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BOSTON, MA -- Oct. 25, 2000 --(BUSINESS WIRE)

Meet the Makers of 'Whack-a-flack' At Internet World; Fire Questions at the Brains Behind The Absurdly Successful Viral Marketing Campaign

Business/Technology Editors
Fall Internet World 2000
Booth #4184

The principals of e-tractions, the creative brains behind Whack-A-Flack - the enormously popular viral marketing campaign for the nation's editorial community to vent their frustrations - today announced they will be available to entertain questions about Whack-A-Flack and other e-tractions developments at Internet World (booth # 4184) in New York from October 25th-27th.

"Its time for our game-playing friends in the media to understand that we're not just about Web-based entertainment that enable powerful viral marketing campaigns and valuable data collection, we're also the nicest people they've never met," joked e-tractions President and CEO Mike Gauthier. "Since the debut of `whack-a-flack,' we've significantly expanded our catalog of continually-refreshable entertainment formats that collects visitor clickstream and/or registration data. We'll be sneak-previewing some of those new formats, demonstrating their ability to improve the `stickiness' of a Web site."

Whack-A-Flack (www.whackaflack.com) was sent out to about 150 press contacts two months ago. Since then, fully 40,000 people within the editorial, analyst and public relations communities have signed on to take a few "whacks" at PR "flacks."

At the site, players looking to punish PR pros can select from a list of 20 prominent PR firms that most deserve to get "whacked" with an arsenal of turbo-charged paper airplanes. Players get to pick a reason for whacking the firms that get under their skin - "rude, paranoid, too pushy, inexperienced, etc." Conversely, players can also choose from a list of pleasantries - "responsive, detail-oriented, great writers, etc." Then it's time to take aim and fire planes at the individual PR flacks who briefly poke their heads up from cubicles like smiling gophers; one particularly sniveling flack scurries between cubes on his hands and knees. Level after level, the scurrilous flacks pop up faster and faster, and players' scores increase proportionately to the number of "whacks" they manage to tally during the blizzard of shooting.

Working directly with clients, e-tractions tailors engaging programs engineered to retain, profile, educate and entertain Web visitors in harmony with a company's specific business objectives. Using proprietary technology and a catalog of continually-refreshable entertainment formats, e-tractions collects visitor clickstream and/or registration data during play sessions and forwards the results to clients for use in improving the "stickiness" of their sites. Unlike game portals, e-tractions' customizable games are featured on customer sites in order to maximize their respective marketing and branding efforts.