LOLA FINAL CUT

Radio trailer

Our final film radio trailer

Final Group Poster

Question 1- Evaluation

Click here to see my question 1 evaluation

Question 2- Evaluation

Question 3-Evaluation

Click here to see my question 3 analysis

Question 4 - Evaluation

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Research and Planning

Google Blogger
In order to create our 5 minute film, we were required to do hours of research, planning and preparation to ensure that our film was to an excellent standard and produce the film to the best of our ability. Firstly, we set up a Google Blogger page so each member of the group could access each others work and contribute as a group. To make the blogger page more personal to the group, we changed the format and added our film little 'LOLA' to the background which allowed viewers to distinguish us from any other group. In order to familiarise our selves with the software we had a play around with the settings and also added a group picture which allowed others to identify us as a group and this ultimately allowed us to become more confident when using blogger.

Rotten Tomatoes & IMDb

Before creating our film, we were required to do in-depth research on other films with similar genres/plots/storylines/characters to ensure we has a good idea of what is expected from these types of films and also analyse the audience feedback submitted from reviews of similar films. This allowed us to get a rough idea of what the audience want to see in a film and therefore, what we should include in ours. When looking at film reviews, I frequently used the websites Rotten Tomatoes and also IMDb as they provided in-depth information about a variety of different films. I was also able to access the websites on a variety of different media platforms which was also very useful.

Celtx

When planning our film, we considered every small detail and ensured that we were organised in order to eventually carry out the filming. To create our script for our film, we used a software called Celtx. Celtx is media pre-production software, designed for creating and organizing media projects like screenplays, films, videos, stageplays, audio plays, documentaries, machinima, comics, games and podcasts. The software was fairly easy to use and allowed us to produce a detailed script for our film. The software included a variety of features which we added to our script, e.g. Character name, Location, Scene Number, Stage directions... We used the software last year when producing our AS media film therefore we felt a lot more confident when using it this year.

Photoshop Elements

To create our film Logo 'Lantern Lights' and our film poster for our final film LOLA, we used Photoshop elements. Last year we didn't use Photoshop so we were all very new to the software and had very little experience using it. At fist we had difficulty as we were unsure of many of the features built into the programme. After playing around with the software for a couple of hours, we became a lot more confident using it and discovered that it had some really useful features. I particularly liked the feature which allowed us to alter the contrast, brightness and saturation of our background image for our film poster. This enabled us to create a film noir effect by dimming the lighting on one half of Lola's face and highlighting the other side. The effect this had foreshadowed the film plot and highlighted the main theme throughout our film which is the contrast of life and death.

Final Cut Express

Final cut express is a film editing software which we have used religiously throughout our film making process. We have not only used the editing software to edit our final film, but we have frequently used throughout our planning and preparation. For example, we used it when practicing our elliptical editing by filming a long journey from one place to another. We then edited the journey and reduced it by half of the original time and compared the two. We also used final cut express when practicing shots for our final film and we also created a short makeup tutorial for our characters in our film. Final cut express has many features which we have applied to our film in order to make it look more professional and of a higher quality.
Some of the video transitions which we have used in our film are; cross dissolve, fade in and fade out, dither dissolve and Non-adhesive dissolve. We have used these transitions mainly to establish a passage of time or to change scenes. The software also includes a variety of audio transitions which allowed us to ensure that the sound in our film matched up with each frame.
When using final cut express, we were also able to use the Text feature which enabled us to add credits, names to the opening sequence and the title 'LOLA'. We were able to chose the font, text size and positioning of the text in the film which allowed us to make it our own.
We were also able to import music and sound effects from various websites which we added to our film to mirror the mood in the film and create effects and set the atmosphere for the audience.
Not only did we use Final Cut Express for our film, but we also used it when creating our radio trailer. To do this we used snippets of dialogue and sound effects from our film, various music tracks included in the film and a narrative from myself and Demi. However, Demi played Hannah in the film, therefore the audience would be able to distinguish Demi's voice in the trailer which we thought may have been a problem as we didn't want the audience to identify her as she was advertising the film, not plating Hannah. To overcome this issue, we altered the Pitch and Tone of Demi's voice using the features on final cut express ultimately making her voice unrecognisable.

Here I have attached a Link to show how we used Final cut express to improve our elliptical editing. 

