• by Shankar Gupta , July 24, 2006

Fast food chain Burger King has tapped Dennis Publishing's Maxim magazine for an online initiative aimed at drawing young males into Burger King restaurants. For the promotion, the companies have created a microsite, slated to go live today, that features video footage of three models from the "Hometown Hotties" section of Maxim's Web site, Maxim.com.

The effort, "Table Guest," consists of footage of a table at a Burger King restaurant, where visitors can pick one of three Maxim.com models to have (virtual) lunch with. Burger King will promote the microsite on its own page, BK.com, where it will reside. Maxim.com also will tout the microsite with a sweepstakes that offers readers the chance to win an actual lunch with one of the "Hometown Hottie" models.

Jen Yip, associate marketing director for Dennis Digital, which owns Maxim.com, characterized the joint effort as a "strategic partnership." "We know what our audience is looking for--we understand the guys in their target audience, and we created something that's very contextually relevant on the Maxim site, and relevant to their audience."

Maxim.com provided the models, but the "Table Guest" microsite was produced by Burger King internally, Yip said.