Indian Idol contest aired on Sony Entertainment Television, Celebrity Couples dance competition, Nach Baliye, aired on Star ONE (a Star TV channel), Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, aired on Zee TV, and many more have made ordinary people like you and me, Stars. They are BRANDS unto themselves.
I have very high regards for all these winners. All these winners are, without a doubt, one of the best in the areas in which they have managed to achieve top positions. Achieving the top slot was never a cake walk for them and like every other contestant, even they had their share of failures, struggles, hardships, pains, disappointments. Yet they persistently strived for what they wanted to achieve and in the end … they acheived. However one component which had a major contribution to their success was SMS. A seemingly simple technology, a cliche in the world of communication, but it managed to turn them from ordinary to extraordinary (Here I would like to differ. Taj mahal is an exception to this statement … It is extraordinary and will always remain one). Had it not been for SMS, the world would have seen someone else in their position. Welcome to the era of deciding winners by sending SMSs for those we want to win. However there are some cautions that we, as ecstatic SMSers, should take note of before we SMS for any competition.
· Who sends the SMS? —- The Consumer
· Who earns from those SMSs? —- The Telecom Operator, because of the increased number of SMS traffic
· Who else gains? —- The Program or the Competition Co-ordinators, as they are get sponserships from the mobile operator and other companies because of the viewership to such programs / competition
· Where from do the sponserors pay the cost of sponsering? —- The Consumers, i.e. we might be paying for the sponserships in the form of increased prices. The SMS’s sent by us for voting, if they are charged at a higher rate than the normal rate, the service provider might use that money for sponsoring the program. So remember we, the consumer might be paying for all the programs. We might not realise it immediately but I surely have a hunch of this happening.
· What Happens to the winner? —- He also earns money in the entire transaction, “The Prize Money, Sponserships, Publicity”.
· Who is the looser? —- We, the consumers have lost money from our pockets, without realising that someone else has grabbed and snatched our hard earned money UNNECESSARILY.
We as Consumers should and can always use our intellect to see to it that we also gain from every SMS that we send. Then this WIN – LOOSE situation can be turned into a WIN – WIN situation. Currently, as I understand, its only the Happiness or a Pseudo and a Temporary Joy that we derive out of looking at the person/thing we voted for, win. If that gain is worth the money we are spending, we can continue doing what we are doing. Before continuing think about how much the other stakeholders are gaining. Don’t you find too much mismatch in what we are gaining and what the others are gaining? Should they gain that much?
NOTE: There are many more programs / competitions / promos, apart from what I have mentioned in the first paragraph, that are using the same model of asking the viewers to send SMSs to know their views.
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