Youtube

To post all of our videos we used my account on Youtube. However, before we uploaded all our videos we had to export them from final cut express and convert them into another file. Sometimes this could take up to 1 hour therefore we had to arrive at our lessons quite early if we knew a video would need exporting as it would take it until the end of the lesson. Youtube has allowed us to post a variety of videos including our audience feedback questionnaire which we used to gain even more feedback from our audience to suggest how we could improve our film and ensure it was to a high quality standard. By uploading all our videos onto one channel, it allowed us to keep on top of ourselves and more organised as we were able to see all the pre-production and post-production videos to see how much we had improved and how far we had come.
Youtube has also allowed us to research a variety of things including other film trailers, how to improve our editing and also other short films which we could then use as inspiration for our film.

Click here to go to my Youtube Page

Free music websites

The free music websites has allowed us to add both music, and sound effects when editing our films. It was as easy as downloading the music we like from one of the many free websites and then uploading it onto Final cut express where we could then edit it into our film. What this has enabled us to do is include music which is not copyright, therefore it was legal for us to use to music by the various different artists and composers. The free music websites helped us not only with the production of the film, but the planning as we were able to research different genres of music and see how we could then link them in with our chosen genre. Overall, the sound has a huge impact with the outcome of the film as it helped the audience to really connect and feel involved.
Here are some links to some of the websites we used;
Jamendo
Freesound.org
proundmusiclibary
freemusicarchive
incompetech

Zoom Recorder

The zoom recorder was extremely useful during our production of our film. It was simple enough to use and allowed us to record characters voices for our film and radio trailer. The zoom recorder was a efficient, quick and effective way of recording short snippets of sound we needed for our film. An example where we used it was for the voicemail scene where Lola phones Tom and he doesn't answer. To do this we recorded Danny (Tom) on the zoom recorder saying his lines, we then proceeded to editing the pitch, tone and adding a audio transition on final cut express to create a realistic effect. At first we found t challenging to work the zoom recorder but after a good 10 minutes of playing around with it we became a lot more confident and I would 100% use it again when recording sounds.

we also used the zoom recorder for the voice overs in our radio trailer

Mobile Phones
We often take advantage of day to day technology such as mobile phone but something as simple as the smart phone has significantly aided us during the planning and production of our film. Being able to access blogger/email/internet on our phones has helped us to carry out our production and planning in various different locations as a pose to sitting behind the computer for hours on end. We used our Iphones to take photo's of possible locations and created a group Imessage to exchange pictures and ideas spontaneously and communicate with each other.

Facebook/Twitter

Through the use of social networking, we have been able to communicate with a large target audience and receive feedback of what to improve on and our strengths. This was particularly effective when carrying out our online questionnaire of our rough copy and receiving feedback on how to improve it. Each group member has around 500 Facebook friends each therefore by sharing our questionnaire online we aimed to receive feedback on a large scale and we privately mailed a few individuals of our target audience to ensure their opinions and views were taken into account. Facebook and twitter are also access on a variety of various media technologies e.g. phones, laptops, tablets... therefore they were also a quick and convenient way of communicating with people on a larger scale.

Camera/ Tripod

To film our short video, we used a Sony HD 1000 camera and connected it to a tripod to ensure it was stable and secure when filming and also to keep it steady. The camera itself was really good to use and because I used it in our AS year, I knew how to use I and felt extremely confident when using it this year. The camera had various functions including night vision and manual and auto focusing. Throughout most of our film we used the manual focus button and focused each shot individually to ensure it was of good quality. This was also very useful when doing shallow focus shots and focus pulls. The tripod also allowed us to do a variety of shots such as pans, high/low angle and tilts. The tripod had handles which were retractable which made it easier when carrying our tilt and pan shots an ensuring the camera wasn't shaking.  In total, we used 3 tapes when filming our 5 minute film as we included so many shots. Even though we thought some of the shots may be unnecessary, we filmed them just in case so we had a variety of shots to choses from when editing. Last year, we made the mistake of filming each shot only once and we encountered problems when editing as it some shots didn't look continuous and match on action shots didn't match up in different frames, therefore this is why we took extra precautions this year. We all took it in turns to use the camera and ensured that we all did our bit. I think what motivated us this year is that we felt we had an advantage as we were familiar with the camera and that's what pushed us to try out knew shots and experiment more with it. I feel that all our hard work has paid of and I am extremely happy with the outcome.

