Dice.com (profile; site) has signed on as “brand integration partner” with the National Lampoon, Inc. comedy franchise. Why would a niche IT job board partner with a company best known for Animal House?
Dice.com, which is sponsoring maniaTV’s new sketch comedy show, National Lampoon’s The Lemmings, gets some pretty unique branding out of the deal and a new way to talk directly to engineering and IT professionals.
And Dice will definitely attract more of these professionals online, as maniaTV, a new trend in online viewing, has nearly 4.1 million unique visitors a month, according to ComScore.
As part of the branded entertainment sponsorship package, show producers have created a recurring character called Dice Man, a super-hero who saves people from taking jobs for which they are over-qualified, helps people find fulfilling employment, and assists companies in search of valuable talent.
Dice Man also fights against the evil antagonist, Doctor Drudgery, and his henchmen Pink Slip and Dead End.
National Lampoon Lemmings: Diceman To The Rescue
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Amber Lawson, maniaTV head of comedy, says producers are excited to integrate Dice Man and the antagonists into the plot lines. Lawson notes that “it is fantastic working with a brand that gets the power of integration because it has empowered us to develop a set of characters that will maintain comedic integrity and achieve the goal of creating a lasting impression.”
Others find it, well, rather lame. One poster on the Dice.com message boards sums up his feelings by stating that “National Lampoon is great, but it looks like they whored out a spot in order to make a couple of dollars, not their fault, money is money.”
Dice Man (played by actor Andy Goldenberg), made his debut on the May 26 episode.