A ONE-day multimedia telethon organised by Xerox and Kingston inmedia generated $3.5 million in sales and almost $40 million in prospective sales.

The second Pan-European Xerox Concessionaire Telethon last month was driven by technology, combining virtual reality, Xerox TV and a bespoke interactive website from satellite and broadcasting company Kingston inmedia.

The Telethon began with the teams watching the morning's training broadcast over satellite presented live from Kingston inmedia's virtual reality studio in the UK and simultaneously interpreted in French, German, Spanish and Italian. The concessionaires then picked up the phones and put the new techniques to the test.

The teams logged their morning's results through the dedicated secure Kingston website, also operating in five different languages.

During the second broadcast of the day, the morning's results were instantly displayed and collated in real time and e-mails read out, highlighting the results coming in from the teams across Europe.

The last broadcast of the day announced the winning team and also the grand total prospective revenue.

Phil Govan, head of enterprise business development at Kingston inmedia, said: "The fact that the results were even better than in 2001 demonstrates that applying innovative technological thinking to internal communications is a long-term profitable investment."

Darren Cassidy, manager education and learning services at Xerox Europe, said: "In one day's telesales our concessionaires made in excess of $37 million prospective revenue and $3.5 million in actual sales - this was more than twice our target for the day.

"Our concessionaires made 22,500 phone calls and booked 3,448 appointments. These figures prove again the motivational impact of the interactive technology solution from Kingston inmedia."

Kingston inmedia in Gerrards Cross, an operating division of Kingston Communications, has a client list including Xerox, Virgin, Lucent and Reuters.