Question 1 - Evaluation

1) In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

This year we felt that we felt more familiar and comfortable with the idea that we had to focus on certain technical areas whilst shooting our film, specifically when it came to continuity. As this years film was for a longer duration and took a lot longer to shoot, it often became difficult to ensure our film was continuous. For example when one of the characters changed their hair colour, we had to ensure that all our shots were filmed successfully before this could be done. This became a problem at one point when we realised afterwards that we had not completed a shot. We overcame this issue by the character wearing a hooded coat. This was successful in ensuring our film was continuous. Before beginning our practical work we had extra 'training' on continuity and also learnt about eliptical editing, and applied our new skills to a short video. This was a great way to refresh our memories on editing and certain filming principles, such as match on action and the 180 degree rule. 

Our film both supports and subverts the media conventions of a melodrama. We stuck to key themes of the genre we wanted our film to be so our audience were familiar with what to expect from the film in the first couple of minutes. We did this in the title sequence by showing vague flashes of clips from a hospital related scene accompanied with sad piano music, to indicate the conventions of the film from the beginning whilst keeping the audience intruigued by not giving away too much of the storyline. Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites was represented in our film throughout, with conflicting moments of happiness/sadness to keep our audience entertained and 'on edge'. We also ensured that our teenagers were stereotypical as it had to be ensured that our audience would empathise with the tragedy of our characters, and to do this we had to make sure our audience was constantly familiar with the youth of the characters. We made sure they appeared as teenagers by using slang terms, wearing fashionable clothing and constant use of mobile phones. 


However, there were moments in our film that went beyond the expectations of the conventions of a melodrama. In drama related films, there is usually a sense of resolution and satisfaction at the end. Our film ends on a total cliffhanger, meaning the audience would have to come to their own conclusions on how the characters handled their new found circumstances.  

We did not add 'parody' to the film deliberately, however we could say we used elements of pastiche in our film with the narrative being displayed from a deceased persons perspective - An idea which is similarly  portrayed in the film Lovely Bones. However this general idea spiraled into our own imaginative and creative plot ideas - ones we developed ourselves to create a completely original and distinctive piece of film. We also wanted to give it a 'Northern' and 'Local' feel to it similar to the one portrayed in This Is England, so we kept our accents and recorded our film in scenes nearby where we live. 

We wanted to be successful in ensuring that our audience were not sure of Lola's death until the climax of the film. However, we placed subtle hints throughout the film to give them that idea, so they were intrigued to see if their ideas of the film were right or not. Hints include Lola's parents being unresponsive, unanswered phone calls, etc. We were only sure that we were successful on this after hearing feedback of others. All though many people started to question whether she was still alive, nobody was sure until the very end. This helped us recognize that we had achieved delivering suspense to our audience which was something we were determined to do from the start. 

We also left the film on a cliff hanger to give the audience a chance to reflect themselves on the film and what they thought would happen. This way they get to decide their own ending to the film, whether that be a positive or negative one. This also allowed us to see whether we had left people eager to see more, so we knew that if they wanted to know the real ending, they had been entertained by the film from start to finish. 

Question 2 - Evaluation

Click Here To View Question 2

Question 3 - Evaluation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1z6r36LLlrIDn0c5_pwF1IMtDwidjBFDH5DqKWNFutaM/edit?usp=sharing

Question 4 - Evaluation

Q1. Evaluation

  
Question 1. Evaluation

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rEnDQvN0qDzPRqS5gJXpXEAS7ARGMMHegBksiPviLyI/edit?usp=sharing

Q2. Evaluation

Q3. Evaluation

Make your own mind maps with Mindomo.

Q4. Evaluation

https://prezi.com/kg0vjfdyqcjj/question-4/

Critical Evaluation: 1

In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Continuity is extremely important when creating a film due to the negative impacts a lack of it could bring, such as confusion to the storyline. Due to this, as a group we tried our best to make our short film lack any continuity problems and make it flow.  To do this, we stuck to the conventions of the 180 degree rule, planning and shooting our shots around this. We also did the typical shot reverse shot when filming conversations between characters as it allows you to see the person who is talking and their reactions. As our film consisted of many different locations, we often broke continuity when creating a passage of time. We did this by making characters walk in and out of the camera or putting an editing effect on such as a fade. Despite trying to stick to continuity conventions, we often found in editing we had obvious problems such as a characters nails being different colours or being in a different position. This meant we had to go and reshoot the scene again to make it perfect. We also had the problem of an actor changing the colour of their hair halfway through filming, meaning we had to change half of the script so that she didn’t appear in it otherwise the whole film would lack continuity. However, we manage to fix these problems through clever editing, reshooting or changing the script so our film had continuity. 

