximum participation from the Twitter community.

#Contest is very simple, all you need to do is tag a friend you would want as your teammate to play #BQC with & tell us why! #IndiaPlaysBQC

— India Plays BQC (@IndiaPlaysBQC) August 3, 2013

The Facebook page boasting of 0.5 Million fans also created the necessary buzz for the audience by encouraging fans to download the application and participate on Twitter for the hashtag contest. The Facebook page is also posting questions based posts which again is generating enthusiasm among the fans to participate BQC’s YouTube Channel has also generated more than 0.8 Million views for videos uploaded on their channel ranging from promos to how to play BQC live with your mobile. You can also visit the BQC website to view the leader-board after the show and also view the 40 Year old StoryBook which opens in a fancy storybook visual asking you questions ranging from the incidents of the past 40 years.

Many TV shows have started adopting social media and apps as a ‘second screen’ concept which enables their viewers to not only view but also participate leveraging the technology. In the age when an average user is using multiple devices at the same time (watching TV and using his smartphone), i am sure many more Indian TV shows will follow the same concept. As far as BQC goes, i really like how they have gamified this whole concept and brought in social media and apps in the mix of things.

[youtube width=”602″ height=”350″ video_id=”ViWF15DPlYI”]

What do you think about the re-opening of BQC?

Are you going to play it on your mobile? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below