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BOSTON, MA -- APRIL 30, 2001 - Business Wire

e-tractions' Entertaining "Whack-a-Flack" Claims Revolution Magazine's "Best Viral Campaign" Award

Based On Its Unique Viral Success, Highly-Successful "Whack-A-Flack" Campaign Edges Campaigns From Anheuser Busch, Google And Others

e-tractions, the leading Internet Marketing Campaign Company, today announced that "Whack-A-Flack" ( www.whackaflack.com) has won the "Best Viral Campaign" from Revolution Magazine. A game that swept the country and had editors taking revenge on their least favorite PR Flacks via paper airplane attacks, "Whack-A-Flack" outshone heavy competition such as Anheuser-Busch's famous "Whassup? Translator, and won with a campaign that demonstrated the benefits of viral marketing techniques.

The "Best Viral Campaign" category covered advertising, promotions and customer acquisition campaigns that incorporated a viral mechanism in order to reach the desired audience, offsetting what might otherwise have been a very high media or distribution cost. The judges considered both the overall success of the campaign and the effectiveness of the viral elements. Entrants had to show how the use of viral techniques rather than more conventional media placement was crucial to success.

"The enormous success of Whack-A-Flack has proven that viral marketing can be a very efficient and cost-effective way of using the Web to build brand awareness and drive leads for a company," said Mike Gauthier, founder and CEO of e-tractions. "This recognition from Revolution Magazine truly supports this claim, and we are honored to be named the best among such an elite group of players."

Based on the popular "Whack-A-Mole" game, Whack-A-Flack is a semi-addictive, good-natured spoof of the Public Relations (PR) industry. Designed to provide the press with a fun outlet to vent their opinions and demonstrate their online gaming prowess, users can select from a list of 20 prominent PR firms that they feel most deserve to get "whacked." The campaign began with the distribution of 150 emails, and after just six months garnered more than 20 significant campaign-related articles including the New York Times and San Jose Mercury News, as well as more than 60,000 visitors to site. e-tractions measured its ROI from the campaign to be 1000 percent, with significant customer leads and wins such as Shell Oil and Akamai.

"e-tractions' innovation and brilliant execution of the Whack-A-Flack campaign is a perfect example of a way to achieve recognition and success by harnessing the power of the Internet," said Vicky Browning, publishing director for Revolution Magazine. "We laud them for their ability to use non-traditional outlets, digital channels and viral means to greater visibility for the good of themselves and their client."

The Revolution Awards recognize those who have achieved excellence in their use of digital channels for business and marketing, and reward and publicize their success. Through a judging panel of top-level industry experts, the Revolution Awards celebrate the new ways that marketers and their agencies are doing business and reaching customers. A list of winners can be found at: http://www.revolutionawards.com/finalists.html.

About Revolution Magazine
Revolution, published by Haymarket Media Inc, was the first magazine dedicated to digital media for marketers and senior business people and is the only global title in its field. The magazine's market-leading UK edition launched in June 1997. The US edition launched in March 2000, with a pan-Asian edition, based in Hong Kong, following in October.

About e-tractions
e-tractions, the Bedford, Mass.-based Internet Marketing Campaign Company, was founded in August of 1999 by a team of executives with expertise in the Internet, entertainment, health care and Information Technology industries. e-tractions' EnterActª technology provides a rapid development environment that can be used by a client's technical staff, freelance designers, agencies, or the e-tractions in-house creative staff to launch targeted marketing campaigns on the Web. Given the range of possible EnterAct solutions, e-tractions campaigns appeal to all market segments, are highly targeted, have no variable cost and give visitors instant rewards for their loyalty. Clients profit from qualified customer traffic, more purposeful and engaging customer dialogue, better information for decision making and greater conversion rates from visitors into loyal customers. e-tractions helps clients build long-term customer relationships and improve brand equity, while increasing revenues and decreasing customer acquisition costs. For additional information, visit www.e-tractions.com or contact e-tractions at 781-276-1800.