The genre we originally choose was drama as it opposes the horror genre we did last year. After more discussion around the script, we decided on it being a supernatural drama as the main character is a ghost. We stuck to the conventions of this by setting the scene in the hospital and family home as this is typically where drama films take place, eg ‘My Sisters Keeper’. The music used consisted of a soft piano at sad parts and an emotional guitar at points which had more tension and drama. This is something that is used in drama films to create an atmosphere for the audience. The protagonist character Lola, sticks to the conventions of a typical main character as the audience often feels sorrier for young girls. However, the storyline consists of her waking up in hospital and visiting her friends and family to see they are taking no interest in her. The audience finds out with her that she is actually dead towards the end. This subverts the conventions of a supernatural drama due to the twist ending. In films with this genre, the audience usually knows from the start the protagonist character is a ghost, however this short film only gives clues. The storyline subverts the typical drama films mood in which they visit many highs and low throughout the film. Our film apposes this by going from a high (when she wakes up in the hospital with her friend) to a low (when she discovers she is dead at the end of the film) to create a more emotional ending.

There are no elements of deliberate pastiche or parody, neither do we ‘play’ with genre’s codes and history due to having a serious storyline. Our film genre had no comedy values in it, therefore we did neither of these to keep the audience feeling emotional towards it. We didn’t hint at a reference to any other films as we wanted it all to be our original own work.

Richard Dyer’s theory of entertainment and utopia explained that ‘intensity’ is one of the satisfactions that an audience will receive whilst watching our film. The film starts at a high, Lola waking in hospital with her friend and going to visit her family, to gradually an ultimate low, her thinking her boyfriend is cheating on her then realizing she is dead at the very end of the film. The twist ending brings realization to the audience as they realise the boyfriend was having counselling sessions due to her death and also realizing she is dead. This will make the audience feel closure as everything that may have not made much sense at the start of the film is all coming together to a conclusion. We are confidence we achieved this due to feedback we received from audiences – they all said they understood the film and rated the storyline a 5/5. As our film was drama, we wanted the audience to feel elements of sadness throughout. We did this by giving an emotional twist ending, which would have had a shocking impact, paired with sad piano music to hopefully make the audience tear up. As storyline involved many different drama aspects, such as family arguing, cheating boyfriend and death we felt the audience would be able to relate to the film in some way.

We wanted to create an original film, however when researching into others with the same genre we discovered many had similar aspects to ours. A film that we took inspiration from was ‘The Sixth Sense’ in which the protagonist character here speaks to ‘ghosts’. Similarly, our main character was a ghost. Another similar film was ‘The Lovely Bones’ in which the protagonist character is a young dead girl who is coming to terms with her death. This was very much like our idea, even including a dead friend helping her along the way to realization. We knew from watching the film that the main character, Susie Salmon, had the audience feeling sorry for her and we wanted to create this same feeling so based our character, Lola around Susie. We knew we achieved this as in our video questionnaire, many people said the main character reminded them of Susie Salmon and that they found the film emotional.

Trailers to The Sixth Sense and The Lovely Bones

 

Overall, I feel our film stuck to the main conventions of the film genre supernatural drama, such as keeping it emotional with highs and lows. However, I do feel we subverted this genre with the twist ending – the protagonist character actually being dead.

Critical Evaluation: 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?

Critical Evaluation: 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Click here to view Google Doc

Critical Evaluation: 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Individual Film Poster

Individual film poster

Individual film poster

Individual film poster

Final Film Questionnaire analysis

75% of the responses we got for the first question all rated our film 5 out of 5, this is great for us as a group knowing that our audience has enjoyed watching our film and they think its great quality. And for us it means we have done what we have been aiming to do, which is to please our target audience. 6.3% of the responses gave it a 4 out of 5 which is still really good, because it gives us a small negative that we will try and work on for our next project. 

For the second question again we got a similar response, 12 people gave 5 for the question 'how would you rate the lighting in the film?' and the rest gave it a 4. We struggled with the lightening during the filming because of the time we would do filming during the day so the light would change constantly and that worried us, but now looking at the responses and seeing that the audience didn't acknowledge is great.

Question three which asked 'did you understand the storyline?' was a very big question as our storyline was abit complicated with a big twist at the end, and the responses we got for this question was superb, every individual that participated in this questionnaire said yes, this means that we have portrayed our film in the right manner for our audience to understand the plot and not get confused by it.

