Chase the Express is an action adventure game released on PlayStation in September 2000. The story-line is based on a hijacked train and a group of terrorists who have abducted a French Ambassador. Our task was to create awareness about the game amongst existing PlayStation owners (predominantly male, aged 18-24). Our Solution: Create a minisite that not only allowed gamers to play an on-line game based on the storyline from Chase the Express, but also invited them to fake their own abduction by sending a fake ransom note via e-mail challenging friends to save them by playing the game. They could even select from a range of different body parts to attach to the fake ransom note! Different emails were also sent back to the original person if their friend succeeded or failed in saving them, thus drawing them back into the game. On-line "beyond the banner" advertising and an email broadcast to the PlayStation Opt-in email database were used to drive traffic to the site to play the game. Results: The number of 'friends' visiting the site demonstrated the power of referral or 'viral' marketing amongst this target audience. Over 11,000 people registered on the site (3 times more than expected), almost 10% of whom were friends visiting the site to take part in the game.