Believe it or Not, Quiz Events are New Zealand's largest provider of all things trivia, notably weekly pub quizzes, and corporate and charity events. Seen on many platforms including inflight on Air New Zealand domestic trivia channel, NZME with their quizzes twice-daily online and in the NZ Herald, and also for TV shows, including for Sky TV with their dedicated quiz channel.
The Believe it or Not weekly quiz nights began in 1998 and currently sees their quizzes in around 350 pubs, clubs and bars New Zealand wide. In 2019, Believe It or Not saw Shaun Wallace, the Dark Destroyer from The Chase visit New Zealand twice, the latter to host the 20th annual sold-out Sky NZ Pub Quiz Championship, attended by 80 teams from across New Zealand.
"Wallace found us via a fan of ours in London who told him about our company, and next thing you know Shaun was on a plane and falling in love with this country," said founder Brendan Lochead.
While Wallace was here, he visited several aged care villages as part of his busy schedule, in both Auckland and Christchurch where he was welcomed with open arms, screaming voices, and super-charged cuddles from his fans.
"We’ve always known that the aged care sector has residents with sharp minds, so for some time have been designing a product to suit. During the first lockdown earlier this year, we supplied Arvida, Bupa, Heritage, Metlifecare, Oceania, Ryman, and Summerset with quizzes to get them through that difficult period, which was very popular amongst the residents."
The team learned a lot from supplying those quizzes during that first lockdown, coming up with a formula that works in aged care proved challenging – the questions needed to be topical, fun, and most of all relevant to that age group, and a challenging audience that had a lot of general knowledge.
"A lot of villages run their own in house quizzes, so we thought whatever we came up with had to have a distinct point of difference, so that anything we did didn’t interfere with daily village life, but instead added an unforgettable point of difference."
On the back of that, and taking feedback from various villages, the Believe It or Not team are looking to launch a multimedia live-streamed quiz product for the aged care sector. As Wallace also wants to continue his relationship with this country, he has generously offered to host the first event virtually from his home in London, via YouTube Live, streamed simultaneously into villages across New Zealand.
Believe it or Not is partnering with the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand for this event series, a leading charity that raises funds to ensure the country’s top neuroscientists can continue leading-edge research into 700+ neurological conditions. These conditions affect 1 in 5 Kiwis, and the research that is funded is crucial for future therapies and treatments.
“We’ve always known that wellbeing is important, so this brings a lot to the table, mainly that together we can team up to enhance the wellbeing of village residents," said Lochead.
Feedback from various villages:
"Thank you SO much. It has really helped alleviate boredom, stimulate conversation and caused more than just a few laughs."
– Shani Willoughby, Heritage Lifecare.
"Thank you so much for bringing joy and a silver lining during this pandemic. It has been quite challenging to think about how we can engage them in something meaningful and you have made such a big difference. We are so grateful for this."
– Aditi Arora, Village at the Park, Arvida Group.
"Our residents and activities staff have really appreciated these daily quizzes."
– Bronwyn Webster,Oceania Healthcare.