 For question four we got a variety of different answers, but all the answers are very generous. This question asked the audience to give their opinion on how the title sequence made them feel, and all the answers were positive which is great because it means they have enjoyed watching it and not boring.
The fifth question got alot of mix opinions of who the audience sympathised with, most people chose Lola and the parents, which makes sense because we tried to make the audience have a connection with Lola from making the story from her point of view and giving her a likeable character.
Everyone said yes for the sixth question which was if the music matched the scenes, it took us a while to find suitable songs that would reflect the right emotion on the scenes and again its made us really happy looking a these responses and seeing that the audience agreed with our choices.

 We got the right responses for the seventh question about Lolas character, everyone described her character really well and we were happy knowing that we portrayed her really well and that people really liked her character and sympathised with her.
For the eighth question most people understood hannah's role in the film and a small percentage mostly understood which is great, because we were unsure on wether or not we portrayed her well, and the flashbacks at the end were abit confusing, so the responses were relieving knowing that the audience understood her.
Everyone say yes for the question 9, which was if they liked the cliffhanger at the end, we really struggled to portray the cliffhanger but the fact that the audience liked it and got it made us really happy knowing it was worth the struggle.

Links to Questionnaire for both rough copy and final films

Link to rough cut questionnaire


Link to final film audience feedback questionnaire

film poster layout design

Research into viral ads

Research into viral ads

 

 

Viral advertising spreads messages, ideas and associations about a brand quickly, commonly using digital technology – in many ways viral advertising relies on the consumer to pass on information with the producer either seeding videos via YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or on many other interactive digital platforms with the consumer at the point, knowingly or unknowingly spreading the communication – viral advertising spreads like a cold virus, often quickly and efficiently affecting a large number of people. With advertising, even a negative reaction to a brand communication is considered to be impacting on a potential consumer in as much they have remembered the brand. I can remember many awful adverts from years ago for brands whose name I can remember, the visual images of which I can still see in my minds eye I the same way I can remember many of the viral ‘mash-ups’ of the Cadbury’s Gorilla advert from 2007.

 

 

Viral marketing creates ‘excitement’ and anticipation using spontaneous peer-to-peer brand marketing and can also include SMS text messages, email as well as an integrated interactive online campaign. Typically viral advertising has lower production values than traditional, ‘above the line’ audio-visual and print advertising but must look credible enough to establish connotations of brand identity through house style e.g. use of characters, typography and font, diegetic and non diegetic sound, graphics etc. Viral advertising is seen as highly profitable because it has lower production values and can reach a wide audience in a very short space of time – it can also be focused and easily controllable in terms of platforms and timescales. Often viral advertising is also used to kick start a campaign with ideas about a brand spread, deliberately with the intention of creating narrative enigmas – consumers that do not understand what they see and question in terms of content are that little bit nearer to being consumers of the brand, as in the Compare the Market long running advertising campaign. This early content can be planted in blogs, articles or message board postings for example to generate ‘buzz’ and are rarely focused on the brand itself, more the ‘product image’.

 

Product image are the associations consumers (or potential consumers) make with a piece of creative advertising, however abstract e.g. using the examples above, what has a gorilla and a meerkat directly got to do with a chocolate bar or an insurance price comparison website? Creativity and simplicity is the key on behalf of the advertiser (producer) to obtaining success – get the message across swiftly. Famously in 2000 Hotmail went from next to nobody to 30 million users with the viral email advert: “Get your own free email at hotmail.com” in the early days of internet digital technology. Market research into viral advertising suggests that the top 5 reasons for passing a communication on is:

1. To make people laugh
2. To recommend something
3. As part of a competition
4. To earn you/save you money
5. As part of as perceived ‘noble’ cause e.g. a charity.

Examples of viral ads

Devil Baby Attack - promoting the film Devils Due

Monty the Penguin  - John Lewis

Real Beauty Sketches - Dove

How it feels through Google glass - Google

Analysis of a film poster

Analysis of a film poster

 

The Eye:

 

 Although this film poster aims at a different audience with a different genre, our final poster is hoping to have a similar outcome to this one. The main focus of the poster is the eye, which suits well as it matches the film name. It takes up majority of the page and has been edited to give an eerie feel to it. The iris has been edited red in colour, to give connotations of blood due to it being a horror film. The rest of the eye/poster is also edited to give it shadows and a more dull sinister feel. To add to the horror, there are fingers crawling out of the eye to make the whole poster more creepy. This is something we similarly want to achieve with out poster, minus the horror.
In our film, we have an extreme close up shot of Lola's eyes which we were going to use in our poster. We will similarly edit it to give it shadows and make the character's eyes look more interesting and appealing. In this poster, the character eye has been edited red which is something we could also copy to make the character look more dead or eerie.

