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Posted by Ed Cotton If you live in Redmond, Washington or  South Barrington, Illinois, you could be in for a treat this year with the arrival of Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinemas.

A new concept that takes the movie experience to new heights for a hefty price.

This is the world of luxury movie going.

- 40 seat cinemas
- Luxury reclining arm chairs
- Latest state-of-the-art technology with digital projection, including 3-D, as well as super-wide screens and digital sound

This isn't just a about the movie, it's dinner and the movie since guests can watch their film drink wine and eat gourmet cuisine from the seasonal menu prepared by chefs in the Gold Class kitchen.

If that isn't enough each seat has its own service button which brings personal waiter service.

Given that we live in a world where experiences matter, it makes sense to see an elevation of the movie going experience.

I can't imagine people are going to regularly spend $150 on a movie night out, but for special occasions and to see a great new movie, it's something people would add to their repertoire.




Posted by Ed Cotton The Lost Ring is one of the most lavish alternative reality games ever presented. It probably helps that it has the massive budgets of the International Olympic Committee and McDonald’s to leverage.

Like every great ARG it has lots of layers/nuances and really engaging ways to drag players into the mystery of The Lost Ring.

A quick peek at the trailer and it’s easy to see they are trying to take ARGs to the next level; somewhere between movies and video games.


The problem is that ARGs are pretty inaccessible to the masses.

Unlike movies and video games, which operate on the “sit and watch” or “pick up and play” modes of operation, ARGs demand a lot of attention from the players as they trawl through clues to crack codes.

While the IOC and McDonald’s might have high hopes for The Lost Ring, it’s unlikely to get the masses anytime soon in its current form. However, perhaps this game or something in the near future will find a way of operating on two levels; the supergeeky solving clues level and another level with a more acceptable mass form of participation.

Agencies have been playing around with the notion of ARGs for sometime.

Audi, a few years back in 2005 had some PR success with the “Art of the Heist”, but we are still waiting for one to break through and become culturally significant on a mass level.

For the moment, it doesn’t look like The Lost Ring will be the one.



Posted by Ed Cotton Amplive was fast out of the gate.

Just a few days after the release of one of last year's most acclaimed albums, Radiohead's In Rainbows, he had remixed versions of a couple of the tracks.

He built up quite a bit of support and it now looks as if the band have paid attention and given their official blessing.



Download here.

Another smart move by the band, who could have hired an army of remixers for the project or even searched for the best versions from the community, instead, they rewarded the guy who worked fastest and broke the rules.

Amplive is in for a busy 08.

Via Rob at Marketing Pop Culture and Digital Media Wire

Posted by Ed Cotton Twitter just produced this interesting chart showing the volume of conversations on its network plotted over the duration of the Superbowl.



It's interesting to see what generates the volume and how it changes over time.

Perhaps of greatest significance is the idea that the conversation itself is now its own media.

The user interacting with mass media through new media generates a conversation stream which in itself creates a new media. Opinions, thoughts, ideas and trash talk all fill the airwaves as people participate with an event in a radically new way.

Clearly there are opportunities here for Twitter to align with media brands to scale these conversations and for the media companies to look at interesting new ways for brands to participate.


Posted by Ed Cotton The French act Daft Punk have been around for over 10 years, but have recently returned to dominance through a series of impressive live shows.



I was wondering if all those hand videos on the internet had also helped the band in someway?

It all started with this one in June 2007.



This was the first and has over 12 million views, that's six times the number of views the band's concert video above achieved!

By August someone had reworked another Daft Punk song using their hands

That one has over 1.2 million views.

In October, a "bodies" version emerged which has achieved over 1.5 million views.



There are close to 500 films of people trying to Daft Hands and despite the fact this meme is months old, people are still doing it.

It's a great example of herd mentality in action. The idea is really simple, but there's just enough complexity to it that makes it interesting and it willingly encourages others to show they can do it.

There's are some lessons here if you want to use people as your media and get some viral buzz going.

1.Start with a strange and original take on something

2.Keep production limited to low or no production- make it easy to do and replicate

3.Set it up as a challenge- have some complexity

4.Make it invitational

5.Dont' forget the herd- copying is good, it means you belong



Posted by Ed Cotton