Bigfoot Interactive Announces Third Quarter Vertical Market Benchmark Results With Record Deliverability For Retail Clients

- Automotive, Media and Financial Services Sectors Lead the Way with Messaging, Driving Interest and Performance for Retention-Based Communication Efforts -

NEW YORK - December 7, 2004 - Bigfoot Interactive, the leading provider of strategic, ROI-focused email communications solutions and marketing automation technologies, today announced the release of its quarterly vertical benchmark analysis for Q3 2004 email communications campaigns. While all overall delivery rates (total emails attempted minus all failures) remained strong, deliverability for retail clients reached an all-time high, 94.6 percent, as leading retailers continued their intense focus on hygiene efforts moving into the critical Q4 holiday season.

Across the board, there was continued commitment to timely, relevant email communications that offer value, which was best demonstrated by the enormous success of year end model clearance and new model launch promotions from leading automotive manufacturers communicating with owners and hand-raisers. In addition, publishers continued to have great success with editorial efforts that included the increased use of personalized newsletters leveraging dynamic content served around specific news topics and categories of interest. Financial Services held steady this quarter, driven by the strength of service-oriented email communications efforts and the critical, timely nature of the messaging. Online bill payment and presentment remained the primary drivers behind the sustained success of email communications in this category.

"We are proud to announce another exceptional quarter for email performance in terms of deliverability and unique click through rates," said Al DiGuido, CEO of Bigfoot Interactive. "This quarter's results spotlight the most successful email initiatives across each vertical to demonstrate the importance that relevance, respect and value play in building relationships and driving marketing return on investment."

Performance Highlights Across Key Business Segments:

Retail - Delivery of retail email campaigns hit an all time high this quarter, reaching 94.6 percent as retailers turned a sharp focus on hygiene efforts heading into the all important Q4 holiday marketing push. Retailers continue to turn to email as an efficient and effective tool in their promotional efforts for the holiday as volumes begin to escalate in anticipation of an increased reliance on this medium to increase marketing return on investment. As a result the number of email messages sent over Q3 '04 increased by more than 81% over Q2 '04 and was spurred on by back-to-school and fall promotional sales efforts. The average unique click through rate (CTR) from promotional messages was 3.8%, yielding a slight increase of 2.5% over Q2 '04 despite the large increase in volume.

Media - Media led key verticals with a significant 95.2% overall delivery rate, with the editorial newsletters subset reaching a near-perfect delivery rate of 97.8%. Creative and innovative promotions launched around the 2004 Olympic Games generated a staggering 211.3% increase in the overall performance of promotional messaging (compared to same period last year). Publishers that increasingly build out of their dynamic content offerings within editorial efforts continue to see strong results in unique click through rates, with an average of 12.7% for the Q3 '04 quarter - a 23% increase over Q3 03 results.

Financial Services - Service messaging fared particularly well, with unique open rates surpassing 50% and average unique CTR of 22.6%. This was driven by the continued strength of online account service messaging.

Automotive - Q3 marked one of the strongest quarters for automotive marketers. Clearance and '05 model pre-launch/launch promotions generated high interest and an average unique CTR of 30.2% - notably higher (50.2% increase) than last quarter's results and a 28.2% increase over Q3 '03 results.

Methodology, Transparency Remains Key in Reporting

Bigfoot Interactive's transparent delivery reporting includes total emails attempted minus all failures (hard and soft). Findings from the Q3 2004 trend analysis were aggregated from Bigfoot Interactive's automated email technology platform, DREAMSM (Direct Response Email Application Manager) and were based on all retention-based mailings from July 1, 2004 through September 30, 2004. Individual campaign results can dramatically vary based on audience, creative, subject line/offer and more. For further information on the Q3 2004 benchmark data, please contact Mary Beth Keelty at mkeelty@bigfootinteractive.com.

About Bigfoot Interactive
Bigfoot Interactive (www.bigfootinteractive.com) is the leading provider of strategic, ROI-focused email communications solutions and marketing automation technologies. Through its combination of innovative technologies, professional services and vertical market expertise, Bigfoot Interactive helps marketers acquire, grow and retain profitable customer relationships through highly relevant and personalized email communications. The company's end-to-end suite of industry-specific products and services includes scalable email campaign technology, delivery optimization, marketing automation tools, turnkey integration solutions, strategic consulting, and creative expertise to produce email programs that generate measurable results throughout the customer lifecycle.

Since 1997, Bigfoot Interactive has developed successful permission-based email programs for more than 150 top companies, including Expedia, American Honda Motor Co. and The Washington Post/Newsweek Interactive.  Privately held and based in New York, the company's investors include JPMorgan Partners, Flatiron Partners, Hudson Ventures, Mitsui & Co., Grey Ventures, HPJ Media Ventures and Syndicat Technologies.

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