Who wants to punch a millionaire?
MonsterMillions.com is wagering that Internet users will.
While his financial situation might not necessarily be as suggested on Fox Television’s “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?”, ill-fated TV groom Rick Rockwell has signed a deal putting his face on interactive banners for lottery site MonsterMillions.com.
MonsterMillions.com is an online “Pick-6” lotto-style game that requires users to click on sponsors’ ads and visit their sites after submitting their entries.
The site, which offers daily $5,000,000.00 and monthly $50,000,000.00 grand prizes, will be inaugurating a $500,000 advertising campaign with banners inviting users to punch (that is, click) a moving image of Rockwell.
A successful “punch” will send the user to the MonsterMillions site.
Rockwell, who performs stand-up comedy routines on his “Annulment Tour,” claims, according to statements, to have adjusted quite nicely with his newfound fame, or, albeit, notoriety. Whether the show’s viewer demographic corresponds with Internet surfers is another question, although MonsterMillions president Thomas Birch said he anticipates a match made in heaven.
“Our intended viewers are adults 18 and over who have a demonstrated enthusiasm for playing online sweepstakes. MonsterMillions’ player composition is 73 percent adults 25-54, approximately 60 percent female,” Birch said. “We’re confident that the type of people that found “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire” entertaining are similar to those that would be attracted to www.MonsterMillions.com.”
Monday’s deal could forward a healthy chunk of viewers to the site — an estimated 22 million watched in February as Rockwell married former nurse-turned-Playboy model Darva Conger.
“Darva Conger may be Playboy’s latest cause du jour, but we are betting people will choose their entertainment time to profit and enter our free online lotto, which offers the Internet’s biggest jackpots and best chances of winning,” Birch said.
The company said the banners will begin appearing on a number of ad networks including L90‘s Sweeps channel, 24/7 Media‘s
Won.net network, and competing prize sites such as Treeloot and BigPrizes.
The company also will use opt-in e-mail campaigns through NetCreations’ PostMasterDirect and 24/7 Media.
Birch declined to specify how much his company spent on media buys, or how much Rockwell accepted in return for lending his image to the ads.
Overall, online sweepstakes, most of which are supported by advertisers and list sales, continue to rake in visitors in prodigious numbers, despite an increasingly clotted competitive landscape and largely unproven business models.
Like MonsterMillions.com, FreeLotto” offers free Lotto entries sponsored by advertisers. So does Extreme Lotto. So does LuckySurf.com, which is ranked as the 41st most visited Internet property, according to audience measurement firm Media Metrix. And portal iWon.com‘s several sweepstakes placed it at 25 on Media Metrix’s ranking.
