MUMBAI: A 360 degree marketing and promotion plan that the beeb conceived for the new quiz seriesUniversity Challenge has paid rich dividends.

An official release informs that its microsite for the show hosted by Yahoo! India got over two million entries. In addition the beeb also organised a roadshow which attracted 18,000 students. The series is sponsored by Samsung Sound. In addition Singapore Roars also signed a sponsorship agreement for eight weeks of the programme starting 21 August. The show commenced airing from 7 August.

In addition the channel is also using the SMS medium and claims to have received 90,000 entries through this route. Meanwhile the roadshows have targetted the top ten colleges in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kokata. They featured quiz question cards and prizes. In addition there is a contest where two winners get a chance to have dinner with the presenter of the show Siddhartha Basu.

On the Yahoo! India University Challenge microsite visitors can click on banners to access a page containing details about the show as well as on BBC World. An online contest offers Samsung DVD players and a Kinetic Zing scooter. The campaign also used Radio City as well as outdoor hoardings and the print medium.

Samsung VP marketing M.B. Lee added," We are very happy with the terrific response that theUniversity Challenge online and radio contests have elicited from the youth market who are the largest group for our audio category. We can also gauge the response from the amount of enquiries and the interest that has been generated for Witz. This is the caricature who is representing Samsung Audio in all our communication for this product category."

The programme airs at 10 pm every Thursday.and repeats at 10 am on Sundays.