Another state dropping Monopoly Millionaire's Club game...

[PYLdude]

this time, New Jersey.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/new-monopoly-lottery-game-suspended-after-low-tickets-sales-1.1156937

[Thunder]

The entire game is dead (under its current rules). The last drawing is December 26th.

(posted that link in the other thread)

[weaklink75]

The TV show is still planned to go on though, at least for a while (they already had one contestant drawing for it)- probably too much of a sunk cost to cancel that. (I wouldn't be shocked if they try to tie it in with Powerball and/or Mega Millions in a rebranding if the show does well). I think the issue was that $5 a line was too much for the limited payouts, especially the jackpot (you don't get the casual players at $25 million)

[TimK2003]

Was there a lot of promotional TV/Radio ads for the game in the states where MMC was played?  Was the GSN tie-in show ever mentioned in the ads?

[PYLdude]

Was there a lot of promotional TV/Radio ads for the game in the states where MMC was played?  Was the GSN tie-in show ever mentioned in the ads?

There wasn't a whole lot to the ads that I saw (ETA: and I seem to remember not seeing much, but there were at least one or two radio ads) and there were only passing mentions of the game show as if it was an afterthought. Probably not the best way to sell this game to the public.

[weaklink75]

Was there a lot of promotional TV/Radio ads for the game in the states where MMC was played?  Was the GSN tie-in show ever mentioned in the ads?

There wasn't a whole lot to the ads that I saw (ETA: and I seem to remember not seeing much, but there were at least one or two radio ads) and there were only passing mentions of the game show as if it was an afterthought. Probably not the best way to sell this game to the public.

It was never a GSN show- it's syndicated since not all states were involved (for example, in Maryland it's scheduled to be on WBAL Saturday nights at 7pm).

[PYLdude]

Was there a lot of promotional TV/Radio ads for the game in the states where MMC was played?  Was the GSN tie-in show ever mentioned in the ads?

There wasn't a whole lot to the ads that I saw (ETA: and I seem to remember not seeing much, but there were at least one or two radio ads) and there were only passing mentions of the game show as if it was an afterthought. Probably not the best way to sell this game to the public.

It was never a GSN show

Yes. It is supposed to be.

[irwinsjournal.com]

Was there a lot of promotional TV/Radio ads for the game in the states where MMC was played?  Was the GSN tie-in show ever mentioned in the ads?

Ads were in heavy rotation in New York City, with Monopoly hats dropping from the sky (shades of WKRP 'Turkeys Away'?) and being put on by pedestrians, thus becoming instantly happy, all to the tune of Jimmy Durante's "Make Someone Happy"...



I think these ran in my neck of the woods as well.

I don't recall whether the game show was mentioned in the ad.   Not very effective, I guess. 

This from Time Magazine also...

http://time.com/money/3636292/worst-lottery-game-ever-monopoly/

[Matt Ottinger]

Ads were in heavy rotation in New York City, with Monopoly hats dropping from the sky (shades of WKRP 'Turkeys Away'?) and being put on by pedestrians, thus becoming instantly happy, all to the tune of Jimmy Durante's "Make Someone Happy"...

Part of this could have been a marketing problem.  Your description reminds me that I was seeing these ads in Michigan as well, but I didn't pay much attention to them and conflated them with the McDonald's Monopoly campaign.

[PYLdude]

Ads were in heavy rotation in New York City, with Monopoly hats dropping from the sky (shades of WKRP 'Turkeys Away'?) and being put on by pedestrians, thus becoming instantly happy, all to the tune of Jimmy Durante's "Make Someone Happy"...

Part of this could have been a marketing problem.  Your description reminds me that I was seeing these ads in Michigan as well, but I didn't pay much attention to them and conflated them with the McDonald's Monopoly campaign.

As a matter of fact, didn't they do a similar thing with the most recent round of McDonald's Monopoly ads?

[irwinsjournal.com]

That's a good point.  In my small brain, it seems that the McDonald's Monopoly and Monopoly Millionaire's Club at least overlapped.

And there's another overlap: a Coca-Cola ad that runs at least in movie theatres also uses the Jimmy Durante version of "Make Someone Happy."   

On further review... there's a whole global series of Coke "Make Someone Happy" ads... complete with hashtag

/You mean, pound sign
//No, I mean number sign.  Now, get off my lawn