The text in the poster is very simple, sticking to the bottom of the page. This makes it so there is nothing around the eye distracting you from it, making it even more prominent on the page. The title and main actors name are quite clear from first glance as these are the main interest points that the audience looks for. The rest of the information is towards the bottom of the poster, not as noticeable as the rest of it. This is to not draw away the focus from the eye as posters are usually viewed as someone pass's by them. The word 'EYE' is written in bold and matches to the main image. It doesn't give much away about the film, which is something that the creators may have wanted to make the audience more ambiguous as to what happens within the film.
This is something we could take into consideration when making our poster. As we also want to focus it around Lola's eyes, we could also place text at a different point of the page, but make sure the title and main actors name is still in focus. This is to make the eye the main focus part of the page and to not give anything away of what happens in the film.

Overall, the poster gives off an eerie, sinister feel and captures the audience through the simple editing of the eye. This is something we will try to achieve when making our film poster so we will try to take inspiration from this one.

Film Reviews of Similar Films

The Fault In Our Stars(2014)

This movie is similar to our film in that it has themes of death, love, coping and adolescent life. I wanted to see if it was popular to the shared target audience we have with this film, to ensure our film would be successful with our audience.



After looking on popular film review sites such as 'IMDB' and 'Rotten Tomatoes', I found that this film had a great reception from a wide audience. IMDB rated it 8/10 and it is in the top 500 movies that are listed on the website, alongside Rotten Tomatoes who rated it 81%. It grossed $124,868,837 at the box office in the USA alone, highlighting its popularity and success.


There were hundreds of positive reviews found online by well-known critics that were all captivated by the emotional rollercoaster that this film promises to deliver. In general, it was clear that many of the critics who reviewed the film in a good light commented on the empathy that the film encouraged them to feel and how relatable the characters were, specifically to a teenage audience.

Research into Viral ads

Research into Viral Ads 

Cross media marketing is a form of cross-promotion in which promotional companies commit to surpassing the traditional advertisements and decide to include extra appeals to their offered products. The material can be communicated by any mass media such as e-mails, letters, web pages, or other recruiting sources. This method can be extremely successful for publishers because the marketing increases the ad’s profit from a single advertiser. Furthermore, this tactic generates a good liaison between the advertiser and the publisher, which also boosts the profits.

Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networking services and other technologies to try to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses ( Internet memes and memetics). It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet and mobile networks. Viral advertising is personal and, while coming from an identified sponsor, it does not mean businesses pay for its distribution. Most of the well-known viral ads circulating online are ads paid by a sponsor company, launched either on their own platform (company webpage or social media profile) or on social media websites such as YouTube. Consumers receive the page link from a social media network or copy the entire ad from a website and pass it along through e-mail or posting it on a blog, webpage or social media profile. Viral marketing may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, text messages, email messages, or web pages. The most commonly utilized transmission vehicles for viral messages include: pass-along based, incentive based, trendy based, and undercover based. However, the creative nature of viral marketing enables an "endless amount of potential forms and vehicles the messages can utilize for transmission", including mobile devices.

According to marketing professors Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein, to make viral marketing work, three basic criteria must be met, i.e., giving the right message to the right messengers in the right environment:

1. Messenger: Three specific types of messengers are required to ensure the transformation of an ordinary message into a viral one: market mavens, social hubs, and salespeople. Market mavens are individuals who are continuously ‘on the pulse’ of things (information specialists); they are usually among the first to get exposed to the message and who transmit it to their immediate social network. Social hubs are people with an exceptionally large number of social connections; they often know hundreds of different people and have the ability to serve as connectors or bridges between different subcultures. Salespeople might be needed who receive the message from the market maven, amplify it by making it more relevant and persuasive, and then transmit it to the social hub for further distribution. Market mavens may not be particularly convincing in transmitting the information.
2. Message: Only messages that are both memorable and sufficiently interesting to be passed on to others have the potential to spur a viral marketing phenomenon. Making a message more memorable and interesting or simply more infectious, is often not a matter of major changes but minor adjustments.
3. Environment: The environment is crucial in the rise of successful viral marketing – small changes in the environment lead to huge results, and people are much more sensitive to environment. The timing and context of the campaign launch must be right.

Examples of viral ads